Volume 10 , Issue 7

The Last Great Land Opening

The Last Great land Opening of the Twin Territories, pg. 727, Vol. 2, A Standard History of Oklahoma, by Joseph B. Thoburn

It was on the 6th of October, 1892, David H. jerome, Alfred M. Wilson and Warren G. Sayre, as commissioners on the part of the government, concluded an agreement with the Indians of the comanche, Kiowa and Plains Apache tribes, whereby the people of those tribes were to accept allotments of land in severalty and cede the surplus lands to the government in order that the same might be thrown open to settlement under the homestead laws.

On the 4th of June, 1891, a similar agreement had been entered into with the Indians of the Wichita, Caddo and affiliated tribes and bands for a like purpose by the same government commissioners. In those days, however, much of the land in both reservations was leased to cattlemen who were naturally very reluctant to quit business. it was evident that some if not all of the cattlemen had friends in Congress, as it was nearly four years before an act was passed approving the agreement made with the Wichitas and affiliated bands and tribes and nearly eight years before the Comanche-Kiowa-Apache agreement was similarly ratified by Congress.

The Wichita-Caddo agreement was ratified by act of Congress, approved march 2, 18895, and the Comanche-Kiowa-Agapche agreement was ratified by an act approved June 6, 1900.

Even after the Wichita agreement had been duly ratified, the opening of its surplus lands to homestead settlement was deferred from year to year until the other agreement had been ratified and another year was consumed in delays before an opening proclamation was issued by president McKinley.

Allotments were made and the two reservations were resurveyed, many of the marks of the original surveys (made nearly thirty years before) having disappeared. The Fort Sill military reservation was enlarged to an area of 56,000 acres and a forest reservation in the heart of the Wichita Mountain range was reserved from settlement. pasture reservations aggregating 500,000 acres were also withheld from homestead entry -- ostensibly for the benefit of the Indians but really as an act of accommodation to favored cattlemen.

At last, on the 125th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of American Independence, president McKinley issued a proclamation giving due notice that the surplus lands of the Comanche-Kiows-Apache and the Wichita-Caddo Indian reservations should be thrown open to homestead settlement on and after the 6th day of August, 1901, and prescribing the rules and regulations for the government of such proceedings. These rules and regulations differed radically from any of those which had been adopted or used in preceding land openings.
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