OKLAHOMA

The Southwest. constituent state of the United States of America, lying in the south-central United States. It is bounded on the north by Kansas and Colorado, on the east by Missouri and Arkansas, on the south by Texas, and on the west by Texas and New Mexico. The capital is Oklahoma City. There is evidence of habitation in Oklahoma by hunters of the Clovis and Folsom American Indian cultures as much as 15,000 years ago. Between AD 500 and 1300 a sophisticated culture that produced pottery, textiles, sculpture, and metalware existed. A period of decline set in that was followed by the expedition of Francisco Vzquez de Coronado into the area in 1541. Spanish control lasted until 1800, when the area passed to the French, then, three years later, to the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase. In 1828 the U.S. Congress reserved Oklahoma for Indians, and by 1880 more than 60 tribes had joined the local ones in what was known as Indian Territory. Treaties of annexation to the Confederate States of America that had been signed by the Five Civilized Tribes led to increased federal intervention in the Indian Territory after 1865. In 1889 in recognition of an unstoppable migration of whites there, Congress opened up parts of the Indian Territory to non-Indian settlement. In 1907 what was left of the Indian Territory joined with the Oklahoma Territory (established 1890) to become the state of Oklahoma, entering the Union as the 46th state. Three of the nation's large physical features extend into or across the state: the Interior Highlands in the east, the Coastal Plain (a northward extension from Texas and the Gulf of Mexico) in the south, and the Interior Plains elsewhere. A mountainous subregion in the south of the state is characterized by rough topography and thin soils. To the northeast is the Ozark Plateau with its scenic but rough terrain. Central Oklahoma alternates between hill and plain, and in the west the hills are capped by layers of white gypsum. The drainage pattern slopes from an elevation of 5,000 feet (1,500 m) in the northwest to 500 feet (150 m) in the southeast. The northern and central parts of the state are drained principally by the Arkansas River and its tributaries; the Red River drains the state along its southern border. Rainfall varies from more than 45 inches (1,140 mm) in the southeast to less than 20 inches (510 mm) in the western Panhandle. Oklahoma's weather is normally pleasant with an average annual temperature of about 60 F (15.5 C). No region is free from wind, and the entire state is subject to thunderstorms, blizzards, and tornadoes. Oklahoma's population is extremely diverse. American Indians, though only 8 percent of the total population, are, in absolute numbers, the second largest Indian population in all the states. Blacks are about 7 percent of the population. The mining boom of the 1870s brought Italians, Greeks, Welsh, Poles, and Russians into the area. Immigrants have also come from China, Japan, Mexico, England, France, Canada, and Vietnam. Most of these groups have assimilated into a typically south-central American culture, where Southern Baptists and United Methodists predominate. Oklahoma's population is two-thirds urban. Its vital statistics follow closely the national averages, but its population growth of 18 percent between 1970 and 1980 was well above the national average, largely owing to immigration from other areas of the country. Its population growth rate was well below the national average between 1980 and 1990, however. Oklahoma's receipts from livestock (mostly cattle) and livestock products are double that of crops. The major crops include wheat, hay, cotton, sorghum, and peanuts (groundnuts). Oklahoma ranks high nationally in the value of mineral production, with natural gas, petroleum, coal, and stone its major products. Timber resources are also important. In other respects, however, Oklahoma remains an economic satellite of the industrial North and East. Only about one-tenth of the labour force is engaged in manufacturing. Machinery, fabricated metal products, rubber, and plastic are the main manufactured products. Oklahoma is well served by road and rail. Intricate networks of pipelines transport the state's petroleum products. A relatively new addition to the transportation system is a barge system linking the state's second largest city, Tulsa, to the Gulf of Mexico by way of locks and dams on the Arkansas River. In recognition of its Indian and Wild West heritage, Oklahoma boasts the National Hall of Fame for Famous American Indians, the Southern Plains Indian Museum and Crafts Center, and the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center. The state has numerous daily newspapers, radio stations, and television stations. The leading state-sponsored universities of Oklahoma are located at Norman and Stillwater. Area 69,956 square miles (181,185 square km). Pop. (1990) 3,145,576; (1995 est.) 3,271,000. constituent state of the United States of America. In its land and its people, Oklahoma is a state of contrast and of the unexpected. The terrain varies from the rolling, timbered hills of the east, where the state borders Missouri and Arkansas, to the treeless high plains that extend into Texas and New Mexico to the west. Oklahoma's east central region is dominated by the lowlands of the Arkansas River, sweeping in from Colorado and Kansas on the north, and by the Red River, which forms nearly all of its southern border with Texas. Oklahoma covers an area of 69,956 square miles (181,186 square kilometres). The capital is Oklahoma City. The word Oklahoma is derived from two Choctaw Indian words: okla, people, and humma, red. During the 19th century the future state was a symbol of one of the least glorious chapters in American history, becoming known as Indian Territory, the dumping ground for Indian tribes displaced by white settlers' ever-increasing hunger for land. Since its admission in 1907 as the 46th state of the Union, however, Oklahoma has achieved an integration of its Indian citizens into modern economic and social life that probably is unmatched by any other state. There is no reservation in the usual sense for the Indian population. Though numbers of blanket Indians may possess no more than their bedrolls, others have risen to positions of distinction. Many share in the great wealth that oil resources have brought to the state. Once basically agriculturaland the Dust Bowl locale of John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of WrathOklahoma now has hundreds of lakes and a diversified economy. The customs of the Deep South are maintained in the habits and attitudes of southern OklahomaLittle Dixiedespite the decline in cotton production. The customs of the wheat growers in the north, however, reflect their largely Kansan origins. Additional reading A work strong in local descriptions is Writers' Program, Oklahoma: A Guide to the Sooner State (1941, reprinted as The WPA Guide to 1930s Oklahoma, 1986); it is updated by Kent Ruth (compiler), Oklahoma: A Guide to the Sooner State, rev. ed. (1957, reprinted 1974). John W. Morris, Charles R. Goins, and Edwin C. McReynolds, Historical Atlas of Oklahoma, 3rd rev. ed. (1986), is an excellent source for geography. DeLorme Mapping Company, Oklahoma Atlas & Gazetteer (1998), provides topographic maps. Local geography and history are detailed in George H. Shirk, Oklahoma Place Names, 2nd ed., rev. and enlarged (1974, reissued 1987). Kenny A. Franks, The Oklahoma Petroleum Industry (1980); and Edward Everett Dale, The Range Cattle Industry: Ranching on the Great Plains from 1865 to 1925, new ed. (1960), profile two important industries. Modern political subjects are analyzed in Stephen Jones, Oklahoma Politics in State and Nation (1974), covering 190762; and James R. Scales and Danney Goble, Oklahoma Politics: A History (1982). The best comprehensive historical work is Arrell Morgan Gibson, Oklahoma: A History of Five Centuries, 2nd ed. (1981). Biographical sketches as well as general history are found in Gaston Litton, History of Oklahoma at the Golden Anniversary of Statehood, 4 vol. (1957). Irvin Hurst, The 46th Star: A History of Oklahoma's Constitutional Convention and Early Statehood (1957, reissued 1980), is excellent for its descriptions of Oklahoma's founders. A concise, interpretive history is H. Wayne Morgan and Anne Hodges Morgan, Oklahoma (1977, reissued 1984); while Anne Hodges Morgan and H. Wayne Morgan (eds.), Oklahoma: New Views of the Forth-Sixth State (1982), collects essays on the state's history, economic and social change, politics, and literary tradition. Also of interest is Danney Goble, Progressive Oklahoma: The Making of a New Kind of State (1980). Muriel H. Wright, A Guide to the Indian Tribes of Oklahoma (1951, reprinted 1986), is essential to understanding the history of Native Americans in the state. John S. Ezell The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica