Indian Territory and Oklahoma History Lecture Notes

Vocabulary flashcards covering major people, treaties, battles, laws, and movements related to Indian Territory and Oklahoma history from the Civil War through statehood.

Atoka Agreement

1897 accord between the U.S. Dawes Commission and Choctaw–Chickasaw leaders that set the allotment model for those nations and influenced later tribal agreements despite Chickasaw voters’ rejection.

Battle of Cabin Creek

September 19 1864 Civil War skirmish near Vinita in which Stand Watie’s Confederates captured a 300-wagon Union supply train and sent the goods to refugees along the Red River.

Battle of Honey Springs

July 17 1863 clash southwest of Fort Gibson; 3,000 Union troops under James G. Blunt defeated 5,000 Confederates led by Douglas Cooper in the most decisive Civil War battle in Indian Territory.

Battle of Pea Ridge

March 6–8 1862 Arkansas battle where Albert Pike’s Indian troops fought in violation of treaties; major Confederate defeat, though Stand Watie’s men seized an artillery battery.

Battle of the Washita

November 27 1868 attack by George A. Custer on Black Kettle’s peaceful Cheyenne village on the Washita River; 102 Cheyenne, including Black Kettle, were killed during Sheridan’s Winter Campaign.

Elias C. Boudinot

Mixed-blood Cherokee leader, Confederate spokesman, railroad attorney, tobacco entrepreneur, and early Boomer advocate who promoted opening the Unassigned Lands.

Cherokee Outlet

57-mile-wide strip west of the Cherokee Nation; partly sold to other tribes, later leased to cattlemen, and finally opened to settlers in the 1893 land run.

Crazy Snake Rebellion

1901–1902 Creek uprising led by Chitto Harjo protesting allotment; rebels tried to restore traditional government, were arrested, and forced to accept allotments.

Curtis Act (1898)

Federal law that abolished tribal courts, extended U.S./Arkansas law over Indian Territory, allowed town incorporation, and served as the territory’s de-facto organic act.

Dawes Act (1887)

Sen. Henry L. Dawes’s law allotting 160-acre parcels to individual Indians on reservations (excluding the Five Civilized Tribes), foreshadowing later policies in Indian Territory.

J. J. McAlester

Confederate veteran who founded a store in the Choctaw Nation, married a Chickasaw woman, and organized the territory’s first coal-mining company.

Medicine Lodge Council (1867)

Kansas peace talks where U.S. officials pressed Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache chiefs to accept reduced ranges and reservation life in Indian Territory.

Oklahoma Enabling Act (1906)

Law combining Oklahoma and Indian territories, outlining a 112-delegate constitutional convention at Guthrie, and imposing conditions for statehood (e.g., temporary prohibition, capital at Guthrie).

Judge Isaac Parker

“Hanging Judge” who, from 1875–1896 at Fort Smith, used 200 U.S. marshals to restore order in Indian Territory, convicting nearly 9,000 offenders.

David L. Payne

Boomer leader (1879–1884) who organized homesteader incursions into the Unassigned Lands, published the Oklahoma War Chief, and used courts to publicize land-opening demands.

Reconstruction Treaties (1866)

Post–Civil War agreements forcing the Five Tribes to abolish slavery, cede land, allow railroads, and form an intertribal council in exchange for restored annuities.

Second Trail of Tears (1867–1884)

Post-Civil War relocation of numerous northern and Plains tribes to reservations in Indian Territory, including Kaw, Ponca, Kiowa, Comanche, and Cheyenne.

Sequoyah Convention (1905)

Muskogee meeting where Indian Territory delegates drafted a progressive constitution for a proposed State of Sequoyah; approved locally but rejected by Congress, serving as rehearsal for Oklahoma statehood.

Winter War (1868–1869)

General Philip Sheridan’s winter campaign forcing Plains tribes toward reservation life; included Custer’s Washita attack and use of Fort Supply as a base.

Unassigned Lands

Central Oklahoma tract ceded by Creek and Seminole in 1866 but left vacant; focus of Boomer agitation and opened in the 1889 land run as Oklahoma Territory.

Union Party (Cherokee)

Post-Civil War Cherokee faction led by Louis Downing combining former Confederate and Ross full-blood supporters; dominated tribal politics until statehood.

Stand Watie

Cherokee leader and Confederate general; famed guerrilla commander who captured Union supplies, last Confederate general to surrender, later active in Cherokee politics and business.

Quanah Parker

Comanche chief who surrendered in 1875, became a reservation leader, amassed wealth through ranching, yet maintained polygamy and peyotism—symbolizing selective assimilation.

Socialist Party (Oklahoma)

Early-20th-century populist party advocating protections for small farmers and laborers; peaked at ~20 % of voters, declined after WWI but influenced Farmer-Labor politics.

Grafting (Allotment Era)

Practice where speculators obtained cheap leases or purchases of Indian allotments, then profited by subleasing or creating large plantations.

Red River War (1874–1875)

U.S. Army campaign relentlessly pursuing Plains tribes across the Texas Panhandle and SW Oklahoma, ending armed resistance and forcing tribes onto reservations.

Cattle Trails

Post-Civil War routes—Shawnee, Chisholm, Great Western—moving millions of Texas cattle north to Kansas railheads; tribes leased grazing passages through Indian Territory.

Homestead Act (1862)

Federal law granting 160 acres of public land to settlers after five years’ residence and improvements; spurred debate over opening Indian Territory lands, fueling Boomer activism.

Charles N. Haskell

Creek citizen, vice-president of the Sequoyah Convention, Democratic floor leader at the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention, and first governor of Oklahoma (1907–1911).

Cherokee Strip Livestock Association

1883 organization of Kansas cattlemen that leased the Cherokee Outlet for grazing; a second lease was voided, and the outlet was opened to settlers in 1893.