page_title: Indian Territory
section_title: Plains Indian tribes
hierarchical_section_title: Indian Territory / Tribes in Indian Territory / Plains Indian tribes
context_page_description: The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally describe an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign independent state. In general, the tribes ceded land they occupied in exchange for land grants in 1803. The concept of an Indian Territory was an outcome of the US federal government's 18th- and 19th-century policy of Indian removal. After the American Civil War, the policy of the US government was one of assimilation.
  The term Indian Reserve describes lands the British government set aside for Indigenous tribes between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River in the time before the American Revolutionary War.
  Indian Territory later came to refer to an unorganized territory whose general borders were initially set by the Indian Intercourse Act of 1834, and was the successor to the remainder of the Missouri Territory after Missouri received statehood. The borders of Indian Territory were reduced in size as various Organic Acts were passed by Congress to create incorporated territories of the United States.
context_section_description: Western Indian Territory is part of the Southern Plains and is the ancestral home of the Wichita people, a Plains tribe. Additional indigenous peoples of the Plains entered Indian Territory during the horse culture era. Prior to adoption of the horse, some Plains Indian tribes were agrarian and others were hunter-gatherers. Some tribes used the dog as a draft animal to pull small travois (or sleighs) to help move from place to place; however, by the 18th century, many Southern Plains tribes adopted the horse culture and became nomadic. The tipi, an animal hide lodge, was used by Plains Indians as a dwelling because they were portable and could be reconstructed quickly when the tribe settled in a new area for hunting or ceremonies.
  Historically, the Arapaho had assisted the Cheyenne and Lakota people in driving the Kiowa and Comanche south from the Northern Plains, their hunting area ranged from Montana to Texas. Kiowa and Comanche controlled a vast expanse of territory from the Arkansas River to the Brazos River. By 1840 many plains tribes had made peace with each other and developed Plains Indian Sign Language as a means of communicate with their allies.
  The Kaw speak one of the Siouan languages and were originally from the Kansas area (with Kansas being derived from the name of the tribe.)  The Kaw are closely related to the Osage Nation and Ponca tribes (who first settled in Nebraska), being from the same tribe before migrating from the Ohio valley in the mid-17th century. On June 4, 1873, the Kaw removed themselves from Kansas to an area that would become Kay County, Oklahoma, tribal headquarters is in Kaw City, Oklahoma.
  The Ponca speak one of the Siouan languages and are closely related to the Osage Nation and Kaw tribes. The Ponca tribe were never at war with the US and signed the first peace treaty in 1817.  In 1858 the Ponca signed a treaty, ceding part of their land to the United States in return for annuities, payment of $1.25 per acre from settlers, protection from hostile tribes and a permanent reservation home on the Niobrara River at the confluence with the Missouri River.  In the 1868 US-Sioux Treaty of Fort Laramie  the US mistakenly included Ponca lands in present-day Nebraska in the Great Sioux Reservation of present-day South Dakota. Conflict between the Ponca and the Sioux/Lakota, who now claimed the land as their own by US law, forced the US to remove the Ponca from their own ancestral lands to Indian Territory in 1877, parts of the current Kay and Noble counties in Oklahoma. The land proved to be less than desirable for agriculture and many of the tribe moved back to Nebraska. In 1881, the US returned 26,236 acres (106.17 km²) of Knox County, Nebraska, to the Ponca, and about half the tribe moved back north from Indian Territory. Today, the Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma have their headquarters in Ponca City, Oklahoma.
  The Otoe-Missouria Tribe of Indians, speak one of the Siouan languages and split away from the Ho-Chunk in Wisconsin prior to European contact. The tribe is made up of Otoe and Missouria Indians, is located in part of Noble County, Oklahoma with tribal offices in Red Rock, Oklahoma. Both tribes originated in the Great Lakes region by the 16th century had settled near the Missouri and Grand Rivers in Missouri.
  The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma are a united tribe of the Southern Arapaho and the Southern Cheyenne people, headquartered in Concho, Oklahoma (a rural suburb of Oklahoma City.)
  The Cheyenne were originally an agrarian people in present-day Minnesota and speak an Algonquian language. In 1877, after the Battle of the Little Bighorn (in present-day Montana) a group of Cheyenne were escorted to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). However, they were not used to the dry heat climate and food was insufficient and of poor quality. A group of Cheyenne left the territory without permission to travel back north. Ultimately, the military gave up attempting to relocate the Northern Cheyenne back to Oklahoma and a Northern Cheyenne reservation was established in Montana
  
caption: Pre-contact distribution of Northern Uto-Aztecan languages
exif: {}