the kansas-nebraska act passed on may 30, 1854, and it created the kansas territory. it went from the western border of missouri to the rocky mountains. the southern border was the 37th parallel north, and the northern border was the 40th parallel north. anything north of the 40th parallel was part of the nebraska territory. when congress set the southern border of the kansas territory as the 37th parallel, they thought that the osage southern border was also the 37th parallel. the cherokees disagreed. they said that it was not the correct border. they said that the border of kansas should be moved north to make room for the actual border of the cherokee land. this became known as the cherokee strip controversy.