PREFACES are places where authors say what their books are and are not about. This one is no exception. This brief history of Oklahoma is not a narrative account, nor does it pretend to be encyclopedic. We have chosen to treat a set of themes in roughly chronological order. But the account is not inclusive, and readers desiring more information can easily consult the works of Angie Debo, Edward Everett Dale, Edwin C. McReynolds, Arrell M. Gibson, and others cited in the bibliography.
Within the limitations of our design and the space allotted, we hope to present some new views of the forty-sixth state. We hope these ideas interest both Sooners and outlanders, since each in our judgment needs a clearer image of the state. Oklahoma has passed through several stages in the national consciousness. It began life as almost the last truly wild-west frontier, where all the elements of pioneering were worked out dramatically in the glare of national publicity. Its image then changed under a series of intense events such as the discovery of oil, the Great Depression, and the booms of two world wars. In the course of its relatively brief history, Oklahoma has been a place where national ideals matured with singular suddenness and vivid imagery. There is much truth in the warning that Edna Ferber gave readers in the preface to her novel about Oklahoma, Cimarron: “In many cases material entirely true was discarded as unfit for use because it was so melodramatic, so absurd as to be too strange for the realm of fiction.”1
In the popular imagination, Oklahoma remains a land of cowboys and Indians, of oil derricks and multimillionaires. Yet there is a corollary vagueness about its history and unique qualities. It is one of those states without any intense sense of place in national thinking. Too often, it is described as north of Texas, south of Kansas, or west of Arkansas. We hope that our account alters such misconceptions without denying the color and excitement of the state’s past. As Edna Ferber intimated, in this state’s case, the truth was both stranger and more interesting than the fictions that often pass for history.
Like all states, this one is complex and not easy to generalize about. In the national stereotype, for instance, it is probably seen as a plains state, where cattle graze and wheat grows in abundance on a flat landscape. That, of course, is true only of parts of its western marches. Its topography is as varied as the nation’s, encompassing forests, mountains, and rivers, as well as flatlands. For the sake of convenience, we have thought of the state in two ways: first, as a set of quadrants intersecting at Oklahoma City; and second, as two halves, with a north-south line running through Oklahoma City. We hope the reader understands this convenience when we generalize about Oklahoma’s varied parts.
We are especially concerned that the reader perceive the dimensions of the Indian contribution to the state’s history and recognize the difficulty of generalizing about native Americans. The tribes settled in Oklahoma came from the three great divisions of Indian culture, those of the woods, the plains, and the plateaus. They shared some attitudes, but their cultures were as different as those of the nation states of Europe. Our generalizations about Indian life, therefore, are just that—generalizations.
We have tried for simplicity in citing sources and in suggesting further reading, noting only a fraction of the materials actually consulted. That is especially true of the abundant information on Oklahoma in the national press and periodical literature. The state’s historiography deserves and surely will receive renewed attention. In our judgment, the state is poised to enter the nation’s mainstream, and an understanding of its history is vital, both for its residents and for other Americans elsewhere.
It is a pleasure to thank the people who helped us in this work. The staff of the Western History Collections at the University of Oklahoma Library were consistently cheerful and efficient. We owe special thanks to the Collections Curator, Professor John S. Ezell, and to Mr. Jack Haley and Mr. Glenn Jordan of his staff. We thank the following members of the University Library’s reference services: Mrs. Becky Haddad, Dr. Orlando Hernando, Mrs. Claren Kidd, Mrs. Patricia Simpson, and Mrs. Mary Esther Saxon. Mr. Carter Blue Clark, now of the University of Utah, was helpful in discussing the role of the Ku Klux Klan in Oklahoma. Mrs. Margaret Heisserer furnished some unusual information about the oil industry. At Oklahoma State University Library, Miss Vicki Withers gave important bibliographical and reference materials. Professor Paul Bonnifield of Panhandle State University kindly lent us a copy of his paper on the Dust Bowl, which added much to our knowledge of that disaster. Mr. Arnold Young of the Oklahoma Industrial Development Commission went out of his way to supply information on the state’s economy.
We owe a profound debt to five special friends. Professor S. Louise Welsh of the University of Oklahoma history faculty read the manuscript carefully in the light of her lifetime study of the state’s history. Professor William A. Settle, Jr., of the University of Tulsa Department of History also criticized the work with great care. Our special friends Professor Max L. Moorhead and Amy Moorhead of Norman read the manuscript for both content and style and improved it in many places. Rennard Strickland, John W. Shleppey Research Professor of Law and History at the University of Tulsa College of Law, brought to bear on the work a detailed knowledge of Indian history and of the state’s other affairs. He has been an unfailing source of wisdom and encouragement, and we dedicate this book to him in gratitude.
H. WAYNE MORGAN
ANNE HODGES MORGAN
Norman, Oklahoma
November 1976