Oklahoma Becomes Part of the United States: 1803-1860

1. American Exploration
2. Early Indian Emigration to Oklahoma
3. Historic Forts, Routes and Trails
4. Indian Loyalties and the Civil War

American Exploration

Just after the turn of the 19th century, Joseph Bogy established a post on the Verdigris near Chouteau�s place. By 1812, traders Alexander McFarland and John Lemons had set up their trading post on the north side of the Red River. Their place was near present-day Nacona, Texas (just west of today�s Interstate Highway 35). By 1815, trader Nathaniel Pryor had established himself on the Grand near Three Forks. By then, the United States government had sent several parties of explorers into the region.

In 1806, Captain Zebulon Pike and Lieutenant James Wilkinson, Jr. led an expedition that explored the Central Plains and parts of New Mexico and Oklahoma. The men divided into two parties. Wilkinson and his men traveled the Arkansas River and followed it through Oklahoma. They traded with several Indian tribes including the Osage. They also stumbled onto several parties of American trappers who had been trading with nearby Indians for several years. In 1817, the government ordered Major Stephen Long and a detachment of men into western Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. Their job was to stop different Indian tribes from warring among themselves. Long�s men built and garrisoned Fort Smith. The Fort was at Belle Point on the Poteau River where it flows into the Arkansas. He ended the Indian hostilities and then explored southeastern Oklahoma.

The United States and Spain signed the Adams-Onis Treaty in 1819, which ceded Florida to the United States and renounced the United States' claim to Texas. It set the southern boundary of the United States west of the Mississippi River as the Red River. The Red River eventually became the southern boundary of Oklahoma.

During that same year, Long explored the Great Plains. He and his men went all the way north to Nebraska and all the way west to the Rocky Mountains. He hoped to find the headwaters of the Arkansas and Red rivers. Those headwaters helped mark the boundary between the United States and soon-to-be independent Mexico. Long labeled the plains, including western Oklahoma, as the "Great American Desert." He believed that the flat, treeless, arid land was unfit for farming. Because his views were made public, American farmers avoided the Plains country for several decades.

When Long led his expedition across the plains, western Oklahoma was part of the range of several Indian tribes who were nomadic and warlike. Some of the tribes were the Southern Cheyenne and the Arapaho, the Comanche and the Kiowa. Ancestors of such plains Indians had come in contact with the Spanish explorer Coronado. The explorer�s expedition included a vast horse herd (a remuda) and the Indians acquired many horses. The flat, treeless plains proved to be the ideal habitat for the animals. The Indians became expert horsemen. That made them highly mobile and even more feared as warriors. They came from out of nowhere to strike and then quickly disappeared.

Additional Resources

Study Guide Questions:

1. Name four Americans who set up trading posts with the Indians in Oklahoma during this time?
2. What was the name of August Pierre Chouteau�s trading company in Oklahoma? With what Indian tribes did he trade?
3. When, where and why did Major Stephen Long establish Fort Smith?
4. What area did Long label as the "Great American Desert"? Why did he call it that?
5. When and how did the plains Indians acquire horses?
6. Why did horses become so important to the plains Indians?

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