Indian Territory

Indian Territory was a region west of the Mississippi River set aside by the United States for Native nations displaced from eastern lands, chiefly in present-day Oklahoma.

Indian Removal Act: An 1830 United States law authorizing the negotiation of Native land cessions and removal west of the Mississippi River. It supplied the federal authority used to remove eastern nations into the territory.
Cherokee Nation: A Native nation with a distinct government, culture, and history, whose citizens were forcibly removed from the Southeast to Indian Territory. Cherokee communities built a government and institutions in the territory after removal.
Five Tribes: A collective name for the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminole nations of the southeastern United States. These five nations became the dominant Native governments in Indian Territory.
Dawes Act: A 1887 U.S. law that divided many Native communal lands into individual allotments and opened surplus land to non-Native settlement. Allotment policy later stripped much of Indian Territory's communal land base.
Cherokee Outlet: A strip of land in present-day Oklahoma granted to the Cherokee Nation for use under nineteenth-century treaties. Its opening to settlement in 1893 marked a major loss of Cherokee land.
Treaty of New Echota: A 1835 treaty in which a minority of Cherokee representatives ceded Cherokee lands in the Southeast to the United States. The treaty became the legal basis for the forced Cherokee migration to Indian Territory.
Choctaw Nation: A Native nation whose historic homeland was in the southeastern United States and whose government was reestablished in Indian Territory. Choctaw citizens were among the earliest large communities relocated to the region.
Cherokee Nation v. Georgia: An 1831 U.S. Supreme Court case that described Native nations as domestic dependent nations rather than foreign states. Its doctrine framed the federal relationship that constrained nations in Indian Territory.
Land run: A race in which settlers claimed parcels of land opened by the United States for settlement. Land openings drew non-Native settlers into parts of the territory and displaced Native control.
Baker Roll: A 1924 federal census roll listing members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. It distinguishes Cherokee communities that remained in the East from those rooted in Indian Territory.

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