Indian Territory

Indian Territory, sometimes referred to as the Indian Territories or the Indian Country, was a vast and evolving region in the central United States designated by the federal government for the forced relocation of Native American nations. The concept emerged from federal policies of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, particularly the policy of Indian removal, which aimed to clear Indigenous peoples from lands east of the Mississippi River to allow for white settlement. Over time the region underwent numerous legal, territorial, and political transformations until its final incorporation into the state of Oklahoma in 1907.

Origins, Definitions, and Federal Policy

Indian Territory originally described land reserved for Native Americans who held aboriginal title as sovereign nations. Its establishment stemmed from the broader policy of Indian removal, formalised by the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which encouraged the relocation of eastern tribes to lands west of the Mississippi. After the American Civil War the federal government shifted from removal to cultural assimilation, promoting Americanisation campaigns between 1857 and 1920.
The borders of Indian Territory were initially defined by the Nonintercourse Act of 1834, which restricted non-Indigenous settlement and trade within Indigenous lands. The area was the successor to the portions of the Missouri Territory left unorganised after Missouri statehood. As new territories were carved out by Organic Acts of Congress, Indian Territory’s land area progressively diminished.
In 1906 the Oklahoma Enabling Act combined Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory to form the state of Oklahoma, formally ending the existence of an unorganised independent Indian Territory and incorporating its inhabitants into the United States.

Description, Geography, and Governance

Situated in the central United States, Indian Territory was never an organised incorporated territory, and Congress never passed an Organic Act establishing a territorial government for it. Its purpose was primarily for the resettlement of displaced Indigenous nations. By 1890 its remaining area was chiefly the land held by the Five Civilized Tribes—the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminole nations—along with smaller groups associated with the Quapaw Agency.
Tribal nations governed themselves, maintained distinct political institutions, and exercised control over their lands. Under federal law, tribes could not alienate land to non-Indigenous residents, and entry by outsiders was restricted. Prior to the Civil War the region lacked a unified territorial government. After the war, the Southern Treaty Commission renegotiated treaties with tribes that had aligned with the Confederacy, reducing their landholdings and providing land for the resettlement of Plains and Midwestern tribes.
Later legislation, including the Oklahoma Organic Act, reduced Indian Territory further by creating Oklahoma Territory, with the unorganised remainder still governed under Arkansas law because the federal district court at Fort Smith had long exercised jurisdiction there.

Historical Precursors: The Indian Reserve and Early Expansion

The roots of Indian Territory lay in the British Indian Reserve of 1763, established by the Royal Proclamation of 1763. The proclamation restricted European settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains, reserving land for Indigenous nations. This arrangement persisted until the Treaty of Paris (1783) ended the American Revolutionary War and transferred control of the Reserve to the United States.
Following independence the new government increasingly disregarded previous restrictions. Conflicts in the Ohio Country culminated in the Battle of Fallen Timbers (1794) and the Treaty of Greenville, which ceded much of present-day Ohio, parts of Indiana, and areas around Chicago and Detroit.
The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 further expanded American claims. Presidents Jefferson and his successors saw the lands west of the Mississippi as a destination for Indigenous resettlement, clearing eastern territory for white settlers. The subsequent reorganisation of the region created the Missouri Territory and later the Arkansas Territory, whose borders shifted repeatedly due to negotiations with the Choctaw, Cherokee, and others. By the late 1820s the “Indian zone” stretched across present-day Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and parts of Iowa.

Removal, Treaties, and Federal Authority

Before 1871 Indian Territory was shaped through treaties between the United States and Indigenous nations. The Indian Appropriations Act of 1871 ended the treaty-making system, declaring that no Indigenous group within U.S. borders would thereafter be recognised as an independent nation with whom the United States could contract via treaty. Existing treaties remained valid, but Congress asserted plenary authority over Indigenous nations. Court decisions such as United States v. City of McAlester and United States v. Blackfeet Tribe affirmed that tribal sovereignty existed only to the extent permitted by Congress.
The process of relocation was reinforced through treaties such as the Treaty of St. Louis and later agreements culminating in the forced migrations collectively known as the Trail of Tears, in which multiple tribes were removed to Indian Territory.

Civil War and Reconstruction in the Territory

Indian Territory played a complex role in the American Civil War, with various tribes aligning with either the Union or the Confederacy. Factional divisions were common; some Indigenous leaders supported the Confederacy due to promises of sovereignty, while others opposed secession. After the war the federal government punished tribes who had supported the Confederacy by reducing their landholdings and opening portions of territory for the resettlement of other Native nations.
The post-war treaties established the possibility of a multi-tribal territorial legislature with proportional representation, though such a system never developed into a fully functioning territorial government.

Reduction, Allotment, and the Path to Statehood

By the late nineteenth century, federal policy focused on dismantling communal landholdings through allotment, particularly under the Dawes Act (1887) and subsequent agreements with individual tribes. Allotment broke tribal land into individual parcels intended for private ownership, with “surplus” lands opened to non-Indigenous settlement.
The shrinking of Indian Territory accelerated as new territories were created, ultimately leaving only the Five Civilized Tribes’ land and the Quapaw Agency. The western part of the region became Oklahoma Territory in 1890. Efforts to create a separate state from Indian Territory, such as the proposed State of Sequoyah, failed when Congress opted instead for a single combined state.
The Oklahoma Enabling Act (1906) formalised this process, merging Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory into the state of Oklahoma in 1907.

Legacy and Continuing Significance

Although Indian Territory as a formal entity ended with statehood, its legacy shapes the legal and political landscape of Indigenous governance in the United States. Tribal nations continue to exercise sovereignty over reservations, trust lands, and recognised areas such as Oklahoma Tribal Statistical Areas. The term Indian country remains in use to describe lands under tribal authority or regions with significant Indigenous populations.