What's In A Name? Vol.1

It’s April 22, 1889 and President Benjamin Harrison has just proclaimed the “Unassigned Lands” open for settlement. This area, in what is now Oklahoma, was ceded to Creek and Seminole tribes after the Civil War as forced relocation and punishment for the tribes support of the Confederate Army. People are anxious. Waiting in anticipation for noon to strike for, what was then known as, the Oklahoma District to be officially opened for settlement. Proclamation 288, the Opening to Settlement Certain Lands in Indian Territory, stated that any person who entered and occupied land prior to the opening time would be denied the right to claim land.

Initially, these illegal claimants were labeled as “moonshiners” for their tendency to sneak onto the Unassigned Lands under the cloak of midnight and by the light of the moon. Proclamation 288 would later result in several contests and appeals against those who were accused of entering the Oklahoma District “too soon”. The clause would from that point be nicknamed The Sooner Clause. Some of the accused in these claims were those who refered to themselves as “Boomers”. Boomers were white settlers between 1879-1889 who felt the Indian Territory was public land to be occupied by anyone, not just Native tribes.

Over time, the term Sooner shed its negative connotation and would be adopted as part of the pioneer spirit by the early 19th century. In 1908 the University of Oklahoma would adopt the now state nickname, The Sooner State, as its own mascot. Previously the school had tried Rough Riders and even Boomers as the nickname. The iconic covered wagon, The Sooner Schooner, was introduced in 1964. It would forever be pulled across the field by twin ponies named Sooner and Boomer.