Analysis: The Rush to Oklahoma
"The Rush to Oklahoma" refers to the significant historical event in April 1889 when land seekers rushed into the Unassigned Lands, an area in present-day Oklahoma that had been previously occupied by American Indian tribes. Following the Indian Removal Act of the 1830s, these lands were made available for settlement after the federal government acquired them from the Creek and Seminole tribes post-Civil War. The opening date was officially set by President Benjamin Harrison for April 22, 1889, leading to a frenzied race among prospective settlers to stake their claims.
This land rush was part of a broader movement of westward expansion in the United States, as many settlers were drawn to the Great Plains after exhausting opportunities in other regions. Despite the excitement surrounding the event, there were underlying challenges such as poor land quality, water scarcity, and economic difficulties faced by those seeking to establish farms and businesses.
The event marked the first of several land runs that contributed to the formation of the Oklahoma Territory a year later, highlighting both the aspirations and hardships of those involved in this pivotal moment in American history.
Analysis: The Rush to Oklahoma
Date: May 18, 1889
Author: William Willard Howard
Genre: article
Summary Overview
In the 1830s, many American Indian tribes from the eastern part of the United States were relocated to the region known as Indian Territory, comprising present-day Oklahoma and Kansas as well as part of Nebraska, under the Indian Removal Act. After the Civil War, the federal government bought some land in the middle of present-day Oklahoma from the Creek, or Muskogee, tribe and the Seminole tribe, which became known as the Unassigned Lands. Early in 1889, Congress authorized opening these lands to settlement, and President Benjamin Harrison set April 22, 1889, as the opening date. Land seekers congregated around the Unassigned Lands, and when the deadline passed, they rushed into the area to stake their claims. Journalist William Willard Howard's firsthand account of the event, the first of several Oklahoma land runs, was published in the magazine Harper's Weekly in May of that year.
Defining Moment
In the thirty years after the Civil War, the last great expansion of agricultural settlement in the United States took place, largely in the lands west of the Mississippi River. Westward settlement across the United States initially skipped over the Great Plains region. The open, largely treeless plains, increasingly arid the farther west one went, seemed inhospitable to American farmers, and early settlers moved on to the mountain regions and the Pacific Coast. By the 1880s, however, many would-be settlers believed that the best available lands elsewhere had already been claimed, and they began to reconsider the Great Plains, and particularly the Unassigned Lands in the center of what is now Oklahoma. Prospective settlers called for this land to be opened for homesteading and settlement, as did the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad, which had built a line through the area. Business owners and land speculators calling for settlement of these lands were often called “boomers.”
Early in 1889, Representative William Springer of Illinois introduced an amendment to the Indian Appropriations Bill that would allow settlement in the Unassigned Lands. President Harrison signed the legislation, and set the official opening of the lands for noon on April 22, 1889. Immediately before that date, eager land seekers surrounded the Unassigned Lands, ready to rush in as soon as the deadline passed. People were seeking land not only for farms and ranches, but also for town sites and business locations. Howard's account captures the unbridled frenzy of the run into the land. But despite great enthusiasm among the land-hungry people who made the run, there was an unrealized irony to their eagerness. As farming was already at the dawn of a long-term transition from the small family farm to large-scale farming and agribusiness, the era of the family farmer was beginning to wane, and many of those who took out homesteads would never prosper. Nevertheless, this first land run was a significant step toward the formation of the Oklahoma Territory in May 1890.
Author Biography
William Willard Howard was born in Iowa on November 8, 1859. He had a long career as a popular journalist specializing in firsthand investigative reports, publishing widely in prominent magazines such as Harper's Weekly, Scribner's, and The Century. In addition to the Oklahoma land run, he covered the Detroit International Exposition and Fair of 1889 for Harper's and also made a trip to Colombia to report on platinum mining there. In the 1890s, Howard traveled abroad to distribute relief funds to Armenians and investigate the reports of massacres committed by the Ottoman Empire. He is perhaps best known for his book on the subject, Horrors of Armenia: The Story of an Eyewitness, published in 1896. Howard died in New York on December 6, 1933.
Document Analysis
The April 1889 land run into the Unassigned Lands, which Howard describes in his article for Harper's Weekly, was the first of several such openings of what had been tribal lands in the Indian Territory. As such, it was an important step in the creation of the Oklahoma Territory, which occurred just one year later. All or parts of what are now Canadian, Cleveland, Kingfisher, Logan, Oklahoma, and Payne counties in the state of Oklahoma were opened for settlement and homesteading in this 1889 run.
Howard capably captures the spirit of frenzy, excitement, and optimism exhibited by the people making the run. He was impressed by what he saw, but was not taken in by the overly optimistic attitudes of the boomers and settlers he encountered. He makes note of many of the problems that arose, including the poor quality of some of the land, the scarcity of water in the area, and the fraud by which various marshals and others entered the area and laid out claims before it was legal to do so. He also notes that even during the brief time he was there, some speculative ventures, such as the sale of building lots in the newly settled towns, had already begun to fail.
Howard also describes the suffering that accompanied this opening of settlement. Many men came on their own, but if they brought their families, the children often had too little to eat due to the high price of food. Many people claimed land but had little cash to pay for supplies or to buy food until they could begin to produce their own. This was a common problem during the period of western settlement—even if settlers were given land at no cost, they still had to have some resources to live on while the land was being brought into production. Howard was realistic enough to see that the future potential of the Oklahoma region would depend on the agricultural productivity of the land. If the farms and ranches prospered, the towns and cities would as well. He predicted correctly that once some land in the heart of the Indian Territory had been opened for settlement, the rest of it would inevitably be opened as well.
Bibliography and Additional Reading
Gibson, Arrell M. Oklahoma: A History of Five Centuries. 2nd ed. Norman: U of Oklahoma P, 2010. Print.
Hoig, Stan. The Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889. Oklahoma City: Oklahoma Hist. Soc., 1989. Print.
Prucha, Francis Paul. The Great Father: The United States Government and the American Indians. 2 vols. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1984. Print.