ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the evolution of town settlement in the Cherokee Nation in the contexts of changing town settlement policies and regional development processes between 1866 and 1907. The policy was supportive of economic and urban development, but its success depended on competitive railroad construction and the intensification of agriculture. The Cherokee Nation sold large amounts of town lot rights to its citizens in the 1880s and 1890s. The certainty of allotment and the establishment of legal authority in the Cherokee Nation attracted further in-migration and settlement throughout the 1890s. The primary goal of federal townsite policy was to safeguard the property rights of actual settlers. Federal townsite planning in the Cherokee Nation got underway after the Cherokees finally agreed to allotment and after the federal policy was centralized to be less vulnerable to profiteering. The most important phase of federal townsite policy was the appraisal of lots, which determined the price claimants had to pay.
