USA > Oklahoma > A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume I > Part 2
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King, Richard F., 533. Kiowas, 134.
Kiowas and Comanches, 201.
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Kiowa, Comanche and Apache opening, 292, 304. Kingfisher and the territorial capital, 253. Kingfisher statehood convention, 341. Kingfisher land office, 255. Klepper, B. C., 519.
Labor, Regulation of, in constitution, 462. Land offices, 255.
Land office at Guthrie, Establishment of, 230
Lands, Alien and corporate ownership of, 462.
Lands in Severalty, 292, 313-320.
Lands in common among the Indians, 145. Lands of five tribes, Division of, 314. Lane, James H., 171.
Langston negro school, 392.
Laracy, John, 507.
LaSalle, II.
Law and Order, Establishment of in Okla- homa, 216-267.
Law and order in Oklahoma, 214.
Laws of Nebraska in Oklahoma territory, 281.
Laws relating to intruders, Insufficiency of, 190.
Lawton, 304, 307. Lazzell family, 531.
Lazzell, Thomas J., 531.
Leased District of Chickasaws, 72, 126, 133. Leavenworth, Gen. Henry, 42, 45.
Legislative department of the state, 418.
Legislative districts, 420. Lewis and Clark expedition, 24.
Leonard, Christopher C., 525. Lightning Creek Combination, 260. Lincoln, Abraham, views on Indian Coun- try, 181. Lincoln county, 296. Lindsey, Lee W., 477. Linn, John F., 541.
Liquor Traffic in Indian Territory and Okla- homa, 374-380, 386.
Little, W. T., 403. Livingston, Robert R., 13. Louisiana, District of, 15; Territory of, 15. Lottery method in opening Kiowa-Coman- che country, 306. Louisiana Purchase, 4, 11-14; limits of, 13; division of, 15. Love, Jack, 250.
"Manifest Destiny," 150. Manual labor education, 388. Manufacture and commerce, 462. Marble quarries, 384.
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Marbois, Agent of the Louisiana Purchase, . 12, 13.
Marshall, Chief Justice, 51, 54, 162. Masonic order, Founding of at Oklahoma City, 408.
Mass convention in Oklahoma City, 220. Maxey, Gen. S. B., 97.
McAdams, R. W., 153, 319.
McAnulty, Alice, 270.
McCarty, Charles W., 485.
McCoy, Rev. Isaac, 50, 59, 80, 115, 116, 151. McCoy, Joseph G., 147. McCurtain, D. C., 350.
McDivitt, Frank H., 519.
McGowan case, 247.
McIntosh emigration of Creeks, 33, 34, 73.
McIntosh, Col. D. N., 88.
McIntosh, Col. James, 90.
McIntosh, Roley, 74.
McIntosh, William, 33, 34.
McKennon, A. S., 377. Mckown, Omer, 523.
McMaster case, 233.
McMechan, T. F., 263.
McNabb, C. A., 383.
McNair, J. E., 549.
Mathews, Lee, 487.
Mathewson, Frank M., 476.
Mathis, H. S., 501.
Medicine Lodge treaty of 1867, 121.
Meek, David N., 500.
Memorial of statehood convention of 1891, 338. Merritt, General, 211.
Mexican war, 145; Results of, 117. "Mid-continent" oil fields, 385. Mineral resources, 384.
Mineral and gas and oil lands, Leasing of, 358. Mission schools, 388. Missouri Compromise, 16. Missouri Compromise line, 21.
Missouri Territory, 15.
M. K. & T. Railroad, 148; History of, 157, 158. Monroe, James, 13, 114. More, A. T., 502.
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Mowbray, George W., 480. Municipal corporations, 460.
Murray, James, 218, 219, 241.
Murray, William H., 363, 365, 366, 378, 1 468, 470.
Muskogee statehood convention of 1901, 343.
Napoleon, 12. Nelson, Flowers, 482. New Echota treaty of 1827, 53. New Echota treaty of 1835, 63. Nez Perces tribe, 138.
Nichols, Edward C., 527.
Noble county, 301. Noble, John W., 255.
Normal schools, 390, 392.
No Man's Land, 14, 22, 202-204, 268, 383; Origin of, 18, foll. Nuttall, Thomas, 27.
Oil, 384, 385.
Oil pipe companies, 432.
Oklahoma admitted, Proclamation of presi- dent, 368.
Oklahoma and Indian Territory, Admission of, 397, foll. Oklahoma and the criminal element, 386. Oklahoma and Indian Territory, Develop- ment of, 2.
Oklahoma, Area, 383; Agriculture, 383; Horticulture, 383.
Oklahoma City, 178, 214, 227, 237; board of trade, 228; Conditions at after open- ing, 231 ; Early Chronicles of, 404, foll .; Early business men, 404; Board of Trade, 405; Medical Society, 406; Sanitary conditions, 406; election by Colony Crowd, 244; first charter elec- tion, 224; Founding of, 263; Founding of and early history, 217, foll .; land office, 255; government, 246; govern- ment in 1889, 221 ; jogs and crooks in streets of, 239; police court, Proceed- ings of, 247.
Oklahoma City single-statehood convention, 1902, 344. Oklahoma City survey, 263. Oklahoma City streets, 239, foll.
Oklahoma City, to become territorial capital, 251. Oklahoma Country, 184.
Oklahoma Colony, 218. Oklahoma constitution, 362-373. "Oklahoma Country," 6.
Oklahoma Editorial Association, 402. Oklahoma enabling act and prohibition, 378.
Oklahoma, First official use of name, 173.
Oklahoma's heritage, 381-393.
Oklahoma Historical Society, 402. Oklahoma, Mineral resources, 384; Coal, 384; Gas, 384, 385 ; Oil, 384, 385. Oklahoma opening, 177, 201, 205-215. Oklahoma openings, 291, foll.
Oklahoma opening proclamation, 207.
Oklahoma, Origin of name, 130.
Oklahoma, Outline history of, 4-7.
Oklahoma, Provisional territorial govern- ment, 269, 272.
Oklahoma War Chief, 187, 189.
Oklahoma settlers, three classes of, 256. Oklahoma State, Boundaries of, 15-22.
Oklahoma State Seal, 427.
Oklahoma station, 240.
Oklahoma, "The Land of Now," 381.
Oklahoma territory and Kansas, 410; Boundaries, 276; Development of, 340; during the first decade, 381; during early '90s, 341 ; Early bills for organ- · ization of, 268; Education in, 389; Ex- pansion of, 291-309; First legislature of, 251; judicial power, 279; seat of government, 282; school lands, 282; organic act, 276-290; Organization of, 160, 268-290.
Oklahoma territorial organization, 200.
Oklahoma, the original lands of, 126. Oklahoma, "Twentieth Century State," 2.
Oklahoma townsite commission, by act of 1890, 243.
Oklahoma Townsite and Improvement Co., 211.
Okmulgee, 129.
Okmulgee constitution, 129, 162, 268.
"Old Settlers" of Cherokees, 65. "Omnibus bill," 343, 346.
"Omnibus" statehood bill, Fight on in sen- ate, 346.
Opening of Oklahoma, 205-215, 234. Organized invasion, 169-183. Organization of Oklahoma Territory, 268- 290. Orr, Joseph C., 530. Osage Cession of 1808, 25, 31.
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Osage Indians, 138; in 1806, 25, 26; in Proclamation for opening Cherokee Out- 1819, 28; in 1839, 80; during the war, 109.
Osage reservation, 80.
Osage treaty of 1825, 27.
Otoe and Missouri tribes, 138.'
Otoe, Ponca, Missouri and Kaw reserve opening, 292. Overholser, Henry, 249. Owen, Robert L., 372. 1 Organic act for Oklahoma Territory, 275.
Pacific Railroad, 146.
Painter, C. C., 201.
Pancoast, Judge, 366.
Parker, Cynthia Ann, 133.
Parker, Col. Ely, 123.
Parker, Quanah, 133.
Pawnee Indians, 39.
Payne, David L., 6, 145, 174, 401; Char- acter of, 184.
Payne and his followers, Movements of, 191.
Payne and his Successors, 184-201.
Payne's invasion, 151, 182, 186.
Payne's Oklahoma Colony, 174, 178, 184.
Payne's proclamation to Boomers, 188.
Pea Ridge, or Elkhorn, Battle of, 91.
Pease river, Battle at, 133.
Peel, Samuel W., 180.
Peery, Daniel, 253.
PerDue, William J., 497.
Perjury after the opening, 237, 257.
Permits to non-citizens, 155.
Permit system in Indian Territory, 152. Perry, Founding of, 301.
Perry, Walter C., 530. Perryman, Sam, 79.
Perryville, Burning of, 96.
Phillips, Col. W. A., 93; campaign of, 98; on conditions in Indian Territory, 103. Pike, Zebulon M., explorations, 24.
Pin Indians, 85.
Platz, Mendious, 553.
Pomeroy, S. C., 118.
Pond Creek, Founding of, 301.
Population of Oklahoma territory, Compo- sition of, 382.
Population of the State of Oklahoma, 385. Porter, Pleasant, 350. Pottawatomie county, 296.
Price, W. G., 509.
Price's Expedition of 1864, 99.
let, 298; for opening Cheyenne and Arapahoe lands, 296; for opening In- dian lands in 1891, 295; for opening Kiowa-Comanche, Apache country, 305 ; for Kickapoo opening, 302.
Prohibition, Constitutional provisions, 414, 469; in Indian Territory, 355; Vote on, 368, 380.
Prohibition movement, History of, 374-380. Provisional government in Oklahoma City, 178, 219. Public Land Strip, Origin of, 18, foll .; 268, 275.
Public roads and internal improvements, 445.
Public service corporations, 432.
"Quaker Policy" of Indian control, 181. Quapaws, Cession of 1818, 31; after the war, 109. Quay, Sen. S. M., 179, 343, 346, 348.
Railroads, 170; a "force of disintegration," 161 ; and the Indian Country, 160; First trans-continental, 144; land grants, 159; State supervision of, 432; The first, 157-161.
Ramsey, S. M., 510. "Red Letter Day" in Oklahoma, 330. Religious institutions of Oklahoma City after founding, 407.
Removal of boomers from Oklahoma, 210. Removal of cattlemen from Indian Terri- tory, 149.
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Removal of Indians, 4, 49-75 ; contract for, 74; Progress in, 60.
Removal of restrictions in Indian Territory, 330. Reneau, Walter I., 489. Renfrow, William C., 276.
Reports of senate sub-committee on state- hood, 346.
Republican party and statehood, 342. Reservation system, 163.
Restrictions removed from Indian lands, 330. Revenue and taxation, 440. Ridge, John, 62, 66. Ridge party, 62. Riggins, Reid, 534.
Robinett, Joel, 531.
Robison, Clarence, 528.
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Roosevelt, Theodore, message on statehood, 352. Rose, D. S., 378.
Rose, George L., 544.
Ross, John, 54, 62, 65, 79, 85, 87.
Ross, Sul, 133.
Round Mountain, Skirmish, 89.
Royce, C. C., 51.
Run into Oklahoma, The Great, 213.
Rush of April 22, 214, 237.
Sac and Fox, Iowa, Pottawatomie and Shawnee allotment, 294.
Sac and Fox reservation, 136.
Sac and Fox tribes, 135.
Sammons, L. T., 510.
Sanger, Maj. J. P., 222, 223.
Santa Fe Railroad, 148; at Oklahoma City, 263.
Santa Fe trail, 117.
Sawyer, Hamlin W., 406.
Schofield, Gen. J. M., 92.
School funds, 389.
School lands, 389, 443.
School law, First territorial, 390.
Schools for white residents of Indian Ter- ritory, 389. Scott, A. C., 244. Seal of Oklahoma, 427.
Seat of government for an Indian Terri- tory, 116. Seay, Andrew J., 276.
"Segregated" coal lands, 385.
Sells, Elijah, 122.
"Seminoles and Kickapoos," Oklahoma City factions, 224.
"Seminole and Kickapoo war" in Oklahoma City, 224, 244.
Seminole boundaries, 35.
Seminole certificates, 231, 245.
Seminole cession of Oklahoma country, 206.
Seminoles, 35 : during the Civil war, 106.
Seminole Land and Town Co., 218.
Seminoles, Settlement among Creeks and Cherokees, 82. "Seminole shanties," 241.
Seminole Town and Improvement Co., 231, 239.
Seminole townsite, 244. Seminole treaty of 1866, 135. Seminole survey at Oklahoma City, 240. Seminole war, 33.
Senate, Members of first, 395.
Senate sub-committee investigate statehood, 346.
Sequoyah constitution, 351.
Sequoyah convention, 377.
Sequoyah statehood movement, 350; criti- cised, 352. Settlers' associations, 211.
Seward, William H., 171.
Shaw, B. S., 517.
Shaw, O. F., 549.
Shaw, R. M., 513.
Shawnee Indians, 137.
Shawnee trail, 148.
Sheridan, Gen., at Fort Reno, 175.
"Silent Immigration," 150. Single statehood, 342; Arguments for, 345. Slavery, 15, 19; Abolition of, 125, 153; among Cherokees, 83; among the five tribes, 83.
Slavery question, 170; in removal of In- dians, 50. Sleeper, David L., 491.
Smith, John B., 522.
Smith, J. R., 543.
Smith, Volney, 550.
Snook, Charles, 505.
Soldiers at Oklahoma City, 250.
Soldiers in the Oklahoma opening, 210.
Sooner and perjury cases in Oklahoma, 227, 255.
"Sooner clause" in opening proclamation, 236. "Sooners," "Legal Sooners," "Ordinary Sooners," 258.
"Soonerism" in the Cherokee Strip open- ing, 300.
"Sooners," 209; their cause, 210, 230, 237; Secret organizations of, 259.
Southgate, Thomas F., 538. South Guthrie, 227.
South Oklahoma townsite, 243.
Sowder, N. M., 514.
Special agents of interior department in Oklahoma after opening, 229.
Speed, Horace, 261. Spirit of reform in Oklahoma, 387.
Springer bill for organization of Oklahoma, 176, 177. Springer, William M., 176, 180. "Squatter Sovereignty," 21. "Squawmen," 165. St. Clair, Joseph, 506.
Stand Watie, 70, 85, 87, 88, 91, 97, 99.
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Statehood and civic reform, 387. State and School lands, 443. Statehood bills in Congress, 339; in 57th Congress, 345. Statehood, Change of sentiment regarding, 349. Statehood conventions, 179.
Statehood convention of 1905 at Oklahoma City, 350. Statehood day, Ceremonies described, 368. Statehood, Editorial comment on, 396; Fili- buster in senate, 348; for Indian Terri- tory alone, 350; movement, 178, 337, 361 ; Political aspects of, 342, 347. Statehood pioneers, 180.
Statehood question during 58th Congress, 349; Final solution of, 352.
State executive officials, 426.
State Legislature, First, 394. State of Sequoyah, 351.
State University of Oklahoma, 392.
State-wide prohibition, 378; campaign for, 379.
"Statu quo order," 250.
Steele, Gen. William, 94, 97.
Steele, George W., 275, 295, 382.
Stephens statehood bill, 343. Stiles, Capt. D. F., 222, 225, 246, 249, 250. Stillwater, 390. Stockdale, Thomas R., 180.
Stock-raising, 147-149; in Indian Territory during Civil war, 102.
Stone, George, 528.
Strouss, George A., 539. Suffrage, 417. Sulphur Springs reservation, 357. Supreme court, 428. Survey of Indian Territory, 321. Survey, of Panhandle, 20. Sweet, E. M., 378. Swift, Wesley F., 505.
Tahlequah convention of 1861, 88. Tahlequah Seminary, 387. Tarter, Ivy, 512. Tasier, Eli, 551. Taylor, Charles M., 554. Tecumseh, 295.
Telephone and telegraph lines, 432.
Territorial capital, Attempts to remove, 251, 276. Territorial convention at Guthrie in 1889, 270.
Territorial government, Indians' protest against, 172; Organization of, 169; for Indian Country, 114.
Texas Panhandle, Boundaries of, 20. Texas tribes, transferred to Indian Terri- tory, 133.
Thornton, George E., 266.
Thompson, J. J., 375.
Ticer, N. A. J., 541.
Timms, William O., 524.
Tonkawa tribe, 139.
Town lot certificates, 245.
Towns and cities in Indian Territory under tribal government, 318.
Townsites in Big Pasture, 307.
Townsite of Kingfisher vs. John H. Wood, 258.
Townsite Settlers of Oklahoma City vs. Frank M. Gault et al., 263.
Townsites in Oklahoma after opening, 227. Townsite surveys in Oklahoma territory, 284. Townsite troubles in Pottawatomie opening, 295.
Treaties of 1866, 122-131, 157, 268.
Treaty of 1763, II.
Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, 71.
Treaty of Doaksville, 72.
Treaty of 1819 with Spain, 15.
Treaty of San Ildefonso, 12.
Tribal consolidation, 118.
Tribal governments, Dissolution of, 328.
Tribal relations, Abolition of, 180.
Tribbey, Alpheus M., 536.
Troops, at time of opening, 214.
Troops in Oklahoma at time of opening, 212.
Troops to preserve order in Oklahoma City, 222. Trousdale, William B., 511.
Troutman, Lee, 540.
Truscott, L. K., 504.
Tuch-ee, or Dutch, Cherokee chief, 80.
Tulsa, 385.
Tulseytown, 89.
University of Oklahoma, 357. University Preparatory School, 357. Upper and Lower towns of Creeks, 82. U. S. Commissioners in Indian Territory, 289. U. S. Court in Indian Territory, Jurisdiction of, 288.
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U. S. Court at Muskogee, 317.
U. S. supreme court decision on Greer County, 303. U. S. supreme court and Oklahoma town- site, 233.
Van Dorn, Maj. Earl, 133. Van Horn, Robert T., 130, 172. Van Wyck, Charles H., 176, 180, 269. "Vassalborough Memorial," 57. Verdigris river, 25.
Violet, O. H., 245.
Vote on Sequoyah constitution, 352.
Walker, C. P., 218.
Walker, Delos, 218.
Walker, Gen. Francis A., 134, 145, 162.
Walker, John, 62.
Walkley, Henry C., 485.
Warhurst, M. A., 518.
Washita river, Battle at, 133.
Weaver, Gen. James B., 176, 180, 188, 219, 236, 238, 269. Webber's Falls, 25.
Weer, Col. William, 92.
Wesselhoft, William, 537.
West Oklahoma, 228. Westward Expansion, 117.
Westward Expansion, Review of, 143-146. West Guthrie, 227.
Whisky, Introduction of into Indian Terri- tory, 374. Whitehead, John, 512. White Intrusion, 145, 150-156. Whitley, S. L., 532.
Wichita and affiliated tribes, 132, 133; ces- sion and allotment, 305.
Wichita Indians after the war, IIO.
Wichita mountains, 43, 384.
Wilkinson, James B., Explorations in Okla- homa, 24. Williams, R. L., 378.
Wistar, Thomas, 122.
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Woodward, Founding of, 301.
Worcester case, 62.
Worcester vs. State of Georgia, 51.
Wray, F. S., 514.
Wright, Walter E., 495.
Wolfe, Lindsay C., 555.
Zoeller, Hildebrand, 545. .
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
Previous to November 16, 1907, forty- five states had entered the Union. More than two-thirds had been "admitted," join- ing the original thirteen with the consent and approval of those already within the confederation. At the time of admission, each of these states was a "western" state. When Kentucky came into the Union in 1792, it was on the frontier. Ohio, the first commonwealth to be taken from the Northwest Territory, in 1802 had a popu- lation that fringed the Ohio river and its tributaries, and most of its area was an unbroken wilderness. Indiana and Illinois were admitted while the frontiersmen's axes were making clearings in the forests for the first harvests of grain. Hardly a tithe of Missouri's great estate had been cultivated when the compromise bill stated the terms on which Missouri might relin- quish its territorial government. In less than ten years after the beginning of the free-state movement, a state was created of Kansas. The first American colony was planted in Texas in 1821; in fifteen years that vast domain had become an indepen- dent republic, and ten years later surren- dered nationality for a place among the Vol. 1-1
American states. California had a terri- torial government hardly two years. In Utah, because of its peculiar politico- religious hierarchy, statehood was delayed a half century after its first settlement, and in this respect stands alone among the first forty-five states.
In all these states, Utah excepted, state- hood followed close on the period of first settlement, so that many who broke the virgin sod and built the first schoolhouses, likewise helped to make the first state laws and held the first offices under them. Ohio, Illinois, Kansas and many others that might be named enjoyed state government for years before the first railroad was built within their borders. In this and many other respects, civilization had hardly made a beginning in the newly created common- wealths. Many of the early congressmen from the western states had to begin their journey to Washington on horseback or by stagecoach, and when they appeared at the national capital they were easily marked by their crude western manner and dress.
The thirty states added to the Union during the nineteenth century had each their peculiar history. But a history of
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA
each, brought down only to the admission into the Union, would cover a brief period of pioneer growth and political develop- ment which would be largely a repetition of the history of other territories. Not- withstanding local points of difference, the formation of western states has proceeded along similar lines, so that an examination of the various statehood enabling acts would show few changes necessary to adapt the provisions for statehood to apply to any territories.
It remained for the twentieth century to evolve a state with a history so unique, with political and economic conditions so con- trasted to those prevailing during the ter- ritorial period of the other forty-five com- monwealths, that Oklahoma, in addition to its distinction as a Twentieth Century State, has had a political development con- sisting of differences rather than resem- blances as regards its sister states, and is sui generis in all the essential features of its history. Indeed, this country that is now Oklahoma has long been a subject of misconception among the majority of people. Schoolboys' minds have lingered over that map in their geographies that in- cluded "Indian Territory," and pictured it as a great menagerie of Indian life, which white men would peril their lives to enter. And the information of the average adult was hardly better. To many the phrase, Indian Territory, was included in the same category, politically, with Washington or any other territory. To say that Indian Territory was "an unorganized territory" was very indefinite. Neither the geogra- phies nor the encyclopedias nor the many- tomed histories afforded any satisfying knowledge about this peculiar region that was the home of the Indians but also the home of whites, and that was a territory and yet not a territory. It was so utterly
unlike any other part of America that men ceased to try to understand its conditions and were content with the fraction of truth conveyed by the words "Indian Territory."
The State of Oklahoma is unique. Be- hind the act of President Roosevelt sign- ing the statehood proclamation, over a hundred years have recorded events and developments which have woven their effects into the Oklahoma of today. All the presidents from Washington down have given their consideration to the problems which were solved with the admission of Oklahoma. Jefferson planned an Indian commonwealth here; a century later, when the evolution was complete, Roosevelt pro- claimed the result. In a single generation Ohio was settled, passed through its terri- torial stage, and became a state. Okla- homa emerged from its political dependency only after three generations had passed since its first inhabitants had settled here. Not one is living who took an individual part in the great migration of the thirties.
Nearly twenty years before statehood, Oklahoma and Indian Territory had sur- passed, in population, in degree of agri- cultural development, in general , advance- ment, any other territory at the time of its admission, with the possible exception of Utah. When Oklahoma became a state, it contained a million and a half of popula- tion, its railroad mileage comprised several through state lines, its agricultural prod- ucts were divided among all the crops of the country, its mineral resources of coal, oil, gas, marble, asphalt and other products, in their annual output, were exceeded in few other states of the Union; its business and commerce were equal in the character of stability and volume with that of many of the older states; while in education, culture, and the other standards by which civilization is judged, the average of Okla-
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA
homa would vary in degree, but not suffer to that with which one watches, in dramatic in comparison with the other forty-five states of the Union. Oklahomans have no frontier peculiarities such as distinguished, in the early years of our nation, the citi- zens of the new states. Moreover, Okla- homa was not carved from a new western country, but from the midst of a region that has been overspread by the institutions of American civilization for forty years. Years before, the wave of statehood had passed over all the surrounding region, leaving this territory to develop and main- tain a corresponding progress while in a condition of political pupilage, and finally receive a belated reward of independent existence.
It is one of the prevalent fallacies, even among some Oklahomans, that the history of this state begins with the year 1889, when the Oklahoma country was opened to settlement. To try to understand the his- tory of Oklahoma by studying the events since that year would be as arbitrary and as productive of sound historical under- standing as to begin the history of the nation with the war for the overthrow of slavery. Each was an epochal event, and dated the beginning of a new era, but in a general consideration each stood midway in a vast scene where the background fur- nished the perspective by which to view the more immediate events. Oklahoma the state is the result of forces and influences that have been operative for a century. More than can be said to be true of any other state, Oklahoma is a product of evo- lution; was evolved from a train of causes and effects that make its history both tragic and extraordinary.
To say that the story of Oklahoma's evolution contains elements of tragedy may seem overstatement. Yet a close study of the past hundred years leaves a feeling akin
action, the struggles and plans of individ- uals finally made inoperative through a more dominating set of influences or more masterful personalities; however good the outcome, which we applaud, we express sorrow for the ineffectual battling of the weaker characters. Oklahoma's history presents such examples. Here, the state- craft and political wisdom of the nation's founders planned a community where bar- . barism would gradually redeem itself from the bondage of ignorance and superstition and emerge to equality with the American people. Jefferson looked forward to the time when the American Indian, with the blood of his race unmixed, would attain a degree of civilization and independence that would place him on a plane of political and industrial equality with his white neighbor. An Indian commonwealth was his dream. And yet all the sincerity of purpose and the political foresight of Jefferson and his im- mediate followers must be reckoned to have come to naught against the operation of stronger forces that in all their wisdom those statesmen could neither foresee nor forestall. The history of Oklahoma pre- sents the remarkable spectacle of a political community being guided in one direction and being hurried by the tide of circum- stances quite in a different course and to another goal.
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