Fort Reno return campaign (Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes)

What happened

Fort Reno, west of Oklahoma City, is the center of a long campaign by the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes. In a 2012 submission to a federal trust commission, the Tribes' governor said the United States carved 9,600 acres out of their reservation in 1883 for Fort Reno "for military purposes exclusively," with the understanding that it would be returned to the Tribes at the end of military use. The submission says an Interior Department Solicitor's opinion found the fort was not included in the Tribes' 1890 cession.

The same document sets out what happened next. In 1937, one thousand acres went to the Bureau of Prisons. In 1948 the balance was transferred to the Department of Agriculture without a hearing. In 1965 the Tribes settled a claim before the Indian Claims Commission for $15 million, but Fort Reno was not included, because the commission could not consider claims that arose after August 13, 1946. In 1999 an Interior opinion said the Tribes had a credible and equitable claim, but for the statute of limitations. The Tribes lost a quiet title suit in 2009.

According to Tribal Business News, a new House draft of the 2026 farm bill, advanced by the Agriculture Committee 34 to 17, would remove the expiration date on a prohibition on transferring the 9,500-acre property. It says the restriction has appeared in farm bills since 2002. Gov. Reggie Wassana wrote that returning the land would "acknowledge and remedy that dispossession." Rep. Frank Lucas argues the claims were resolved by earlier settlements.

Good to know. Sources give different acreages: about 6,700, 9,500, or 9,600 acres set aside in 1883. The farm bill draft status is as of March 2026.

Summarized with AI assistance from 4 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error