Editing Indian Territory (section)

==Description and geography==
[[File:Indian Country-Territory 1834.jpg|thumb|upright=1|The Indian Territory (highlighted in red) in 1834]]
[[File:U.S. General Land Office Indian Territory 1879 UTA.jpg|thumb|upright=1|A [[United States Department of the Interior|U.S. Department of Interior]] map of the Indian Territory in 1879]]
[[File:The essential facts of Oklahoma history and civics (1914) (14770610601).jpg|thumb|upright=1|A map of the gradual opening of the [[Oklahoma Territory]] and the Indian Territory, which were merged to form the state of [[Oklahoma]] in 1907]]
Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land in the [[United States]] reserved for the forced resettlement of [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]]. As such, it was not a traditional territory for the tribes settled upon it.<ref>Everett, Dianna. "[http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/I/IN018.html Indian Territory] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120225155712/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/I/IN018.html |date=2012-02-25 }}," ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture'', published by the Oklahoma Historical Society (accessed October 17, 2013).</ref> The general borders were set by the [[Indian Intercourse Act]] of 1834. The territory was located in the [[Central United States]].

While Congress passed several [[Organic Act]]s that provided a path for statehood for much of the original [[Indian Country]], Congress never passed an Organic Act for the Indian Territory. Indian Territory was never an [[Organized incorporated territories of the United States|organized territory of the United States]]. In general, tribes could not sell land to non-Indians (''[[Johnson v. McIntosh]]''). Treaties with the tribes restricted entry of non-Indians into tribal areas; Indian tribes were largely self-governing, were [[suzerain]] nations, with established tribal governments and well established cultures. The region never had a formal government until after the [[American Civil War]].

After the Civil War, the Southern Treaty Commission re-wrote treaties with tribes that sided with the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]], reducing the territory of the [[Five Civilized Tribes]] and providing land to resettle [[Plains Indians]] and tribes of the [[Midwestern United States]].<ref name="EOHC-STC">Pennington, William D. ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture''. "Reconstruction Treaties." Retrieved February 16, 2012.[http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/R/RE001.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140220113803/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/R/RE001.html|date=2014-02-20}}</ref>  These re-written treaties included provisions for a territorial legislature with proportional representation from various tribes.

In time, the Indian Territory was reduced to what is now [[Oklahoma]]. The [[Oklahoma Organic Act|Organic Act of 1890]] reduced Indian Territory to the lands occupied by the Five Civilized Tribes and the Tribes of the [[Quapaw Indian Agency]] (at the borders of Kansas and Missouri). The remaining western portion of the former Indian Territory became the [[Oklahoma Territory]].

The Oklahoma Organic Act applied the laws of [[Nebraska]] to the organized Oklahoma Territory, and the laws of [[Arkansas]] to the still unorganized Indian Territory, since for years the federal U.S. District Court on the eastern borderline in [[Ft. Smith, Arkansas]] had criminal and civil jurisdiction over the territory.