Tribal Jurisdiction Statistical Area

In the state of Oklahoma, an area designated by the US census as ‘delineated by Federally recognized tribes ... without a reservation’. There are 17 TJSAs covering an area of 126,390 sq km/48,779 sq mi, or 71% of the state; population (1990) 2,082,400, of which only 9.6% is American Indian. One or more tribal governments have forms of jurisdiction within them.

Until the 1980s the TJSAs were called ‘Historic Areas’. They are parts of the former Indian Territory inhabited by tribes that were persuaded, in the years just before Oklahoma statehood (1907), to give up collective ownership of their land; the individual ownership that followed (the allotment system) led to the purchase of much of the land by non-American Indians.

The Osage reservation is the only remaining Indian reservation in Oklahoma. The 17 TJSAs are: Absentee Shawnee–Citizens Band of Potawatomi; Caddo-Wichita-Delaware; Cherokee; CheyenneArapaho; Chickasaw; Choctaw; Creek; Iowa; Kaw; Kiowa-Comanche-Apache–Fort Sill Apache; Otoe-Missouria; Pawnee; Sac and Fox; Seminole; Tonkawa; Creek-Seminole Joint Area; and Iowa–Sac and Fox Joint Area.