Get Application For Land Allotment

Land Allotment Jackets detail land given to approved members of the Five Civilized Tribes.

The Cherokee agreement was not signed until April 9, 1900. Each member received an equal share in the tribal estate in the form of an 80-acre allotment and an equalization payment from the sale of the excess land.

Land Allotment Jackets detail land given to approved members of the Five Civilized Tribes. Arranged by enrollment number (not Census Card number), these Jackets provide information on the legal description, value, physical improvements on the land, etc.

The Dawes Act allotted land to members of the Five Civilized Tribes (the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminole) while its earlier version, the General Allotment Act, allotted land to members of other tribes, including many in Oklahoma.

In 1893 Congress passed legislation that established what became known as the Dawes Commission. This Commission was responsible for negotiating agreements with the Five Civilized Tribes—the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole—to dissolve the tribal governments and allot land to each tribal member.

The Cherokee and the other Five Civilized Tribes which included the Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, and Seminole resisted the act. The act stated that the head of each family would receive 160 acres of tribal land and each single person would receive 80 acres.

The Alaska Native Allotment Act enacted on May 17, 1906, permitted individual Alaska Natives to acquire title to up to 160 acres (0.65 km2) of land in a manner similar to that afforded to Native Americans. The 1956 amended added the provision that the applicant must provide evidence of use and occupancy.

Most members of the five southeastern nations had been relocated west, opening 25 million acres of land to white settlement and to slavery.