The Shame of Sooners

Andrew Jackson worked for more than twenty years to force the Indians of the Southeast (the names in the history books are Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Seminole, and Cherokee) off their lands. He fought three wars with the Seminoles, fought the Creeks, and made many fraudulent treaties with them all. He wanted all the Indians east of the Mississippi relocated to the western side. He didn’t manage all that but he did get the Five Civilized Tribes evicted from their lands. They were called the Five Civilized Tribes because, in their efforts to survive and preserve some of their culture, they adopted many of the ways of the white people and used the courts to fight for their rights.

Thomas Jefferson supported the idea of an Indian Territory in order to obviate friction between the Euroamericans and Indians. At that time no one knew exactly what lay beyond the Mississippi River but whatever it was, it would be adequate for Indians. All the Indians. As the continent was explored and better understood, it was determined that the Great American Desert, that vast grassland later known as the Great Plains, was uninhabitable. Since white Americans could use much of the rest of the Trans-Mississippi West, the Indians could have the Great American Desert.

Then it was discovered that it wasn’t a desert at all, it was fertile farmland that didn’t even have to be cleared before it could be plowed. That caused the Indian Territory to shrink from what is now Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas, and part of Iowa, to only Oklahoma.

Over a period of more than thirty years, dozens of tribes from all over the east moved west. Some went resignedly, knowing it was inevitable, and some went only under force of arms. But nearly all of the people of the Five Civilized Tribes went. The Cherokees carried their fight to the Supreme Court and won; Jackson defied the court and said that the justices had made their decision, now they could enforce it. But there was never any real question as to who held the power. The Army supported the president rather than the law and moved the Cherokees on the Trail of Tears.

You might think the Indians had undergone enough at this point. No, not yet. After the Civil War, white Americans took another look at the Indian Territory and discovered that they could use it. It was huge. Although the Plains tribes were being added to the residents, white men felt that the Indians didn’t need all of it. President Benjamin Harrison agreed. He signed the law that opened the Indian Territory to white settlement. On an appointed day, April 22, 1889, anyone who wanted (except Indians, of course), could stake out a claim for 160 acres. Thousands did. Most of them filed legally, obeying the few rules. Many opted to anticipate the appointed day and sneaked in and staked out their claims sooner.

For years afterwards, sooners were held in contempt by the law-abiding land grabbers. That changed when an element of the populace decided that sooner was a synonym for progressive. Progressive people do not tamely wait for fortune to smile on them, they go out and make things happen. Robust, vigorous, progressive people take charge of their own destinies. The University of Oklahoma adopted “Sooner” as the nickname of their athletic teams. According to their website, the name evokes history, tradition and championships.

In my opinion it evokes treachery, theft, and shame.