Cheyenne and Arapaho Delegates Meet in Oklahoma City

When part of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes first agreed to leave their lands in Montana and Wyoming in 1867 (known as the Medicine Lodge Treaty) they were given land in the Cherokee Outlet. Upon arrival in what would become western Oklahoma, though, they much preferred the land south of there along the Canadian River valley and settled there. As the land was not claimed by anyone else, the government formalized Cheyenne-Arapaho ownership of that land. The Cheyenne-Arapaho Lands became the present counties of Roger Mills, Dewey, Custer, Washita, and portions of Beckham, Ellis, Blaine, Kingfisher, Canadian. Even though they never settled on the land in the Cherokee Outlet, they never formally gave it back to the government.

On May 23 and 24, 1889 a faction of educated tribe members led by Little Chief (Cheyenne) and Left Hand (Arapaho) meet federal officials at George Beidler’s place in Oklahoma City to negotiate the sale of the unused Cherokee Outlet land. As it turns out, the group was also interested in selling the surplus land in their reservation to the government as well. Up to this time they had been leasing it to cattlemen. The agreement was hastily drawn up and finally approved by a federal judge in August, 1889. After a bitter struggle within the tribes, the surplus lands were opened by land run on April 19, 1892.

This photo records the meeting of the delegates and features many prominent people. On the front row, second in from the right in the light hat is George Bent, trusted advisor and interpreter for the Cheyenne; fourth from the right on that row is Left Hand; directly behind Left Hand is Arapaho leader Row of Lodges; in the back row by the door in the straw hat is George Beidler, first postmaster in Oklahoma City, and probably his son next to him; Boomer and first Oklahoma City mayor William Couch is fourth in from the left on the second row (with striped necktie) on his left is Little Chief.

FURTHER READING

• Berthrong, Donald J. The Cheyenne and Arapaho Ordeal: Reservation and Agency Life in the Indian Territory, 1875-1907. Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1976.
• Berthrong, Donald J. The Southern Cheyennes. Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963.
• Collins, Hubert E. Storm and Stampede on the Chisholm. Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press, 1998.
• Grinnell, George Bird. The Cheyenne Indians: Their History and Ways of Life. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1923.
• Seger, John Homer. Early Days Among the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians. Norman, Okla.: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1979.
• Trenholm, Virginia Cole. The Arapahoes, Our People. Norman, Okla.: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1970.