"Indian Country" 159locco is a small independent community which operates almost
independently. They are not very much dependent on the federal
government, nor are they dependent on the Creek Nation. So they're
kind of a renegade group."44
In 1907, Indian Territory was dissolved and the state of Okla
homa entered the Union. Under the Dawes and Curtis Acts, priva
tization of Indigenous territories was imposed on half of all federal
reservations, with a loss of three-fourths of the Indigenous land base
that still existed after decades of army attacks and wanton land
grabs. Allotment continued until 1934, when it was halted by the In
dian Reorganization Act, but the land taken was never restored and
its former owners were never compensated for their losses, leaving
all the Indigenous people of Oklahoma (except the Osage Nation)
without effective collective territories and many families with no
land at all.4 5
The Hopi Nation resisted allotment with partial success. In 1894,
they petitioned the federal government with a letter signed by every
leader and chief of the Hopi villages:
To the Washington Chiefs:
During the last two years strangers have looked over our
land with spy-glasses and made marks upon it, a:nd we know
but little of what it means. As we believe that you have no
wish to disturb our Possessions we want to tell you some
thing about this Hopi land.
None of us were asked that it should be measured into
separate lots, and given to individuals for they would cause
confusion.
The family, the dwelling house and the field are insepa
rable, because the woman is the heart of these, and they rest
with her. Among us the family traces its kin from the mother,
hence all its possessions are hers. The man builds the house
but the woman is the owner, because she repairs and pre
serves it; the man cultivates the field, but he renders its har
vest into the woman's keeping, because upon her it rests to
prepare the food, and the surplus of stores for barter depends
upon her thrift.