Oklahoma (/ˌoʊkləˈhoʊmə/ OHK-lə-HOH-mə;[6] Choctaw: Oklahumma, pronounced [oklahómma])[7] is a state in the South Central region of the United States.[8] It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northeast, Arkansas to the east, New Mexico to the west, and Colorado to the northwest. Partially in the western extreme of the Upland South, it is the 20th-most extensive and the 28th-most populous of the 50 United States. Its residents are known as Oklahomans and its capital and largest city is Oklahoma City. The state's name is derived from the Choctaw words okla, 'people' and humma, which translates as 'red'.[9] Oklahoma is also known informally by its nickname, "The Sooner State", in reference to the Sooners, American settlers who staked their claims in formerly American Indian-owned lands until the Indian Appropriations Act of 1889 authorized the Land Rush of 1889 opening the land to settlement.
With ancient mountain ranges, prairie, mesas, and eastern forests, most of Oklahoma lies in the Great Plains, Cross Timbers, and the U.S. Interior Highlands, all regions prone to severe weather.[10] Oklahoma is at a confluence of three major American cultural regions. Historically, it served as a government-sanctioned territory for American Indians moved from east of the Mississippi River, a route for cattle drives from Texas and related regions, and a destination for Southern settlers. There are currently 26 Indigenous languages spoken in Oklahoma.[11] According to the 2020 U.S. census, 14.2 percent of Oklahomans identify as American Indians, the highest indigenous population by percentage in any state.[12]
A major producer of natural gas, oil, and agricultural products, Oklahoma relies on an economic base of aviation, energy, telecommunications, and biotechnology.[13] Oklahoma City and Tulsa serve as Oklahoma's primary economic anchors, with nearly two-thirds of Oklahomans living within their metropolitan statistical areas.[14]
The name Oklahoma comes from the Choctaw language phrase okla, 'people', and humma, translated as 'red'.[9][15] Choctaw Nation Chief Allen Wright suggested the name in 1866 during treaty negotiations with the federal US government on the use of Indian Territory. He envisioned an all exclusive American Indian state controlled by the United States bureau of Indian Affairs. Oklahoma later became the de facto name for Oklahoma Territory, and it was officially approved in 1890, two years after that area was opened to American settlers.[16][17][18]
Indigenous peoples were present in what is now Oklahoma by the last ice age.[19] Ancestors of the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes (including Teyas and Escanjaques and Tawakoni), Tonkawa,[20] and Caddo (including Kichai) lived in what is now Oklahoma. Southern Plains villagers lived in the central and west of the state, with a subgroup, the Panhandle culture people, living in the panhandle region. Caddoan Mississippian culture peoples lived in the eastern part of the state. Spiro Mounds, in what is now Spiro, Oklahoma, was a major Mississippian mound complex that flourished between AD 850 and 1450.[21][22] Plains Apache people settled in the Southern Plains and in Oklahoma between 1300 and 1500.[23]
The expedition of Spaniard Francisco Vázquez de Coronado traveled through the state in 1541,[24] but French explorers claimed the area in the early 18th century.[25] By the 18th century, Comanche and Kiowa entered the region from the west and Quapaw and Osage peoples moved into what is now eastern Oklahoma. French colonists claimed the region until 1803, when all the French territory west of the Mississippi River was acquired by the United States in the Louisiana Purchase.[24] The territory was a part of the Arkansas Territory from 1819 until 1828.[26]
During the 19th century, the U.S. federal government forcibly removed tens of thousands of American Indians from their ancestral homelands from across North America and transported them to the area including and surrounding present-day Oklahoma. The Choctaw was the first of the Five Civilized Tribes to be removed from the Southeastern United States. The phrase "Trail of Tears" originated from a description of the removal of the Choctaw Nation in 1831, although the term is usually used for the Cherokee removal.[27]
Seventeen thousand Cherokees and 2,000 of their black slaves were deported.[28] The area, already occupied by Osage and Quapaw tribes, was called for the Choctaw Nation until revised Native American and then later American policy redefined the boundaries to include other Native Americans. By 1890, more than 30 Native American nations and tribes had been concentrated on land within Indian Territory or "Indian Country".[29]
All Five Civilized Tribes signed treaties with the Confederate military during the American Civil War.[30] The Cherokee Nation had an internal civil war.[31] Slavery in Indian Territory was not abolished until 1866.[32]
In the period between 1866 and 1899,[24] cattle ranches in Texas strove to meet the demands for food in eastern cities and railroads in Kansas promised to deliver in a timely manner. Cattle trails and cattle ranches developed as cowboys either drove their product north or settled illegally in Indian Territory.[24] In 1881, four of five major cattle trails on the western frontier traveled through Indian Territory.[33]
Increased presence of white settlers in Indian Territory and their demand for land owned and guaranteed to Indian tribes by treaties with the U.S. government prompted the United States to enact the Dawes Act in 1887 and the Curtis Act of 1898. The acts abolished tribal governments, eliminated tribal ownership of land, and allotted 160 acres (65 ha) of land to each head of an Indian family. An objective of the acts was the forced assimilation of Indians into white society. Land not allotted to individual Indians was owned by the U.S. government and sold or distributed to settlers and railroads. The proceeds of the land sales were used to educate Indian children and advance the policy of assimilation. As a result of the two acts about one-half of land previously owned by Indian tribes was owned by whites by 1900.[34] Moreover, much of the land allotted to individual Indian heads of families became white-owned. Allottees often sold or were fraudulently deprived of their land.[35]
The acquisition of tribal lands by the U.S. government led to land runs, also called "land rushes," from 1887 and 1895. Major land runs, including the Land Rush of 1889, opened up millions of acres of formerly tribal lands to white settlement. The "rushes" began at a precise times as each prospective settler literally raced with other prospective settlers to claim ownership of 160 acres (65 ha) of land under the Homestead Act of 1862. Usually land was claimed by settlers on a first come, first served basis.[36] Those who broke the rules by crossing the border into the territory before the official opening time were said to have been crossing the border sooner, leading to the term sooners, which eventually became the state's official nickname.[37] George Washington Steele was appointed the first governor of the territory of Oklahoma in 1890.
Attempts to create an all-Indian state named Oklahoma and a later attempt to create an all-Indian state named Sequoyah failed but the Sequoyah Statehood Convention of 1905 eventually laid the groundwork for the