 A gunshot at high noon on APRIL 22, 1889, began the famous Oklahoma Land Rush.
Within
9 hours some two million acres became the private property of settlers
who staked their claims for 160 acres to homestead.
Riding as
fast as they could, many found desirable plots already taken by
"Boomers" who began intruding ten years earlier, and "Sooners,"
individuals who entered the territory just days or hours sooner than was
permitted.
The
remaining land had been assigned to dozens of Indian tribes, including
the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole, and Cherokee, who had survived
the Federal Government's horrible "Trail of Tears" march during the
freezing winter of 1838-1839.
Over 17,000 Indians had been
forcibly removed by a Federal Government mandate from Georgia and other
Eastern States. A Democrat controlled Congress passed the Indian Removal
Act by a single vote in 1830, and it was signed by Democrat President
Andrew Jackson.
Opposing the Federal Government's mandate were
Christian missionaries, such as Jeremiah Evarts, Congressmen Davy
Crockett of Tennessee, Congressman Abraham Lincoln of Illinois, and New
Jersey Senator Theodore Frelinghuysen.
Over 12,000 Cherokees
signed a petition in protest and Supreme Court Chief Justice John
Marshall even ruled in favor of the Cherokee Indian Tribe, but Democrat
President Jackson, and his successor Democrat President Martin Van
Buren, refused to abide by the Court's decision.
President Ronald
Reagan commemorated the thousands who died as a result of the Federal
Government's policy by designating the "Trail of Tears" a National
Historic Trail in 1987.
Oklahoma, which is the Choctaw word for "red people," became the 46th State to join the Union in 1907.
The Preamble of Oklahoma's Constitution reads:
"Invoking
the guidance of Almighty God, in order to secure and perpetuate the
blessing of liberty; to secure just and rightful government; to promote
our mutual welfare and happiness, we, the people of the State of
Oklahoma, do ordain and establish this Constitution."
Cherokee Will Rogers was an actor and cowboy philosopher who was offered the nomination for Oklahoma's Governor, but declined.
Will Rogers said:
"The Lord constituted everybody that no matter what color you are, you require the same amount of nourishment."
Will Rogers remarked:
"Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip."
Will Rogers quipped:
"The trouble with our praying is, we just do it as a means of last resort," and "Lord, let me live until I die." |
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