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About Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a southwestern state of the United States and its U.S. postal abbreviation is OK; others abbreviate the state''s name Okla. As of 2000, the population is 3,450,654.










































































History of Oklahoma
Pre-European Indian cultures

Oklahoma was inhabited by Native American tribes including the Kitikiti'sh (Wichita) Quapaw, Caddo and Osage. Descendants of these peoples still live in the state.

In the 16th century Spanish explorers became the first Europeans to visit the area.

Later on Oklahoma was part of the vast territorial swapping going on between European powers France and Spain.

Five Civilized Tribes

In the 1830s Oklahoma, as the Indian Territory, served as the relocation area for the policy of Indian Removal started by Andrew Jackson.

The end of the Trail of Tears (Tsa La Gi) was "Indian Territory". There were already many tribes living in the territory, whites, and escaped slaves as well.

The "Five Civilized Tribes" were not the only ones forced to Oklahoma. Nations such as the Delaware, from the northeast US, Kiowa, Comanche, and others were forced to move to Oklahoma.

The name Oklahoma comes from the language of the Choctaw people, who came in the 1830s. Okla roughly means "the people" and homa means "red". Alternatively, this may be a French name: "Okla" is "ochre" and "homa" is "homme", as the Indians were known by Louisiana Cajuns. Compare Yellow peril.

The five civilized tribes set up towns such as Tulsa, Tahlequah, and Muskogee, which became some of the larger towns in the state. They also brought their African slaves to Oklahoma, which added to African-American population in the region.

During the American Civil War many tribes were internally split between Confederates and Yankees. However, in 1861 the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles, Quapaws, Senecas, Caddos, Wichitas, Osage Nation, and Shawnees signed treaties of alliance with the Confederacy. There were several battles fought in Oklahoma.

Cowboys and Indians

After the Civil War, in 1866, the federal government forced the tribes into new treaties. Most of the land in central and western Indian Territory was ceded to the government. Some of the land was given to other tribes, but the central part, the so-called Unassigned Lands, remained with the government. Another concession allowed railroads to cross Indian lands.

Furthermore the practice of slavery was outlawed. Some nations were integrated racially and otherwise with their slaves, but other nations were extremely hostile to the former slaves and wanted them exiled from their territory.

In the 1870s a movement began by people wanting to settle the government lands in the Indian Territory under the Homestead Act of 1862. They referred to the Unassigned Lands as Oklahoma and to themselves as Boomers.

In the 1880s, early settlers of the state's very sparsely populated Panhandle region tried to form the Cimarron Territory, but lost a lawsuit against the federal government, prompting a judge in Paris, Texas, to unintentionally create a moniker for the area. "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.

In 1884, in United States vs. Payne, the United States District Court in Topeka, Kansas, ruled that settling on the lands ceded to the government by the Indians under the 1866 treaties was not a crime. The government at first resisted but the Congress soon enacted laws authorizing settlement.

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. Following settlement, many whites accused Republican officials of giving preferential treatment to ex-slaves in land disputes. The Dawes Act excluded the Five Civilized Tribes

Land runs

On March 23, 1889, President Benjamin Harrison signed legislation by the U.S. Congress which would open up the Unassigned Lands (some 2 million acres (8,000 km2), for settlement on April 22nd. It was to be the first of a number of "Land runs" (due to widespread cheating later land openings were conducted by means of a lottery). Some of the settlers were called "Sooners" because they had already staked their land claims before the land was officially opened for settlement.

The Organic Act of 1890 created the Oklahoma Territory out of the Unassigned Lands and No Man's Land.

In 1893 the government purchased the rights to settle the "Cherokee Outlet", or "Cherokee Strip", from the Cherokee Nation. The Cherokee Outlet was part of the lands ceded to the government in the 1866 treaty but with the Cherokees retaining access. Chicago meat-packing plants had leased it from the Cherokees for huge cattle ranches. The Cherokee Strip was opened to settlement by land run in 1894. Also, in 1893, Congress set up the Dawes Commission to negotiate agreements with each of the Five Civilized Tribes for the allotment of tribal lands to individual Indians. Finally, the 1898 Curtis Act abolished tribal jurisdiction over all of Indian Territory.

Statehood

On November 16, 1907, Oklahoma Territory combined with Indian Territory to become the 46th U.S. state.

In the early 1900s the oil business began to get underway. Huge pools of underground oil were discovered in places like Glenpool. Many whites flooded into the state to make money. Many of the "old money" elite families of Oklahoma can date their rise to this time. The prosperity of the 1920s can be seen in the surviving architecture from the period, including one which was converted into the Philbrook Museum.

For Oklahoma, the early 1900s were also somewhat turbulent politically. Many different groups had flooded into the state and were trying to figure out how to live. There were also "black towns", in which blacks tried to make a life of their own, separate from whites. The white towns were also segregated. Northern Tulsa was known as Black Wall Street because of the vibrant business, cultural, and religious community that had sprung up there.

The Oklahoma Socialist Party did achieve a fair degree of success in this era (the party had its highest per-capita membership in Oklahoma at this time with 12,000 dues paying members in 1914), including the publication of dozens of party newspapers and the election of several hundred local elected officials. Much of their success came from their willingness to reach out to Black and American Indian voters (they were the only party to continue to resist Jim Crow laws), and their willingness to alter traditional Marxist idealogy when it made sense to do so (the biggest changes were the party's support of widespread small-scale land ownership, and their willingness to use religion positively to preach the "Socialist gospel"). The state party also delivered Presidential candidateEugene Debs some of his highest vote counts in the nation.

The party was later crushed into virtual non-existence during the "white terror" that followed the ultra-reprsessive environment following the Green Corn Rebellion and the World World I era paranoia against anyone who spoke against the war or capitalism.

The Industrial Workers of the World tried to gain headway during this period, but achieved little success. The Ku Klux Klan was also active, denouncing Blacks, Catholics, and Jews. There were several race riots, including the Tulsa Race Riot, one of the worst in American history.

Dust Bowl

During the height of the Great Depression, drought and non-ecologically-friendly agricultural practices led to the Dust Bowl, when large tracts of arable land were blown away in massive dust storms. This forced many small farmers to flee the state altogether.

This migration is chronicled in The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, and also in photographs by Dorothea Lange and in the songs of Woody Guthrie. The negative images of the "Okie" as a sort of rootless migrant laborer living in a near-animal state of scrounging for food greatly offended many Oklahomans. Some politicians of Oklahoma denounced the book (often without reading it) as an attempt to impugn the morals and character of the people of Oklahoma.

The term "Okie" in recent years has taken on a new meaning in the past few decades, with many Oklahomans (both former and present) wearing the label as a badge of honor (as a symbol of the Okie survivor attitude). Others (mostly of those alive during the Dust Bowl) still see the term negatively because they see the "Okie" migrants as being quiters.

Urbanization

Major trends in Oklahoma history after the Depression era included the rise again of tribal sovereignty (including the issuance of tribal automobile licenses plates, and the opening of tribal smoke shops, casinos, grocery stores and other commercial enterprises), the building of Tinker Air Force Base, the rapid growth of suburban Oklahoma City and Tulsa, the drop in population in Western Oklahoma, the oil boom of the 1980's and the oil bust of the 1990's.

Also in this century came the gradual elimination of the prohibition of alcoholic beverages, first through the legalization of beverages containing 3.2% alcohol or less, then through the legalization of stronger alcoholic beverages sold only in bottles, and finally in the legalization of "liquor by the drink" in the 1980's. Currently, Oklahoma's liquor laws are still fairly unusual in that only 3.2 beer can be sold in grocery/convenience stores, while higher-alcohol-content beverages must be sold in liquor stores with limited hours of operations.

In 1995 Oklahoma became the scene of the Oklahoma City bombing, in which a Gulf War veteran named Timothy McVeigh bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, killing 168 people.

Oklahoma City has also been the home of Spiritual Walk for Peace, an ongoing series of peaceful peace demonstrations in downtown Oklahoma City conducted by members of the city's religious/peace communities.

Oklahoma: Reference for Travelers
Oklahoma Weather: Weather Underground

Tourism: Tourism information for Oklahoma

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