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The Cherokee Outlet Grazing Leases: How Cattlemen Rented Six Million Acres

For a decade, a group of cattlemen paid the Cherokee Nation hundreds of thousands of dollars to graze herds on the Outlet until the government cleared the range.

What was the Cherokee Outlet and why did cattlemen want it?

The Cherokee Outlet, often called the Cherokee Strip, was a belt of grassland across the northern edge of Indian Territory, in what is now northern Oklahoma. One history of the region describes it as about six million acres of free grass, a place the Cherokees owned but did not farm or stock themselves. The western part ran about 180 miles long and almost 60 miles wide, according to the Cherokee Strip Live Stock Association history.

The timing mattered. After the Civil War the range cattle business grew out of Texas, and herds moved north along the Shawnee, Chisholm and Western trails, as the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture notes. Cattle that reached the Kansas border needed grass and water before shipment or before being moved to northern ranges. The Outlet sat right at that junction, and cattlemen who used it informally were soon looking for a way to secure it.

How the Cherokee Strip Live Stock Association came together

Cattlemen formed an organization at a meeting in Caldwell, Kansas, in the spring of 1880. It took the name Cherokee Strip Live Stock Association after it secured a lease. The Cherokee Council had already moved to tax the traffic: in 1880 it set a charge of $1 per head of cattle, later reduced to 40 cents for part of the year, according to the Cherokee Outlet history page.

A single lease was simpler for both sides. The Cherokees would receive a predictable annual payment, and the cattlemen would get exclusive use of the range under one agreement instead of paying per head and arguing over counts. The association then divided the territory among its members, a little more than one hundred individuals and firms, each responsible for its own part of the grass.

The 1883 lease and the 1888 renewal

The lease was signed on May 19, 1883, by Chief Bushyhead of the Cherokees. It ran five years at $100,000 per year and took effect in October 1883. The first payment of $50,000 was made in silver and carried from Caldwell to the Cherokee capital at Tahlequah.

In 1888 the two sides renewed for another five years, and the rent doubled to $200,000 per year. That jump is the clearest sign of how valuable the grass had become, and also of how much bargaining power the Cherokee government had when it chose to use it.

Why the grazing ended in 1890

The federal government wanted the Outlet opened to settlement. On February 17, 1890, President Benjamin Harrison issued Proclamation 296, which barred bringing new livestock onto the Strip and required existing cattle and company personnel to leave. The text, preserved by the American Presidency Project, set a deadline of October 2, 1890, or sooner if the land opened to settlement.

A congressional commission had offered $1.25 an acre for the land, while the cattlemen offered $3 an acre, according to one account. Harrison's order removed the cattle by the end of 1890, and the Army enforced it. The Cherokees later agreed to sell the Outlet for $8.5 million, and Congress appropriated $8.3 million on March 4, 1893. The association was gone by spring 1893, and the land run followed on September 16, 1893.

What Made It Work

The leases worked because they gave each party something it could not easily get otherwise. The Cherokee Nation turned unfenced grassland into steady income, and the cattlemen turned a patchwork of informal claims into a single organized range.

Like every arrangement of its kind, it had limits. The lessors were selling the use of land that the United States eventually bought and opened to settlers, and the cattlemen lost the range once Washington decided the land had a different purpose.

  • They organized early: cattlemen formed the association in 1880, three years before the lease, so they could negotiate as one body.
  • They paid in cash and on time: the first payment of $50,000 was carried in silver from Caldwell to Tahlequah.
  • They divided the range among about 100 members so each owner was responsible for managing his own share of the grass.
  • They accepted a doubling of rent in 1888 rather than lose the range, showing how much the grass was worth.
  • They went to the bargaining table over the sale price, offering $3 an acre against the commission's $1.25, though the removal order ended that debate in practice.

What happened after the cattle left

With the grazing ended and the sale agreed, the Outlet opened on September 16, 1893, in a land run described in the Cherokee Outlet history as the greatest ever held. Homesteaders took the same acres that cattlemen had rented, and the open range gave way to farms and towns. The Cherokee Nation, for its part, received the proceeds of the sale to the government.

The story is a short chapter in the larger shift from open range to fenced land. If you want a look at how the cattle business carried on elsewhere, the ranching section of farm.FM has stories on the working side of the industry, and a farm.FM story about the cattle trails covers the routes that brought herds north.

Timeline

  1. 1880Cattlemen meet at Caldwell, Kansas; the Cherokee Council sets a per-head tax on cattle
  2. May 19, 1883Lease signed by Chief Bushyhead for five years at $100,000 a year
  3. October 1883First lease takes effect; first payment of $50,000 carried in silver to Tahlequah
  4. 1888Lease renewed for five years at $200,000 a year
  5. February 17, 1890President Harrison issues Proclamation 296 barring grazing on the Strip
  6. October 2, 1890Deadline set for removing cattle from the Outlet
  7. 1891Cherokees agree to sell the Outlet to the United States for $8.5 million
  8. March 4, 1893Congress appropriates $8.3 million for the purchase
  9. September 16, 1893The Outlet opens to settlement in the land run

Frequently asked questions

What was the Cherokee Outlet?

It was a belt of roughly six million acres of grassland in northern Indian Territory, now northern Oklahoma, that the Cherokee Nation owned. It was leased to cattlemen from 1883 and opened to settlers in the land run of September 16, 1893.

How much did cattlemen pay to graze the Cherokee Outlet?

The first lease in 1883 cost $100,000 a year for five years. The 1888 renewal doubled the rent to $200,000 a year. Before the lease, the Cherokee Council had charged a per-head tax on cattle.

Why did the Cherokee Outlet leases end?

President Harrison's Proclamation 296, issued February 17, 1890, barred grazing and ordered cattle removed by October 2, 1890. The government then bought the land from the Cherokees for $8.5 million and opened it to settlement.

Sources and further reading

Profiles are compiled from public sources and reviewed against them. See our editorial policy to suggest a correction.

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