Indian Territory was the name given in the United States to the portion of the public land of the United States which was set apart for various tribes of Indians who have been moved thither from various portions of the United States. Jefferson first suggested such a territory, and on June the 30th, 1834, an Act of Congress set apart for the use of the Indians all the country west of the Mississippi which was not included within Missouri, Louisiana and Arkansas. This area was diminished by the organization of various States and Territories, so that by 1894 the area was only about 25,000 square miles, the principal tribes living in the Indian territory at that time being the Cherokees, Choctaws, Creeks and Chickasaws.
During the American Civil War many of the Indian tribes made treaties with the Confederate States. In 1870, an attempt was made to organize a State. In 1866, the Indians agreed to grant the right of way through their land to railways. Agents of the United States lived among the Indians supposedly to protect them from encroachments from the whites. The United States had jurisdiction over all cases in which a white man is a party. Sale of intoxicating liquors was prohibited.
In 1881-82 attempts were made by 'boomers' from Kansas to force their way into the Indian Territory. An Act of Congress of May the 2nd, 1890, erected the unoccupied portion of the Indian Territory into a separate Territory called Oklahoma. Research Indian Territory
Abbreviations
Gazetteer
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