Boomers and Sooners

Boomers and Sooners In this chapter: vThe federal government will begin the dismantling of the Indian Nations and allotting land to every individual. vThe Boomer Movement will provoke the sale and opening of The Unassigned Lands. v The western plains and the Panhandle will be organized as Oklahoma Territory, and the reservations will be broken up and given to settlers through land runs and lotteries. Section 1: Dissolving the Indian Nations Many people believed it was in the Indians’ best interest to give tribal-held lands to individuals. In 1887, Congress passed the Dawes Severalty Act. It dissolved tribal ownership, and instead gave allotments to each individual Indian. It was sponsored by Massachusetts Senator Henry Dawes and was sometimes called the General Allotment Act. Tribal ownership of land was called commonality. Individual ownership was called severalty. The Dawes Act originally applied only to the reservations, but later was amended to include the Five Civilized Tribes. The Dawes Commission began to compile tribal rolls and make land assignments. Although the tribes objected at first, they later accepted the allotments. In 1898, Charles Curtis, a Kansas Congressman, drafted a bill to increase funding for Indian education. But after many revisions, The Curtis Act actually abolished all remaining tribal rights. Pressure mounted to open the two million acres in the heart of Indian Territory to white settlers. The “Unassigned Lands” included all or parts of present-day Kingfisher, Logan, Payne, Canadian, Oklahoma, and Cleveland Counties. Cherokee businessman Elias C. Boudinot openly promoted the unoccupied lands for settlement. He argued that the tribes would not be able to keep the lands, and should sell them rather than give them away. Boudinot helped inspire a new political movement. The Boomers were people who took part in the settlement “explosion” that started in 1879. An attempt that year failed, and soldiers escorted them back to Kansas. The Boomer Movement was headed by David Payne, a Kansas pioneer. He led several attempts to establish camps in the Unassigned Lands. The homesteaders were always caught by U.S. troops and taken out of Indian Territory. William Couch took over leadership of the movement in 1884 when Payne died unexpectedly. He led 400 men, women, and children to the site of present-day Stillwater. Army troops surrounded them, cut off their supplies, and forced them to go back to Kansas. Realizing that settlement was inevitable, the tribes sold the Unassigned Lands. They were paid a total of $2.25 million dollars. The Springer Amendment, which opened the lands, was added to the annual Indian Appropriation Act. The outgoing president, Grover Cleveland, signed the bill into law. Anyone eligible under the Homestead Act would be allowed to enter the area at noon on Monday, April 22, 1889. The new president, Benjamin Harrison, decided the territory would be opened with a land run. The event became known as “Harrison’s Horse Race.”