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APRIL 22:

 April 22, 1889:  The Oklahoma land rush begins.
 

BACKGROUND:

From http://www.snowhawk.com/oklahoma.html
 
 

Oklahoma, also called "The Sooner State," is smack dab in the middle of the Heartland, USA. The name Oklahoma is from the Choctaw Nation words "okla" meaning people, and "humma" meaning red... "Red People." The largest population (250,000) of Native American Indians in the United States, with Tribal Headquarters for 39 Tribes, are in Oklahoma. The state was known as Indian Territory when the 5 civilized Tribes were forced to relocate here, during 1838-1839, from their homes in the southeast as ordered by President Jackson in what is known as the "Trail of Tears." A treaty then swore this would be the Indians' Promised Land, "for as long as the grass grows and the water flows." -- However, in 1893 a choice portion of Indian Territory in Oklahoma was opened up for white settlement in one of the most bizarre events known to American History. Over 100,000 people lined up along 165 miles of the Kansas border ready to take off and stake their claims in the Land Rush. Those Federal Marshals, railroad personnel, and others who were legally allowed in the territory before the shot fired at noon, starting the race into "Cherokee Strip," were called "legal sooners" which is how the name Oklahoma "Sooners" came to be.
 

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>From http://www.dickshovel.com/cleansing.html
 

The United States Government has been trying unsuccessfully to register Native American Indians for over a hundred years. The infamous Dawes Act of 1887 was the first such effort on a large-scale. The purported aim of the Act was to protect Indian property rights during the Oklahoma Land Rush. By registering, Indians were told, they would be allotted 160 acres of land per family in advance of the Land Rush and thus be restituted for 100 years of genocide against them.

The purpose of the Dawes Act, ostensibly to protect Indian welfare, was viewed with suspicion by many Indians hurt by government's clumsy relocation efforts of the past. Indians who had refused to submit to previous relocations refused to register on the Dawes Rolls for fear that they would be caught and punished.

To get on the Dawes Rolls, Native Americans had to "anglicize" their names. Rolling Thunder thus became Ron Thomas and so forth. This bit of "melting pot" chicanery allowed agents of the government, sent to the frontier to administer the Act, to slip the names of their relatives and friends onto the Dawes Rolls and thus reap millions of acres of land for their friends and cronies.
 

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>From http://www.minerd.com/memoir-oklahomalandrush.htm
 

The Great Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889 By Nellie B. (Brown) Jones As told to her daughter Hazel Jones ca. 1931

I was still living in western Kansas when Oklahoma was opened up for settlement.  One day my father said I am going to Oklahoma and take a claim. I said I am going along and take a claim.  Father said, "Who is going to teach your school this fall?"  I said, "Someone else can teach it." Father seemed to think a girl would not stand a chance in the race for a claim.  We started for the Oklahoma line a few days before the opening date. We had some thrilling experiences before we arrived.

In order to get a drink of water it was necessary to drink out of holes along the trail.  The Cimmaron River was high.  We got stuck in the quicksand and the men had to get out in the river and push.  We had to hitch another team on to pull the wagon across the river.  The water came up in the wagon bed.  When we arrived in the Indian Reservation, the cowboys told us the Indians were on the war path.

At night we put eight wagons in a circle and stood guard all night but no Indians appeared.  The next night a rattlesnake was killed just before we went to bed on the ground.  It was necessary to leave one of the wagons behind that had broken down and load the things on the other wagon. We arrived on the west line the night before the long ago remembered day of April 22, 1889.  There were thousands of men and women and children who had come to seek their fortune in the sands of Oklahoma.

It was impossible to sleep during the night as there was a lot of excitement.  Children cried.  Dogs barked.  Men quarreled, fought and played cards all night.  About 11 o'clock everyone began to get in line for the big race.  Some were on horseback, some in buggies and carts and wagons.  One man drove a horse and cow.  Father and my brother were on horses.  My sister and I drove an old mule hitched to a buggy.

At 12 o'clock the soldiers fired the gun and the race was on.  I drove the old mule over the line and jumped out and staked my claim but five men stuck their stakes near mine.  Sister and I put up our tent.

That evening father and brother came back discouraged as someone else was always ahead of them but the next day they were lucky and each filed on a claim.  Brother's claim was next to the famous Dalton Boys' farm.  He proved up they always treated him line a real gentleman.  He built a sod house by digging a hole in the ground then putting lumber across the top of the hole and covering it with sod.  As there were no trees for fire weed, we picked up buffalo chips.  We piled them up to dry.  Didn't smell too good when they were burning but it beat freezing in the cold weather.

My sister and I had quite an experience.  There was one night brother was gone and we were alone.  An Indian came in and wanted something to eat and said he was going to eat and snooze.  We fed him and he laid his blanket on the floor and went to sleep.  Sister and I set up all night.  One of us had the axe and the other one had a butcher knife.  It was a good thing he never made a false move all night and it was a good thing for him he didn't.  He sure would have been a dead Indian if he had made a false move.

Back to my experience filing a claim.  When the land office opened at Kingfisher I was there to get filing papers.  I thought I had arrived early but there was a line of men already standing in line, ready to file.

After standing in line all day I was given a number.  My number was 640. The man said, "If you lose your number you will lose your place."  The next morning I was at the land office early.  The men that had staked my claim thought they would wait till the rush was over but they waited too long.

I lived on my claim a year and a half and paid one dollar and a quarter an acre and the claim was mine.  It was located half a mile west of Kingfisher on the north side of the road.  After I had been there a year and a half I took the chills so had to leave.  I went to Kansas to visit another sister, Ella Young.  There I met a young farmer named Martin Luther Jones and we were later married and I spent the rest of my life in Kansas.
 

Republished 2000 by Mark A. Miner
 

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>From http://www.harvestcomm.net/personal/bjsbytes/chkstrip.htm
 

"The Cherokee Strip"

The 226-mile tract known as the Cherokee Strip is much more than a parcel of land. It was the setting for the largest, most spectacular competitive event in history -- the Cherokee Strip Land Run of 1893. Cities and towns grew from the dust of that great race, and today their amazing story can still be heard across the Oklahoma plains.

The Land

The Cherokee Strip extends 226 miles from east to west and 58 miles north to south -- larger than the states of Connecticut, Deleware and Rhode Island combined. Thirteen northern counties and 9,400 miles make up Oklahoma's portion of the Cherokee Strip, historically designated as the Cherokee Outlet. Looking across the vast horizon of the Cherokee Strip, it's easy to imagine the thousands of buffalo that once roamed the open plains. It is a land as diverse as America itself, with rolling Osage prairies in the east to gypsum sand dunes and the rugged Glass Mountains in the west.

American Indians In The Strip

Although the flags of many countries have flown symbolically over the untamed lands of the Cherokee Strip, American Indians were its original owners. In 1828, the U.S. government gave the land to the Cherokees, calling the area the Cherokee Outlet because the tribe could cross freely to hunting grounds in the west. The Cherokees were assigned lands in northeastern Oklahoma (then Indian Territory), and never lived in the Cherokee Strip.

In 1866, the United States asked the Cherokees to sell portions of the Strip to "friendly" Indians. Tribes or parts of tribes, such as Osage, Pawnee, Kaw, Ponca, Tonkawa, Nez Perce, Otoe and Missouria, settled in the region. When the Strip was opened to white settlement, tribes living there -- with the exception of the Nez Perce, who were previously moved to their Oregon homeland -- were sold individual allotments not to exceed 80 acres, half of the allotment amount offered to settlers who made the run. Museums and attractions throughout the Cherokee Strip tell the poignant story of American Indians and how their cultures and spirituality have persevered during the last 100 years.

The Cattle Trails

After the Civil War, Texas had some six million head of longhorn cattle but virtually no market for the beef. Demand for their product by hungry Easterners led Texas ranchers to drive their cattle through the Cherokee Strip to railhead markets in Kansas and Missouri. Several cattle trails crossed the Outlet, but the best known is the namesake of Jesse Chisholm, a Scotch and Cherokee trader. Chisholm made his first trip up the trail in 1865, and millions of cattle thundered across the Strip over the next 20 years, driven by men who had spurred a new occupation -- the cowboy. Remnants of the famous Chisholm Trail can still be found across the Cherokee Strip. In 1993, at the commemoration of the Centennial Anniversary of the opening of the Strip, this colorful era returned when many people participated in cattle drives, wagon trains and trail rides that made their way through the region.

The Great Ranches

When it became obvious raising cattle on the lush grass of the Outlet was more profitable than driving herds from Texas, sprawling ranches appeared in the Strip. In 1883 the Cherokee Strip Livestock Association was formed and six million acres were leased from the Cherokees. Seven years later, President Benjamin Harrison ordered the ranchers to remove all cattle from the Strip. Plans were in place to open the expansive ranchlands for settlement by eager pioneers.

The Race

They came to the land that would be Oklahoma by train, horseback, wagon and on foot, from every state and territory in the nation and abroad. Texas and Kansas had the most settlers represented. Most had few material possessions but all came with a dream: to stake a claim and make a home on the vast, virgin prairie known as the Cherokee Strip.

President Cleveland and Secretary of Interior H. R. Smith hoped they learned something from earlier "stampedes" for land. They hoped that with better planning they could avoid the troubles and confusion that accompanied the 1889 land rush. Prior to opening the land they established county seats and opened four land offices at Enid, Perry, Alva and Woodward. Homesteaders were to go to these offices and pay a filing fee ranging from $1.00 to $2.50. Filing fees were based upon the quality of land. However, the Strip was to be settled by the horse-race method. To eliminate "sooners," they set up makeshift offices just inside the Cherokee Strip border. Homesteaders were to register and produce filing fee affidavits to be eligible for the run.

On the day of the run, it was hot and dry. Dust, whipped by wind, and thousands of feet, made it unbearable. To add to the misery, soldiers were doing their best to keep order, and see that no one "jumped the gun." The run was to begin only when troopers shot their pistols at high noon. There were several reports of persons shooting a gun in the crowd. Many homesteaders excitedly took off on hearing any gun shot. Such excitement could only lead to trouble for some. One fellow heard the wild shot at four minutes before noon, and took off. Troopers reportedly chased him for a quarter mile before shooting him dead.

Finally, at noon September 16, 1893, a shot rang out and more than 100,000 determined settlers raced for 42,000 claims. By sunset, there would be tent cities, endless lines at federal land offices and more losers than winners. The Cherokee Strip Land Run was a tumultuous finale to what many have called the last American frontier.

(Ed's Note:  When the author of the text above speaks of "losers", he is not speaking of the real losers - the People of the land, the indian peoples. It is worth looking into just how many were dispossessed of their homelands by these land rushes and lotteries.  Sad, sad, sad.)