Indian Territory
| Indian Territory | |||||
| Unorganized territory of the United States | |||||
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| Government | Self Government | ||||
| History | |||||
| • | Indian Intercourse Act | June 30, 1834 | |||
| • | Platte Purchase | 1836 | |||
| • | Kansas–Nebraska Act | May 30, 1854 | |||
| • | Oklahoma Territory | May 2, 1890 | |||
| • | Oklahoma statehood | November 16, 1907 | |||
| Today part of |
Oklahoma Kansas Nebraska Missouri (Platte Purchase) Colorado North Dakota South Dakota Montana Wyoming |
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As general terms, Indian Territory, the Indian Territories, or Indian country describe an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land. In general, the tribes ceded land they occupied in exchange for land grants in an area purchased by the United States federal government from Napoleonic France, the Louisiana Purchase. The concept of an Indian Territory was an outcome of the 18th- and 19th-century policy of Indian removal. After the Civil War, the policy of the government was one of assimilation.
The term Indian Reserve describes lands the British government set aside for indigenous tribes between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River in the time before the Revolutionary War.
Indian Territory later came to refer to an unorganized territory whose general borders were initially set by the Indian Intercourse Act of 1834, and was the successor to Missouri Territory after Missouri received statehood. The borders of Indian Territory were reduced in size as various Organic Acts were passed by Congress to create incorporated territories of the United States. The 1907 Oklahoma Enabling Act created the single state of Oklahoma by combining Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory, ending the existence of an Indian Territory.
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