wards"civilization." Forming an alliance with western Congressmen who wish to exploit Indiantreaty lands, he secured passage of the General Allotment(Dawes) Act in 1887 whichultimately cost Native Americans 2/3 of their remaining land base. The Five CivilizedTribes of Oklahoma were exempt from allotment, but came under tremendous pressure toaccept it. Until the 1880s, cattle from the Chisholm and Texas trails routinely grazed onthe lands of the Cherokee Outlet before going to the Kansas railheads. The Cherokeeearned a good income from this enterprise until it was halted without explanation by theCommissioner of Indian Affairs in 1890. It should also be noted that the OklahomaTerritory was organized that same year from the western half of the Indian Territory, andthere may have been some connection! After the Cherokee were forced to sell, the landwas made available for white settlement. The Dawes commission attempted to get the Five Tribes to accept allotment in 1893, butthey refused. This led to the passage of the Curtis Act (1895) which dissolved tribalgovernments and forced allotment during 1901. Grafting(swindles) of Indian lands becamea massive and unofficially sanctioned form of theft in Oklahoma. Of the original sevenmillion acres granted the Cherokee in the New Echota Treaty, the Cherokee Nation keptless than 1/3 of 1 percent. As compensation, the Cherokee became citizens in 1901 andwere finally allowed to vote. An attempt by the Five Tribes to form their own state ofSequoyah in eastern Oklahoma failed in 1905, and the Cherokee Nation was officiallydissolved on March 3, 1906. The following year Oklahoma was admitted as the 46th state.The present government of the Cherokee Nation was formed in 1948 after passage of theWheeler-Howard Indian Reorganization Act (1934). In 1961 the Cherokee Nation wasawarded $15,000,000 by the U.S. Claims Commission for lands of the Cherokee Outlet....
