the other mike
Diamond Member
Published November 29, 2018
Anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of American history knows that white settlers steadily seized Native American lands over the course of several centuries in order to build the United States. But what’s not so well-known is that a version of that same land grab continues to play out today.
However, the Supreme Court will soon have a chance to not only put an end to that, but also to return an enormous chunk of land — half of Oklahoma — to its Native American owners.
The story begins in 1835, when the U.S. government pushed the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma into signing a removal treaty in which they gave up their homelands spanning much of the southeastern U.S. in exchange for rights to lands in the so-called Indian territories that make up present-day Oklahoma. The forced removal of many Native Americans in the aftermath of this is widely known today as the Trail of Tears.
An 1866 treaty secured the Cherokee lands, but in 1907, the federal government once again infringed on Native American soil and took all the land belonging to the Cherokee Nation, divided it between individual citizens, and opened it up for settlement to American citizens. This merger of Oklahoma territory and Native American-owned territory gave birth to the state of Oklahoma.
Today, only 74 percent of the Cherokee Nation land that was first promised to the tribe in 1835 remains Indian-owned — and they’re continuing to lose more of that land to this day.
Continued
The Cherokee May Soon Get Back Half Of Oklahoma Thanks To The Supreme Court
Here's a two-minute history lesson.
Anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of American history knows that white settlers steadily seized Native American lands over the course of several centuries in order to build the United States. But what’s not so well-known is that a version of that same land grab continues to play out today.
However, the Supreme Court will soon have a chance to not only put an end to that, but also to return an enormous chunk of land — half of Oklahoma — to its Native American owners.
The story begins in 1835, when the U.S. government pushed the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma into signing a removal treaty in which they gave up their homelands spanning much of the southeastern U.S. in exchange for rights to lands in the so-called Indian territories that make up present-day Oklahoma. The forced removal of many Native Americans in the aftermath of this is widely known today as the Trail of Tears.
An 1866 treaty secured the Cherokee lands, but in 1907, the federal government once again infringed on Native American soil and took all the land belonging to the Cherokee Nation, divided it between individual citizens, and opened it up for settlement to American citizens. This merger of Oklahoma territory and Native American-owned territory gave birth to the state of Oklahoma.
Today, only 74 percent of the Cherokee Nation land that was first promised to the tribe in 1835 remains Indian-owned — and they’re continuing to lose more of that land to this day.
Continued
The Cherokee May Soon Get Back Half Of Oklahoma Thanks To The Supreme Court
Here's a two-minute history lesson.