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Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Norman, Enid, Lawton, Stillwater, Bartlesville, Broken Arrow, Duncan, Edmond, Ponca City, Ardmore, Muskogee, Shawnee, Altus, Atoka, Ada, Chickasha, Claremore, Durant, Elk City, Grove, McAlester, Miami, Pryor, Sapulpa, Seminole, Tahlequah, Wagoner, Woodward
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Francisco Vásquez de Coronado first explored the region for
Spain in 1541. The U.S. acquired most of Oklahoma in 1803 in
the Louisiana Purchase from France; the Western Panhandle
region became U.S. territory with the annexation of Texas in
1845.
Set aside as Indian Territory in 1834, the region was
divided into Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory on May
2, 1890. The two were combined to make a new state,
Oklahoma, on Nov. 16, 1907.
On April 22, 1889, the first day homesteading was permitted,
50,000 people swarmed into the area. Those who tried to beat
the noon starting gun were called “Sooners,” hence the
state's nickname.
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
documented Europeans to visit the area (there is evidence to
suggest that viking explorers passed through in the 6th
century, but this has yet to be accepted widely by the
scientific and historical community). Later, Oklahoma was
part of the vast territorial swapping between European
powers France and Spain.
Oklahoma, as Indian Territory, served as the relocation area
for the policy of Indian Removal started by Andrew Jackson
in the 1830s; the end of the Cherokee Trail of Tears was
Indian Territory. There were already many tribes living in
the territory, along with whites and escaped slaves.
The Five Civilized Tribes, so named due to their early
adaptations to Christianity and European clothing,
technology, and trade, were not the only ones forced to
Oklahoma. The Delaware, from the northeast U.S., Kiowa,
Comanche, and other nations were forced to move to Oklahoma.
The name Oklahoma comes from the language of the Choctaw
people, who were removed from Mississippi to Indian
Territory by the United States Government in the early to
mid-1800s. "Oklahoma" is a combination of two Choctaw words:
okla, meaning 'people' (as in the term Miliki okla, which
means 'American people'), and homa (also spelled homma or
humma) which means, among other things, 'red.' The name was
suggested by Allen Wright, Principal Chief of the Choctaw
Nation from 1866 to 1870.
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 Civil War many tribes were internally split
between the Confederates and the Union. However, in 1861 the
Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles, Quapaws,
Senecas, Caddos, Wichitas, Osage Nation, and Shawnees all
signed treaties of alliance with the Confederacy. Stand
Watie fought several battles in Oklahoma.
After the American 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 v. 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.
On November 16, 1907, Oklahoma Territory combined with
Indian Territory to become the 46th U.S. state. When it
became a state, it had the longest constitution of any
government in the world.
In the early 20th century the oil business began to get
underway. Huge pools of underground oil were discovered in
places like Glenpool near Tulsa. 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, such as the Tulsa mansion
which was converted into the Philbrook Museum of Art or the
art deco architecture of downtown Tulsa.
For Oklahoma, the early 20th century 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
ideology 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 candidate Eugene 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-repressive
environment following the Green Corn Rebellion and the World
War 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.
In July 1931, a long standing border dispute between
Oklahoma and Texas came to a head (though it was not
officially settled until 2000.) Sometimes called the Red
River War, the incident saw the deployment of Oklahoma
National Guardsmen and Texas Rangers. A free bridge had been
constructed jointly by the two states which ran parallel to
an older toll-bridge. The company running the toll-bridge
sought an injunction in the U.S. District Court at Houston
to stop the opening of the bridge.
The matter became heated, with Texas barricading the new
free bridge (in accordance with the injunction,) and
Oklahoma highway employees tearing down those barricades
(citing the fact that the injunction didn't mention
Oklahoma, and that the border had been settled as early as
the Louisiana Purchase.) Eventually, a unit of the Oklahoma
National Guard was deployed to both the northern and
southern approaches of the free bridge to ensure it was held
open.
On August 6, 1931 the dispute was settled when the first
injunction was permanently dissolved.
Oklahoma has some of the strictest liquor laws in the
country. This began with the state's constitution including
total prohibition of alcoholic beverages. In 1959, voters
repealed total prohibition and liquor-by-the-drink bars were
not allowed until 1985. Since 1985, liquor-by-the-drink is
decided on a county-by-county basis, with approximately half
allowing it. Currently, liquor stores are required to close
on Sundays, may not be open past 9:00 PM, and may not
refrigerate alcohol. (Warehouses and shipping companies are
also prohibited from using refrigeration.) Some bars are
also restricted from selling beverages in excess of 3.2%
alcohol. Persons under twenty-one years of age are
prohibited from being in a bar area of a restaurant. Some
breweries, such as New Belgium Brewing Company, will not
ship to Oklahoma because these laws degrade the quality of
beer by the time it reaches the consumer.
Despite being illegal, some state residents cross into Texas
to purchase six-point beer and transport it back into
Oklahoma -- though six-point beer may be purchased legally
in liquor stores. This trend has prompted several Texas
border-counties to prohibit the sale of alcohol in order to
discourage would-be bootleggers.
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