Indian removal by Alvin RuckerOklahoma Historical Society
In the early 1800s, more than seventy thousand American Indians were forcibly removed from the Southeast. The removal took its toll on most of the tribal nations that were forced to make the journey.
The map details the Choctaw tribe’s removal to Indian Territory.
One of several tribes living in Oklahoma today, the Cherokee governed over much of the southeastern US before European colonization. Today’s Cherokee Nation continues to teach tribal history and language courses and is dedicated to restoring tribal independence.
This image features the Cherokee Nation’s capital in 1924.
As Indian Territory was not a formally recognized US territory, the Federal Court for the District of Arkansas was originally given jurisdiction over US crimes committed on Indian lands. By 1897 the authority of the original federal courts was all but eliminated in the territory.
This photograph depicts the first federal courthouse at Muskogee, c. 1890.
Dawes Commission by Robertson StudioOklahoma Historical Society
The Dawes Commission was established to negotiate agreements with tribes to end tribal land ownership and give individual tribal members allotments of land. In 1914 the Dawes Commission was abolished, and unfinished business was transferred to the Five Civilized Tribes Agency.
Elias Cornelius Boudinot was a lawyer who gained appointment to the Cherokee delegation in Washington following the Civil War. Post delegation, Boudinot called for Indian Territory to be made into an official territory of the United States and proposed naming the territory, “Oklahoma.”
El Reno land lottery (1901)Oklahoma Historical Society
Around the turn of the twentieth century, central and western portions of Oklahoma were opened to settlement by non-Indians. Land runs became one method for opening lands to white settlement. Five land runs took place between 1889 and 1895. Following the runs, land was opened by lottery or auctioned off through sealed bids.
Born in Indiana, David Payne became known for making the Oklahoma Boomer Movement popular. He became an advocate for the opening of Unassigned Lands in the territory. Payne died before the Unassigned Lands he was fighting for were officially opened for settlement.
Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory (1889)Oklahoma Historical Society
The Land Run of 1889 was the first opening of federal lands to non-Indian settlement in present-day Oklahoma. The Homestead Act of 1862 allowed any legal settler to claim 160 acres of public land with the ability to receive a title after five years of settlement. After the opening, an estimated eleven thousand homesteads were claimed and towns sprang up across Oklahoma overnight.
Cattle on a feedlot (1925)Oklahoma Historical Society
By the beginning of the twenty-first century, Oklahoma was the number four beef-producing state in the US. Factors contributing to the cattle industry included nutritious grasses and productive grain farms.
This image features cattle on a feedlot near Purcell, Oklahoma, in 1925.
Pathways such as the Shawnee Trail, the Chisholm Trail, and the Great Western Trail were regular crossings for cattle drivers through Indian Territory. Large cattle drives died down in the late 1800s due to everything from the previous pathway being settled to the outlawing of cattle drives by surrounding state legislatures.
Four different plans for territorial statehood, including single statehood combining both territories, double statehood, piecemeal absorption, and statehood for only Oklahoma Territory, evolved before the Enabling Act was passed in 1906.
Proposed state of Sequoyah (1902)Oklahoma Historical Society
In August 1905 the Sequoyah Convention assembled in Muskogee, aimed at securing separate statehood for Indian Territory. However, the US Congress refused to consider the proposed Sequoyah statehood bills, and joint statehood between Indian and Oklahoma Territories occurred in 1907.
Oklahoma Territory existed for only seventeen years, from 1890 (the year after the Unassigned Lands were opened to settlement) until statehood in 1907. By 1906 the Oklahoma Enabling Act allowed for the writing of a constitution, and on November 16, 1907, Oklahoma was admitted as the 46th state.
Oklahoma and Indian Territories contributed three of the twelve subdivisions of the Rough Riders, the first US Volunteer Cavalry regiment that served during the Spanish-American War. The last territorial governor of Oklahoma, Frank Franz, was also a member of Roosevelt’s Rough Riders.
Oklahoma Governor Charles Haskell’s inauguration on statehood day (1907-11-16)Oklahoma Historical Society
The movement toward Oklahoma statehood increased dramatically following the opening of Indian lands to non-Indians in the 1890s. President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Oklahoma Enabling Act on June 16, 1906, calling for Indian and Oklahoma Territories to be merged into one state.
Haystacks on a family farm (early 1900s)Oklahoma Historical Society
Agriculture developed quickly as territorial lands were settled. After the 1889 land run, agriculture became the basis of the economy. However, settlers faced a number of problems ranging from periodic droughts to low prices for crops and livestock. Oklahoma farms produced crops such as corn, cotton, wheat, potatoes, and hay.
