Tribes The
Kiowa tribe is a Native American tribe that has historically inhabited the southern
Great Plains what is now
Oklahoma,
Texas,
Kansas, and
New Mexico. Originally from the northern great plains along the
Platte River, and under pressure from other tribes, they eventually moved and settled south of the
Arkansas River primarily in present-day Oklahoma. The Kiowa had a long history of close association and alliance with the
Kiowa-Apache or Plains Apache. Around 1790, the Kiowa also formed an alliance with the
Comanche and formed a barrier to European-American incursions into their territories. The alliance made travel on the
Santa Fe Trail hazardous, with attacks on wagon trains beginning in 1828 and continuing thereafter.
Treaties In 1837 at
Fort Gibson, leaders of the Kiowa tribe signed their first treaty with the United States. By 1854, the need for another treaty became apparent, and the United States entered into a treaty with the Kiowa, Comanche, and Kiowa-Apache (KCA) at Fort Ackinson,
Indian Territory. The treaty did not specifically designate a reservation but was, for the most part, an extension of the 1837 treaty. There was an attempt to place some of the tribes on a reservation on the
Brazos River in
Texas near
Fort Belknap, under
Indian Agent Robert S. Neighbors. By 1858, Neighbors resolved to move the reservation into Indian Territory. By August 1859, Neighbors had moved the Indians from the Brazos Reservation to Indian Territory, south of the
Washita River near
Fort Cobb. In 1865, near present-day
Wichita, Kansas, the three tribes signed another treaty that provided for the reservation in present-day Oklahoma and Texas. Finally, in 1867, the tribes agreed to the
Medicine Lodge Treaty. The treaty provided for a much smaller reservation and stipulated that whites were not allowed to encroach on the reservation. Also, to reduce the reserve's land further would require the approval of three fourths of the tribal members.
Assimilation period Within one year, the United States breached the treaty when General
William T. Sherman ordered all the tribes to Fort Cobb, withheld the treaty payments to them, and requested an order declaring that all hunting rights be forfeited. At the same time, Indian agents were trying to undermine tribal authority as the buffalo herds were being eliminated by white hunting. Two new leaders emerged meanwhile:
Quanah Parker and
Lone Wolf (the younger) Following his defeat at the
Battle of Palo Duro Canyon, Parker settled down and began to adopt white ways. Lone Wolf and his followers continued to resist assimilation policies. Many of the old tribal leaders had been arrested and imprisoned when they left the reservation to hunt, and war leaders such as
Lone Wolf (the elder) started to pass away from old age and disease. During this same period, as the tribes had been unsuccessful at farming it, the KCA found a way to make the land pay by leasing it to cattlemen for grazing. By 1885, about were being used to graze about 75,000 cattle, with an annual payment to the tribes of $55,000.
The Jerome Commission In 1892, the United States sent the
Jerome Commission, consisting of
David H. Jerome, Alfred M. Wilson, and Warren G. Sayre, to meet with the Kiowa to convince them to turn over most of their reserve for white settlement in return for $2 million. Lone Wolf spoke out in opposition to the allotment, saying: After over a week of negotiations, terms were set so that each member would receive 160 acres. The tribes would receive $2 million of which $250,000 would be paid to members, with the remaining money to be held in trust for the tribes at 5% interest. The commission immediately began to collect signatures and, just as quickly, allegations of fraud arose. Joshua Givens, an interpreter, was widely suspected of being dishonest. He was accused of forcing some members to sign and tricking others into thinking they were signing a document opposing the agreement. By now, the tribes were almost unanimous in their opposition to the agreement, asked to see the document, and requested that their signatures be removed. Lone Wolf later stated that was refused and that they were threatened with violence. Jerome left the reservation with what the government claimed was the approval of three quarters of the tribe.
Congress With the validity of the agreement in question, the tribes, joined by the
Indian Rights Association (IRA) and local ranchers, lobbied against its ratification by Congress. The IRA wrote letters to Senators, stating that the agreement was: "utterly destructive of that honor and good faith which should characterize our dealings with any people, and especially with one too weak to enforce their rights as against us by any other mean as than an appeal to our sense of justice." The
Secretary of the Interior informed Congress that the allotment would be devastating to the tribes, as the land was not suited to farming, and the amount of land allotted would not allow them sufficient land to graze cattle. The agreement finally passed when the
Rock Island Railroad agree to set aside an additional 480,000 acres of
pastureland for the tribes to hold in common.
Lower courts At the ratification of the agreement, a delegation of tribal leaders traveled to
Washington, D.C., and requested a meeting with
President William McKinley. McKinley's position was that the tribes must conform to the decision of Congress. Parker and the other principal chiefs accepted that the fight against allotment was over, but Lone Wolf continued to argue against accepting allotment. In 1901, Lone Wolf and others hired
William M. Springer, a former federal judge and US representative.
Supreme Court of the District of Columbia On June 6, 1901, Springer filed suit in the
Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, which is a different court than the United States Supreme Court. The plaintiffs asked for an
injunction to stop the opening of KCA lands to settlement and the allotment of the land. Springer argued that the Jerome agreement deprived the tribes of their lands without
due process and in violation of the
Constitution by breaking the treaty with the tribes. Springer alleged that the KCA were duped into signing the agreement and that it was not signed by three quarters of the members, as required by the treaty, that the KCA had protested the agreement from the beginning, and that the version which Congress ratified was different from the version signed by the KCA. While the suit was being heard, on August 6, 1901, the government began to sell off the tribes' surplus land. Judge A.C. Bradley ruled against Lone Wolf, holding that Congress had the authority to allot the land, citing
United States v. Kagama.
Circuit Court of Appeals Springer then appealed to the
D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. By the time that court heard the appeal, the reservation land had been allotted and excess land sold. The court further held that, in any event, the land did not belong to the tribe. It was controlled by the United States, with Indians as mere occupants. ==Supreme Court==