Fort Reno was established as a permanent post in July 1875, near the Darlington Indian Agency on the old
CheyenneCheyenne are a Native American people of the Great Plains, who are of the Algonquian language family. The Cheyenne Nation is composed of two united tribes, the Só'taeo'o and the Tsétsêhéstâhese .The Cheyenne are thought to have branched off other tribes of Algonquian stock inhabiting lands...
-
ArapahoThe Arapaho are a tribe of Native Americans historically living on the eastern plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Sioux. Arapaho is an Algonquian language closely related to Gros Ventre, whose people are seen as an early...
reservation in
Indian TerritoryThe Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land set aside within the United States for the settlement of American Indians...
, in present-day central
OklahomaOklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
. Named for General
Jesse L. RenoJesse Lee Reno was a career United States Army officer who served in the Mexican-American War, the western frontier, and as a Union General during the American Civil War...
, who died at the
Battle of South MountainThe Battle of South Mountain was fought September 14, 1862, as part of the Maryland Campaign of the American Civil War. Three pitched battles were fought for possession of three South Mountain passes: Crampton's, Turner's, and Fox's Gaps. Maj. Gen. George B...
, it supported the U.S. Army following the Cheyenne uprising in 1874.
History
Following the
Indian WarsAmerican Indian Wars is the name used in the United States to describe a series of conflicts between American settlers or the federal government and the native peoples of North America before and after the American Revolutionary War. The wars resulted from the arrival of European colonizers who...
the fort remained to protect the more peaceful
Five Civilized TribesThe Five Civilized Tribes were the five Native American nations—the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole—that were considered civilized by Anglo-European settlers during the colonial and early federal period because they adopted many of the colonists' customs and had generally good...
from the
Plains IndiansThe Plains Indians are the Indigenous peoples who live on the plains and rolling hills of the Great Plains of North America. Their colorful equestrian culture and resistance to White domination have made the Plains Indians an archetype in literature and art for American Indians everywhere.Plains...
farther west. Soldiers from Fort Reno also attempted to control Boomer and
SoonerSooners is the name given to settlers in the midwest of the United States who entered the Unassigned Lands in what is now the state of Oklahoma before President Grover Cleveland officially proclaimed them open to settlement on March 2, 1889 with the Indian Appropriations Act of 1889...
activity during the rush to open the
Unassigned LandsUnassigned Lands, or Oklahoma, were in the center of the lands ceded to the United States by the Creek and Seminole Indians following the Civil War and on which no other tribes had been settled...
for settlement. Among the units stationed here were the famed Ninth Cavalry of
Buffalo SoldierBuffalo Soldiers originally were members of the U.S. 10th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army, formed on September 21, 1866 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas....
s.
After Oklahoma statehood in 1907, the post was abandoned on February 24, 1908, but remained as a U.S. Cavalry remount station until 1949. Today, the grounds of the old fort are home to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Grazinglands Research Laboratory. The laboratory's mission is to develop and deliver improved technologies, management strategies, and strategic and tactical planning tools which help evaluate and manage economic and environmental risks, opportunities, and tradeoffs, for integrated crop, forage, and livestock systems under variable climate, energy and market conditions.
The fort lent its name to the nearby city of
El Reno, OklahomaEl Reno is a city in Canadian County, Oklahoma, United States, in the central part of the state. A part of the Oklahoma City Metropolitan Statistical Area, El Reno is west of downtown Oklahoma City...
.
Fort Reno was added to the
National Register of Historic PlacesThe National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
(#70000529) in 1970.
Land controversy
An executive order in 1883 officially identified the area assigned to Fort Reno as 9493 acres (38.4 km²) in the Cheyenne and Arapaho reserve, "setting apart for military purposes exclusively of the tract of land herein described." A presidential proclamation (27 Stat., 1018) signed April 12, 1892 by
Benjamin HarrisonBenjamin Harrison was the 23rd President of the United States . Harrison, a grandson of President William Henry Harrison, was born in North Bend, Ohio, and moved to Indianapolis, Indiana at age 21, eventually becoming a prominent politician there...
extinguished all Cheyenne-Arapaho claims to their reserve except for individual allotments, including any claims to Fort Reno – a stance with which many members of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes disagree.
For several years the combined Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes have been trying to re-acquire the lands the fort occupied. In 1996, they donated US$107,000 to the
Democratic National CommitteeThe Democratic National Committee is the principal organization governing the United States Democratic Party on a day to day basis. While it is responsible for overseeing the process of writing a platform every four years, the DNC's central focus is on campaign and political activity in support...
with a memo titled "Fort Reno," and at the same time asked the Clinton administration to get an opinion from the
Department of the InteriorThe United States Department of the Interior is the United States federal executive department of the U.S. government responsible for the management and conservation of most federal land and natural resources, and the administration of programs relating to Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native...
on their claims. The U.S. Senate investigated them for their actions in 1997 but the tribes refused to appear. The Senate committee, chaired by Republicans, scolded the Democratic fund-raisers, the president, and Democratic operatives. In 1999 the Interior Department issued an opinion saying that the tribes did have a credible argument that they did not cede the lands that were used by the military.
Several attempts have been made by Democratic politicians to aid the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes, most notably
Eni Fa'aua'a Hunkin Faleomavaega, Jr.Eni Fa'aua'a Hunkin Faleomavaega, Jr. is the non-voting Delegate to the United States House of Representatives from American Samoa's At-large congressional district.-Personal life:...
of
American SamoaAmerican Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the sovereign state of Samoa...
in 1997 and by Senator
Daniel InouyeDaniel Ken "Dan" Inouye is the senior United States Senator from Hawaii, a member of the Democratic Party, and the President pro tempore of the United States Senate making him the highest-ranking Asian American politician in American history. Inouye is the chairman of the United States Senate...
of
HawaiiHawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
in 2000. However, opposition by the entire
Oklahoma congressional delegationThese are tables of congressional delegations from Oklahoma to the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives.-United States Senate:-Passages:-1889 - 1907: One non-voting delegate:-1907 - 1913: Five seats:...
, state political and civic leaders, and historical preservationists has stalled all efforts.
In 2005, Oklahoma Senator
Jim InhofeJames Mountain "Jim" Inhofe is the senior Senator from Oklahoma and a member of the Republican Party. First elected to the Senate in 1994, he is the ranking member of the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and was its chairman from 2003 to 2007. Inhofe served eight...
, co-sponsored by Senator
Tom CoburnThomas Allen "Tom" Coburn, M.D. , is an American politician, medical doctor, and Southern Baptist deacon. A member of the Republican Party, he currently serves as the junior U.S. Senator from Oklahoma. In the Senate, he is known as "Dr. No" for his tendency to place holds on and vote against bills...
, introduced a bill to fund historical preservation of the fort using funds raised by leasing oil and gas resources under the fort. The bill received a committee hearing but no further action.
External links