“Indian Territory”
Relations between European, then American, civilization and that of the many Indian tribes east of the Mississippi River-north and south-grew tenser as the white (and black) population increased. Despite the continent’s vastness, the multiplying numbers of whites increasingly found out that the land they desired was already held, worked, or hunted on by the tribes. Periodic bloodshed between the settlers and the Indians heightened tensions and hatred on both sides.
In the visionary, if controversial, move mentioned a few paragraphs earlier, President Jefferson concluded that the two societies, with their differing cultures, histories, religions, practices, and races, could not co-exist. He feared the Natives would suffer annihilation through disease, war, and dissipation-rather than assimilation unless they could move to their own new lands. For what Jefferson considered the good of both races in America, he championed the setting aside of present-day Oklahoma as an “Indian Territory” reserved forever for Native settlement and ownership. He also advocated cash payments to the affected tribes for their land, supplies, and travel expenses.
As the new American nation developed into one of the world’s foremost powers in the early 1800s, a gargantuan, well-intentioned, and ultimately tragic effort began to force tribal populations from across the continent—including its western environs-to the new Indian Territory. In turn, the U.S. government ordered the growing white population in the designated enclave to leave and return east to Arkansas or elsewhere.
In A Buffalo Bull Grazing, George Catlin captures the might, grandeur, and spirit of the West’s great native champion. (www.georgecatlin.org)
Read the entire Oklahoma story in John J. Dwyer's The Oklahomans: The Story of Oklahoma and Its People volume 1 of a 2-part series on the 46th state and the people who make this state very special. |