ABSTRACT
In the latter 1860s the Cherokees formulated a policy that dealt with the issue of townsite settlement in response to railroad construction. This initial policy was adjusted in the early 1870s and implemented to a limited extent. The Cherokee Treaty of 1866 thus attempted to merge the basic goals of federal Reconstruction, which sought to establish federal authority, with those of federal Indian policy, which sought to end tribal autonomy. Economically, the treaty sought to integrate the Cherokee Nation's land and resource base into the expanding spatial economy of the United States via railroad linkages. The treaty confirmed Cherokee autonomy by giving the United States the responsibility to keep white squatters out of the Cherokee Nation. The Cherokees' 1870 townsite law built on earlier practices to secure control of railroad townsites by reactivating the townsite commission to carry out the new policy.
