November 16
Indian and Oklahoma territories become
the state of Oklahoma.
Formed from Indian Territory and Oklahoma Ter-
ritory, Oklahoma enters the Union as the 46th
state. The new state takes its name from a Choctaw
phrase meaning “home of the red people.” With
Oklahoma statehood, Indian Territory and the In-
dian nations within it cease to exist.
1908Winters v. United States addresses Indian
water rights on reservations.
At the request of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the
Department of Justice files suit in Winters v. United
States to protect the water rights of the Indians of
the Fort Belknap Reservation in Montana. The
600,000-acre reservation was established in 1888
by a treaty that called for the cession of the rest of
the Indians’ homelands to the United States. The
treaty also provided the Fort Belknap Indians with
money and supplies to help them learn to farm
their reduced territory. By the time of the Winters
suit, the Indians’ ability to farm the reservation is
threatened by a lack of water to irrigate their fields.
The reservation is bound by the Milk River, but
non-Indians who have settled on the river’s opposite
side are drawing much of the available water.
In Winters, the Department of Justice claims
that the residents of Fort Belknap have a greater right
to the water than the non-Indian settlers. Although
the Indians’ treaty with the government did not say
so explicitly, the department argues that it implicitly
gave them the right to enough water to farm their
reservation. The Department of Justice wins the case,
which in the future will become the basis for many
water-rights claims of reservation populations.
Quick Bear v. Leupp supports federal
funding for religious Indian schools.
A Protestant Lakota Sioux living on the Rosebud
Reservation in South Dakota, Reuben Quick Bear
opposes the federal government’s requirement that
reservation students attend a school operated by the
Catholic Church. In a case that is eventually argued
before the Supreme Court, Quick Bear argues that
the government’s funding of the school is a violation
of the separation of church and state. The Court
disagrees, maintaining that denying funds to the
school would violate the rights of Roman Catholics
to practice their religion. The decision is a blow to
Indian religious freedom and educational choice.The job of Indian agent is abolished.
To increase the pace of assimilation, Commissioner
Francis E. Leupp eliminates the position of Indian
agents in the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). The
administrative duties of agents on reservations are
to be taken over by teachers and farmers employed
by the BIA and referred to as “superintendents.”
Leupp maintains that these employees will be
better equipped than agents to help Indians ad-
just to making their living from privately owned
allotments.The “Crime of 1908” allows whites to
profit from Indian allotments.
In order to rescind restrictions placed on allotted
Indian land, Congress passes legislation that al-
lows for the sale of allotments owned by Indians
of mixed ancestry and by Indians married to non-
Indians. The law also permits county courts to
appoint whites to act as guardians for other Indian
allottees. Many of these guardians will charge Indi-
ans exorbitantly high fees for managing their lands.
In fact, the law will result in so many fraudulent
management schemes and dubious land deals that
historians will later dub it the “Crime of 1908.”1909The University of Wisconsin at Lacrosse
adopts the name “Indians” for its
sports teams.
By dubbing its teams “Indians,” the University of
Wisconsin at Lacrosse becomes the first of many