Curtis Act of 1898

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The Curtis Act of 1898 as an amendment to the Dawes Act brought about the allotment process in the lands of the Five Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma: the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, Cherokee, and Seminole. These tribes had been previously exempt from the 1887 General Allotment Act, also known as the Dawes Act. ^[1] It effectively abolished tribal courts and tribal governments in the Indian Territory of Oklahoma and allowed for Oklahoma to attain statehood. ^[2]

The Act, officially titled the "Act for the Protection of the People of Indian Territory", is now named for Charles Curtis, its principal author, at that time a member of the House of Representatives. ^[3] Although Charles Curtis was the author of the original draft of the Act, by the time the draft had gone through 5 revisions in committee there was little of Curtis' original draft left to become law. In the biography that Charles Curtis hand-wrote, he was not happy with the legal outcome of the Curtis Act.

[edit] References

^ Wright, Muriel H. A Guide to the Indian Tribes of Oklahoma. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. 1968
^ Prucha, Francis Paul. Indian Policy in the United States. Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press. 1981
^ US, Statutes at Large, XXX, 495