Fort Reno (Oklahoma)

Fort Reno was established as a permanent post in July 1875, near the Darlington Indian Agency on the old Cheyenne-Arapaho reservation in Indian Territory, in present-day central Oklahoma. Named for General Jesse L. Reno, who died at the Battle of South Mountain, it supported the U.S. Army following the Cheyenne uprising in 1874.

History
Following the Indian Wars the fort remained to protect the more peaceful Five Civilized Tribes from the Plains Indians farther west. Soldiers from Fort Reno also attempted to control Boomer and Sooner activity during the rush to open the Unassigned Lands for settlement. Among the units stationed here were the famed Ninth Cavalry of Buffalo Soldiers.

After Oklahoma statehood in 1907, the post was abandoned on February 24, 1908, but remained as a U.S. Army remount depot 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, Oklahoma.

Fort Reno was added to the National Register of Historic Places (#70000529) in 1970.

Land controversy
An executive order in 1883 officially identified the area assigned to Fort Reno as 9493 acre 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 Harrison 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. Kappler, Indian Affairs (Agreement with Cheyenne and Arapaho ratified, p. 415-419): "The following agreement entered into by the Commissioners named below on the part of the United States, and the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Tribes of Indians on the — day of October, eighteen hundred and ninety, and now on file in the Interior Department, signed by the said Commissioners on the part of the United States, and by Left Hand, his mark, and five hundred and sixty-four others, on the part of the said Indians, is hereby accepted, ratified and confirmed, ... Commencing at a point where the Washita River crosses the ninety-eighth degree of west longitude, as surveyed in the years eighteen hundred and fifty-eight and eighteen hundred and seventy-one; thence north on a line with said ninety-eighth degree to the point where it is crossed by the Red Fork of the Arkansas (sometimes called the Cimarron River); thence up said river, in the middle of the main channel thereof, to the north boundary of the country ceded to the United States by the treaty of June fourteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty six, with the Creek nation of Indians; thence west on said north boundary and the north boundary of the country ceded to the United States by the treaty of March twenty first, eighteen hundred and sixty six, with the Seminole Indians, to the one hundredth degree of west longitude; thence south on the line of said one hundredth degree to the point where it strikes the North Fork of the Red River; thence down said North Fork of the Red River to a point where it strikes the north line of the Kiowa and Comanche Reservation; thence east along said boundary to a point where it strikes the Washita River; thence down said Washita River, in the middle of the main channel thereof, to the place of beginning; and all other lands or tracts of country in the Indian Territory to which they have or may set up or allege any right, title, interest or claim whatsoever ... Out of the lands ceded, conveyed, transferred, relinquished, and surrendered by Article II hereof, and in part consideration for the cession of lands named in the preceding article, it is agreed by the United States that each member of the said Cheyenne and Arapahoe tribes of Indians over the age of eighteen years shall have the right to select for himself or herself one hundred and sixty acres of land, ... As a further and only additional consideration for the cession of territory and relinquishment of title, claim, and interest in and to lands as aforesaid the United States agrees to pay to the Cheyenne and Arapahoe tribes of Indians one million and five hundred thousand dollars ..."

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 Committee with a memo titled "Fort Reno," and at the same time asked the Clinton administration to get an opinion from the Department of the Interior 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. of American Samoa in 1997 and by Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii in 2000. However, opposition by the entire Oklahoma congressional delegation, state political and civic leaders, and historical preservationists has stalled all efforts.

In 2005, Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe, co-sponsored by Senator Tom Coburn, 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.