Curtis Act (1898) and Oklahoma statehood (1907): Five Tribes governments dismantled and lands allotted

What happened

The 1887 Dawes Act did not apply to the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek) and Seminole nations, the Oklahoma Historical Society says. Even so, Congress soon pursued allotment for them. In 1893 it set up a commission to persuade the Five Tribes to allow it. Their leaders largely ignored the commission for months, and it accomplished little.

The Oklahoma Historical Society says Congress passed the Curtis Act in 1898 because the commission "had made little progress in the first two years." The law let the commission take over functions of tribal government such as law enforcement and deciding citizenship. It "called for the dissolution of tribal government," and it "allowed allotment to proceed even though the elected tribal governments refused to consent." The Society's encyclopedia adds that the act abolished tribal courts and required the President to approve any tribal legislation passed after 1898.

The Society also says that majorities in the Five Tribes opposed allotment to some degree. Many who testified to Congress wanted to return to the treaties of the 1830s, which it describes as promising tribal sovereignty and non-interference.

In McGirt v. Oklahoma (2020), the Supreme Court described the same period for the Creek Nation. It noted that the Curtis Act abolished the Creeks' tribal courts, but it wrote that allotment was "a first, not final, step toward disestablishment." It held that land reserved for the Creek Nation remains Indian country for purposes of the Major Crimes Act.

Good to know. No court has held that the Curtis Act itself broke a treaty.

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