A map outlining the various Native American territories within Oklahoma. 1892.
The story begins in 1835, when the U.S. government pushed the CherokeeNation in Oklahoma into signing a removal treaty in which they gave up their homelands spanning much of the southeastern U.S. in exchange for rights to lands in the so-called Indian territories that make up present-day Oklahoma. The forced removal of many Native Americans in the aftermath of this is widely known today as the Trail of Tears.
The Cherokee delegates who negotiated the 1866 treaty with the U.S. government in Washington, D.C.
Map showing the forced resettlement of various Native American tribes, including the Cherokee, in the 1830s.