What occurred in what’s now Oklahoma earlier than there have been written data of some type is prehistory.
The history of Oklahoma begins with the Three Forks Area close to Muskogee — on the confluence of the Arkansas, Verdigris and Grand rivers — and has been known as the “cradle of Oklahoma history.”
In addition to those rivers — civilizations have at all times developed round them, such because the Nile in Egypt and the Tigris and Euphrates in Mesopotamia — the Osage Trace, later the Texas Road, was an vital commerce route.
Today, it’s primarily the route of U.S. Highway 69 that runs via town of Muskogee.
It was right here close to the Grand River that the Chouteau household constructed a publish (having first constructed one close to Salina and later close to fashionable Purcell and Fort Sill).
Nathaniel Pryor, who had served as a sergeant within the well-known Lewis and Clark expedition, obtained a license in 1819 from Arkansas’ governor to commerce with the Osage Indians.
His spouse was Osage, and he entered right into a partnership with Hugh Glenn to assemble a buying and selling publish on the Verdigris River.
Before it grew to become “Indian Territory,” the realm — half of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 — had been half of Arkansas Territory, which had as soon as been half of Missouri Territory and, earlier than that, half of Louisiana Territory.
It was right here that Epaphrus Chapman began Union Mission School with the blessing of Osage Chief Clermont (or Claremore).
Chief Clermont advised Chapman, “My people will soon see the superior advantage of your way of living.”
Such sentiments have been shared by many Native Americans, whereas opposed by many others.
Years earlier than the notorious “Trail of Tears” — when 1000’s of Cherokees have been moved from Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee to what’s now northeastern Oklahoma — many Cherokees, referred to as the Old Settlers, had already opted to make the transfer.
Among those that did so was Sequoyah, the person who developed a Cherokee syllabary, giving them a written language.
Eventually, land disputes (sadly, people have been combating wars over assets from historic instances to immediately) between the Osage and the Cherokee compelled the Osage north into Kansas. (The Osage returned in 1872 to a reservation that’s now Osage County.)
One well-known determine who moved into the realm after he resigned as Tennessee governor in 1829 was Sam Houston.
Houston had lived with the Cherokee when he was younger and had fought alongside them in opposition to the British and their Creek allies on the Battle of Horseshoe Bend through the War of 1812.
In what’s now northeastern Oklahoma, Houston met and lived with (whether or not they have been ever “married” is in dispute) Tiana Rogers. She was a relative of the Rogers household that produced one of Oklahoma’s most well-known personalities, Will Rogers.
Houston later left Tiana and moved to Texas, finally main the Texas Revolution in opposition to Mexico. By this time, “history” had been well-established in what finally grew to become our state of Oklahoma.
Steve Byas teaches at Randall University in Moore, the place he’s director of the history program. He lives in Norman.
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