Jerome Agreement (Kiowa, Comanche, Apache), 1892 / Act of 1900

What happened

On October 21, 1892, at Fort Sill, the Jerome Commission (David H. Jerome, Alfred M. Wilson and Warren G. Sayre) signed an agreement with the Comanche, Kiowa and Apache. The tribes ceded "forever and absolutely" their claim to a described tract in the Indian Territory. The agreement set apart 480,000 acres as grazing lands for the tribes in common. Each member over eighteen could select 160 acres to hold in severalty, and parents could select the same for each child. The United States agreed to pay $2 million: $500,000 per capita and $1.5 million held in the Treasury at 5 percent interest.

The Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867 required the consent of three fourths of adult men for land sales. The Supreme Court Historical Society says tribal leaders were determined "not to sell the country." It says many said the commissioners lied, and that Jerome told them, "Congress has full control of you." It says the commissioners later changed the agreement without input from tribal councils, and that the final agreement contained "mostly counterfeit signatures." Kansapedia says the commission eventually "obtained enough signatures to approve allotment," although the opposition leader A'piatan accused it of fraud.

Congress ratified the agreement "as herein amended" in an Act approved June 6, 1900, eight years after it was signed. The Supreme Court Historical Society says the President declared the surplus lands open to settlement a year later, and in Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock (1903) the Court held that Congress could abrogate treaty provisions.

Good to know. Sources disagree on the signatures: one calls them mostly counterfeit, another says enough were obtained though fraud was alleged; neither is a court finding. The agreement is dated October 21, 1892, but the 1900 Act says it was concluded October 6.

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