On this day in 1907, Oklahoma joined the Union when President Theodore Roosevelt signed a proclamation that made it the 46th state.
In 1890, the region was divided into the Indian Territory and the Oklahoma Territory. Congress, however, would agree to admit them only as a single state. In response, legislators in both territories drafted a joint constitution. It was approved by their respective voters on Sept. 17, 1907, paving the way for Oklahoma’s accession to statehood.
After the War of 1812, the federal government sought to remove Indian tribes from the Eastern United States and to resettle them in what are now Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. In 1828, Congress reserved Oklahoma for Indians, ceding the territory to five Southeastern tribes. After many Cherokees refused to abandon their land, the U.S. Army, acting under orders from President Andrew Johnson, moved them westward in a forced march known as the Trail of Tears. The uprooted tribes joined Plains Indians who had long lived there. Five new Indian “nations,” each with its own government, were formed.
During the Civil War, most of these tribes backed the South. With the defeat of the Confederacy in 1865, the Oklahoma Territory came under U.S. military rule. Cattlemen coveted its virgin ranges. With the arrival of the railroad in the 1870s, white incursions into the Indian Territory became more commonplace. While many such “boomers” were initially expelled, pressure mounted until the U.S. government agreed in 1889 to make 2 million acres in central Oklahoma available for white settlement.
At noon on April 22, 1889, a pistol shot signaled the opening of the new lands. Tens of thousands of people rushed in to stake their claims. Those who had illegally jumped the starting gun were called “sooners.” In 1908, the University of Oklahoma adopted “sooners” as its nickname.