Walking With Sweet Silly Sadie
It was April, 1889 when the land flowing with "milk and honey," so to speak, opened for settlement 22 April 1889, giving us our Oklahoma country and history with this description of the territory.
The Springer bill, which passed the House February 1 (1889), provided that that part of Indian Territory bounded on the west by the State of texts and the Territory of New Mexico, on the north by the State of Colorado and the State of Kansas, and on the east by the reservation occupied by the Cherokee tribe of Indians and by the Creek, Seminole and Chickasaw reservations and the State of Texas - in other words, all that district comprising what is known as the public land strip and all that part of the Indian Territory not actually occupied by the five civilized tribes, should be created into a temporary government under the name of the Territory of Oklahoma. This bell passed the House February 1, 1889, but failed to pass the Senate.
On February 5, 1889, the President, in a message sent to Congress, announced the purchase of what was known as Oklahoma proper. This purchase contained 1,878,800 acres. This district of Oklahoma originally belonged tot he Creeks of muskogee Indians, but was purchased from them under the treaty of 1866 at 30 cents an acre. The treaty stipulated that the land thus purchased was too e used for the settlement of friendly tribes of Indians. The stipulations as to the location of certain friendly tribes were not carried out, and negotiations looking to a new basis of settlement were opened. By the treaty of 1886, which was approved by the Creek Council, the Indians received $1.25 per acre less the 30 cents per acre already paid them. The agreement of cession was made to embrace a complete surrender of all claims on the part of the creeks to the western part of their domain, including the assigned as well as the unassigned lands. The agreement was ratified by Congress and appropriations made to pay the purchase money; and this Territory would, under the proclamation of the President, be opened to settlement April 22, 1889.
Only A Small Portion
This tract was but a small portion of the domain which Mr. Springer's bill proposed to allot to the territory of Oklahoma. That would have included the western section of the Indian territory, and nearly two-third of its unite area. The eastern section was occupied by the five civilized tribes, the Cherokees, Creeks, Seminoles, Choctaws and Chickasaws. In the whole of the Indian territory as it was that day there was a population of about 70,000, for whose occupancy there were thus reserved more than 44,000,000 acres of land, most of it good, thus giving more than 600 acres to every man, woman and child in the tribes. The bulk of the Indian population was comprised among the five civilized tribes in the eastern part of the Indian territory. In the proposed new territory of Oklahoma there were about 13,000 Indians, remnants of 17 tribes, to whom it was proposed to assign lands in severalty. But the proposed new territory also included the strip known as No Man's Land, which had the rare distinction of having no government of any sort save that provided by the common consent of its 7,000 people, over which the United States exercised no supervisions and which had no law buy lynch law. Then the northern boundary of Texas, and later the southern boundary of Kansas were fixed, this strip of land, containing 3,700,000 acres was left out, and had remained out to that day. Adding this to the section proposed to be cut off from the Indian Territory, Oklahoma would contain 23,267,719 acres, mostly fertile land, with a mild and equable climate and offering every inducement to the settler.
Good Night! Good Luck!
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