Indianor Western Territory

Indian or Western Territory. 1. An area set apart by the Government of the United States as the dwelling-place of dispossessed tribes of Indians.

It extends over some 70,000 square miles, being bounded N. by Kansas, S. and W. by Texas, and E. by Arkansas. Crossing this tract from E. to W., you pass first through a stretch of rich prairie intersected by many streams, next through a belt of forest, and finally reach the Great Plains that slope up to the Rocky Mountains. There are few elevations over 1,000 feet, except in the E. portion. The Arkansas river, with its tributaries, drains the upper and central district, and the Red River forms the S. boundary. The inhabitants, mostly compulsory immigrants, are settled according to tribes on defined reservations, and include representatives of almost all the primitive families, such as the Choctaws, Cherokees, Osages, Modocs, Shawnees, Pawnees, Apaches, etc. The Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railway crosses the territory, which is dependent to some extent on Arkansas for its government.

2. The name is also given to a tract of British America beyond the Hudson Bay Company's demesne, and vaguely bounded by the latitude 52° 3ty and 70° and by the longitude 103° and 141°. This country is thinly populated by native hunters and a few white traders.