History

Arkansas territory was initially a United States integrated territory whose existence can be traced between the 4th July, 1819 and 15th June, 1836.  On the 15th June 1836, the region was now acknowledged to the Union as the Arkansas State.  The State was curved from Missouri land at the latitude 360 north, which is to the west of the river named St. Francois.  The land is inclusive of the Oklahoma State.

The present Arkansas territory size if an effect of the curving of a portion on the western most regions on the 15h November, 1824 and another portion also curved from it on the 6th May 1828.  It was initially intended that the Missouris western border to be moved southwards up to red river, but after Choctaws negotiations of 1820, it was noticed that Andrew Jackson had already given up greater portions of the territory.  However, after more negotiations in the 1824, the Choctaw decided to move only 100 steps further to the west of Belle point garrison.  It was not until Oklahoma became a state that the Fort Smith where he was able to operate apart from the authority of Arkansas (Blair, 1988).

Tears were shed in Arkansas territory when the natives of America began to conflict constantly with the Arkansas when the Indian Removal Act of 1830 jeopardized the president Jackson when it was said that the Eastern tribes move to the West to  settle in the todays Oklahoma state. A forceful ejection of the Creeks, Seminoles, Choctaws and the Cherokee across the Arkansas territory was very violent in the early 1830s.  The struggle for territory and other resources among the Indians and the whites caused the war and most of those Americans who moved to the Indians land forcefully died along on their way.

In reality, the conflict is much older than the western border because even as early as the 1770s, migration took place among the Kadohadacho who moved to the southwest Arkansas so as to merge the northwestern Louisianas allied tribes. The Osage and Cherokee had always conflicted with Kadohadacho, Europeans and the Quapaw.  When the purchase of Louisiana land was succeeded, the settlers then moved to Missouri.  The Osage negotiated with St. Louis in 1808, to give up their lands in to the East and south of the Missouri all the way to the river Arkansas. In the 1809, the arrival of the Cherokee caused more trouble when the president Thomas J. offered them a trade when they gave up their land on the East of the United States, that they would be rewarded with an equivalent of the Arkansas land which had been vacated by the Osage.

This agreement was effected with time and in the 1817, the Cherokee obtained some lands from the promised Arkansas territory near the white rivers in the west towards the Batesville.  This treaty did not define clearly about the western boundary and this led to the Cherokee settlement on the unoccupied lands.  This further resulted in the rather brutal fight between the Cherokee and the Osage which led to the death of 69 Osages and the imprisonment of 100 more. As result, Fort Smith, established in 1817 December, becoming a peace keeping outpost owned by the US army to keep peace between the Osage and the Cherokee. Later on, treaties on peaceful negotiations were formed (Blair, 1988).

 In conclusion, the conflict in the Arkansas territory should not be linked to the western boundary because there was conflict on the territory even before the west boundary conflict. However, the boundary issues hastened the fight.