Before the Founding of Lawton
Land Lottery and Auction
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Teaching Materials
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Quanah Parker was the chief of the Comanches. He spoke for his people and pointed out this problem in one of the meetings. Quanah Parker said, "We think we understand what the commission has said to us, but we do not think the commission has understood what we have said…his land is ours, just like your farm is yours; but for one reason we can not hold on to ours, because on the right hand is what you are trying to do and on the left hand is the Dawes bill…" Quanah realized the natives could not stop the allotment process, only put it off a while. There were only two options. The natives could deal with the Jerome Commission. Or the natives could let the Dawes Act dictate what happened. |
Quanah Parker, last Chief of the Comanche tribe |
Adapted from the Historical Atlas of Oklahoma, 2nd edition, by Morris et
al. |
Quanah
Parker made a very hard choice. He chose to deal with the commission.
It took the commission one month to get the “signatures” they wanted. Quanah
talked to the commissioners.
As long as the Jerome Agreement was not ratified, he said, he would continue to lease the grasslands to the Texas ranchers. The Wichita and Caddo tribes signed over their extra lands on March 2, 1895. |
Another fight broke out over a second block of land. This time the land was on the north side of the Red River. And the fight was with a state, not the native tribes! The U.S. Supreme Court voted against the state of Texas. Greer County was ceded to Oklahoma on March 16th. About 4,000 new homesteads were opened.
View the time line of events in the West from 1890-1900.
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