Cache Creek Blues

Acrylic on canvas, 60” x 48”, Private Collection

Between 1875 and 1901 the Comanche reservation existed in southwestern Oklahoma. In 1901 the Comanche reservation was broken up with the Curtis Act, an extension of the 1887 Dawes Act or General Allotment Act. Its stated goal was to destroy ‘tribalism’ and facilitate the ‘civilization’ of the Native. The actual result was the most devastating piece of legislation ever enacted by the United States in relation to the overall existing Native land base. Comanche lands were severely depleted and broken up into individual tracts of land. Prior to the legislation, Natives still held 156 million acres of land. By the time allotment ended in 1934, only 50 million acres remained in the possession of Native peoples. Cache Creek runs through my grandfather’s allotment in southwestern Oklahoma.