Land area
Reservation of the Cherokee in Oklahoma (area 492)
- 1833
Set aside as a reservation
The 1899 record: “The U. S. agree to possess the Cherokees, and to guarantee it to them forever, of 7,000,000 acres of land”
- 1866
Earlier terms confirmed
In the record
Guaranteed to the Cherokee in Indian Territory by the 1833 treaty and kept by them as their home in the 1866 treaty; the 1899 federal record lists no cession of this area. The area covers about 4.4 million acres in what is now Oklahoma.
The 1899 record names Cherokee as the people of this land.
This area was not ceded. The 1899 record shows it as a reservation the nation kept, at least until the record ends in 1894.
Today, Cherokee Nation, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians carry the history of the people named here.
Written from the records linked here; open any of them for its sources.
Shapes come from C. C. Royce’s 1899 maps as georeferenced by the US Forest Service. They are approximate and are not legal descriptions of land. Royce recorded land the United States treated as ceded; the shape does not show a nation’s territory.
Who is doing the work
This history belongs to living nations. Start with them:
Land return and Native-led work nearby
- Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes Nation government Seeking return of about 6,700 acres at Fort Reno
Native legal and land defense, nationally
- Native American Rights Fund (NARF) Native-led Litigation and legal advocacy for tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, land and resources Give on their site Website
- NDN Collective (LANDBACK Campaign) Native-led LANDBACK campaign (launched 2020; Mount Rushmore closure and return of Black Hills public lands), Indigenous… Give on their site Website
- Indian Land Tenure Foundation (ILTF) Native-led Land recovery and control by tribes and individual Indian landowners Website
- Decolonizing Wealth Project (Indigenous Earth Fund; California Tribal Land Return) Native-led Reparative philanthropy Give on their site Website
Gifts go straight to each organization; this atlas takes nothing. Listing is not endorsement: how organizations are listed.
Connections
Links marked “suggested” were matched automatically by name or date and have not yet been reviewed by a person.
Nations named for this land 2
- Cherokeeas named in the 1899 recordsuggested
- Santee Sioux Nation, Nebraskamatched by the Forest Service, under reviewsuggested
Agreements recorded for this land 1
- Reconstruction Treaty with the Cherokee, 18661866suggested
Located in 1
Sources
- Royce, Indian Land Cessions (1899), Schedule entry dated 1833-02-14primary record
- Kappler, Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, text for 1833-02-14primary record
- Royce, Indian Land Cessions (1899), Schedule entry dated 1866-07-19primary record
- Kappler, Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, text for 1866-07-19primary record
- Royce’s map sheet: Indian Territory 2 (Library of Congress)primary record
- USDA Forest Service, Tribal Lands Ceded to the United States (digitized Royce maps)reference work
The record’s fields
- Area number in the 1899 record
- 492
- Dates in the 1899 record
- 1833-02-14; 1866-07-19
- Kind of instrument
- Treaty or agreement
- Peoples as named in the 1899 record
- Cherokee
- States
- OK
- Counties
- Adair; Cherokee; Craig; Delaware; Mayes; McIntosh; Muskogee; Nowata; Ottawa; Rogers; Sequoyah; Tulsa; Wagoner
- Map sheets in the 1899 record
- Indian Territory 2
- Geometry
- Approximate shape from Royce’s 1899 maps
Research notes
geometry_role is 'cession' for every USFS feature: no field in the source distinguishes cessions from reservations.
- Kind
- Land area
- Confidence
- Medium