Sunday, November 4, 2007

Land Run of 1893, Oklahoma history, & Trail of Tears

*In 1828, Congress gave the First Americans 9,400 square miles of western prairie in Indian Territory, in perpetuity, in preparation for their planned removal from Georgia.

*In 1830, Congress passed the Indian removal Act which was signed into law by President Jackson.

*In 1832, a Supreme Court decision established tribal sovereignty which protected the Indians in Georgia from United States laws.

*In 1838, President Jackson, the Indian Fighter, defied that decision and ordered General Winfield Scott to forcibly remove 17,000 peaceful Cherokees from their land in
Georgia and move them a thousand miles to the Cherokee Outlet. Four thousand died from exposure and disease along the Trail Where They Cried.

*In 1883, a cartel of wealthy cattlemen formed the Cherokee Strip Livestock Association and leased six million acres in the Outlet from the Cherokees who were required to move from that land.

*In 1892, outgoing President Benjamin Harrison ordered the livestock removed from the Outlet in preparation for the last great land giveaway in the United States.

*In 1893, incoming President Grover Cleveland declared the last remnant of the Cherokee’s land in the Outlet open for settlement by thousands of eager pioneers in the third, and last, Land Run into Indian Territory.

*The Land Run of 1893 is where this story begins.

Earl Corbly and Don Corbly