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1700s - Cherokee people first observe the practice of slavery among their British allies in the early 1700s. A Cherokee delegation in 1730 makes an agreement with the British to return any runaway slaves they capture back to their British owners.
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Cherokee Nation General Council approves a resolution that called for a fine of $50 "against any person who permitted his slaves to marry whites or Indians and punished the persons attempting such marriage by fifty-nine stripes on the bare back."
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Indian Removal Act signed into law by Andrew Jackson. Forced Native Americans to leave their previous homelands and relocate to Indian Territory. They were given political and economic control of the region.
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The Trail of Tears brings Native Americans and their black slaves, approximately seventy thousand people, from Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Florida to their new home in the Indian Territory.
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Sept. 6,1839 - After forming a new government, various Cherokee factions, including one led by John Ross, ratify a new constitution. Regarding blacks living among the tribe, the new constitution states: "No person who is (N)egro and mulatto parentage, either by the father or mother's side, shall be eligible to hold any office of profit, honor or trust under this government."
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The largest of three servile uprisings in the Indian Territory begins in early November when 33 fugitive slaves from the Creek, Cherokee and Choctaw Nations attempt to escape to Mexico. On November 26, the Cherokee mounted militia captured 31 of the fugitives about five miles north of the Red River.
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Confederacy negotiates treaty with Creek Nation
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Confederacy negotiates treaty with Choctaw and Chikasaw Nations
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Confederacy negotiates treaty with Seminole tribe
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Confederacy negotiates treaty with Cherokee tribe
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National Archives: The Emancipation Proclamation
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." -
Cherokee slaveholders freed their slaves in accordance with Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation
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The Cherokee Council sets a fine of not less than $1,000 or more than $5,000 against anyone who holds slaves after June 25, 1863.
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Confederate Indian Commander, Stand Waite, surrendered to Union troops at Doaksville ending the Civil War in Indian Territory.
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Negotiations for reconstruction and postwar settlement between the US Government, lead by Dennis N. Cooley (Commissioner of Indian Affairs), and the Five Civilized Tribes met in Fort Smith, Ar. The Fort Smith Council lasted 13 days, and was unable to conclude negotiations. Cooley called to resume negotiations in Washington a year later.
The Fort Smith Council declared all previous treaties with the five Indian nations nullified. -
Choctaw and Chickasaw resorted to violence to drive out unwanted blacks. During and immediately following the war, Colonies of ex-salves from Texas settled north of the Red River on tribal lands. The Choctaws and Chickasaws attributed the sharp increase in cattle rustling and horse thievery to these ex-slaves. Indian vigilantes seized and whipped blacks who were not known in the area, broke up their settlements, and forced them out of Indian nation.
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New treaties negotiated with the Five Civilized Tribes that abolished slavery, required tribes to cede western half of their land to the government (would become OK Territory), and called reorganization of tribal government. The Five Civilized Tribes established an intertribal council.
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New treaties negotiated with the Five Civilized Tribes that abolished slavery, required tribes to cede western half of their land to the government (would become OK Territory), and called reorganization of tribal government. The Five Civilized Tribes established an intertribal council.
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Cherokee Treaty of 1866
New treaties negotiated with the Five Civilized Tribes that abolished slavery, required tribes to cede western half of their land to the government (would become OK Territory), and called reorganization of tribal government. The Five Civilized Tribes established an intertribal council. -
New treaties negotiated with the Five Civilized Tribes that abolished slavery, required tribes to cede western half of their land to the government (would become OK Territory), and called reorganization of tribal government. The Five Civilized Tribes established an intertribal council.
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Any freedmen in the Chickasaw nation wanting an education had to emigrate from the Chickasaw nation.
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Indian Territory had 68,152 residents:
Native Americans: 87% Black: 6,378 White: 2,407 -
Seminole tribal funds supported 4 schools, 2 for freedmen children and 2 for Indian children.
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Cherokee education re-established after war disrupted their well-developed system. Cherokee placed greater emphasis on education than any other tribe during pre-civil war era. They were unable to re-establish a system until 1870. Cherokee did not prevent children of freedmen from receiving an education.
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Almost six years following their emancipation; approximately three hundred Choctaw and Chickasaw freedmen petitioned the United States Congress to forfeit the $300,000 negotiated in the Treaty of 1866 and pay it to the “freedmen of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nation.” This is probably one of the first actions by a group of freedmen indicating they were willing to forgo citizenship in either nation because the tribes failed to adopt them as citizens according to the treaty.
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Cherokee nation had 65 schools, 7 of them reserved for freedmen.
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Cherokee freedman, Joseph Brown was the only freedman elected to the National Council.
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Creek Freedman, Jesse Franklin, was elected as a judge in the tribal Supreme Court.
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Creek tribe established 3 boarding schools; 1 for Creek males, 1 for Creek Females, 1 freedmen.
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The Creek Council turned a school near Muskogee over to the freedmen. Later to be called Tullahassee Manual Labor School.
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Hannibal Carter and James Milton Turner organized the Freedmen’s Oklahoma Immigration Association to encourage black migration into the Oklahoma district.
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Choctaw Nation adopted freedmen at this time was the passage of a bill by the U. S. congress in 1882, freeing the Choctaw and the Chickasaw from having to act in unison over the future status of their respective freedmen. As a result, the Choctaw Nation could organize the recognition of Choctaw freedmen without having to consult with the Chickasaw legislature.
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Choctaw Nation reluctantly passed the Freedmen's Bill: adopting freemen citizenship after realizing the federal government would not remove them from their nation.
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Creek Freedmen and American Baptist Home Mission Society opened Evangel Mission School for freedmen on the old Union Academy grounds in Muskogee
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Choctaw nation pass a law making intermarriage between blacks and Indians a felony.
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The General Allotment Act of 1887 created the Dawes Commission to bring about the dissolution of tribal governments and the allotment of land to individual tribal members.
The Dawes Severalty Act (General Allotment Act) of 1887 ushered in the allotment era. Drafted by U.S. Sen. Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts, the act did not pertain to the Five Civilized Tribes until 1893. -
E. L. Eagleson and Edward P. McCabe joined Freedmen’s Oklahoma Immigration Association to establish political hegemony in the region. McCabe became leader of the movement, relocated from Kansas to Logan County, Oklahoma Territory, and elected first treasurer of the county.
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Five Civilized Tribes were compelled to grant rights-of-way to railroads seeking to cross their lands. This caused Indian Territory to be exposed to massive amounts of uninvited outsiders.
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Oklahoma territory opened to settlement by non-Indians. Previously the territory had been open only to settlement by other Indian tribes.
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Oil discovered in Cherokee nation, increasing immigration to the area
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First African American Newspaper Oklahoma Guide
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A “race war” between the Creek tribe and blacks was reported by a local newspaper.
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Territorial Population was dominated by whites and blacks who made up 72% of the total population. Less than 25 years after the Civil War, Indians became the minority in their own land. Total Population: 178,082
White: 109,391
Black: 18, 636
Indian: 50,055 -
Tensions between blacks and Creeks grew so much that the usually racially tolerant tribe began to display anti-black sentiments. L. C. Perryman, a Creek Chief, filed a protest with federal officials when African American troops were stationed in his nation.
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Green Jacob Currin becomes the first African American to serve in the Oklahoma Territory Legislature.
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Cherokee nation formed one high school for freedmen.
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Edward P. McCabe founded Langston City, an all-black town near Guthrie. McCabe encourage Southern blacks to settle in Oklahoma in his newspaper Langston City Herald (est. 1891). The all-black state campaign failed, but McCabe was successful in establishing 29 all-black towns and 1 all-black colony where African Americans could live without fear of physical, political, and economical oppression
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The town, which opened for settlement on October 22, 1890, was named for John Mercer Langston, who took office as the first black Virginian to serve in the United States House of Representatives only one month earlier.
Langston's principal founders were William L. Eagleson, a prominent newspaper editor, Edward P. McCabe, a former Kansas state auditor, and Charles W. Robbins, a white land speculator. -
Choctaw nation provided one boarding school in Talihina, the Tushka Lusa (Tushkaloosa) Academy, for freedmen Historian Angie Debo noted that in 1891, the Choctaw Nation "went beyond the obligation assumed by the act of adoption, by establishing a colored boarding school."
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Newspaper editor Roscoe Dunjee arrives in Oklahoma City from Minnesota. After working for various newspapers he founds the Oklahoma City Black Dispatch in 1915. The Dispatch eventually becomes the largest African American newspaper in the state.
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General Allotment Act of 1887 extends to Five Tribes. Henry Dawes, then retired, was appointed to head a three-member commission, with Meredith Helm Kidd of Indiana and Archibald S. McKennon of Arkansas, to the Five Civilized Tribes to negotiate agreements with the leaders of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole that would end tribal land ownership and give each member individual possession of a portion of the tribal lands (usually 160 acres).
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Congress directed the Dawes Commission to make rolls for each of the tribes that included Indians and freedmen who were tribal citizens. For the first time in tribal history, non-Indians were determining Indian citizenship and were awarding sections of lands on that basis.
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Curtis Act passed in United States Congress to include the Five Civilized Tribes in the Dawes Final Rolls. The act called for abolition of tribal governments by 1906. The enrollment process was closed as of March 4, 1907, and the final rolls remained the definitive source on eligibility for each tribe's membership.
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Interracial tension grew to be serious enough to cause Dew M. Wisdom, U.S. Indian Agent for the Indian Territory, to include in his annual report to the Commission of Indian Affairs a discussion about the Creek’s dissenting views about blacks taking tribal land
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Taking advantage of the various federal land openings in Oklahoma Territory, through the 1890s, approximately eight thousand African Americans acquire 1.5 million acres of land in the Territory valued at $11 million dollars.
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Most blacks residing in Indian Territory were newcomers from neighboring states, called “state Negroes.”
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Creek Freedmen Sign Allotment
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April 1, 1902 -May 31, 1902: Hearing for Cherokee freedmen applying for roll membership. Cherokee Nation experienced a large number of false claims from African Americans, not of Cherokee freedmen blood, who were seeking to take Cherokee land under false pretenses. Enrollment Flyer Used for Cherokee Freedmen Distributed to Cherokee Freedmen Citizens During the Years of the Dawes Commission Enrollment Period
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Boley, the largest and most well known of more than 50 All-Black towns of the two territories was founded. Established on land allotted to Creek’s. Named after J.B. Boley, railroad official of the Fort Smith and Western Railway. The town was incorporated in 1905. One of only 13 black towns still existing.
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Congress passed an Enabling Act, the device used by the US Congress to create a state. The act provided for a single state to be formed from the Twin Territories
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As stipulated in the Enabling Act, delegates of the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention assembled in Guthrie
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The town of Boley, the most famous of the all-black communities in the Indian Territory, (founded in 1903) in the Creek Nation by two white entrepreneurs, William Boley and Lake Moore. By 1907 Boley has over 1,000 residents.
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36.3 % of the allottees were freedmen, including a large number probably not descendants of Indian Territory ex-slaves, but recent arrivals who had intermarried or who just took up residence in the area.
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23.9% of the allottees were freedmen, including a large number probably not descendants of Indian Territory ex-slaves, but recent arrivals who had intermarried or who just took up residence in the area.
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42.5 % of the allottees were freedmen, including a large number probably not descendants of Indian Territory ex-slaves, but recent arrivals who had intermarried or who just took up residence in the area.
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11.8% of the allottees were freedmen, including a large number probably not descendants of Indian Territory ex-slaves, but recent arrivals who had intermarried or who just took up residence in the area.
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31.8% of the allottees were freedmen, including a large number probably not descendants of Indian Territory ex-slaves, but recent arrivals who had intermarried or who just took up residence in the area.
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On November 16, the twin territories, Indian Territory and Oklahoma, are admitted to the Union as the state of Oklahoma. The Democratic-dominated state legislature quickly disfranchises black voters and segregates public schools and accommodations.
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Charles N. Haskell Inaugurated as First governor of Oklahoma
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Haskell Signs Jim Crow Bill
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The Dawes Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes was abolished by act of Congress and its unfinished business was transferred to the Five Civilized Tribes Agency in Muskogee, Oklahoma.
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On May 31-June 1, at least 60 blacks and 21 whites are killed in the Tulsa Race Riot in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The violence destroys a thriving African American neighborhood and business district called Deep Greenwood.
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Cherokee KKK meet in Tahlequah, OK
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The federal government authorizes the Cherokee Nation to again hold elections for principal chief under the Principal Chiefs Act. "Blue cards" began being issued that year to Cherokee citizens including Freedmen. Freedmen vote in the 1971, 1975 and 1979 tribal elections.
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The Cherokee people vote on and approve a new constitution. Article III of the constitution states that all Dawes enrollees and their descendents are citizens of the Cherokee Nation
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Solidarity between African Americans and Native Americans grew with the Black Power movement of the 1970s. The Longest Walk entered into D.C., with several thousand Indians and a number of non-Indian supporters. Traditional elders led them to the Washington Monument, where the Pipe carried across the country was smoked. Non-Indian supporters included Muhammad Ali, US Senator Ted Kennedy and actor Marlon Brando. President Jimmy Carter refused to meet with representatives of The Longest Walk.
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Freedmen are not allowed to vote in a tribal election. Tribal Registrar Dora Mae Watie sends letters to Freedmen citizens telling them their citizenship has been cancelled because the tribe now requires Cherokee citizens to also have a Certificate Degree of Indian Blood card. The Tribal Council also passes an act requiring all Cherokee citizens to provide a CDIB card based on their degree of blood listed on the Dawes Rolls for themselves or their ancestor.
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1866 Treaty Excerpts Dealing With Freedmen Bureau of Indian Affairs officials meet with tribal officials and emphasize that the Cherokee Constitution as well as the Treaty of 1866 granted citizenship to the Cherokee Freedmen and their descendants, and Freedmen should be allowed to vote.
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The tribe's Judicial Appeals Tribunal holds in the case of Lucy Allen (a Freedmen) v. Cherokee Nation Tribal Council that a 1983 Cherokee Nation law limits Cherokee citizenship to Cherokees, Shawnees and Delawares by blood.
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Freedmen Nero brought the suit in 1984 alleging Freedmen were denied the right to vote and prevented from participating in federal Indian benefits programs.
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Judge H. Dale Cook of the US District Court "dismissed the claims against the tribe, its officials, and United States on basis of sovereign immunity and granted summary judgment in favor of federal officials, relying on doctrine of qualified immunity." On appeal, the circuit judge held that "(1) tribal sovereign immunity barred claims against Cherokee Nation; (2) United States and its agencies were entitled to sovereign immunity; and (3) plaintiffs failed to state claim against tribe/fed council
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Cherokee Nation makes a constitutional ammendment revoking citizenship status of Freedmen and their descendants. The controversy still continues. Currently, there is a pending 2012 court case concerning the status of freedmen membership in the Cherokee Nation.
