What to see in America . ness, and in the pleasure of observing the progressthat has been made in the short time since it became a whitemans land. Wherever you go, the wonder is to find so muchaccomplished and such numbers of people and large townswhere were only prairie and Indians a few years ago. Thestates larger communities are populous modern cities, and asurprisingly vast amount of land has been subdued foragricultural purposes. Among the inhabitants of the stateare fifty thousand Indians, and for each of them an inalien-able homestead of one hundred and sixty acres has beenreserved. Ami


What to see in America . ness, and in the pleasure of observing the progressthat has been made in the short time since it became a whitemans land. Wherever you go, the wonder is to find so muchaccomplished and such numbers of people and large townswhere were only prairie and Indians a few years ago. Thestates larger communities are populous modern cities, and asurprisingly vast amount of land has been subdued foragricultural purposes. Among the inhabitants of the stateare fifty thousand Indians, and for each of them an inalien-able homestead of one hundred and sixty acres has beenreserved. Amid the tides of civilization flowing around themand the busy thrift of the whites, they seem incongruous,and at a loss to make the transition from the savage freedomof their fathers to the workaday necessities of the a rule they rent their land to white cultivators. Not manyyears ago they were the only inhabitants, for nearly all thearea of the present state consisted of Indian reservations and 312 Oklahoma 313. A Coyote, WK hita National Forest was called IndianTerritory. As ourcountry becamemore and moresettled it wasfound that thisIndian Territoryhad great re-sources. Thegovernment hadpledged its faith that no white settlers would be allowed to occupy the reser-vations. But, by 1800, violators of the laws against suchencroachment were causing much disturbance. The boom-ers, as they were called, knew the value of the land, andrepeatedly marched in from the Kansas border. However,they were steadily repulsed by the United States officials,sometimes with the aid of troops. In 1889, after somedickering with the Indians, the right was acquired to throwa considerable section of the country open to the whites. Atnoon on April 22 the signal was given, and no less thantwenty thousand adventurers and homeseekers, who hadcollected along the borders of the new lands, made a mad rush to secure thebest farms andtown lots. Otherreservations werethrown open tosettlement in thesame


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Keywords: ., bookauthorjohnsonc, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookyear1919