The western half of the Indian Territory…

The western half of the Indian Territory is still vacant; the United States allows limited Euramerican settlement, which will culminate in the opening of the entire Oklahoma territory.

On March 2, 1889, Congress passes an amendment to the Indian Appropriations Act of 1871, which provides for the creation of homestead settlements in the unassigned lands, to be known as Oklahoma Territory.

President Grover Cleveland announces that the Oklahoma lands will be opened on April 22 via land run.

The land run takes place at noon and is open to individuals of at least twenty-one years of age.

The Land Run of 1889, the first land run in the territory's history, opens Oklahoma Territory to settlement on April 22, 1889.

Over fifty thousand people enter the lands on the first day, among them thousands of freedmen and descendants of slaves.

Early squatter William L. Couch and his Boomers, now numbering approximately fourteen thousand, also enter the race.

Those who enter Oklahoma before the official start of the race are called Sooners.

The term refers to the "sooner clause" in the Indian Appropriations Act of March 2, 1889, which says that anyone who violates the official start will be denied a claim to the land.

When the run begins at noon, men on thousands of horses, wagons, buggies, carts, and vehicles rush across to Oklahoma.

The law-abiders fight with the Sooners on several instances.

A legal pioneer shoots and wounds Couch, a Sooner.

He will die on April 21, 1890, as a result of his wounds.

Many lawsuits result because more than one person claims a particular piece of land.

Often this involves trying to determine which party is a legal claimant.

A portion of the cases will even go as far as the U.S. Supreme Court.

When the race is over, many disappointed pioneers are forced to leave the area without any claim.

Of the fourteen thousand Boomers, only one thousand have made claims.

Tent cities grew overnight at Oklahoma City, Kingfisher, El Reno, Norman, Guthrie, and Stillwater, which are the first of the large settlements.

By the end of the day on April 22, 1889, there are more than enough settlers in the Unassigned Lands to require creation of a territorial government.

However, the brief legislation that provides for the opening of the land calls for no form of government in Oklahoma.

No local police or courts are established; federal military troops provide law enforcement and the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas under federal judge Isaac Parker is the only form of criminal and civil jurisdictions.

Despite that, the district is generally peaceful.

Most land disputes are settled without bloodshed, although a few will take years to resolve.

For over a year the people of Oklahoma Territory will be semi-autonomous.