 "That is land that can be owned by no man", the judge said, and after that the panhandle was referred to as No Man's Land until statehood arrived decades later.Congress passed the Dawes Act, or General Allotment Act, in 1887 requiring the government to negotiate agreements with the tribes to divide Indian lands into individual holdings.Under the allotment system, tribal lands left over would be surveyed for settlement by non-Indians.