Oklahoma's background, formation, and organization are unique among the states. Developed out of two separate territories, Indian and Oklahoma, numerous changes have occurred in Oklahoma jurisdictions and boundaries.

The region alternated between French and Spanish possession until 1803 when it became part of the United States' Louisiana Purchase from France. A few forts and settlements cropped up along the Red River as the area successively fell under the territorial jurisdiction of Indiana (1803), Missouri (1812) and Arkansas (1819).

As early as 1804, efforts were made to negotiate the removal of southeastern tribes to west of the Mississippi River. The period of largest removal occurred between 1825–42 when the federal government forced relocation to what eventually became western Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. The region was established as a home, “as long as the grass shall grow and rivers run,” for the Five Civilized Tribes (Creek, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole) displaced from their previous homes in the south and southeast by the U.S. government and its citizens. The route traveled became known as the “Trail of Tears” because of the grief and loss experienced by Native Americans during their uprootings. Once relocated, the five tribes again set up their own governments as they had in their previous homes, established a newspaper, built towns, and organized schools and farms. Forts Gibson, Washita, and Towson were erected to protect the Native Americans from intruding U.S. citizens and raiding plains tribes.

When the United States acquired the Republic of Texas in 1845, what would later become Oklahoma's panhandle ostensibly belonged to Texas. In 1850 Congress purchased the panhandle strip, but this “No Man's Land” remained separate from Indian Territory or any other territory or state. During the 1850s, railway companies pressured the government to open the unassigned lands of the panhandle strip, but Congress confined Indian Territory to present-day Oklahoma in 1854, excluding the panhandle strip. Prior to the Civil War, the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations had leased the southwestern third of the present-day state to the United States as hunting grounds for the plains tribes.

During the Civil War, internal dissention among the tribes arose as some members served the Union, while others supported the Confederate cause, and still others tried to stay neutral. A much larger percentage favored the Confederate cause, and the Five Civilized Tribes officially supported the Confederacy.

At the conclusion of the Civil War, the federal government, partly to make provision for free blacks to own land and partly as a response to Native American support of the Confederacy, demanded a new set of treaties in 1866. These treaties reduced the original size of the reservations and permitted other tribes to be moved into the territory. Within the next seventeen years, many other tribes were relocated to Oklahoma. The greater part of the Cherokee Outlet (along the northern border with Kansas) and a desirable tract in the center of Oklahoma remained “Unassigned.”

Between 1865 and 1889, cattlemen, railroaders, soldiers, and settlers lived within Indian Territory's borders before settlement was legally permitted. Some had taken advantage of the loopholes in the law allowing artisans and professionals to contract with tribes for labor.

In 1872 the first railroad was established through the area connecting Missouri, Kansas, and Texas. Indian Territory was called “the promised land” as it offered fine grazing land and the possibility of free land. Major trails such as the Chisholm, Great Western, East Shawnee, West Shawnee, Couch, Payne, and Plummer ran between cattle land in Texas and grazing and farm land in Kansas.

In April 1880, in defiance of federal authorities, David L. Payne crossed the Kansas/Oklahoma border and marched with a band of twenty-one “Boomers” (those who promoted opening of the territory for settlement) to the center of Indian Territory, commonly called “Oklahoma country.” The trail they blazed was followed by other Boomers over the next five years.

A major settlement transition occurred in 1889. The previous sixty years had marked the arrival in Indian Territory of sixty-five different tribes, including the Five Civilized Tribes. However, agitation for opening these lands to nonnative settlement increased until the federal government purchased a clear title to the central tract, called “Unassigned Lands,” and on 22 April 1889 the first official “run” for these homestead lands occurred. Prospective homesteaders lined up along the South Canadian River and Indian Territory boundary lines to await the signal to begin. Others, called “Sooners” (because they did not wait), jumped the gun. This contributed to many court cases where land ownership was contested and also gave rise to the state's nickname—the Sooner State.

An estimated 50,000 people settled the tract in a day, marking the shift from native to nonnative settlement. Oklahoma City became a tent colony with over 10,000 people. Other large towns settled that day were Guthrie, Kingfisher, and Norman.

Many land run trails into the area led southward from Kansas. These included the Wild Horse, Ponca, Black Bear, and Caldwell trails. Stage routes ran south from Kansas, west from Arkansas, and east from Fort Reno. The Butterfield Stage route left Fort Smith, Arkansas, and ran southwest to the Red River. A wagon road closely followed the North Canadian River through Potawatomie land. Through a joint effort of a number of railroad companies, a line was completed from Guthrie to Kingfisher and beyond to Seward.

The present-day state of Oklahoma was divided into two governmental divisions, Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory, in May 1890. Indian Territory encompassed the eastern half of the state and the Cherokee Outlet along the Kansas border. Oklahoma Territory included the panhandle, called “No Man's Land,” and an area that stretched from the southwestern section, including Greer County northeast to the Kansas border, called “Unassigned Lands.” County governments began to emerge in Oklahoma Territory.

During the 1890s cattlemen were prohibited from the practice of leasing grazing grounds from the tribes. Congress forced the Native Americans to accept individual land allotments for each member of their tribes instead of holding the land in common. The Dawes Commission was established in 1893 to register individual Native Americans, allot the land, and assist and supervise the government in changing from a tribal to a state organization. In response to vehement demand, additional tracts were opened for land runs or homesteading in 1891, 1892, 1895, 1904, and 1906.

By 1900 Oklahoma Territory had burgeoned to encompass more than the western half of the present state, while Indian Territory was dwindling to a smaller part of the eastern section. Greer County, formerly under Texas jurisdiction, became legally attached to Oklahoma Territory in 1896. In June 1906 Congress provided for the admission of Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory to the Union as one state, if both nonnatives and natives approved. On 16 November 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed Oklahoma the forty-sixth state. Oklahoma City supplanted Guthrie as the capital in 1910.

Mineral and ore deposits drew many settlers, some directly from Europe. Coal and petroleum products still represent a large portion of the state's output. With the spectacular rise of the petroleum industry, the state entered a prosperous era that helped it survive declines in the livestock industry and in the value of dry-farming produce. By the 1930s, six railroads served the state, converging in Oklahoma City.

The state's population of those with Native American heritage remains one of the highest in the United States. The dual history of native relocation and nonnative settlement remains important in the use of records kept for genealogical research.

Native American

Because of the federal government's removal policy, sixty-five different tribes have made their home in present-day Oklahoma. The sources for research are enormously varied from the kinds of materials generally associated with county-state record patterns. In addition to the sources held in the National Archives and its Southwest regional branch in Ft. Worth, materials for research on both natives and nonnatives who lived in the Twin Territories can be found at all agencies of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, including those in Anadarko, Ardmore, Concho, Okmulgee, Pawhuska, Pawnee, Miami, Shawnee, Tahlequah, Talihina, Wewoka, and Stewart. What is covered here are some general categories of records found regarding Native Americans in the state. For a more extensive and detailed discussion see Blessing, Oklahoma Records and Archives, and Koplowitz Guide to the Historical Records of Oklahoma, or George J. Nixon, “Records Relating to Native American Research: The Five Civilized Tribes,” in The Source.

Some copies of census records on Native Americans are available at the Oklahoma Historical Society library and the FHL. These censuses are alphabetically arranged by BIA agency, then tribal name, and then date of enumeration. Since agency changes were made, a specific tribe may have been under the jurisdiction of two or more agencies. Beginning about 1916, the registration of individuals' names may be alphabetically arranged within the tribe's census schedule.

Land allotment records can be a valuable source for Native American ancestors. To obtain a parcel of land, each applicant had to include documentation of descent. Final rolls list those who received land allotments. When the land was to be sold or the individual died, all heirs were identified since transfer of land required permission from all heirs. This data usually was registered in allotment or family registers. Later lists of heirs may be located in records entitled “Heirship Records.” Each person is usually identified by age or birth date and relationship. Most allotted land eventually returned to tribal jurisdiction, for few individuals received patents to their holdings (see also Land Records).

Enrollment records, on which land allotments were based, were drawn up by the Dawes Commission for the Five Civilized Tribes. Under the Dawes Commission, information was abstracted onto data cards entitled Enrollments Cards for the Five Civilized Tribes: 1898–1914 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives, 1981). Cards were made from both approved and rejected applications of Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole tribe members. Microfilm of these packets and records is available at the Oklahoma Historical Society, the National Archives, and the FHL. Original applications are housed at the National Archives and its Southwest regional branch in Fort Worth. A guide and index to these records is included in the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes' publication, The Final Rolls of Citizens and Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory, 2 vols. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, n.d.).

Another valuable source is the Guion Miller records, which are contained on 348 reels of microfilm entitled Eastern Cherokee Applications of the U.S. Court of Claims, 1906–1909 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives, 1981). A separate index is available for this collection of court records for individuals who applied for government compensation for lands confiscated from the Eastern Cherokees during the 1800s, mainly in North Carolina. Claims include data with documentation showing claimant's lineage back to the Eastern Cherokee. It was also required that the claimant prove no other tribal affiliation.

Second only to the National Archives in Native American research for Oklahoma is the Indian Archives Division of the Oklahoma Historical Society. Included are federal and state government records and private collections, particularly the extensive work of Grant Foreman. The society's collection is listed and described in Lawrence Kelly's “Indian Records in the Oklahoma Historical Society Archives,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma 54 (1976): 227–44. Other issues include data relating to the Native Americans in Oklahoma and their records. Among many such articles are “Public Land Policy of the Five Civilized Tribes” 23 (1945): 107–18; “Provincial Indian Society in Eastern Oklahoma” 23 (1945): 323–37; and “Cherokee Allotments in the Outlet” 59 (1981): 401–21.

The Archives and Manuscripts Division of the Oklahoma Historical Society has approximately 3,000,000 pages and 6,000 bound volumes from Indian Agencies in Oklahoma for 1870 through 1930. The archives is the national repository for records of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole nations for the period 1860 through 1906. The archives also maintains agency records for Cheyenne, Cantonment, Pawnee, Quapaw, Chilocoo, Shawnee, Kiowa, and Arapaho, as well as Mekusukey Academy records and many special collections. There are 1,400 volumes of the Executive Library Cherokee Nation in the collection. The newspaper collection includes The Cherokee Advocate which began publication in 1844.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs, Muskogee Agency, 4th Floor, Federal Building, Muskogee, Oklahoma 74401, maintains records of the Cherokee and other tribes. The Cherokee Registration Office, P.O. Box 119, Tahlequah, Oklahoma, 74464, has records pertaining to the Cherokees.

A few selected private collections in the Indian Archives Division, Oklahoma Historical Society include transcripts of the Office of Commissioner Indian Affairs and Superintendent of the Five Civilized tribes in the Grant Foreman transcripts, Frederick B. Severs Collection for the Creek Nation, Grant Foreman's numerous collections and WPA project interviews, John H. Adair Collection of early Cherokees, and the G. A. Root collection of newspaper clippings for Oklahoma Land openings.

The following publications include valuable source material:

• Baker, Jack D. Cherokee emigration rolls, 1817-1835. Oklahoma City, Okla.: Baker Publishing Co., ca. 1977.
• Bogle, Dixie. Cherokee Nation Births and Deaths 1884-1901. Owensboro, Ky.: Cook and McDowell Publications, 1980. This publication was sponsored by the Northeast Oklahoma Genealogical Society and contains abstracts from two newspapers, Indian Chieftain and Daily Chieftain.
• Bogle, Dixie, and Dorothy Nix. Cherokee Nation marriages, 1884-1901. Owensboro, Ky.: Cook and McDowell Publications, 1980. This publication was sponsored by Abraham Coryell Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, and it contains abstracts taken from Indian Chieftain newspapers.
• ———. Campbell's abstract of Seminole Indian census cards and index. Muskogee, Okla.: Oklahoma Printing, 1925.
• Chase, Marybelle W., comp. 1842 Cherokee Claims: Tahlequah District. Nashville, Tenn.: Tennessee State Library and Archives, 1989. This volume is reproductions of handwritten records and is indexed.
• ———. A survey of tribal records in the archives of the United States government in Oklahoma,. N.p., n.d.
• Kelly, Lawrence. “Indian Records in the Oklahoma Historical Society Archives.” The Chronicles of Oklahoma 54 (Summer 1976): 227–44.
• Oklahoma Genealogical Society. A Compilation of Records from the Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory. Oklahoma City, Okla.: Oklahoma Genealogical Society, ca. 1976.
• Sober, Nancy Hope. The Intruders: The Illegal Residents of Cherokee Nation, 1866–1907. Ponca City, Okla.: Cherokee Books, ca. 1991.

Other Ethnic Groups

A series entitled “Newcomers to a New Land” was sponsored by the Department of Libraries and the Oklahoma Library Association. These books analyze the role and impact of major ethnic groups in the state. The following are among volumes in the series:

• The Poles in Oklahoma. by Bernard, Richard. Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980.
• The Czechs in Oklahoma. by Bicha, Karel D. Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980.
  Blessing, Patrick J. The British and Irish in Oklahoma. Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980.
• Brown, Kenny L. The Italians in Oklahoma. Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980.
  Hale, Douglas. The Germans from Russia in Oklahoma. Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980.
• Rohrs, Richard C. The Germans in Oklahoma. Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980.
• Smith, Michael M. The Mexicans in Oklahoma. Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980.
• Tobias, Henry J. The Jews in Oklahoma. Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980.

For Czechs in Oklahoma, see also:

• Lynch, Russell Wilford. “The Czechs in Oklahoma.” Oklahoma A & M College Bulletin 39, no. 13 (June 1942).

For blacks in Oklahoma, see also:

• Franklin, Jimmie Lewis. The Blacks in Oklahoma (Newcomers to a new land). Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980.
• ———. Journey Toward Hope: A History of Blacks in Oklahoma. Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1982.
• Tolson, Arthur L. The Black Oklahomans: A history. 1541-1972. New Orleans, La.: Edwards Print Co., 1974.