In the early 1860s, many white leaders were talking about opening Oklahoma to settlers. Those leaders included businessmen, bankers, railroad promoters, cattlemen and farmers. To them, Oklahoma was more than the last of the West. It was a land of opportunity which should be part of the "Manifest Destiny" of the United States to control all of the land between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.. The federal government’s Homestead Act of 1862 sped white settlement in Oklahoma. The act gave farmers 160 acres of free land. A farmer’s only cost was a small filing fee at a courthouse. The farm family had to settle on the land, remain on it for five years and make improvements, such as building a house, barn and fences. Then the land was theirs. Congress passed other land laws later that also encouraged settlement. Increasingly, late-comers were finding good, fertile land hard to come by.

Early promoters who wanted to open all of Oklahoma first focused on the unassigned lands in North Central Oklahoma. The federal government had taken that two-million acre tract, along with the rest of western Oklahoma, from the Five Civilized Tribes after the Civil War. Most of the land that the Civilized Tribes lost became the reservations of the plains Indians. But the government had never assigned the two-million acre tract to any tribe. 

In 1879, the mixed-blood Cherokee, Elias C. Boudinot, became interested in the unassigned tract. He was an attorney who represented railroad companies. Railroad executives and other businessmen wanted all of Oklahoma opened to whites, so their companies could make more money. Boudinot researched old treaties and land titles. He then wrote an article for the Chicago Tribune. He said that the unassigned lands should be open for immediate settlement and that the Homestead Law should be applied to the area.

Boudinot’s article in the Chicago Tribune brought more people into the camp of the "Boomers." They believed that whites should just "Boom" into Indian country and take the land that they wanted. The most important Boomer was David L. Payne, originally from Illinois. He moved to Kansas and fought for the Union in the Civil War. Later, a congressman from Kansas arranged for Payne to become assistant doorkeeper for the United States House of Representatives. Although his job was not important, Payne met Boudinot. They talked about the unassigned lands.

Captured by a dream, Payne returned to Kansas. He organized a Boomer colony in southern Kansas. Led by Payne, the colony invaded Oklahoma several times between 1879 and 1884, the year of Payne’s death. Each time, the army forced the colony to move back to Kansas. After Payne’s death, the Boomer movement continued under new leaders like William Couch, Sam Crocker and W. H. Osburn. Finally, in 1889, a majority in Congress listened to the Boomers. Congress called for the opening of the unassigned lands. President Benjamin Harrison set high noon of April 22nd as the day and time that a run for the unassigned lands would take place.

This is a photograph of a Boomer colony near Caldwell, Ks.
(Photo courtesy of the Archives & Manuscripts Division of the Oklahoma Historical Society)

Many Boomers refused to wait for the land run. They became "Sooners." They crept into the unassigned lands early and hid. What they did was illegal, but the Sooners were determined to get the best land. The army caught some of them and forced them to leave. But the army could not catch all of them. The Sooners illegally gained some of the best land because they were there to claim it first.

Study Guide Questions:

1. What were the terms of the Homestead Act?
2. What were the Unassigned Lands?
3. Who was Elias C. Boudinot and what did he say about the Unassigned Lands?
4. What newspaper, the first for any Indian tribe, did Elias Boudinot help edit?
5. Who was David Payne and what did he organize?
6. Who were the Boomers?
7. Who were the Sooners?

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