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Oklahoma History Chapter 9
In the late 1800s Five Civilized Tribes began to rebuild the land.
- Whites hired to take care of large sections of land
- Tenant Farmers - cleaned the land and grew crops
- Landowner owned any improvements (fences, walls) as well part of the crop
- Most tenant farmers were Scottish, Irish, or English
Cherokee leaders Elias Boudinot and Stand Waite bought a tobacco factory and moved it to Cherokee land
- Due to clause in treaty of 1866 - Cherokee allowed to sell tobacco without paying taxes
- Began to ship products all over U.S.
- Southern tobacco farmers complained and U.S. canceled tax exempt clause - ending their business
One of 1st business was a grist mill. Farmers took grain there.
- Nelson Carr built 1st commercial corn grist mill in 1870
- Few years later, sold to Jacob Bartles - added a store
- Became town of Bartlesville
1873 - International Indian Territory Agricultural Fair
- Held in Muskogee
- Rodeo was held - possibly first organized rodeo held in U.S.
Natural Resources:
- Lumber
- Steam powered lumber mills built as early as 1868
- Indians contracted with white to cut and log trees
- Coal
- 1871 - James J. McAlester discovered coal in Choctaw nation
- Organized Oklahoma Mining Co.
- Leased mine to a coal company
- Choctaws received a royalty - payment for right to natural resources
- Choctaws got 10 cents/ton
- Workers from Europe worked the coal mines
- Very dangerous place to work
- Cave-ins and fires common deadly
- $2.50 per day - 9 1/2 hours per day
- workers wanted to form Labor Unions - organization of workers to improve benefits, wages, and working conditions
- Indian Territory laws made Unions illegal
- Peter Hanraty - immigrant from Scotland - led to several strikes (work stoppage)
- 1889 - Unions now permitted
- Oil
- Oil steeped through the ground
- Believed it would help with diseases such as arthritis
- Chickasaw nation developed spas - health resorts
- People from all over SW came to bathe in waters
- Market for oil was small - used mainly in lamps for lighting
Growth of towns:
- Traders would visit all areas - some stores were set up
- Small towns grew around these stores
- Growing towns needed workers and settlers
- Indians sold licenses to non-Indians to live work
- Cost between $2.50 - $5.00
- 1000s of non-Indians moved into Indian Territory
- Many of the larger towns had
- bank
- drugstore
- lawyers
- doctor
- dentist
- boarding houses - place to stay with meal
- haberdasheries - stores that sold clothes and goods
Doaksville - in the Choctaw Nation was the main trade center for Indian Territory
As the MK&T built - Atoka and Eufaula became trading centers
Marshall Town - where Arkansas and Verdigris Rivers met was an all black town in the 1800s
1822 - Frisco railroad built through Creek Nation - Sapulpa became a important center trade
In Chickasaw nation - Ardmore, Pauls Valley, and Purcell grew as the RR's came through
Churches and Schools were the basis of social life:
- Most activities were based around these
- Christmas was the biggest holiday
Taming the Territory:
- Banks and Trains often target of attack
- 1875 - U.S. sent Isaac C. Parker to be judge at Ft. Smith
- This included power of Indian Territory
- Formed army of deputies
- Parker became known as Hanging Judge
- Over 160 hung during this time
- Locals provided solutions outside of the courts
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