Unassigned Lands - The Indian Era

The Indian Era

The Treaty of Indian Springs, February 12, 1825, provided for a delegation of Creeks to visit the west in order that

... they may select any other territory, west of the Mississippi, on Red, Canadian, Arkansas, or Missouri Rivers...

to replace their lands in Georgia. A dispute arose between the Lower Creek Council, which signed the treaty, and the Upper Creek Council, which objected. The dispute led to the killing of General William McIntosh, the chief of the Lower Creeks, and left the treaty in doubt. Despite that, the Creeks were relocated to the west. On February 14, 1833, the Treaty of Okmulgee was signed at Fort Gibson. In it the Creeks finally agreed to cede their lands in the east. Article 2 of the 1833 treaty defined the land chosen under the 1825 treaty as being west and south of the Cherokee lands and bordering the Canadian River on the south and the Mexican border on the west.

In the Seminole Treaty signed March 28, 1833, but not ratified, the Seminoles agreed to settle on the Little River portion of the Creek lands in Indian Territory. Some Seminoles moved but the rest retreated, resulting in the Second Seminole War. After the Second War, most of the Seminoles moved to the Indian Territory. A treaty between the Creeks and Seminoles, ratified August 16, 1856, gave the Seminoles the agreed upon tract of Creek land between the Canadian River on the south and the North Fork of the Canadian River on the north.

The divisions within the Creeks continued up through the Civil War when the Council, under control of the Lower Creeks, signed a treaty with the Confederacy on July 10, 1861. Creek support for the South was not unanimous however. In a series of confrontations, Opothleyahola's pro-Union Creeks, belonging mostly to the Upper Creeks, were driven into Kansas during the winter of 1861-62 with a huge loss of life among themselves and their few Seminole allies under Halleck Tustenuggee.

When the Confederacy lost the Civil War, the United States forced the Creeks into a new treaty. Under Article 3 of the 1866 Creek Treaty, they agreed to cede the western portion of their lands

In compliance with the desire of the United States to locate other Indians and freedmen thereon, the Creeks hereby cede and convey to the United States, to be sold to and used as homes for such other civilized Indians as the United States may choose to settle thereon... the west half of their entire domain ... ... the sum of thirty (30) cents per acre ($74.13/km²), amounting to nine hundred and seventy-five thousand one hundred and sixty-eight dollars...

The Seminole's active support of the Confederacy cost them much more than it did the Creeks. Article 3 of the Seminole Treaty, ratified July 19, 1866, required that

... the Seminoles cede and convey to the United States their entire domain ... ... the sum of three hundred and twenty-five thousand three hundred and sixty-two ($325,362) dollars, said purchase being at the rate of fifteen cents per acre ($37.07/km²).

In the same treaty, the Seminoles were the first tribe relocated to the ceded Creek land. Several tribes of Eastern Indians were also moved to the eastern end of the ceded Creek land. The Absentee Shawnee and Citizen Band of Pottawatomi shared a reserve, also, the Sac and Fox. Later, the Kickapoo were moved in and, lastly, the Iowa. The combined Cheyenne Arapaho tribe was given the western end of the Creek and Seminole land along with some land ceded from the other tribes. Most of the former Creek and Seminole land, as was true for the rest of central and western Indian Territory, was leased from the Indian tribes by large cattle ranching companies.