Indian Removal

All the land you can see from here was once Indian Territory. Beginning in the 1830's the United States government forced large numbers of Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Muscogee (Creeks), and Seminoles from their ancestral lands to this area. The primary reason for this removal was the insatiable desire of U.S. Citizens for Indian lands. Under the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the U.S. Government exchanged tribal lands in the east for new ones in the west. The subsequent treaties, many of them illegal, forced migration and horrendous Indian suffering. This removal process left a bitter legacy that is remembered today the Trail of Tears.

Muscogee (Creek) Nation

The Muscogge (Creek) people are descendants of a remarkable culture that, before A.D. 1500, spanned the entire region now known as the southeastern United States. The Muscogees were not one tribe but rather a union of several that evolved into a confederacy that was one of he most sophisticated political organizations north of Mexico.

In the early 1800's, American Indian policy focused on the removal of Muscogee and other southeastern tribes to areas west of the Mississippi River. The Muscogee reluctantly signed treaties in 1825 and 1832, which exchanged the last of their cherished ancestral homelands for lands in Indian Territory. In 1836 and 1837, during the terrible journey known as the "Trail of Tears," half of the 20,000 tribal members forcibly removed by the U.S. Army perished. Even so, shortly afterward the Muscogee began rebuilding their government - only to find it abolished by the federal government in the early 1900's. In the 1970's, the tribe drafted and adopted a new constitution and restored its national council. Today the Muscogee number more than 60,000.

Seminole Nation

The Seminole people originated in Florida from the mixing of many indigenous groups throughout the southeast. Encroachment by white settlers and slave-hunters onto tribal territory started the Seminole Wars in 1817. Sporadic warfare continued until 1858. These were the most expensive wars for the U.S. Government against any Indian tribe.

The U.S. Government's war against the Seminole ultimately failed. The Indian Removal Act was never fully implemented and no peace treaty was every signed with the tribe. Today, the 12,500 members of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and the 30,000 members of the Seminole and Miccousukee tribes in Florida successfully continue their lives and traditions.

"No part of the land granted them shall ever be embraced in any...State; but the U.S. shall forever secure said Choctaw Nation, from and against all laws except such as..may be enacted in their own National Councils."

With such U.S. Government promises, the Choctaw Nation reluctantly agreed to removal in 1830. More than 16,000 Choctaws left Alabama and Mississippi, along the 350-mile "Trail of Tears," to Indian Territory. Traveling by foot, horseback, wagon, and steamboat, they struggled through blizzards, floods, lack of supplies, and cholera. Approximately 25 percent of the Choctaw perished during 1831 - 1833.

By the time Indian Terriory became the state of Oklahoma in 1907, the U.S. Government had abolished tribal ownership of land and the Choctaw tribal government. The Choctaw Nation, however, survived and operates today under a contitution adopted in 1983.

The Choctaw Nation has become one of the primary players in the economic development of southeastern Oklahoma. It has over 175,000 tribal members; operates more than 70 different programs; and employes over 5,000 people worldwide.

Chickasaw Nation

The removal of the Chickasaw from their southeast homelands began in the early 1800's. Government traders who forced tribal members into debt would demand tribal lands as payment. By 1818, the Chickasaw had unwillingly yielded property in Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee.

The most intense removal period took place from 1837 to 1850. Because the tribe controlled and paid for the journey, their experience proved more orderly than the Cherokee and Creek removals. It was not without hardship. As the Chickasaw moved west, their procession soon became a long funeral train. Many people starved when inedible rotten food was provided by government contractors. For several thousand Chickasaw, however, the journey was quicker and safer on steamers up the Arkansas River.

Despite broken treaties and forced removals, the Chickasaw people remained united and survived. Today they prosper in south-central Oklahoma as a culturally progressive and financially successful nation.

Cherokee Nation

"The Cherokees have been kept on a small spot, surrounded by a strong guard...obliged to live very much like brute animals...exposed to wind and rain, and herded together...like droves of hogs..." - Reverend Butrick, June 1838.

The U.S. Army removed the majority of the Cherokee from their homelands in the Southeast between 1838 and 1839. Until the federal government finalized the arrangements for their journey west to Indian Territory, they were forced to endure unprotected, over crowded, and unsanitary conditions in internment camps. Thousands died during this opening chapter of the Trail of Tears.

Hardships and surrering continued during removal. Many more died along the trail to Indian Territory.

At the edge of Indian Country

If you had stood here in 1825, on your right would have been Arkansas Territory, and on your left, a vast domain traded to the Choctaw Nation for their ancestral lands in the east.

Fort Smith's location here at the edge of Indian country was a major factor in its evolution and vitality. The history of the fort and of the town growing up around it was shaped by the forced migration of eastern tribes to Indian Country, the booming border trade in contraband goods, the white settlers' relentless push for land, and the military's efforts to maintain order.

The Choctaw lands remained part of Indian Country until 1907 when the state of Oklahoma was established.

January 13, 1829

Arkansas Gazette - Vol. X - No. 3 - Whole No. 471 1829

 Land Office, Little Rock, January 12, 1829 The undersigned, having received satisfactory information that the line from Fort Smith, on the Arkansas, to the south-west corner of Missouri, has been surveyed, have, agreeably to their instructions, commenced receiving proof in support of claims to donations of land, by virtue of an act of Congress of the 24th of May last, and will daily attend at their office, for the purpose of adjudicating those claims which have already been presented, and such as may hereafter be laid before them. B. Smith, Register Benj. Desha, Receiver

The cubic stone monument marks the initial point 100 paces east of the first Fort Smith from which the Choctaw line was surveyed, as specified in the 1825 treaty.

A Disputed Boundary

This was Indian Country in 1825. The Choctaw Treaty of that year placed the Indian Territory's boundary "one hundred paces east of Fort Smith, and running thence due south, to the Red River."

When government surveyors inspected the eastern boundary in 1857, they discovered that the original 1825 survey had not run "due south," but slightly southwest. After lengthy deliberation, Federal Court officials decided to keep the 1825 boundary and pay the Choctaw Nation $68,102 for the land between the two survey lines.