Indian Country

[evanstrail]

The map links I have been posting are to the University of Texas (at Austin) Library, which has an extensive historic map collection, and has gone to great lengths and expense to put them up on the web for all to view.  Many other libraries, historic preservation societies, and government agencies have extensive map collections but lack the financial and cyber resources to get them scanned, stored on a server and published into the online public domain.

Sadly, Elk County's surveyors maps and notes went up in flames in 1906.  This is true of many other counties also.  At least some of Chautauqua County's still exist, as they were made available to Pat and Jack Fletcher who have done extensive research and published at least three books on the Cherokee Trail.  Also known as Evan's Trail, it crossed what is now Elk and Chautauqua County (as well as Montgomery and Butler) on its route from Tahlequah, OK to a junction with the Santa Fe Trail just east of present-day McPherson, KS.

This trail has been nearly lost to history, yet was the route thousands took from NW Arkansas and the Cherokee Nation to reach the more established Santa Fe Trail and then proceed to multiple points west of the Rockies from 1848 till the end of the Civil War.

[redcliffsw]

By coincidence, I was able to check the 26S-25W survey map dated 1868.
The North Boundary Line of the Osage lands is shown to extend west of present-day Dodge City
to the West line of Section 30-26S-25W.  Dodge City is not shown on the map since Dodge City
did not exist in 1868.  The same boundary is shown on the modern USGS topo mapping. 

Not enough time to check for the West line of the Osage lands on the 26S-26W map but expect
the West line to be present on the 1868 mapping just like it is on the present day topo mapping. 
Will check 26S-26W at the next opportunity and advise.

[tawnyca1]

Thank you for sharing this interesting topic!

[evanstrail]

A more in-depth, scholarly article from 1938 on the removal of the Osages from the Diminshed Reserve to their new home, present Osage County, OK:

http://www.kshs.org/p/kansas-historical-quarterly-removal-of-the-osages-from-kansas-1/12753

http://www.kshs.org/p/kansas-historical-quarterly-removal-of-the-osages-from-kansas-2/12762

Also, I keep coming across this sentence, usually in early 1900's histories of Montgomery County.  Does anyone have anything to add related to:

In order to obtain a "squatter's claim" the settler had to secure the consent of the Indians, which, by a treaty made in the Upper Elk valley in 1869, was to be had on payment of $5 for a prairie claim and $10 for one in the timber.

[W. Gray]

Every settler was a squatter until he processed his claim with a US Land Office, but it was not legal to file a claim on land that belonged to the Indians.

The Trust Land was opened as a result of an 1865 treaty signed by the President in early 1867. After that date, the settlers were legal in that area.

The Diminished Reserve was not open to settlers until July 15, 1870,, but the settlers came long before that while ignoring the fact the land belonged to someone else.

The Osage tribe and the Osage Indian Agent could not stop them so according to some stories the tribe began charging rental. The Cedar Vale history book and a Chautauqua County history book mention that some early settlers in those areas paid $5 to live peacefully in Howard County. But many of the settlers got by without paying, especially in Howard County. A book by Louis F. Burns says the Bureau of Indian Affairs required that the white intruders pay land rental to the Osage and says the record of payments is on file at the Fort Worth, Texas, records center.

Don't know of an 1869 treaty on the upper Elk and doubt if one exists.

The last treaty signed by the Osage was in 1868 and that treaty was never approved by the Senate. That treaty was negotiated on the Verdigris at Drum Creek (not Duck Creek as I once stated) rather than the Elk. It was the last treaty negotiated by the US with any Indian tribe.