The same was true for members of the historical African descendant communities which developed alongside different Indian settlements in Florida (a Spanish colony for most of the colonial period until 1821 and a popular destination for both escaped slaves and indigenous Southeastern Woodlands refugees) prior to deportation, such as the Black Seminoles, who then accompanied them to Indian Territory.
Under Article 14 of the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek (1831), members of the Mississippi Choctaw had the option of not being relocated to Indian Territory.
The registration process was handled poorly and when blood descendants later emigrated to Indian Territory they had to appeal to the Dawes Commission for recognition as tribal members.
Angie Debo's landmark work, And Still the Waters Run: The Betrayal of the Five Civilized Tribes (1940), detailed how the allotment policy of the Dawes Commission and the Curtis Act of 1898 was systematically manipulated to deprive the Native Americans of their lands and resources.
[3] In the words of historian Ellen Fitzpatrick, Debo's book "advanced a crushing analysis of the corruption, moral depravity, and criminal activity that underlay white administration and execution of the allotment policy.