Chronicles of Oklahoma Volume 13, No. 4 December, 1935 Five Minute History of Oklahoma Patrick J. Hurley 373 Address in Commemoration of Wiley Post before the Oklahoma State Society of Washington D. C. Paul A. Walker 376 Oklahoma's School Endowment D. W. P. 381 Judge Charles Bismark Ames D. A. Richardson 391 Augusta Robertson Moore: A Sketch of Her Life and Times Carolyn Thomas Foreman 399 Chief John Ross John Bartlett Meserve 421 Captain David L. Payne D. W. P. 438 Oklahoma's First Court Grant Foreman 457 An Unusual Antiquity in Pontotoc County H. R. Antle 470 Oklahoma History Quilt D. W. P. 472 Some Fragments of Oklahoma History 481 Notes 485 Minutes 489 Necrology 494 A FIVE MINUTE HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA By Patrick J. Hurley, former Secretary of War. From a Radio Address Delivered November 14, 1935. Page 373 The State of Oklahoma was admitted to the Union 28 years ago. Spaniards led by Coronado traversed what is now the State of Oklahoma 67 years before the first English settlement in Virginia and 79 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. All of the land now in Oklahoma except a little strip known as the panhandle was acquired by the United States from France in the Louisiana Purchase. Early in the nineteenth century the United States moved the five civilized tribes, the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles, from southeastern states to lands west of the Mississippi River, the title to which was transferred to the tribes in exchange for part of their lands in the East. The newly acquired land was named Indian Territory. The circumstances in connection with the transfer of the five tribes constitutes one of the most ruthless incidents in American history. The Cherokees had to fight the Osages, aboriginal Indians of Indian Territory, for the right to occupy the land conveyed to them by the government. There were also civil wars within the tribes. Each of the five civilized tribes established a separate government in Indian Territory, all of which were Republican in form. The chief industry of the civilized Indians was agriculture and stock raising. They established school systems and made fine progress. Some of the Indians who moved west owned slaves. This gave Indian Territory a decided tendency toward the Confederacy. The five tribes supported the cause of the Confederate States. After the Civil War, and largely as a punitive measure on account of the Page 374 attitude of the five tribes toward the United States Government during the war, the tribes were required to cede all of their western outlets back to the United States. Friendly tribes of Indians were settled on parts of the land returned to the government.The land ceded back to the United States by the five civilized tribes became Oklahoma Territory. The five civilized tribes continued to occupy what then remained of Indian Territory. After the Civil War the number of white people residing in Indian Territory continued to increase. These white residents had no tribal rights except when they intermarried with members of the tribes or were adopted. Slaves who were freed in Indian Territory by the Civil War were finally admitted to citizenship in the tribes. Before the United States Court was given jurisdiction over Indian Territory it became the "hide-out" for many outlaws. One of the most thrilling episodes in southwestern history was the opening of Oklahoma Territory to white settlement. It began in 1889. It was completed in 1906. From 1898 to 1902 the United States entered into agreements with each of the Indian tribes for the allotment of their tribal lands in severalty. Each Indian was allotted his or her proportionate share of the tribal lands, and the tribal titles and tribal governments were extinguished. In 1907 Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory became the State of Oklahoma. The desire for land on this last American frontier brought hundreds of thousands of settlers to Oklahoma. The development of the coal, lead, zinc, oil, gas, and agricultural resources brought millions of people to the new state. Railways and highways provide transportation for every section of the state. No state in the Union is provided with more ample educational facilities. All the leading sects of the Christian religion have prospered in Oklahoma. Many churches and religious institutions have been built. Great wealth has come to many through the development of the resources of the state. The basic element in the citizenship of the state is, of course, Indian and frontier people. The rush to Oklahoma brought the most hardy and aggressive sons and daughters of the pioneers from other states. The newcomers have furnished nearly all of the out- Page 375 standing political leadership of the new state. Oklahoma has never had a native born Governor or a United States Senator. At the present time it has only one native born member of Congress. In other lines, however, natives have achieved outstanding preeminence. Among the natives of Indian blood we find the names of Alex Posey and Will Rogers. Troops from the territories participated with distinction in the Spanish-American War and troops from the State of Oklahoma fought on the fields of France in the World War. More than ninety-eight percent of the population of the state is native American. The citizenship of Oklahoma has all of the courage of its pioneer fathers and all of the strength and kindliness of its pioneer mothers. ADDRESS IN COMMEMORATION OF WILEY POST before the OKLAHOMA STATE SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON, D. C., AT THE TWENTY-EIGHTH OKLAHOMA STATEHOOD ANNIVERSARY by PAUL A. WALKER of Oklahoma, Chairman, Telephone Division, Federal Communications Commission. Page 376 Out of the skies last August flashed from Alaska the tragic news of the death of Will Rogers and Wiley Post. Tonight Oklahomans join in honoring these dauntless pioneers. It is my privilege to pay an humble tribute to Wiley Post, outstanding pioneer aviator. Amid beautiful surroundings in Ponca City, Oklahoma is a park given to the State by its present Chief Executive. In it rises a striking monument. It is a statue of the "Pioneer Woman," one of the characteristic figures in American history. There she stands, erect, head high, Bible and bundle in hand, leading her little son, ready to set forth with sublime courage in quest of new lands and a new home in God's free and open country. Of such stock is the pioneer, and of such spirit was the sturdy Oklahoma farm boy whose renown as conqueror of the skies we are proud to acclaim. It was that same pioneering spirit, deeply ingrained in the very soul and being of Wiley Post, which spurred the founders of our State ever onward to the exploration and settlement of new territory and to countless unselfish deeds of daring and adventure. To duplicate the performance of others was never sufficient for this hero of the air. Nor did misfortune daunt him in the determined pursuit of his purposes. Partially blinded by an explosion in the oil fields, with the sight of one eye irretrievably lost, it is a matter of common knowledge how this farmer boy of Page 377 the Southwest turned even that major disaster to account and with the minor sum awarded him as compensation for that accident purchased a secondhand airplane and proceeded to demonstrate the indomitable nature within him that was an utter stranger to defeat. While stunt flying and parachute jumping were scarcely out of the cradle as hazardous spectacles, this daring young aeronautist was providing thrills for thousands with his skill in maneuvering his plane. It was nothing for him to drop, plummet-like, from the sky to a hundred safe parachute landings. Having thoroughly exploited the possibilities of such spectacles, they held little further interest for him and he was off in search of new adventures. Speed, and yet more speed became his passion. The Chicago-Los Angeles Air Derby of 1930 provided an avenue for the exercise of his skill in coaxing the utmost out of a flying machine. In winning that classic against all comers, winging his way 1760 miles in nine hours, nine minutes, and four seconds, at the age of thirty he created for himself a distinct place among the captains of the aeronautic world. And still his insatiable flair for the untried, handed down to him as a legacy from his pioneering ancestry, drove him on to deeds of greater fame. What more venturesome than to circle the globe by chart and compass, through clouds and storms, beneath burning sun and star-lit heavens, trail-blazing in the air! This did Wiley Post presently, with Harold Gattey as navigator, the "Winnie Mae" roaring down out of the blue to rest in a New York landing field in a few hours more than eight days after taking off on her flight from Harbor Grace, Newfoundland. But ambition continued to ride the wings of his soaring plane. Even as Lindbergh had thrilled the world by his non-stop transoceanic flight, so did this pioneering Oklahoman, impelled by an urge that would brook no denial, set out upon his greatest exploit of all, no less a feat than flying alone around the world. Aeronautics have written the story of that achievement in never-fading letters upon the page of our Nation's history. The record of seven days, 18 minutes, and 49 seconds which Post hung up in that epochal flght still stands as a challenge to airmen in the years to come. Page 378 What of Post's excursions but a few months since in the region of the stratosphere, that mysterious upper air area of Arctic temperature which begins some nine miles above the earth's surface and wherein no human being can live without artificial means? Were these excursions failures? Perhaps so, in the immediate sense that in none of his four attempts from California was he able to gain his goal of reaching New York in record time through this rarefied medium.