Oklahoma Land Rush

• Indian Territory


  The area of land that had been reserved specifically for the Indians
• Different tribes owned different sections of the Indian Territory
• In the middle of the Indian Territory there was a section that no tribe officially owned
• White settlers had been attempting to settle in the middle section of the Indian Territory since the beginning of the 1880's as it had very fertile farmland
• The US army usually stopped the white settlers from settling in the middle section of the Indian Territory
• The US government decided to allow white settlers onto the middle-section of the Indian Territory to file homestead claims

  1889
• The first Oklahoma land rush

  1. At noon on the 22 April 1889, white settlers gathered around the boundary waiting for a signal to declare the territory was open

  2. When a gun sounded, thousands rushed across the border
• There were a total of seven land rushes in 1893
• By the end of 1893, Oklahoma had a population of 60,000
• The land rush is significant as it is another example of the US government giving away Indian land because of pressure from white settlers