Cherokee Outlet Opening | The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

On September 16, 1893, the Cherokee Strip, Oklahoma, was opened to white settlement homesteaders. From the article:

"The September 16, 1893, Cherokee Outlet Opening was Oklahoma's fourth and largest land run. Economic pressures plus poor planning and inadequate enforcement by federal agencies made it even more chaotic than earlier runs, resulting in massive fraud, widespread suffering, and a number of deaths. The Outlet was one of three areas the Cherokees had acquired upon removal to lands in present eastern Oklahoma under the Treaty of New Echota. Besides the Outlet, which contained about seven million acres directly west of their lands, the tribe also claimed the Neutral Lands in southeastern Kansas plus the area properly known as the Cherokee Strip along the southern border of Kansas. The Cherokees lost the Neutral Lands and the original Cherokee Strip with the 1866 Reconstruction Treaties. At the same time, the United States declared the eastern third of the Outlet surplus and began moving a number of smaller tribes there. Railroads, cattlemen, and home seekers then began efforts to acquire the remainder for their purposes."