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Chapter 4 | Overview Reconstruction Oklahoma

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Key Terms

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Reconstruction Treaties Freedpeople (or Freedmen) Treaty of Medicine Lodge Reservation System Indian Appropriations Act of 1871 Pacifism Assimilation Chilocco Indian School Dorothy Sunrise v. Cache Consolidated School District No. 1 Buffalo Soldiers Homestead Act of 1862 Manifest Destiny Industrialization

Chapter Objectives

Learning Outcomes:

The learner will be able to…

  • Summarize the impact of the Reconstruction treaties on the Five Tribes.
  • Describe how federal Indian policy after 1877 led to a second wave of tribal removals.
  • Summarize the intent and function of the reservation system.
  • Explain how tribal identity and culture were impacted by federal Indian boarding school policy.
  • Describe the impact of the railroads and cattle industry in Oklahoma following the Civil War.

Compelling Question:

  • To what extent did Reconstruction impact tribal sovereignty in Indian Territory?

Chapter Overview

In this chapter, learners will explore the significance of the Civil War and Reconstruction in Indian Territory. The Five Tribes were forced to sign new treaties in 1866 following the Civil War. We will read about this time period as one of competing visions for who should control the land and what would become of it in the twentieth century.

The Civil War ended in 1865 with a Union victory when Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrendered the last of his troops to the Union army. The period that followed is often called the Reconstruction era. Reconstruction was an effort to unify the country, address the situation of formerly enslaved people who were newly freed, and determine how the country could move forward after such a bitter and deadly war.

Reconstruction

After the political and physical devastation of the Civil War, plans had to be made to “reconstruct” the southern states. In his second inaugural address in 1865, President Lincoln set the tone for Reconstruction, and called for the nation to come together “with malice toward none; with charity for all” in order to “achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace.” Lincoln died only forty-one days later. With him went many of the hopes for a peacefully rebuilt South. The results of the Civil War included the displacement of four million formerly enslaved people. It also caused the region to collapse economically. The population of the South decreased significantly due to the death toll during the Civil War and the departure of many African Americans from the region.

Lincoln’s reconstruction plan offered amnesty, or pardon, to white southerners who pledged loyalty to the United States and accepted the elimination of slavery. Southerners would be free to rebuild their state governments as a result. But Congress wanted to punish the South for the devastation they had caused. They wanted more than 50 percent of each state’s population to pledge loyalty.

Immediately after the Civil War ended, friction arose over the process of Reconstruction. This included tensions over the rights for African Americans and the punishment of southerners who had sided with the Confederacy. On one side were the new “Black Codes” of state legislatures. These tried to keep former slaves in powerless positions and as close to slavery as possible. The Fourteenth Amendment was on the other side. It offered citizenship regardless of race. Some people still sought to profit from poor white and Black southerners. “Carpetbaggers” moved in to rebuild the southern economy and infrastructure. They redistributed the land in a way that often perpetuated old systems. Newly freed Black people kept working in extreme poverty on white-owned land. These were the conditions many African Americans experienced before they moved to Oklahoma.

Indian Territory after the Civil War, 1866–89
MAP 4.1

Indian Territory after the Civil War, 1866–89

Indian Territory after the Civil War, 1866–89. The Reconstruction Treaties paved the way for land to be taken from the Five Tribes and opened to white settlement. Additional tribes were also removed to Oklahoma in the late nineteenth century. This meant that the map of tribal land would change significantly in the following decades.

Copyright 2020 University of Oklahoma Press. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
MAP 4.1

Indian Territory after the Civil War, 1866–89. The Reconstruction Treaties paved the way for land to be taken from the Five Tribes and opened to white settlement. Additional tribes were also removed to Oklahoma in the late nineteenth century. This meant that the map of tribal land would change significantly in the following decades.

Copyright 2020 University of Oklahoma Press. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.

The Civil War and its aftermath would shape the future of Indian Territory, as well as the rest of the country, across several generations. The Reconstruction Treaties of 1866 took more land from Indigenous people in Indian Territory. Land was eventually opened to new settlement. Tensions increased between tribes, especially as the Second Indian Removal took place. Indian Territory quickly became a place of hope for some and frustration for others. The Reconstruction era would last until 1877.

Present-day Oklahoma grew out of decisions made at the end of the Civil War. Ideas about land rights (still influenced by the Doctrine of Discovery) and common attitudes about race influenced major decisions. After Ulysses S. Grant became president in 1877, new federal policies toward Indigenous people had important implications for Oklahoma. Poor people of various racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds began to look at Oklahoma as a place for new beginnings. Those already living in Oklahoma when the Civil War ended could not have anticipated the influx of newcomers and plans for statehood that would emerge in the final decades of the nineteenth century. As their contact with Europeans increased, members of each of these Native nations found ways to connect their traditional beliefs to Christianity and to monotheism, or the belief in a single god. Some southeastern Indigenous people actually converted to Christianity, but they found ways to blend both sets of beliefs. Ceremonial, Christian, and blended traditions continue among tribal communities today.

Native nations in the northeastern corner of Indian Territory, 1867–1874
MAP 4.2

Native nations in the northeastern corner of Indian Territory, 1867–1874

Native nations in the northeastern corner of Indian Territory, 1867–1874. Ownership of land in Indian Territory changed a lot during this period, as this map shows. The situation intensified when non-Native settlers started to come in from Kansas and other areas.

Copyright 2020 University of Oklahoma Press. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
MAP 4.2

Native nations in the northeastern corner of Indian Territory, 1867–1874. Ownership of land in Indian Territory changed a lot during this period, as this map shows. The situation intensified when non-Native settlers started to come in from Kansas and other areas.

Copyright 2020 University of Oklahoma Press. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.