YOUR OKLAHOMA HISTORY LESSON by Myra Vanderpool Gormley <myravg@prodigy.net> Between 1889 and 1907 what is now the State of Oklahoma was two territories: Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory. Earlier, from 1886 to 1889, this area was all called Indian Territory. The OKIT pertains to political and land divisions, not tribal designations. Indian Territory (1889-1907) contained Cherokee Nation, Creek Nation, Choctaw Nation, Chickasaw Nation and Seminole Nation. Within these Nations were counties (just to confuse present-day researchers), many of which no longer exist. Oklahoma Territory in 1890 had the following Indian jurisdictions: Osage, Kaw (alias Kansas), Nez Perce, Ponca, Otoe and Missouri, Pawnee, Remnant of Cherokee Outlet [not part of the Cherokee Nation, but lands this nation sold to the U.S.], Iowa, Kickapoo, Sac and Fox, Pottawatomie, Cheyenne and Arapaho, Wichita, Kiowa, Comanche and Apache. Additionally there was the area (now the Oklahoma Panhandle) called "No Man's Land" but that was not a political division, simply an unassigned area of land. To add a bit more confusion to the political history, Texas organized an area in what's now the southwest corner of Oklahoma as Greer County. It was attached to Oklahoma following a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1896, when the Okies there refused to wear 10-gallon hats and be called Texans ....... (are you paying attention?).