The Curtis Act of 1898 was an amendment to the United States
Dawes Act
The Dawes Act of 1887 (also known as the General Allotment Act or the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887) regulated land rights on tribal territories within the United States. Named after Senator Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts, it authorized the Pre ...
; it resulted in the break-up of tribal governments and communal lands in
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United St ...
(now Oklahoma) of the
Five Civilized Tribes
The term Five Civilized Tribes was applied by European Americans in the colonial and early federal period in the history of the United States to the five major Native American nations in the Southeast—the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek ...
of
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United St ...
: the
Choctaw
The Choctaw (in the Choctaw language, Chahta) are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Their Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are ...
,
Chickasaw
The Chickasaw ( ) are an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. Their traditional territory was in the Southeastern United States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee as well in southwestern Kentucky. Their language is classified as ...
,
Muscogee
The Muscogee, also known as the Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek, and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy ( in the Muscogee language), are a group of related indigenous (Native American) peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands[Cherokee
The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...]
, and
Seminole
The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, an ...
. These tribes had been previously exempt from the 1887 General Allotment Act (
Dawes Act
The Dawes Act of 1887 (also known as the General Allotment Act or the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887) regulated land rights on tribal territories within the United States. Named after Senator Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts, it authorized the Pre ...
) because of the terms of their treaties. In total, the tribes immediately lost control of about 90 million acres of their communal lands; they lost more in subsequent years.
The act also transferred the authority to determine members of tribes to the
Dawes Commission
The United States, American Dawes Commission, named for its first chairman Henry L. Dawes, was authorized under a rider to an Indian Office appropriation bill, March 3, 1893. Its purpose was to convince the Five Civilized Tribes to agree to cede tr ...
as part of the registration of members. Thus, individuals could be enrolled as members without tribal consent.
[Tatro, M. Kaye. ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture''. "Curtis Act]
By effectively abolishing the remainder of tribal courts, tribal governments, and tribal land claims in the Indian Territory of Oklahoma, the act enabled Oklahoma to be admitted as a state, which followed in 1907.
History
Officially titled the "Act for the Protection of the People of Indian Territory", the Act is named for former Vice President
Charles Curtis
Charles Curtis (January 25, 1860 – February 8, 1936) was an American attorney and Republican politician from Kansas who served as the 31st vice president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 under Herbert Hoover. He had served as the Sena ...
, Republican congressman from Kansas and its author. He was of mixed Native American and European descent: on his mother's side
Kansa,
Osage,
Potawatomi
The Potawatomi , also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie (among many variations), are a Native American people of the western Great Lakes region, upper Mississippi River and Great Plains. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a m ...
, and
French; and on his father's side three ethnic lines of British Isles ancestry. Curtis was raised in part on the Kaw Reservation of his maternal grandparents, but also lived with his paternal grandparents and attended Topeka High School. He read law, became an attorney, and later was elected to the
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...
and Senate. He served as Vice-President under Herbert Hoover.
In the usual fashion, by the time the bill HR 8581 had gone through five revisions in committees in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, there was little left of Curtis' original draft. In his hand-written autobiography, Curtis noted having been unhappy with the final version of the Curtis Act. He believed that the Five Civilized Tribes needed to make changes. He thought that the way ahead for Native Americans was through education and use of both their and the majority cultures, but he also had hoped to give more support to Native American transitions.
Major provisions
Abolition of tribal governments
The Curtis Act called for the abolition of tribal governments on March 6, 1906.
[Wilson, Linda D. ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture''. "Statehood Movement." Retrieved May 6, 201]
In 1924, it declared all Indians to be citizens of the United States.
[Adams, David Wallace. ''Education for Extinction : American Indians and the Boarding School Experience, 1875-1928'' Lawrence, Kan: University Press of Kansas, 1995.] Due to the nature of the lands in Indian Territory and dry climate, the 160-acre allotments were often too small to permit profitable farming, and many Indian families had to give up and lost their lands in future years.
Land allotments modification
The Act incorporated the basic points regarding land allotments and termination of tribal governments that had earlier appeared in the
Atoka Agreement
The Atoka Agreement is a document signed by representatives of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indian Nations and members of the United States Dawes Commission on April 23, 1897, at Atoka, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). It provided for the allotment ...
between the
Choctaw
The Choctaw (in the Choctaw language, Chahta) are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Their Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are ...
and
Chickasaw Nation
The Chickasaw Nation (Chickasaw language, Chickasaw: Chikashsha I̠yaakni) is a federally recognized tribes, federally recognized Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribe, with its headquarters located in Ada, Oklahoma in th ...
s. The Atoka Agreement had been rejected by a popular vote of the Chickasaw, but accepted by the Choctaw. The Curtis Act required that the Atoka Agreement be resubmitted to a vote of both nations. The agreement was approved in a joint election on August 24, 1898.
[ "The Curtis Act of 1898". ''Time''.](_blank)
Accessed December 4, 2016.
Registration of tribal members
The Curtis Act also scrapped the registration of tribal members that had been conducted under the
Dawes Act
The Dawes Act of 1887 (also known as the General Allotment Act or the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887) regulated land rights on tribal territories within the United States. Named after Senator Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts, it authorized the Pre ...
and ordered that new enrollments. This Act extended all provisions of the Dawes Act to the lands of the
Five Civilized Tribes
The term Five Civilized Tribes was applied by European Americans in the colonial and early federal period in the history of the United States to the five major Native American nations in the Southeast—the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek ...
. In the end, the large parts declared by the government to be "surplus" to their needs were made available for sale, including to non-Natives. An estimated 90 million acres of land formerly reserved for Native Americans were removed from their control.
" America 1900: The General Allotment Act."
''The American Experience,'' National Public Radio.
Incorporation of towns
The Curtis Act also authorized the incorporation of towns in Indian Territory. This meant that towns had a legal basis for being laid out, surveyed and plotted. Any individual could obtain title to the lot in fee simple
In English law, a fee simple or fee simple absolute is an estate in land, a form of freehold ownership. A "fee" is a vested, inheritable, present possessory interest in land. A "fee simple" is real property held without limit of time (i.e., perm ...
. The title owner of a lot had the legal right to sell or mortgage the property. An incorporated town or city had the right to self-regulation and levy taxes, allowing them to establish public services. By 1900, the largest towns in Indian Territory had incorporated. These included: Ardmore, with 1,500 residents; Muskogee 4,200; McAlester 3,500; Wagoner 2,300; Tulsa 1,300; and Eufaula 800.[''Muskogee Phoenix''. "Curtis Act brought changes to towns in Indian Territory." October 27, 2007. Retrieved May 5, 201]
"Curtis Act brought changes to towns in Indian Territory"
''Muskogee Phoenix''
Provision for vote by residents
The Act also provided that residents could vote for city officials. As the area was still a US Territory, residents could not vote for candidates for national office. Since Territorial government officials were appointed by the President of the United States, the question of voting for these officials was moot. After Oklahoma was admitted as a state in 1907, residents could vote for both state and national officials.
See also
*Dawes Act
The Dawes Act of 1887 (also known as the General Allotment Act or the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887) regulated land rights on tribal territories within the United States. Named after Senator Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts, it authorized the Pre ...
*Dawes Commission
The United States, American Dawes Commission, named for its first chairman Henry L. Dawes, was authorized under a rider to an Indian Office appropriation bill, March 3, 1893. Its purpose was to convince the Five Civilized Tribes to agree to cede tr ...
*Dawes Rolls
The Dawes Rolls (or Final Rolls of Citizens and Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes, or Dawes Commission of Final Rolls) were created by the United States Dawes Commission. The commission was authorized by United States Congress in 1893 to exec ...
*Atoka Agreement
The Atoka Agreement is a document signed by representatives of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indian Nations and members of the United States Dawes Commission on April 23, 1897, at Atoka, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). It provided for the allotment ...
*Aboriginal title in the United States
The United States was the first jurisdiction to acknowledge the common law doctrine of aboriginal title (also known as "original Indian title" or "Indian right of occupancy"). Native American tribes and nations establish aboriginal title by ac ...
*Eminent domain in the United States
Eminent domain in the United States refers to the power of a state or the federal government to take private property for public use while requiring just compensation to be given to the original owner. It can be legislatively delegated by the state ...
*Diminishment Diminishment is the legal process by which the United States Congress can reduce the size of an Indian reservation.
History
In 1984, the United States Supreme Court held in '' Solem v. Bartlett'', 465 U.S. 463 (1984), that "only Congress may dimini ...
References
External links
Curtis Act Information & Video
Chickasaw.TV
Charles Curtis; Native-American Indian Vice-President; a biography
''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture''
Oklahoma Digital Maps: Digital Collections of Oklahoma and Indian Territory
"Dawes Act"
Our Documents.gov website
"The Curtis Act of 1898". ''Time''.
Accessed December 4, 2016.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Curtis Act Of 1898
United States federal Native American legislation
Cherokee Nation (1794–1907)
1898 in American law
Pre-statehood history of Oklahoma
Aboriginal title in the United States
1898 in Oklahoma Territory
1898 in Indian Territory