Editing Cherokee (section)

====Reconstruction and late 19th century====
[[File:Group of Cherokee, Yankton, and Sisseton 1909.jpg|thumb|left|William Penn (Cherokee), His Shield (Yanktonai), Levi Big Eagle (Yanktonai), Bear Ghost (Yanktonai) and Black Moustache (Sisseton).]]
After the Civil War, the U.S. government required the Cherokee Nation to sign a new treaty, because of its alliance with the Confederacy. The U.S. required the 1866 Treaty to provide for the [[abolitionism in the United States|emancipation]] of all Cherokee slaves, and full citizenship to all [[Cherokee Freedmen]] and all African Americans who chose to continue to reside within tribal lands, so that they "shall have all the rights of native Cherokees."<ref>[http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/VOL2/treaties/che0942.htm "Treaty with the Cherokee, 1866."] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100630013134/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/VOL2/treaties/che0942.htm |date=June 30, 2010 }} ''Oklahoma Historical Society: Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties. Vol. 2, Treaties.'' (retrieved January 10, 2010)</ref> Both before and after the Civil War, some Cherokee intermarried or had relationships with African Americans, just as they had with whites. Many Cherokee Freedmen have been active politically within the tribe.

The US government also acquired [[easement]] rights to the western part of the territory, which became the [[Oklahoma Territory]], for the construction of railroads. Development and settlers followed the railroads. By the late 19th century, the government believed that Native Americans would be better off if each family owned its own land. The [[Dawes Act]] of 1887 provided for the breakup of commonly held tribal land into individual household allotments. Native Americans were registered on the Dawes Rolls and allotted land from the common reserve. The U.S. government counted the remainder of tribal land as "surplus" and sold it to non-Cherokee individuals.

The [[Curtis Act of 1898]] dismantled tribal governments, courts, schools, and other civic institutions. For Indian Territory, this meant the abolition of the Cherokee courts and governmental systems. This was seen as necessary before the Oklahoma and Indian territories could be admitted as a combined state. In 1905, the [[Five Civilized Tribes]] of the [[Indian Territory]] proposed the creation of the [[State of Sequoyah]] as one to be exclusively Native American but failed to gain support in Washington, D.C.. In 1907, the [[Oklahoma Territory|Oklahoma]] and [[Indian Territory|Indian Territories]] entered the union as the state of [[Oklahoma]].
[[File:CherokeeOSTA.svg|thumb|upright=1.25|Map of present-day Cherokee Nation Tribal Jurisdiction Area (red)]]

By the late 19th century, the Eastern Band of Cherokee were laboring under the constraints of a [[Racial segregation|segregated]] society. In the aftermath of [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]], conservative white Democrats regained power in North Carolina and other southern states. They proceeded to effectively [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era (United States)|disenfranchise]] all blacks and many poor whites by new constitutions and laws related to voter registration and elections. They passed [[Jim Crow laws]] that divided society into "white" and "colored", mostly to control freedmen. Cherokee and other Native Americans were classified on the colored side and suffered the same racial segregation and disenfranchisement as former slaves. They also often lost their historical documentation for identification as Indians, when the Southern states classified them as colored. Black Americans and Native Americans would not have their constitutional rights as U.S. citizens enforced until after the [[Civil Rights Movement]] secured passage of civil rights legislation in the mid-1960s, and the federal government began to monitor voter registration and elections, as well as other programs.{{CN|date=February 2025}}