Boomers and Sooners: The Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889

122 thoughts on “Boomers and Sooners: The Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889”

1. Sounds about right- white people showing up to be “given” land stolen from Native Americans Boomers/Sooners/Freeloaders mythology

   1. The native Americans were treated terrible than any race in the U.S.

      1. Yes they were.

         1. They still are. And I’m not just talking about what we consider “Native Americans”. I’m also talking about Hispanics.

            1. Can’t we just get off the racial bullshit for a while? We’ve got too much to worry about with everything that’s going on in our country today. Sure, most of us don’t like they way a lot of things happened a couple hundred years ago, but we can’t do anything about that. I didn’t like that I, with 10 years seniority and vested company, lost my job to what was called then a Spanish Surname minority in the early Affirmative Action who had only 3 years, but it’s done and gone, and I moved on. Worry about what people are doing to this country today, things that you can do something about.

            2. You are the one full of bs. Your petty gripe is an nanosecond of all the time minorities have been taken advantage of.

      2. Facts are stubborn things:
         https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/how-native-american-slaveholders-complicate-trail-tears-narrative-180968339/

         1. OMG, yes. That was yet another travesty.

         2. The recent Supreme Court ruling gave the Indian tribes in Oklahoma jurisdiction over there legal affairs. The dissenting opinion was written by John Roberts, not a Justice that I agree with very often, but he wrote a very compelling brief. It’s worth a read. In summation the Indians gave up there right to Oklahoma territory when they sided with the South during the Civil War and fielded 7,000 Indian troops that fought in the war. He further argues that they failed to divide the land up for the individual Indians, as mandated in the treaty (favoring a few of the chiefs).
            The Oklahoma Indians did not want to go to court but there hand was forced. In my humble opinion the justices turned their back on what Roberts had said and figured the Indians had suffered enough. I’m good with that.

      3. Yes, this is just totally disgusting! And the Americans that snuck in early should have been been picked up and kicked back to the east coast, too!!

   2. They weren’t just white. It was 1889. Read history. Read about Black Wall Street in Tulsa Oklahoma. Read about the Dawes Act. Just don’t assume that history is what you think it is. Investigate and Read.

      1. Bottom line is it still was a white man’s world in 1889, and the vast amount of squatters were white, my family among them. And tragically, Black Wall St. was destroyed by the Tulsa race massacre, propagated by whites to take back what they saw as theirs all along. Don’t try to insinuate anything fair was carried out during this land grab.

         1. Yes. We treated and still treat, “others” terribly. Change comes slowly, but my hope is that it does come.

            1. How long does it take for one group to realize it treats other unfairly. It has been over 400 years since Europeans came to the new world. They still have not reached the conclusion that “all humans are equal” in spite of their bold declaration for the United States of America. How much time will it take??

            2. Many people agree with your statement and are working toward fairness.

         2. Investigate and Read. Get the whole story not just bits and pieces. Have you taken the time to read about the people of Black Wall Street? Have you read their newspaper with their Stories? All you remember is the Massacre. You don’t remember the people who were amazing and deserve to be remembered for something other than a Massacre. Don’t practice bias and presentism when reading, studying or writing about history.

            1. So…fine people on both sides kind of thing?

            2. You are saying the Black families worked hard and diligently. They were not just victims. It’s not “fine people on both sides”. Some Whites did …well, actually that is what you are saying: there were Whites who were fine. Be as it may. No court punished any Whites for the Massacre: 300 Blacks dead.

            3. I couldn’t agree more. My family were immigrants in the late 1890’s, yet I’m supposed to feel guilt for something that happened before they ever got here? Racial politics, identify politics, are driving wedges between everyone. Instead of one nation those who push identify politics would have a divided nation, and they’re accomplishing their goal nicely. The past is gone. All we have is now. Use it to make a life. And while you’re about it, try reading Up From Slavery by Booker T Washington. Great read, great man who didn’t cry for what happened in the past but furthered his race by furthering himself.

         3. Get over it and quit crying about something that happened 140 years ago.

            1. Everyone probably could “just get over it” if “IT” would stop happening. But “IT” hasn’t stopped so folks are still being put down, held back and treated unfairly because of their birthing condition which they have zero control over. Please stop hating others and think things out before following those who choose to get ahead by persecuting “others”.

      2. Good point.

      3. I see your an Oldham. Maybe related. My great grandfather was Benjamin James Oldham who married Rutha McGrew. They settled in Fletcher, OK

         1. No, Sorry Oldham is my ex-married surname.

      4. Yes, this is just totally disgusting! And the Americans that snuck in early should have been been picked up and kicked back to the east coast, too!!

      5. Just because one Native American did. great or a few black Americans did really well or any other anomaly does NOT counteract our complete history of taking land from the Native Americans and having Black Slaves!! Don’t try to :clean up” our history! It is our history even if it is bad!!

      6. Whoa!;Yes Tulsa was a predominantly Black town. But your going to have to show me where there was one Black American or American Indian allowed to, or, participated in the Oklahoma or any land grab.

   3. “Sooners” is the Oklahoma mascot. Having a name akin to “Cheaters” must make all involved proud.

      1. Yes, I’ve always wondered how OU, a state university, could so proudly espouse a name synonymous with “Cheaters and Crooks.” At least OSU went with “Cowboys.”

         1. Same thoughts here! Guess their graduating classes are the best of the best cheaters!

   4. Greenwood, also known as the black Wall Street District of Tulsa, wasn’t founded until 1906.

   5. Land was not stolen. The Indians wanted a better life so they worked with the government so that they could live in peace. Indians received land too so cut the white privilege crap. My cousins are Cherokee, great grand daughters of Jesse Chlsholm and married well. So cut the white privilege crap.

      1. I am familiar with the Chlsholm family from Okfuskee and Lincoln counties in OK. I have done research on the family.

      2. Thank you for stating the truth! Yeah!! the white privileged crao is nauseating!!

      3. Land was tribal, sovereign. Who asked the Natives if they wanted this? Get citizenship if you get land. Quanah Parker, born American to Cynthia Parker (note he took her name, matriarchy), chief of the Comanche, showed up with his men to tell a cattleman that he owed the Comanche for his grazing on their land in Indian Territory.

      4. What a whitewashed version of history!! I guess those Native Americans forced onto the Trail of Tears just liked hiking!! This is absolute nonsense!! They just didn’t want their entire civilization to be killed and so they submitted! Oh, yes, they received land – the worst land that none of the greedy pioneers wanted!! They also kept taking pieces of the reservations away because they wanted that land. Read some real history before you spout this ridiculous trash! I’m a white American – but I’m not an idiot!!

   6. Native Americans did not settle on the land, they were nomadic. Their lifestyle moved along as the buffalo, wild horses moved across the plains of the United States. As you can read in the above article, the Native Americans had the opportunity to settle and claim a homestead. There were a few native Americans that had settled and if these lands were registered to them, the land was theirs. So, what you are really claiming is that the vast plains, and surrounding mountainous areas should have been left open without any incoming, immigrant people from Europe, Africa, and Mexico people to live on hundreds of acres. The land should have been left open, unproductive of creating crops, manufacturing, industrial areas, highways, and cities so the native Americans could maintain their nomadic lifestyle. Let’s get a few things straight, the Native Americans did not OWN the land, they JUST USED it for their lifestyle. Where would you have been if the Native Americans owned all of the USA….where? in Europe, in Canada. If I parked on your driveway every day for 30 years, that is 10, 950 days @ 24 hours a day, does that make YOUR driveway MINE! Can I prevent you from entering your house, your garage if I live on the end of your driveway ? Think more clearly when open ended statements are made. These small bands of native Americans slowly dying of small pox, diphtheria, typhoid etc were holding on to a land that they wandering across from the Bering Strait. Being alone with their own native groups and sharing the land only with the current animals, does that make sense that they would need the entire country of the USA to live in. Let’s also examine, the lands that natives have nowadays. Do they farm it? Do they raise horses on it? Do they have industry other than the Catholic Church and the Casinos, on the land? The lands lays there undeveloped, barren, unploughed, unused, don’t they? ……..

      1. I have heard that welfare stifles a need
         to be industrious.
         …just saying…

      2. Catholic Church and casinos? A little anti-Catholicism there? Many plains Indians were Catholic from French-Canadians working in French Louisiana. Certainly, in Canada if a French woman married a Native he became Catholic. At least the children did because the mother was the head and the children took her name. After the Indian Settlement in 1832-1835, there was a law (22 US Code paragraph whatever) in 1835 that prevented beyond Minnesota, Arkansas and the like, any settlement, transit, trade, visiting, you name it. In the 1850s during the Kansa-Nebraska debates, Stephen Douglas came up with the idea of the Great Barbarian Wall left to the scalping knife (a Spanish invention) and the tomahawk. What racism! It was theirs and they were patrolling their border, just like Homeland Security. Natives did not own the land they used it. It was usifruct: enjoyment of use. If they were using it to hunt, fish and live on, they would say to a usurper, “Go away, we’re here now.” Manifest Destiny was a fantasy, an excuse for land grab. Usifruct. Good word. We should use it more often.
         Buffalo. Kill them all. They did in the 1880s. It killed the Natives’ food source. Bastards. Wanton killing. Murdering the Natives by murdering their food. Then we ripped up the buffalo grass which tapped the aquifer, plowed the soil for 20 years (1911-1931) until it all blew away. Smart.

      3. With all due respect, I am compelled to challenge some of your facts. I have been married 36 years to a full- blood Creek woman (not many left) and lived many years with her family and tribe in eastern Oklahoma. The Creeks were one of the tribes that were moved from the American Southeast to Indian Territory, now eastern Oklahoma, during the Trail of Tears. Other tribes were the Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles. This was in the first half of the 1800’s. These people were referred to as the “Five Civilized Tribes”, and for good reason. I will focus on the Creeks, as I am most familiar with them. They were NOT nomadic, and never were. Actually, the tribe’s official name is Muscogee, but they were called Creeks by the white people because they had many well-established towns located primarily along the numerous rivers and creeks. They did NOT follow the buffalo (there weren’t any) and they did NOT migrate seasonally. They had farms and a government long before the whites showed up. These Indians represented far more than “a few”, but many, many thousands. When the Dawes act was enacted, the Creeks and others were made to officially enroll in their specific tribe, and families were given individual plots of land on which to live and farm. Over time, however, most of this land is no longer “Indian”, due to a variety of reasons. Much of it was sold to unscrupulous Whites who took advantage of the poverty and lack of knowledge concerning the nuances of white property laws. Some was outright stolen, and the Indians had little recourse. Creek territory, both in Alabama and Georgia before the Indian Removal and in eastern Oklahoma afterward, was never barren, empty, and unpopulated. There were towns and farms and villages.
         I am saying all this because there is an obvious misconception that many people have concerning Indians. The name conjures up images of the Plains tribes, who WERE nomadic and roamed seasonally. However, hundreds of tribes were living east of the Mississippi River before European colonization. Indians in general are held up as somewhat mythical people, hating no one and void of anger, greed, or any other human foibles. This is simply not true. They are people like anyone else. The tribes fought each other over land long before Whites came along. The Sioux claim the Black Hills of South Dakota as their sacred land from time immemorial, but it’s seldom mentioned that they conquered and seized that land from other tribes previously.
         I guess what I am trying to say is that there are many preconceptions among other races concerning Indians, most of them false or with just a bit of truth. They are people like anybody else, although they have definitely been used and abused. They are neither better nor worse than Whites when it comes to morality. In fact, many Creeks and Cherokees owned Black slaves while in Alabama and Georgia before the removal, and brought them with them along the Trail of Tears. There used to be many all-black towns in Oklahoma founded by slaves freed prior to or after the Civil War.
         Incidentally, I use the term “Indian” intentionally. Most of those I personally know or have met refer to themselves as such, not “Native American”. They are common sense people and are not offended by the name Washington Redskins, etc. Some are, but the majority have better things to worry about like poverty. They do not appreciate the White liberals who have taken up their cause with no real historical knowledge, just to appease their “White Guilt”.
         CAS, I am not aiming this specifically at you…… I just meant to correct a couple of what I see as factual errors, and kind of went astray a bit. Have a great day!

         1. Yes, the groups of people’s living eats of the Mississippi were not nomadic and had towns and vibrant and populous nation states, the first issues began with disease from very early European ships In the south eastern areas of North America which wiped out untold numbers of North and Central American peoples well before the before the North East portions of North. America saw influx of Europeans. Good condensed historical book “Guns Germs and Steel”

         2. Thank you. Wonderful explanation.

      4. The Cherokee were not nomadic. When they were removed from their homes in the east, they had schools, a newspaper and a government.

         1. And the first written Indian alphabet.

      5. What I’m CLAIMING is that no one had the right to sell THAT land to anyone! We had NO right to buy it in the Louisiana Purchase because they did NOT REALLY own it!! The entire idea of colonization is repulsive! You can NOT decide to buy/sell land that is already occupied! I know that is what the entire world did; but I still object to it on human rights terms! Then after you do it to steal the assets and land from the indigenous people is criminal! You can sugarcoat it any way you want – but I bet you are not going to lay down and accept it if someone comes and tells you that they are taking your house and property and they have a little place ready for you in the middle of the desert! Get real!

         1. I love you!!

      6. The Cherokee did farm the land in Alabama or Mississippi and there were towns and they were adapting to white mans ways. There were other tribes as well. That is why they were referred to as the five civilized tribes. They tried hard to keep their land but were eventually forced off the land under president Jackson’s presidency. The whites wanted the land and prevailed. The Indians even had black slaves to help with farming. The Indians were forced off the land over a period of time and many left for Oklahoma before the final trail of tears. It was not just one round up of Indians and marching them to Oklahoma. It occurred over time. Some traveled by boat at least part way. Many held out hoping to keep their land but it did not work out for them

      7. I am descended from the Delaware Mohican tribe. There were two branches: the wolves and the turtles. The wolves were hunters and nomads. They brought meat to the turtle clans in exchange for the crops they grew. The turtle clans were the ones that built villages and farmed. As far as my ancestors, one day armed militia came into the village and forced everyone into the town community building and locked the door. They finally unlocked the door AFTER they set the building on fire. Then they shot everyone who tried to escape the fire. Fortunately, the men of the village came in from the fields when they saw the smoke. They were able to overcome the invaders and save some of the women and children from the fire. And the diseases you mentioned – brought here by asshole white men. Plus the Trail of Tears wasn’t the only horror that white men pulled on Native Americans. Also, soldiers were sent to kill off all the buffalo they could. This was meant to further hurt Native Americans as that was their major meat supply. Also, horses were brought here by the white invaders. Quit spreading crap. Talk about something you actually know about.

   7. If I remember correctly, the native Americans were punished for fighting against the union in the civil war. The story is interesting, but there is so much more.

      From the time of the Romans, and probably before, man has explored and conquered territory and the population already there, frequently making the conquered people “servants”.

      Even the tribes fought other tribes for territory. Race has nothing to do with it

      1. White people fight white people, too.

2. My Mother’s father, his brothers, and his father acted as judges in the Land Run near Edmond, OK.

3. your term native Americans is wrong–native Americans have been all dead for thousands of years–slaughtered by migrating Indians from Mexico and Russia—Only Indians are here now–

   1. Indians are people from India. Indigenous North Americans are not indians.

      1. Go by their tribal names if you insist on calling the American Indians, “indigenous.” To me, indigenous is more derogatory than calling the American Indians, “red skins.” I am from the Lenni Lenape, turtle tribe. My ancestors are on the Dawes Rolls. Indigenous is wrong. Our history teaches that we are descendants of Ham (yes, all Indian tribes from Alaska to the tip of Chile), came here via Bering Strait or across the Polynesian countries.
         Blame Christopher Columbus for the American Indians being called Indians. He thought he landed in India.

         1. I’m sorry, Linda. In one of my comments I called the American Indians indigenous just to indicate that we had no right to take anything from the people who were already here! Colonization was despicable and criminal and we had NO right to the land!, Thank you for all the information!!!

      2. Baloney – My ancestors wrote that they wanted to be called INDIAN – not Native Americans! That is a made up term they hated.

         1. My Assinniboine cousins say that you can always tell who is a gov’t employee when they use the term “Native American.” It gets a chuckle. A Kootenai friend of mine took a university anthropology course where they used the term “indigenous people.” He pointed out to the professor that indigenous meant people who are born in the area they still live in. All the non-American Indian people attending that class, who were born in the area, were also “indigenous.” I think the key word in all these discussions is “people.”

4. My grandma was a little girl and was with her parents when they shot off the gun and rushed to stake out their homestead. The family lived in a cave until they built the Homestead that descendants still live in today.

5. Ah yes the Sooners by their lying cheating and stealing covered themselves with so much glory someone should name a football team after them,

   After all stealing the land, lying about it and rewriting history? What could be more American!

   1. Waring factions over land has gone on for millennium here, other countries and the world over and still being pursued today. It is part of the human history everywhere and that is a reality.

   2. I prefer to think the University of Oklahoma Sooners team is named for the legal Sooners. Until I read this article I didn’t know there was such a thing as a legal Sooner.

      1. Lying cheating and stealing were to be admired. Still is in the US by many.

      2. Obviously you don’t know history of sooners. There were no “legal sooners”. They were boomers. Like it or not they went by the laws of the times. The boomers received their land legally.

         Ang let’s not forget that Native Americans warred against each other over the control of territory. Whether they want to admit it not, that’s for control/use/ownership. They just didn’t buy and sell. They killed for it. If my Native American ancestors refuse to see that then they are as wrong as my European ones.

         1. If you read all of the article, you would have learned there was legal sooners
            Political figures, railroad workers and others.

            1. You may call it legal. In other parts of the world it’s called corruption or nepotism.

         2. That’s why the Hebrews said, “Do not steal. Do not covet.” It is destructive of social cohesion. If you wanted to live in the land for a long time, follow the words of truth. Division invites the conquerer who will the stomp on the groups who helped him. Little Big Horn was instructive. Cheyenne, Sioux, Blackfoot, Assini-boine, Arapahoe became friends against a common enemy. Amazing how many “peoples” there were in such an empty land.

         3. Legal. A law is an ordinance of right reason promulgated by lawful authority for the common good. Some of those features of the definition are missing from the Dawes Act. Europeans wanted land. Grab it.

      3. There were no “legal sooners.” the term “Sooners” refers to people who went into the Land Run area “too soon.”

   3. So true

   4. St. Augustine of Hippo, now Tunisia said about 400 CE (or about 1000 AUC) that there is not one cubic inch of land that has not been stolen, or denied the use of, by one person or group to another. The best you can do is a “quit claim” between people with equal clout.

6. If you really want to know why the Indians lost out, read Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. Its not racist, but rather what has happened all over the world when a Stone Age culture meets an Iron Age one.

   1. So you are going to pretend all the treaties white man signed were not broken? Legal treaties. Gold medal hypocrisy.

      1. You had to twist something factual into a Woke insult.

   2. Nice! Exactly, stone age culture had an update. No matter where you live on the face of the earth…..there is always progress!

7. First time I’ve ever read a satisfactory answer to my question:: What is a Sooner? I’ve been wondering about it since the ball team was named.

8. Get over it.
   Go forward.
   Be better.

9. But you’re not better. You have the same lying cheating stealing ethos you had then.

   1. And you don’t?

      1. Listen Richard
         Two huge differences which will taint you forever.

         1) your predations are very recent and in full flouting of international treaties you bastards had signed. The world is on to your sickening apologias. You want to compare yourselves to barbarians. Be my guest. It’s appropriate.
         2) there has never been anything like your revolting sanctimonious hypocrisy.

         1. Listen Richard
            Two huge differences which will taint you forever.

            1) your predations are very recent and in full flouting of international treaties you bastards had signed. The world is on to your sickening apologias. You want to compare yourselves to barbarians. Be my guest. It’s appropriate.
            2) there has never been anything like your revolting sanctimonious hypocrisy.

         2. Nothing from you but sanctimonious woke criticism of the past. Nothing constructive or understanding history. Just blame the present for the sins of the past.

            1. You are the present. Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Blah, Blah.
               Not to forget Nam.

10. The “Boomers” are insulted that the OKL football team is called the “Sooners”, and DEMAND that OKL change the name….

    1. Do you know the words to the Oklahoma University “fight song”??

    2. HaHa! Good one! This place could use a ton of levity my friend!

11. Nothing new! Whites have always taken what they thought should be theirs because they were superior. Dumb clucks! What would this world look like if there were no non-whites? Every convenience we have was thought of by the Indians, Blacks, and others that gave to this country in order to be and remain a part of this country. In the end, we wound up with nothing because of racism and always left behind!

    1. BS on all the conveniences.

       1. Native Americans were living in the stone age before the Columbian Exchange. Without the arrival of Europeans, the natives would still be killing each other with rocks, dragging their belongings on wood skids, killing and enslaving other tribes for labor and women. Europeans brought the wheel, steel, bronze, beasts of burden(horses, donkeys, mules) and written language. Europeans were of superior intellect, education, war tactics and technology at that time. That is why it was so easy to subjugate the natives. Obviously, in retrospect, it wasn’t right, but most of the newcomers thought they were improving life for the savage natives.

          1. What? Where does thst come from? Jefferey Amherst thought it would be a good idea to kill them en masse by infecting them with smallpox. This was a popular idea. Amherst’s other comments about the Natives leave no doubt.

             1. Spanish explorers found empty Indian villages because the first Indians who made contact rushed back and brought European germs.

          2. Yep, if Europeans had arrived a few hundred years earlier they’d have simply wiped out the natives as they did with various European tribes earlier. Celts displaced by Angles and later Saxons displacing others. Same story all over the globe. Indians were “lucky” 19th century Euro-Americans didn’t exterminate them. A Stone Age society doesn’t stand a chance against an Iron Age one.

             1. They tried. But they needed guides to exploit.

             2. There is one crucial difference you ignore. There was no gold medal hypocrisy and sanctimoniousness in Europe till the Crusades. America is peerless when it comes to that now.

12. Can we agree that history — everyone’s history — has bad and good parts? Africans sold their captives into slavery, but European whites are blamed for slavery on every continent. Indigenous peoples have been abused and mistreated by other Indigenous people, too. The country now known as Mexico was originally occupied by indigenous people, such as Inca, Aztec and Maya, but the Spaniards invaded and wiped out those cultures. That is, if they didn’t kill themselves by human sacrifice. European cultures have done some pretty horrific acts against humanity, agreed. But can we just agree that history is just that — history, in the past. We should learn from history. We should learn to treat our fellow human beings with respect and kindness; learn from our mistakes. I would hope that we could learn from world history. Plus, this entire thread started as a comment about what a “Sooner” is and what a “Boomer” is and has disintegrated into one big “who did what”. I appreciate the news items published and hope we learn from our past mistakes. Even if we thought we were doing the right thing at that time.

    1. well-said. Thank you.
       so much bad in the best of us, and so much good in the worst

    2. This response is perfect, Betty. History is just that…history. And we really should learn from it and not repeat the same mistakes in the past..

    3. Bravo!

13. Betty is sooo correct. Yes, all the concerns are valid but we can not rewrite history. How about taking a breath, exhaling, and figure out what we can learn for now and the future.

14. Couldn’t agree more.

15. First of all I have to say this it was wrong in every way for the American government to do what they did to the native Americans they claim that this was unoccupied land it was occupied it was occupied very well unfortunately the United States government felt differently this is probably one of the most shameful things the United States government has ever done no native Americans should be removed from the land nor should any of the tribes ever be broken up the US government should never have done this and why it was allowed to happen will never be understood and now at one of the worst times in this country with all the racial issues and the political b******* this country is nothing of what it is supposed to be or could be it’s a joke they say it’s land of the free and home of the brave it’s more like land of the corrupt and home of the crooked….. I’m a very proud American but I find it really hard to be proud of my country at this time you know in the end we all bleed red…..

16. It makes me ashamed to be a caucasian! I actually am disgusted with what I have learned about the United States and the English. Supposedly the early settlers came here to escape the injustices in the UK. But it seems to me that they brought that injustice into North America and it has only gotten worse through the ages! My great grandmother came here legally in the late 1800s with my grandfather as a baby. There were no job options for women back then and she took jobs as housekeeper and live in lover for two different men while she lived. I have found that there was no respect for her and she was eventually admitted to a mental institution for a physical ailment that was due to the lack of vitamin B3 there was a cure even then for this disease yet she died about a year later due to the complications of that disease. Probably because the poor that could not pay was just locked away and left to die.

    1. Deb,I understand your feeling ashamed by history. I used to have the same feeling when first learning about the history of Native peoples. I think that I have learned that it is not my fault personally for the crimes of the past. Guilt and shame can only be put on you, if you did something wrong. There were people who fought against injustice in every part our history. You probably would have been one of them. I am an individual person on this earth. I have done enough wrong on my own to have some guilt for. I am not taking the weight of wrongs done by a whole group of people that I don’t even know. I hope you don’t either.

       1. It is not that I personally feel guilty for the wrongs done in the world… It is that it sickens me to see past and present greed and evil. I have done a little research over the past several years and found that there ARE some places that do not take advantage of people on a large scale. But maybe that is because they are little bitty islands that don’t have a large population… Some villages actually work together to keep everybody honest and happy. They are rare for sure but I have at least located them and am looking into moving to one of those places sooner rather than later. My father raised me to be spiritual… not religious. Religions are all businesses and they still take from the poor to remain rich. But I believe in God and in righteousness and know that there are places that this kind of life exists. I am just sick of lies and hate and injustices… And it is not just the whites that have this issue to be sure. Everybody wants everybody else to cater to their likes. Everybody thinks that they are better than the next person and deserve to be treated as such. I just want to live the remainder of my life in peace and semi-comfort. I don’t want to be wealthy… I don’t want people to fall at my feet and praise me in the name of “Allah” or God, or Jehova or whatever each group calls him. I just want to live in peace and be treated as I try to treat others. The Golden rule has pretty much gone out the window in favor of political correctness these days. I am not politically correct and never will be. I try to live my life by the Golden Rule. And if others mistreat me or abuse me in any way I separate myself from them and never deal with them again. My step mother used to tell me all of the time that I was like my father… I “had” no tact… well guess what? I still don’t and I “call a spade a spade” (and I looked this up to make sure that it did not have racist beginnings by the way) Sometimes I inadvertently hurt feelings or offend by my lack of filters… I don’t mean to I just don’t have filters. I hate lies and I hate lying and rarely do. I usually just bite my tongue if I feel the need to lie…

17. Read the history of Jacob Bartles (1880 in the area that is now Bartlesville, OK) His ranching operation covered many areas of what is now Oklahoma. With some “white men” and members from several tribes he supplied meat (cattle) to the army and the BIA in the territory. My GreatGrandfather and Grandfather worked for him.

18. I don’t know where anyone ever got the (false) idea that nature, or life was supposed to be fair.
    “To the victor go the spoils” is the rule that permeates all forms and all levels of nature, including human nature.

    1. Finally! Someone with some common sense! I could not have said it better. Kudos to you Sir! I wish everyone would read your comment and reflect on it. It would do all these whiny and weak people some good to learn to accept the reality of all known nature.

19. This place is fascist with a capital F. It’s okay you don’t want to take care of your site anymore we’re all going to die very soon anyways with what’s coming this election!

    I’m about to go to the other new world and this BS won’t even matter!

20. Just wondering – do the folks who now live or at least have lived in Oklahoma a fairly long time know if their origins date back to Boomers or Sooners? If I were from OK I’d love to know.

21. Anyone who judges the past through the lens of today, doesn’t have a trace of common sense.

    1. I could not agree with you more!

22. Yeah, it’s so easy to say oh that happened a long time ago, but you cannot get around the fact that these people were home minding their own business when suddenly all they loved was wrenched away. I didn’t have any problem in the old days when I thought it was a fair fight. But there was nothing fair, ever. I think we’ve got to try a do-over. Looking at it through the lens of today is skewed, to be sure, but looked at through the lens of the time it happened is beyond bearing.

23. Soooo tired of this “white privilege” whining. Yes early settlers had slaves, so did every civilization since the beginning of time! That’s how they became successful, on other’s backs. Wrong, but true; down through the years. This country was no different then those that came before us. The only reason whites were the “bad guys” is because they settled the country and took advantage of an unorganized group of people who were taken from their homeland by monied bastards who saw a way for make more money. The story of life really. If blacks had the same opportunity I’m quite sure the roles would be reversed and we’d be bitching the same song.
    American Indians, of whom I am a direct descendant, were, as stated, nomads. They followed the buffalo. Many tribes, lots of land. Europeans came here in droves to get freedom from religious persecution (primarily) and just kept pushing and pushing the different tribes around who didn’t have enormous organization…again.
    The big fish eat the little fish, something new? I don’t think so.
    What Germany did to all those Jews in WW2 was horrific and as all Jews say, “never forget”. But, does that mean today’s German people? What have they done. Should they continue to pay for the shame of a previous generation?
    Today, today and what comes next is what is now important. Yesterday’s horrors are gone. Forgotten, NO….but gone.
    If we continue to live with past injustices, we’re doomed to dwell on ugly times and events. No good for all of us.
    Let’s ALL just turn the page, move on and let our previous fails hopefully help to go down those same paths.

    1. Did you intend to say
       …move on and HOPE our previous fails help US to NOT go down those same paths.?

       1. YES

24. You just can’t get away from this B.S., even on a subscription web-site. Everyone of us is guilty in some way, both sides and all races need to get over it and move on. Here’s a sincere apology for being born with color skin that I have.
    “An eye for an eye until everyone’s blind.”

25. Who were the Early settlers who were allowed to go in early and find the Land they wanted, then return to the starting line. My grandfather was in the civil war and was one of the Veterans that was allowed to do this. Is the the was?
    Reply

26. What?!

27. Why don’t you folks all move to Canada? We’re a happy bunch up here and we are happy to welcome ALL OF YOU. For God’s sake GET ALONG before you get wiped out by all your petty bickering. And if you don’t stop arguing then Covid-19 will probably do it for you. COME NORTH and relax ! ! ! !

28. Thanks for the offer but I’m really kind of happy as long as I stay above the Mason-Dixon line and away from the central states, who for some reason think they’re really a part of the Old Confederacy, and right now below your country!

    1. Good for you Leslie – You sound like you have your head on straight. Good luck on Nov 3rd. We’re all praying for you. Cheers, David

29. But woe be us down here Dave. Now we don’t only have to worry about replacing or is that getting rid of DJT? But we also have to worry about those Russian loving GOPers replacing RBG. Woe be us!

    1. 0Oohhnhn, you poor things…

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