April 22, 1889: The Oklahoma Land Rush

April 22, 1889: The Oklahoma Land Rush is launched, one of the greatest examples of unbridled capitalism in American history -- and yet another screwing of Native Americans.

The Indian Removal Act of 1830 uprooted "The Five Civilized Tribes" -- the Cherokee Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole -- from the Southeastern U.S. to "The Indian Territory," between Kansas and Texas.

President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act of 1862, which allowed settlers to claim lots of up to 160 acres), provided that they lived on the land and improved it. It had a huge effect upon the American West, and might have been what he would have been best known for had the American Civil War not happened.

With the end of the Civil War, land-hungry people sought land in the West. European Americans pressed their legislators to open the Indian Territory. and certain Native Americans like Elias C. Boudinot encouraged other Native Americans to participate in the effort to welcome westward expansion. From 1870 to 1879, 33 bills were introduced in Congress to open the Territory for settlement.

After years of trying to open Indian Territory, on March 2, 1889, President Grover Cleveland signed the Indian Appropriations Act of 1889, which officially opened the Unassigned Lands to non-native settlers under tenets of the Homestead Act. This was 2 days before his successor, Benjamin Harrison, was inaugurated.

However, under a section in this original Act, those who entered these unassigned lands illegally, before their respective racing times as designated in the President's opening proclamation, would be denied the rights to the lands they claimed. These people were termed "Sooners," with this section of the act being termed as the "sooner clause." But there was growing political pressure to open these unassigned lands to settlement quickly. Thus, later in 1889, an amendment to the Act allowed President Harrison to be involved in this historical bill as well, proclaiming unassigned lands were open for settlement under much less stringent rules.

This led to hundreds of legal contests that were decided, first at local land offices, and eventually by the U.S. Department of the Interior. Arguments included what constituted the "legal time of entry." While some people think that the settlers who entered the territory at the legally appointed time were known as "Boomers," the term actually refers to those who campaigned for the opening of the lands.

The University of Oklahoma's fight song, "Boomer Sooner," derives from these two names. The school "mascot" is a replica of a 19th-century covered wagon, called the Sooner Schooner. (Covered wagons had previously been known as "prairie schooners." When the OU football team scores, the Sooner Schooner is pulled across the field by a pair of ponies named "Boomer" and "Sooner.”

Harrison made the declaration that, on April 22, 1889, at 12:00 Noon, the Unassigned Land in Indian Territory would be open for settlement. At the time of the opening, which was indicated by gunshot, the line of people on horse and in wagons dispersed into a kaleidoscope of motion and dust and oxen and wagons. The chase for land was frenzied and much chaos and disorder ensued. The rush did not last long, and by the end of the day, nearly 2 million acres of land had been claimed. By the end of the year, 62,000 settlers lived in the Unassigned Lands located between the Five Tribes on the east and the Plains Tribes on the west.

The University of Oklahoma was founded on December 19, 1890, just 20 months after the Land Rush. Oklahoma was admitted as the 46th State in the Union on November 16, 1907.

The 1930 novel Cimarron, by Edna Ferber, and the 1931 film based on it, depicted the Land Rush. The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and was regarded as the 1st great Western film with sound. But, much like the attitudes that inspired the Land Rush itself, the film doesn't hold up: Steve Evans of DVD Verdict wrote in 2006, "Seen with contemporary eyes, the film is badly dated, slow moving, and pocked with racist caricatures... The recreation of the great 1889 Oklahoma Land Rush remains an exciting spectacle... Unfortunately, the film never manages to top this opening shot."

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April 22, 1889 was a Monday. These baseball games were played, all in the American Association:

* The Brooklyn Bridegrooms lost to the Baltimore Orioles, 6-4 at the original Oriole Park in Baltimore. The Grooms joined the National League in 1890, the Orioles in 1892, with the folding of the AA. The Orioles folded after the 1899 season. The Brooklyn team became the Dodgers in 1911.

* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Columbus Solons, 15-6 at the Jefferson Street Grounds in Philadelphia. Both teams folded with the AA after the 1891 season.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Kansas City Cowboys, 10-1 at American Park in Cincinnati. The Cowboys folded after this season. The Reds joined the NL in 1892.

* And the St. Louis Browns beat the Louisville Colonels, 13-6 at Eclipse Park in Louisville, Kentucky. Both teams joined the NL in 1892. The Colonels went out of business after the 1899 season, at which point the Browns became the Cardinals.