The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

LEASED DISTRICT.

The Leased District encompassed the area between the 98th and 100th meridians and the South Canadian River and Red River in southwestern Oklahoma. Originally part of the land granted to the Choctaw in 1820, the region became part of the United States by treaty in 1855. Under that agreement the United States paid the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations $800,000 to lease their land west of the 98th Meridian (excluding disputed Greer County, that area located south and west of the North Fork of Red River) as a home for the Wichita Indians as well as other tribes.

The Choctaw and Chickasaw ceded the Leased District to the United States under the Choctaw-Chickasaw Reconstruction Treaty of 1866. The United States appropriated an additional $300,000 to pay for the region and established reservations therein for the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache in 1867, the Wichita and Caddo in 1868, and the Cheyenne and Arapaho in 1869. Those reservations were allotted to tribe members beginning with the Cheyenne and Arapaho in 1891. The Choctaw and Chickasaw received nearly $3 million for the surplus Cheyenne and Arapaho lands in 1893. It was not until 1951, however, that the Indian Claims Commission awarded the Choctaw and Chickasaw $3.5 million for Greer County (declared to be a part of Oklahoma Territory in 1896) and the surplus Wichita and Caddo and Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache lands.

Jon D. May