Indian Territory, Mississippi (MS), United States

Facts & Statistics
Place Name	Indian Territory
Place Status (Type)	territory
Location	Mississippi, United States, North America
Latitude	unknown
Longitude	unknown

Indian Territory , in U.S. history, name applied to the region in U.S. Great Plains set aside for Native Americans by the Indian Intercourse Act (1834). In the 1820s, the Federal govt. began moving the Five Civilized Tribes of the Southeast (Cherokee, Creek, Seminole, Choctaw, and Chickasaw) to lands W of the Mississippi R. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 gave the president authority to designate specific lands for them, and in 1834 Congress formally approved the choice. The Indian Territory included present-day Okla. N and E of the Red R., as well as parts of Kansas and Nebr.; the lands were delimited in 1854, however, by the creation of the Kansas and Nebr. territories. Tribes other than the original 5 also moved there, but each one maintained its own govt. As white settlers continued to move W, pressure to abolish the Indian Territory mounted. With the opening of W Okla. to whites in 1889 the way was prepared for the extinction of the territory, achieved in 1907 with the entrance of Okla. into the Union. Oklahoma Territory est. 1890; opened the region to white settlement. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 exchanged Indian lands in SE U.S. for land W of Miss. The 5 civilized tribes functioned as nations. The relocation of the tribes, known as the Trail of Tears, in the winter of 1838-1839 caused many deaths. See Oklahoma.