Oklahoma State University - Redskin Yearbook (Stillwater, OK)

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1874 1885 1' -an. Probably the crucial blow to the Indian hopes of non-interference from the ! '3 whites came when the Federal government reversed its policy in treating the ff-mgpifixv Indian nations. It had been the dream of Thomas Iefferson that the American , ,W Q . Indians, some day, would progress far enough in civilization and attain such a degree of independence that a race unmixed, an Indian commonwealth, could be created. This policy sought to make the isolation of the Indians complete, later this policy was revised to make possible the utilization of the Indian A' Territory not only for the Indians but also for the white man. The ways of civilization were making their way into Indian territory. Indians who wished to keep their lands intact, found their ranks being weakened. Money and boot-legged liquors played their part. White men hunted and killed buffalo for sport. That was squandering the Indian's food and clothes. Frontiers always have blustered and fought back. Wrath of the Indians culminated in outbreaks. The last occurred in Oklahoma in 1874. A wagon train on the Chisholm Trail was attacked. Pat Hennessey, the train-master, was killed. A town is named after him today near the site of his burial. Tribe chieftains were exerting every effort to protect the rights provided under treaties by 1879. Their representatives beat back issue after issue that would have encroached upon guarantees in treaties. But a joker was in the card pack. Land ceded to the United States by Creek and Seminole nations in the treaty of 1866, bounded on the north by the Cherokee strip, on the east by the Indian Meridian and on the south by the South Canadian river, on the west by the Cheyenne and Arapaho reservations, was never assigned to any Indian reservation. This tract included portions of the present counties of Payne, Logan, Oklahoma, Cleveland, Canadian, and Kingfisher. It was called Oklahoma Country until the opening in 1889. White invaders, termed boomers, sought to locate on this unassigned land from 1879 to 1885. From this period on, constant agitation for opening flared. Consequently, President Grover Cleveland, on March 5, 1885, was authorized by Congress to open negotiations with the tribes for the purpose of opening for settlement, under homestead laws, the unassigned portions of Oklahoma and the Cherokee strip. g Immediately, delegates from the tribes gathered at Eufaula on Iune 15, 1885 to discuss the threat to their security. Out of this international convention came a resolution protesting that the proposed action did not coincide with the 1866 treaties. Forsaking the usual weapons of the prairie, tribal delegates were sent scurrying to Washington to oppose the Opening question in Congressional lobbies and galleries. They were successful until Ianuary, 1889, when Congress ratified and accepted the last of the cessions made by the Creek nation. By proclamation on March 25, 1889, President Harrison opened the Oklahoma Country for settle- ment! The object of the former Ieffersonian policy of an Indian commonwealth, not trammeled and an entirety within itself, was defeated. Crumbling, the dykes of the Indian frontier were swept away in the avalanche of humanity that dashed pell-mell for new homes in the unassigned Indian Country on that memorable April 22, 1889, with the present city of Guthrie the focal point. Other openings soon followed in its wake. This year, 1959, Oklahoma observes the golden anni- versary of that day- a day that heralded a commonwealth destined to absorb the rich lore, history, and vigor of the Indian into a state in which both Indian and white can fulfill their highest destiny.

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