Editing Beckham County, Oklahoma (section)

==History==
In 1855, the U.S. government leased the western part of the formerly reserved [[Choctaw Nation|Choctaw]] and [[Chickasaw Nation]] lands, which became known as the [[Leased District]]. After the Civil War, the two nations were forced to cede the land to the US government under terms of new treaties required because they had been allies of the Confederacy. Under the treaties they were also required to emancipate their slaves and provide them with citizenship in their nations.

In 1869, the former Leased District was designated by the President as the [[Cheyenne and Arapaho Indian Reservation]], following their removal from further west. During the 1880s, Texas cattlemen leased grazing land from the Cheyenne and Arapaho.

Under the [[Dawes Act]] of 1891, the government split up such communal lands, allocating plots to individual households of various tribes. After distribution was made, the government declared any additional lands on the reservation to be "surplus". In 1892, the government opened such surplus land to settlement by non-Indians, attracting numerous European-American settlers and immigrants.  The area was designated as County F in the newly created [[Oklahoma Territory]], until it was renamed [[Roger Mills County, Oklahoma|Roger Mills County]].

In 1896, [[Greer County, Texas]] was transferred to the Oklahoma Territory and became [[Greer County, Oklahoma]], following a United States Supreme Court decision in the ''United States v. State of Texas'' boundary dispute case.
At statehood, portions of land from both Roger Mills and Greer County were joined to form Beckham County. Sayre was named as the temporary county seat. A 1908 election after statehood made [[Sayre, Oklahoma]] the permanent seat.<ref name="EOHC-BeckhamCo"/>

In 1910, a piece of southern Beckham County was returned to Greer County, Oklahoma.

The Gannett survey of 1927-1929 found that the true 100th Meridian, the boundary between Texas and western Oklahoma, was {{convert|3800|ft|m}} farther east than previously thought. The US Supreme Court ruled on March 17, 1930 that the strip of land must be returned to Texas, thereby reducing Beckham County's area slightly.<ref name="EOHC-BeckhamCo"/>