Oklahoma
Oklahoma Land Run anniversary: What to know about rocky history, Bricktown sculpture updates
Over 130 years ago this month, thousands of settlers rushed to stake their claim of 160 acres in the so-called “unassigned lands” of Oklahoma territory, marking the beginning of what would eventually become the state of Oklahoma.
That event, which started on April 22, 1889, is also a source of generational trauma for many Oklahoma tribal members, who are reminded by the 1889 Oklahoma Land Run of their ancestors’ forcible removal here. There are 39 federally recognized tribes based in Oklahoma today, many of whom were granted or sold land that was a fraction of the areas they previously occupied for centuries.
Since their removal, they have endured decades of hardship, from boarding schools where students were forced to cut their hair, only speak English and were often abused, to continued loss of land through government allotments and subsequent land runs, and suppression of tribal sovereignty.
Here’s what to know about the 1889 land run, how it originated, and the effects it still has today.
Oklahoma Land Rush: Where did ‘Unassigned Lands’ come from?
The land, nearly 1.9 million acres, was deemed open for settlement 23 years after the Five Tribes (Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Muscogee/Creek, and Seminole) signed new treaties with the United States in 1866, according to the Oklahoma Historical Society.
The tribes ceded portions of their land — along with agreeing to end slavery, allow railroads to enter the area and grant former slaves full tribal citizenship — after signing treaties with and fighting for the Confederacy during the Civil War.
Much of that land was used to remove other tribes to the area, the Oklahoma Historical Society said, including the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, Comanche and others.
But a large portion of land in the center of the state remained empty, and was eventually deemed “unassigned.” There were campaigns to open the land up for settlement, but because of stipulations in 1866 treaties with the Creek and Seminole, the land was supposed to be used only for re-settlement of other native tribes.
But in 1889, the Creek and Seminole tribes presented proposals to relinquish any claim they previously had on the land, placing the land in the public domain.
The legal basis for opening the Oklahoma District, now called the Unassigned Lands, came
So in 1889, in the U.S. Congress amended the Indian Appropriations Bill to authorize President Benjamin Harrison to proclaim the two-million-acre region open for settlement. That spring, would-be settlers flooded the area in preparation, and on April 22, 1889, guns and cannons went off at noon, marking the “opening” of Oklahoma for non-native settlement.
Changes coming near Oklahoma City land run monument
For decades, the land run has been celebrated and even re-enacted at elementary schools. But those events have drawn protest from groups like the Society to Protect Indigenous Rights and Indigenous Treaties (SPIRIT), and many schools have stopped the practice.
But a permanent, bronze, larger-than-life monument to the land run stands tall in Lower Bricktown. A set of 45 statues depicts the event, stretching 365 feet across the southern end of the Bricktown Canal.
The monument, created by Oklahoma artist and citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Paul Moore, has been the recipient of protest since 2007 when SPIRIT formed to oppose centennial statehood celebrations.
The group again protested the monument and its heroic depiction of land run participants during the summer of 2020 and the racial reckoning which was bringing down monuments across the nation that honored people like Christopher Columbus and Confederate Army generals.
The group met with Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt, who rejected a proposal to tear down the monument completely but helped connect the group with the late city arts liaison Robbie Kienzle.
Since then, the group and the city have been working together to provide more context to the monument, specifically from the perspective of indigenous peoples. A report was presented in 2022 to the Oklahoma City Arts Commission — compiled by mother-and-son Anita Fields, who is Osage and Muscogee, and Yatika Fields, who is Osage, Muscogee and Cherokee — which determined the monument is one-sided and “hurtful” to Oklahoma’s Indigenous communities.
Randy Marks, Oklahoma City’s Arts Program Planner, said the city expects to announce within the next three months a Request for Proposals for a “cultural exhibit” that will be adjacent to the land run monument.
“The exhibit will convey an indigenous perspective on the indigenous cultural and historical context leading up to and including the land run event,” Marks said.
WACO, Texas (KXXV) — To say the least, it has been a memorable four games for Baylor football so far this season.
A walk off field goal by Arizona State at McLane Stadium brings the Bears to 2-2 for the season and now they are heading to Stillwater looking to bounce back against Oklahoma State.
Watch the full story here:
Baylor looks to bounce back in road game against Oklahoma State
“Saturday’s game was a tough one,” head coach Dave Aranda said. “But, I think the message there is that hey, you can prepare, you can practice, you can do all of the things — that doesn’t mean you’re gonna win. There’s still more things that you gotta do.”
“There’s no participation trophy for preparing right and staying late and doing the extra all these details matter and so we’re really focused on that,” he added.
The Bears enter Stillwater following the firing of Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy after 21 years on the job. While the Cowboys are reeling, the Bears understand that they still have a talented roster.
“They play hard, you know. They get after the ball, their record doesn’t reflect the kind of team they are. They got a lot of talent and they’re gonna be ready to play,” safety Devyn Bobby said.
“Same thing we always talk about — respect all, fear none. We take that into every week, you know they’re still a great program. They have great coaching staff, great athletes on the field, so we gotta be prepared and ready for them,” wide receiver Kobe Prentice said.
After the Arizona State game, head coach Aranda spoke about complimentary football. While the defense had a great game last week, the offense struggled — and they are looking to find that balance.
“Obviously we didn’t get the win, so we got to get better so you know a lot of people might say we had a great game but we didn’t get to win — we could have had more stops, had more turnovers, but you know we’re still having to attack everyday mindset and we’re trying to get better,” Bobby said.
“The higher level than all of that is the team is that you know if one side’s down the other side picks it up. We need to be able to have that, you know, when we’ve played at the level that we need to play, we play that way and so we’re going to continue to aim for it,” Aranda said.
Baylor vs Oklahoma State is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. this Saturday.
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Mike Gundy thinks Oklahoma State football woes are ‘fixable’ this season
Mike Gundy says he has no desire to stop coaching the Oklahoma State football program amid the Cowboys’ 11-game losing streak against FBS competition.
Oklahoma State football has fired head coach Mike Gundy after 21 seasons, the program announced on Tuesday, Sept. 23.
Gundy, previously the second-longest tenured head coach with one program in college football, led the Cowboys to a 1-2 start this season, including a 19-12 loss to in-state foe Tulsa on Sept. 19, which was OSU’s first at home to Tulsa since 1951. Oklahoma State also lost to Oregon 69-3 in Week 2.
“Cowboy Football reached an unprecedented level of success and national prominence under Coach Gundy’s leadership,” OSU athletic director Chad Weiberg said in the announcement. “I believe I speak for OSU fans everywhere when I say that we are grateful for all he did to raise the standard and show us all what is possible for Oklahoma State football.”
Oklahoma State is amid its longest losing streak to Power Four teams in program history, having lost 11 straight against such teams. The Cowboys went 3-9 last season and were winless in Big 12 play. Gundy leaves the program with a 170-90 career record and has the school’s winningest coach of all time. He has 108 more wins than Pat Jones, who ranks second in program history with 62 wins.
Gundy is owed a $15 million buyout from the school due to be fired prior to Dec. 31, 2027, according to his contract obtained by the USA TODAY Network.
Gundy said after the Tulsa loss that he had no interest in 2025 being his final season with the program, and was swarmed with questions about his future with the school.
“In 21 years it’s a different position than I’ve been in,” Gundy said. “As I say every week, my job is to evaluate the overall program, players, the systems … And then I have to make a decision on where we’re at based on what we have. That’s what I do. We’ve certainly been in a different situation a lot of years in a row, but currently we’re not in that situation.”
The 58-year-old coach helped build Oklahoma State into a perennial Big 12 title contender after taking over for Les Miles in 2005. He nearly led the Cowboys to the national championship in 2011, and was Big 12 Coach of the Year in 2010, 2021 and 2023.
The fall from grace was fast for the program, as the Cowboys earned a spot in the Big 12 championship in 2023, and also beat archrival Oklahoma in the final Bedlam for the foreseeable future.
Gundy, a former Oklahoma State quarterback and Midwest City, Oklahoma, native, has only coached four seasons at other schools in his career, serving as passing-game coordinator at Baylor in 1996 and receivers coach at Maryland from 1997-99. He was an assistant at Oklahoma State from 1990-95, and again from 2001-04.
Oklahoma State will turn to a new coach for the first time in over 20 years for the 2026 season, and they’ll look to lead the program back to the heights of Gundy’s prime in Stillwater.
The Big 12 is still having a rough time in the national landscape.
Over the weekend, the Big 12 had some interesting matchups as it secured an unbeaten record in nonconference games. While a couple of matchups between Big 12 teams on Friday kept the conference from having a perfect record, the 12 teams in action combined for a 10-2 mark, which is the best they could have achieved in Week 3.
However, that didn’t mean a whole lot for the Big 12 in the AP poll, which dropped on Sunday. The conference had only three teams in the top 25, with No. 12 Iowa State, No. 16 Utah and No. 17 Texas Tech representing the Big 12.
In terms of how bad that is for the Big 12, the conference’s most recent departures in Texas and Oklahoma came in at Nos. 8 and 11, respectively. Meanwhile, the other three power conferences have at least one team in the top four and multiple teams in the top seven.
Of course, the AP poll is only good for discussions, as evidenced by winless Notre Dame’s inclusion, with the independent program riding the coattails of last season’s runner-up performance. The real rankings won’t come until the final weeks of the year, with the College Football Playoff’s top 25 ultimately being all that matters in the end.
To put it simply, the AP poll is unlikely to have any impact on OSU this season. The Cowboys’ loss at Oregon will keep them from receiving a single vote for quite some time, even if they could somehow put together a sizeable winning streak starting with the Tulsa matchup.
Of course, if the Cowboys could find a way to put together any sort of streak, perhaps in a similar fashion to 2023’s winning streak, they might be able to break through anyway, given the Big 12’s status nationally. Sure, the Cowboys won’t be any sort of contender at the national level any time soon, but a 5-1 start would probably be good enough to get them into the polls and the Big 12 title conversation.
In terms of the long-term future, the Pokes might not even be saved by any type of resurgence. Considering the Big 12 is easily the laughing stock of the Power Four, it needs a program to essentially save it from becoming irrelevant in the national landscape.
With OSU being the laughing stock of the Big 12, there’s no reason to expect the Cowboys to be the saviors the conference desperately needs.
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