Volume 9 , Issue 14

The Cherokee Outlet

The Cherokee Outlet was also known as the Cherokee Strip. It was formed by the US government to give the Cherokee Indians of Eastern Oklahoma a path or "outlet" to hunting lands in the West. A group of cattlemen known as "The Cherokee Strip Livestock Association" finally leased the outlet for a period of years.

After several years under pressure from people wanting the outlet opened for settlement, the US government reneged on the on the contract/lease with the Indians. The government pressured the Indians into accepting $1.25 per acre buyout for their land. In the final negotiations, the dollar sum was fixed at 8-1/2 million or approximately $1.29 per acre.

The Cherokee Outlet was divided into 4 districts: Woodward land district (N county); Alva land District (M county); Enid Land district (L & O county); Perry Land District (K, P, Q counties).

The purchase of the strip from the Cherokee Indians cleared the way for the land to be opened for settlement, September 16, 1893. That was the day that the government sponsored a "land run" allowing an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 people and civil war veterans to acquire 160 acres of free land and stake claims. The fertile land lay in the eastern end of the outlet while the rougher western portion of the Strip seemed less desirable and many quarters were not claimed.

The claimants of the chosen 160 acres had to be of legal age (21) and not have previously claimed land in another area under the Homestead Act. Because the government wanted to recover the 8-1/2 million dollars paid to the cherokee Indians for the purchase of the Strip, the land was not intended to really be free. Each acre was paid for at the rate predetermined by the Federal government.

Land in the western portion of the Strip between the Texas stateline and 98° 30' longitude was priced at $1.00 an acre. It included land from the Texas stateline on the west to a line about 24-1/2 miles east of present day Chester, Oklahoma. The east line was just a little west of Fairview.

The land between 98° 30' longitude and 97° 30' was priced at $1.0 per acre. This portion of the strip started just west of Fairview and extended east to about 21 miles east of Enid, close to the town of Garber. The land on the east of the 97° 30' longitude was priced at $2.50 per acre.

The couth boundary of the Strip was located about 3-3/4 miles south of present day Chester, Oklahoma and ran from the Texas line to east of pawnee, in a straight line. The north side was the Kansas line.

In 1900, the Congress voided the "have to repay" requirement, so most homesteaders didn't pay for their land. Claimants had to "prove up" their land by building a permanent living structure and readying the land for crops, if the land was suitable to farming. A claimant could not be absent from his property for a period of exceed 6 months. Upon meeting all the requirements for claiming land, the government issued a document called a "patent" which gave the landowner title to his property.
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