Editing James B. Weaver (section)

==Return to Congress==
Unlike in his previous congressional term, when Weaver entered the [[49th United States Congress]], he was the only Greenback member.{{sfn|Mitchell|2008|p=127}} The new president, Democrat [[Grover Cleveland]], was friendly to Weaver, and asked his advice on Iowa patronage.{{sfn|Haynes|1919|p=289}} As it had been for years, Weaver's chief concern was with the nation's money and finance, and the relationship between labor and capital.{{sfn|Haynes|1919|p=221}}

In 1885, Weaver proposed the creation of a [[United States Department of Labor|Department of Labor]], which he suggested would find a solution to disputes between labor and management.{{sfn|Mitchell|2008|pp=129–130}}{{efn|In 1903 Congress did create a [[United States Department of Commerce and Labor|Department of Commerce and Labor]]; in 1913 a separate Department of Labor was created.}} Labor tensions increased the following year as the [[Knights of Labor]] went on strike against [[Jay Gould]]'s rail empire, and a strike against the [[McCormick Harvesting Machine Company]] ended in the bloody [[Haymarket riot]].{{sfn|Mitchell|2008|pp=129–130}} Weaver believed the nation's hard-money policies were responsible for labor unrest, calling it "purely a question of money, and nothing else"{{sfn|Mitchell|2008|pp=129–130}} and declaring, "If this Congress will not protect labor, it must protect itself".{{sfn|Mitchell|2008|pp=129–130}} He saw the triumph of one plank of the Greenback platform when Congress established the [[Interstate Commerce Commission]] to regulate the railroads.{{sfn|Mitchell|2008|p=131}} Weaver thought the bill should have given the government more power, including the ability to set rates directly, but he voted for the final bill.{{sfn|Mitchell|2008|p=131}}
[[File:Unassigned Lands 1885.jpg|thumb|Weaver supported white settlers' right to homesteads in the [[Unassigned Lands]].]]

Weaver also took up the issue of white settlement in [[Indian Territory]].{{sfn|Colbert|2008|p=177}} For several years, white settlers had been claiming homesteads in the [[Unassigned Lands]] in what is now [[Oklahoma]].{{sfn|Colbert|2008|pp=178–179}} After the Civil War. the [[Five Civilized Tribes]] had been [[Reconstruction Treaties|forced to cede]] their unused western lands to the federal government. The settlers, known as [[Boomers (Oklahoma settlers)|Boomers]], believed that federal ownership made the lands open to settlement under the [[Homestead Acts]].{{sfn|Mitchell|2008|p=128}} The federal government disagreed, as did the [[Cherokee Nation]], which leased its neighboring [[Cherokee Outlet]] to Kansas cattle ranchers, and many Easterners, who believed the Boomers to be the tools of railroad interests.{{sfn|Colbert|2008|pp=178–179}}{{sfn|Mitchell|2008|p=128}} Weaver saw the issue as one between the landless poor homesteaders and wealthy cattlemen, and took the side of the former.{{sfn|Colbert|2008|p=179}} He introduced a bill in December 1885 to organize Indian Territory and the neighboring [[Oklahoma Panhandle|Neutral Strip]] into a new [[Oklahoma Territory]].{{sfn|Colbert|2008|p=181}} The bill died in committee, but Weaver reintroduced it in February 1886 and gave a speech calling for the Indian reservations to be broken up into homesteads for individual Natives and the remaining land to be open to white settlement.{{sfn|Colbert|2008|p=182}}

The [[United States House Committee on Territories|Committee on Territories]] again rejected Weaver's bill, but approved a compromise measure that opened the Unassigned Lands, Cherokee Outlet, and Neutral Strip to settlement.{{sfn|Colbert|2008|p=183}} Congress debated the bill over several months, while the tribes announced their resistance to their lands becoming a territory; according to an 1884 Supreme Court decision, ''[[Elk&nbsp;v. Wilkins]]'', Native Americans were not citizens, and thus would have no voting rights in the new territory.{{sfn|Colbert|2008|p=184}} When Weaver returned to Iowa to campaign for re-election, the bill was still in limbo.{{sfn|Colbert|2008|p=185}} Running again on a Democratic–Greenback fusion ticket, Weaver was re-elected to the House in 1886 with a 618-vote majority.{{sfn|Mitchell|2008|p=132}}

In the lame-duck session of 1887, Congress passed the [[Dawes Act]], which allowed the president to terminate tribal governments, and broke up Indian reservations into homesteads for individual natives.{{sfn|Colbert|2008|p=185}} Although the Five Civilized Tribes were exempt from the Act, the spirit of the law encouraged Weaver and the Boomers to continue their own efforts to open western Indian Territory to white settlement.{{sfn|Colbert|2008|p=185}} Weaver reintroduced his Oklahoma bill in [[50th United States Congress|the new Congress]] the following year, but again it stalled in committee.{{sfn|Colbert|2008|p=186}} He returned to Iowa for another re-election campaign in September 1888, but the Greenback party had fallen apart, replaced by a new left-wing [[Third party (United States)|third party]], the [[Labor Party (United States, 19th century)|Union Labor Party]].{{sfn|Mitchell|2008|p=133}} In Iowa's 6th district, the new party agreed to fuse with Democrats to nominate Weaver, but this time the Republicans were stronger.{{sfn|Mitchell|2008|p=133}} Their candidate, [[John F. Lacey]], was elected with an 828-vote margin.{{sfn|Mitchell|2008|p=134}} The Union Laborites and their presidential candidate, [[Alson Streeter]], fared poorly nationally as well, and the new party soon dissolved.{{sfn|Newcombe|1946|p=88}} Weaver returned to Congress for the lame-duck session and once more pushed to organize the Oklahoma Territory.{{sfn|Colbert|2008|p=188}} This time he prevailed, as the House voted 147–102 to open the Unassigned Lands to homesteaders.{{sfn|Mitchell|2008|p=137}} The Senate followed suit and President Cleveland, who was about to leave office, signed the bill into law.{{sfn|Colbert|2008|p=190}}