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Map of Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory in 1894, showing political subdivisions existing then. Both Territories ceased to exist November 16, 1907, when the State of Oklahoma became effective. Original counties. When Oklahoma Territory was created in 1890, seven counties were defined and designated numerically.
- Oklahoma - Wikipedia
Oklahoma later became the de facto name for Oklahoma...
- Oklahoma Territory - Simple English Wikipedia, the free ...
Map of Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory, 1890s....
- Oklahoma - Wikipedia
The Territory of Oklahoma existed for a brief seventeen years, yet its rapid expansion and development made its history unique. After the initial land run into the Unassigned Lands on April 22, 1889, the number of settlers exceeded the requirements for creating a territorial government, but the area's citizens waited for a year before the U.S ...
Jan 15, 2010 · A region conceived as "the Indian country" was specified in 1825 as all the land lying west of the Mississippi. Eventually, the Indian country or the Indian Territory would encompass the present states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and part of Iowa. In actuality, the Indian Removal process had begun by treaties soon after 1800.
- Precontact Oklahoma
- Colonial Era
- American Claims
- Indian Territory
- Indian and Oklahoma Territories
- Oklahoma Gains Statehood
- Early Statehood
- World War II
- Civil Rights Movement in Oklahoma
- Late 20th Century to Present
People have lived in what is now Oklahoma since at least the Last Ice Age. Archaeologists refer to the earliest cultures as Paleo-Indians. The Burnham site, near Freedom in Woods County, Oklahoma is a pre-Clovis site, that is, an archaeological site dating before 11,000 years ago. The earliest known painted object in North America, the Cooper Bison...
Spanish first contact
The Expedition of Spaniard Francisco Vázquez de Coronado traveled through the state in 1541, In 1601, Juan de Oñate led an expedition near the Antelope Hills in western Oklahoma. The expeditions encountered many cultures of Caddoan language-speakers, including the Caddo and Wichita. In 1629, Father Juan de Salas was likely the first Catholic missionary to record working in present-day Oklahoma. In 1650, Don Diego del Castillo led an expedition to the Wichita Mountainsin search of gold and sil...
18th century migration
After obtaining horses, Comanche people entered the Southern Plains by the early 18th century, coming from the Great Basinin the West. The Kiowa, who speak a Kiowa-Tanoan language, migrated into the Southern Plains from the Rocky Mountains. Tanoan languages are those that were spoken in the Jemez, Piro, Tiwa, and Tewa pueblos of New Mexico. Linguists who study the history of languages, however, believe that Kiowa split from the Tanoan branch over 3,000 years ago and moved to the far north.The...
Louisiana
In 1682, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle claimed all of the Mississippi River and its tributaries for the Kingdom of France. In 1719, Claude Charles du Tisné's expedition likely passed through parts of Oklahoma. Jean-Baptiste Bénard de la Harpe led a second 1719 expedition through eastern Oklahoma to Arkansas.The land that would become Oklahoma was under French control from 1682 to 1763 as part of the territory of Louisiana (New France). Colonization efforts primarily occurred in the...
Louisiana Purchase and Arkansas Territory
With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States acquired France's 828,000 square mile claim to the watersheds of the Mississippi River (west of the river) and Missouri River. The purchase encompassed all or part of 15 current U.S. states (including all of Oklahoma) and parts of two Canadian provinces. Out of the Louisiana Purchase, Louisiana Territory and Orleans Territory was organized. Orleans Territory became the state of Louisiana in 1812, and Louisiana Territory was renamed Missou...
The Adams–Onís Treaty and New Spain
The Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819 was between the United States and Spain. Spain ceded the Florida Territory to the U.S., the U.S. gave fringe areas in the West to Spain, and the boundary was established between the U.S. and New Spain. The new boundary was to be the Sabine River north from the Gulf of Mexico to the 32nd parallel north, then due north to the Red River, west along the Red River to the 100th meridian west, due north to the Arkansas River, west to its headwaters, north to the 42nd pa...
Republic of Texas and Kansas Territory
In 1821, New Spain gained its independence and became the short-lived Mexican Empire, followed by the Mexican Republic in 1824. Thus Mexico was the new owner of the lands to the south and west of the U.S. Territories. Texas, a province within Mexico, declared its independence from Mexico in 1836 following the Texas Revolution. The Republic of Texasexisted as a separate country from 1836 to 1845. Texas was annexed as a state into the United States in 1845, and the Mexican–American War followed...
American exploration
In 1806, a smaller group of Zebulon Pike's expedition, led by Lieutenant James B. Wilkinson, were likely some of the first Americans to explore Oklahoma. In 1810, George C. Sibley explored parts of Oklahoma, while Stephen H. Long explored the region in 1817 and 1820. English naturalist Thomas Nuttalllikely visited parts of Oklahoma in 1819.
Indian removal
The Georgia compact, which was signed in 1802, was the first of many treaties and bills signed to remove the native people from their land. The Georgia compact, in particular, took away the native people's right to their land and promised to move them out in exchange for the western lands of Georgia. The beginning of the United States expansion into the west began with the Louisiana purchase. The Georgia compact was the start of a long series of treaties and bills that were signed to remove t...
Civil War
The civil war was another terrible period for the civilized tribes, as they had only just begun to rebuild and then the civil war ignited old conflicts. In 1860, the Indian Territory had a population of 55,000 Indians, 8,400 black slaves owned by Indians, and 3000 whites. In 1861, as the American Civil War began, Texas forces moved north and the United States withdrew its military forces from the territory. Confederate Commissioner Albert Pike signed formal treaties of alliance with all the m...
Indian Territory (lands owned by the Five Civilized Tribes and other Indian tribes from east of the Mississippi River) and Oklahoma Territory (lands set aside to relocate Plains Indians and other Midwestern tribes, as well as the recently settled "Unassigned Lands" and the Neutral Strip) were formally constituted by Congress on May 2, 1890, in the ...
In 1902, the leaders of Indian Territory sought to become their own state, to be named Sequoyah. They held a convention in Eufaula, consisting of representatives from the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminole tribes, known as the Five Civilized Tribes. They met again next year to establish a constitutional convention.
The early years of statehood were marked with political activity. In 1910, the Democrats moved the capital to Oklahoma City, three years before the Oklahoma Organic Act allowed, in order to move away from the Republican hotbed of Guthrie. Socialism became a growing force among struggling farmers, and Oklahoma grew to have the largest Socialist popu...
The economy was clearly recovering by 1940, as farm and cattle prices rose. So did the price of oil. Massive Federal spending on infrastructure during the Depression was also beginning to show payoffs. Even before World War II broke out, the Oklahoma industrial economy saw increased demand for its products. The Federal government created such defen...
Precursor to the Civil Rights Era: A Brief History of Black Activism in Oklahoma Previous to the Civil Rights Era
Because of the prejudice and unfair treatment under segregation that had divided Oklahoma since 1910 with the "grandfather clause" and the national Jim Crow laws, civil rights groups began making movement in Oklahoma even before the technical civil rights era of the 1960s. African Americans experienced many counts of racial violence nationwide and in Oklahoma Specifically, even after gaining their "freedom" after the civil war. The results of the civil war, although it freed African Americans...
The Civil Rights Era in Oklahoma: Activism, Counterculture, and Leaders 1955-1970
With Martin Luther King's nonviolent views at the forefront of civil rights protests, Oklahoma saw multiple forms of peaceful and effective protests from varying members of the state. One of the most prominent members of Oklahoma's civil rights movement was Clara S. Luper, the leader of the NAACP youth council of Oklahoma. One of Clara Luper's prominent efforts for the fight for civil rights in Oklahoma is the Katz Drug-Store sit-inof 1958, in protest of the segregation of public areas and di...
The American Indian Movement/Red Power Movement in Oklahoma of the Late 1960's-1970's
With the civil rights era underway, Native Americans began to fight for their freedoms as well. After centuries of improper treatment under the United States constitution, the American Indian movement, or AIM was founded originally in Minneapolis to protest and prevent police racially profiling Native Americans. However, this movement quickly expanded across the United States. As Oklahoma was originally a reserved territory marked for Native reservations following the Indian Removal Act, the...
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 alive during the Dust Bowlera) still see the term negatively because they see the "Okie" migrants as quitters and transpl...
The Territory of Oklahoma was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 2, 1890, until November 16, 1907, when it was joined with the Indian Territory under a new constitution and admitted to the Union as the state of Oklahoma.
