On the eve of the American Civil War in 1861, a significant number of Indigenous peoples of the Americas had been relocated from the Southeastern United States to Indian Territory, west of the Mississippi.
The bulk of the tribes lived in towns (some covering hundreds of acres and containing thousands of people) with planned streets, residential and public areas.
These leased lands were used to resettle several Plains Indian tribes that tended to be nomadic in nature, embracing the horse culture.
At the extreme, the Comanche society was based on patrilinear and patrilocal extended family sharing a common language; they did not develop the political idea of forming a nation or tribe until their relocation to Indian Territory.
[5] The term Reconstruction Era typically covers the transformation of the Southern United States in the decade after the Civil War.
However, the reconstruction of the Indian Territory lasted significantly longer and fostered policy changes that impacted other tribes in the rest of the country.
As a component of Reconstruction, a "grand council was called by the President of the United States, through the department of the Interior, to which a summons was issued to each of the five tribes to send representatives.
"[6] The Council, the Southern Treaty Commission, held in Ft. Smith, Arkansas, was attended by hundreds of Indians representing dozens of tribes.
Key components of new treaties would be the abolishment of slavery, providing homes for the freedmen, and giving up part of their lands for the settlement of other American Indians.
In the agreement, the tribes agreed to "in all things recognize the government of the United States as exercising exclusive jurisdiction over them, and will not enter into any allegiance or conventional arrangement with any state, nation, power or sovereign whatsoever; that any treaty of alliance for cession of land, or any act heretofore done by them, or any of their people, by which they renounce their allegiance to the United States, is hereby revoked, cancelled, and repudiated"[10] The council adjourned, and was called back to order the middle of 1866.
All the treaties contained:[33] Different tribes addressed freedman tribal rights (resulting from the abolition of slavery) in different ways.
The Drum Creek Treaty of 1870 provided that the remainder of Osage land in Kansas be sold and the proceeds used to relocate the tribe to the Cherokee Outlet.
That Osage purchased the land from the Cherokees, receiving Fee simple title, provided the tribe with a legitimately that later allowed them more autonomy when the State of Oklahoma was formed.
The tribes were originally removed from California, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and New York to Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas Territory in the 1820s and 1830s.