Muskogee County, Oklahoma - Chapter 10: Allotment of Indian Lands, 1922

Chapter 10: Allotment of Indian Lands

After eight years of negotiation and persuasion, the commission to the Five Civilized Tribes finally succeeded in effecting an agreement with the Creek Nation, providing for the allotment in severalty of Creek lands, which agreement was approved by Act of Congress March 1, 1901, and ratified by the Creek Council at Okmulgee June 25, 1901.

On the same date (March 1, 1901) Congress approved an agreement of a similar character which the commission had concluded with the authorities of the Cherokee Nation, but at a popular election called by the Cherokee Council this agreement was rejected by a vote of 2,323 for, and 3,346 against its ratification.

However, on July 1, 1902, Congress passed another act providing for the individual allotment of the lands of the Cherokee Nation which was ratified by the Cherokees at an election held on August 7, 1902. The Kee-Too-Wah society of Cherokees, composed of full-bloods who had unflinchingly opposed any change in tribal customs or modes of living, refused to abide by the result of this election, and for many succeeding years refused to accept the land which the Dawes Commission arbitrarilv allotted to them.

The Creek agreement provided that their lands should be appraised at their fair cash value regardless of improvements, and each man, woman and child, including freedmen, was permitted to select 160 acres of any grade of land.

The lands were appraised at from 25 cents to $6.50 per acre according to quality. Those who selected quarter sections of the best grade, therefore, received $1,040 worth at the appraised value.

In order to equalize the value of allotments, it was further provided that any citizen whose quarter section was of a lower grade of land, would be entitled to receive the difference between the appraised value of his land and $1,040 in cash from Creek funds, or he might claim additional land to make up this difference. Each citizen was required to select one forty-acre tract out of his allotment to be designated as his homestead, for which he received a separate deed, and which, for several years, he was not permitted to sell.

As soon as the Dawes Commission announced that it was ready to allot lands there was a stampede of Indians and negroes for the office of the commission from all parts of the nation, each one apparently anxious to secure the land which he had selected as a home, before some other citizen should claim it. Many full-bloods, however, who had been persistently opposed to the breaking up of tribal relations and, especially, to the individual allotment of lands, refused to make any selection of land, and the commission subsequently selected their lands and issued certificates of allotment to them, some of whom returned their certificates to the commission with the information that they preferred to live as they had always lived. A few years later, however, they reluctantly accepted their allotments.

Previous to this time numerous cattlemen, mostly white, intermarried citizens, had held possession of large tracts of land divided into pastures of perhaps a square mile each, and all substantial^ enclosed bv wire fencing. In order to retain control of their ranches, they hauled wagon-loads of Indians and Negroes to Muskogee, pitched their tents across the street from the commission's headquarters and proceeded to have the Indians and Negroes in their custody to select allotments in their large pastures. The cattlemen had a previous agreement with such allottees by which they were able to retain their pastures intact by paying the allottees 25 cents per acre, annually, as rental.

Immediately following the issuance of allotment deeds, and before the allottees were authorized to sell any part of the lands, reckless land speculators began to take deeds from ignorant Indians and Negroes, paying only a nominal consideration. Such buyers knew that these deeds were not valid, but by taking possession of the land they felt reasonably sure of holding it until their crops would reimburse them for the nominal price they had paid for the land, and that their possession and fraudulent deeds would give them a shadow of title which they hoped to be able to perfect at some future time, and which they fancied would keep other prospective buyers away.

The Government, however, prosecuted many suits to cancel these fraudulent deeds and restore the allottees to the rightful possession of their lands, and in the end, the " grafters" did not realize much profit from their disreputable practices.

On April 21, 1904, Congress removed the restrictions upon all adult allottees not of Indian blood, except as to homesteads, which authorized each adult Negro and intermarried citizen to sell all of his land except the homestead. The same act authorized the Secretary of the Interior to remove the restrictions upon the sale of land of any Indian, except as to homesteads, whenever such removal was found to be to the best interest of the Indian.

The passage of this act was the signal for a lively scramble among land buyers, for the Negroes and Indians had never before been owners of real estate, had no conception of its value, and were totally uninformed as to the value of real estate and as to the import or significance of a warranty deed. In numerous instances Freedmen were known to execute a half dozen or more deeds on the same land to as many different purchasers, which, of course, resulted in numerous lawsuits and complications of titles. Most of the Freedmen sold their land at whatever price the buyer chose to offer, and soon squandered the proceeds, but some of the more intelligent ones refused to sell and are now in good circumstances. It was not unusual in those days, to see a Negro, who had never before been able to own a $40 pony, drive down the streets of Muskogee, with a new buggy, harness and team of horses, and passersby would remark: "Another nigger has sold his land." Some of the ignorant Negroes and Indians who neglected to select their allotments until after all the good land was taken, were compelled to accept seemingly worthless lands out among the rocky hills, but by an unexpected turn of the wheel of fortune quite a number of these poor tracts have since been found to be underlaid with oil, and several of those ignorant, neglected allottees are todav millionaires.

The most sweeping law which Congress has enacted concerning the removal of restrictions upon the sale of Indian lands, and which threw the greatest amount of land upon the market, was the

Muskogee And Noethe Astern Oklahoma

Act of May 27, 1908, which provided that all lands, including homesteads, of intermarried whites, Freedmen, and Indians of less than half-blood, including minors, and all lands, except homesteads, of other allottees of less than three-quarters Indian blood, should be free from all restrictions. This act left all such Indians and Freedmen, who were adults, free to sell such lands, without consulting the officials of the Interior Department.

The Act of Congress of July 1, 1902, providing for the settlement of the affairs, of the Cherokee Nation, gave to each citizen 110 acres of average land. Those who selected the best grade of land received less, and those to whom were allotted the poorer grades received more, in proportion to the appraised value, as determined by the Dawes Commission.

This act provided that no white person who had intermarried with a Cherokee citizen subsequent to December 16, 1895, should be entitled to enrollment or to share in Cherokee property.

The final enrollment of Indian citizens shows that in the Cherokee Nation there were 8,703 full-bloods ; 1,803 three-fourths-blood or more; 2,975 from one-half to three-fourths blood; 23,424 less than half-bloods, including intermarried whites and 4,919 Freedmen.

Of the Creeks there were 6,858 full-bloods; 541 three-fourthsblood or more; 1,157 from one-half to three-fourths blood; 3,396 less than half-bloods and 6,809 Freedmen. The restricted Indians (those who could not sell their lands except by consent of the Secretary of the Interior) included all who were of one-half or more Indian blood. Of the 13,481 restricted Cherokees enrolled, the restrictions have been removed of about 6,000, either by death or by the Secretary of the Interior.

Town Sites How Titles To Towx Lots Were Secured

Immediately following the disastrous fire of February 23, 1899, which destroyed nearly all of the business section of Muskogee, the citizens made an earnest appeal, to the Secretary of the Inte- rior to appoint a townsite commission to survey and plat the town lots and fix the appraised value thereof, as provided by the Curtis Act of the previous year.

Prior to this date a prosperous town of 4,000 inhabitants, with well-built homes and substantial brick store buildings, had been built up, with no one having a valid title to the lot upon which he had made improvements. The fee simple title was still vested in the Indian tribe and the occupant had acquired only a possessory right to it from some Indian who had formerly occupied it. Homes were sold and exchanged by bills of sale, instead of deeds, that document conveying title to the improvement, but only a preference right of possession to the lot. The newcomer who had been accustomed to warranty deeds and abstracts of title, was naturally inclined to view such titles with suspicion, but the pioneers who had built their homes and store buildings, had faith in the Government and believed that, in some way or other, it would eventually provide some modus operandi by which they could secure title to the lots which they occupied.

The town-site law provided that foi each town a commission might be appointed, consisting of three members, one to be appointed by the Secretary of the Interior, one member by the chief of the nation and one by the town. For Muskogee, the Secretary of the Interior appointed Dwight W. Tuttle, of Connecticut, as chairman and disbursing agent; the town appointed John Adams, who served as clerk; Chief Pleasant Porter declined to make any appointment and the Secretary of the Interior named Benjamin Marshall as the third member.

Mr. Tuttle was a typical Yankee, unfamiliar with the manners and customs of the Wild West, but he entered upon his task with a zeal characteristic of the Connecticut Yankee ; Mr. Adams was an old resident of Muskogee, and Mr. Marshall, a Creek, still resides in Muskogee.

The commission was empowered to have the town surveyed into lots and blocks and to appraise each lot at its fair cash value. Any person having possession of a lot upon which there were permanent improvements, had the right to secure a deed to it, signed by the Secretary of the Interior and the chief of the Creek Nation, upon paying to the tribe one-half of the appraised value of the lot. The appraisements were not excessive, ranging usually from $20 to $100 per lot. Immediately there began a boom in building. Many substantial residences and store buildings were erected, but many of the outlying lots were soon dotted with shacks, from 6 to 10 feet square, built in order to give public notice of claim of ownership and to take advantage of the one-half payment clause.

The law permitted each person to claim but one vacant lot at the appraised value, but certain persons who foresaw a city of rapid growth, listed many lots in the names of their friends, mostly non-residents, in order to secure deeds to them by paying the low appraisement. This scheme resulted in protracted litigation and much annoyance to people who wanted to build homes.

Attorneys W. L. Sturdevant of St. Louis and M. L. Mott were appointed by the Government to institute suits for cancelling such deeds. Several hundred suits were brought, locally known as ' ' Mott suits, ' ' which beclouded the title to hundreds of lots for twelve or more years, but were finally compromised and settled by the payment of an agreed amount in excess of the appraised price of the lots. It was an unfortunate affair for Muskogee, inasmuch as the cry "Beware of the Mott suits" caused prospective investors to be suspicious of town lot titles and delayed the building of many houses.

In the Cherokee Nation the town site work was somewhat simplified by reason of the fact that the Cherokee Council had provided for the incorporation of towns and the sale of lots to citizens.