The Intruders: The Illegal Residents of the Cherokee Nation 1866-1907

This book is a narrative account of intrusion by non-citizens upon the land of the Cherokee tribe in the Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. Until this time no comprehensive history of this overwhelming invasion of the Indian country by thousands of white and black citizens of the United States has been written. Other histories of these tribes have only casually mentioned the unwelcome residents although intrusion was a common problem of all Five Civilized Tribes, the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, Seminole and Cherokee. Prior to the Civil War there was little trespass upon the Cherokee domain.