The French 

Meanwhile, by the late 1600s, France rivaled Spain in the mercantilist sweepstakes. Voyages down the Mississippi River from French bases in Canada by explorers such as Joliet, Marquette, and La Salle, and subsequent French claims to the vast lands drained from the west by the Mississippi,which they dubbed Louisiana (and which included all of present-day Oklahoma except the Panhandle) in honor of their dictatorial monarch, Louis XIV-helped establish this enhanced French power. From the 1718 founding of New Orleans at the mouth of the Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico, French traders and explorers flocked northwest through Oklahoma rivers in search of furs.

The French posed a grave threat to Spanish hegemony over present-day Oklahoma and, indeed, the entire western Mississippi River Valley. Their men proved to be active and vigorous travelers along rivers such as the Arkansas, Red, Canadian, Grand, and Verdigris. They formed alliances with influential Indian tribes such as the Comanches in the Southern Plains and the Wichitas in eastern Oklahoma, and in fact did not hesitate to intermarry with Indian girls. They also traded

a galaxy of items to the Indians, including clothing, tools, and trinkets, and-unlike the Spanish-weapons, ammunition, and whiskey.

Gradually, the French parlayed these practices into a loose control over most of present-day Oklahoma and the western Mississippi watershed. This ended, temporarily, in 1763, as England defeated the combined forces of Spain and France in the sprawling mercantilist Seven Years War, whose North American theater gained the name of the French and Indian War. That vast conflict exhausted all of its participants, including the English, who demanded the ceding of Florida by Spain.

Read the entire Oklahoma story in John J. Dwyer’s The Oklahomans: The Story of Oklahoma and Its People volume 1 of a 2-part series on the 46th state and the people who make this state very special.

Coronado’s Trek

While other maps depicting Coronado’s journey differ, the one above is probably the most accurate. It places key sections of the conquistadors’ trek in present-day Oklahoma. According to historians Herbert Belton and Edwin C. McReynolds, they traveled up the future 98th Meridian/Chisholm Trail/U.S. Highway 81 the length of the state near modern-day Duncan, Chickasha, El Reno, Kingfisher, and Enid. A 1907 Temple newspaper reported the unearthing in that area of an apparent Spanish headstone that dated back to 1542.

They later rode across the Panhandle and northwest section of present-day Oklahoma near the modern communities of Tyrone, Optima, Hooker, Guymon, Goodwell, and Texhoma.

They traveled amongst mesquite, cactus, and other bushes in present-day Oklahoma. Turkeys, prairie dogs, jackrabbits, antelope, deer, and wild hogs roamed the land, over the blue grass and buffalo grass that covers the Southern American Great Plains because taller grasses and their greater root system cannot endure those scalding parched climes.

The intrepid Coronado indeed found “Quivera" — such as it was. He considered it the best land he found in the present-day Southwest U.S.: “well settled…

Read the entire Oklahoma story in John J. Dwyer’s The Oklahomans: The Story of Oklahoma and Its People volume 1 of a 2-part series on the 46th state and the people who make this state very special.

Coronado’s Conquistadors 

Coronado led 336 conquistadors-rugged Spanish adventurers, explorers, and warriors-and a few hundred Indian allies across the American Southwest. Displaying the cool vision and leadership that motivated wealthy men to financially back his expedition and other men to follow him through danger, suffering, and battle, he constantly assessed the unfamiliar terrain of present-day northern Mexico and the southwestern U.S., deploying groups of men at strategic points for communication, reconnaissance, and mutual protection, based on their individual capabilities. He staggered their movements, waiting to advance one company until the natural resources consumed by the previous one had time to replenish themselves.

The conquistadors defeated the Zuni and Pueblo Indians in bloody battles, during one of which Coronado fell wounded and nearly perished.

They endured broiling desert temperatures, freezing mountains, dangerous animals, hunger, and thirst.

Coronado’s Expedition through Northwest Oklahoma, by G. N. Taylor. Coronado’s expedition of conquistadors included several hundred Indians and a captured Native guide called “The Turk.” The ever-present Catholic priest accompanies Coronado in his search for the Seven Cities of Cibola. (www.gntayloroklaart.com)

Read the entire Oklahoma story in John J. Dwyer’s The Oklahomans: The Story of Oklahoma and Its People volume 1 of a 2-part series on the 46th state and the people who make this state very special.

The Spaniards 

The first three centuries of Western civilization contact with Oklahoma came in the historical context of the mercantilist rivalry between the world’s great powers, at that time all European. Predicated on the assumption of a limited amount of resources in the world, represented by a nation’s stock of bullion (gold and silver), mercantilist powers such as England, Spain, France, and the Netherlands believed that to obtain a larger slice of this finite “pie" one nation must wrest it from another. This could be accomplished by favorable trading activities-exporting a greater amount than one imports - or by success in war and the subsequent treaties, which could deliver additional resources from one country to another. Thus unfolded a crucial plank of mercantilist thought-possessing as many colonies as possible in order to mine the raw materials from them, ship those to the mother country, produce finished products from the imports, and then ship those back to the colony and other countries for sale.

Mercantilism stands at variance with the American founders’ consensus economic notions of laissez faire, or free trade. The famed Scotsman Adam Smith systematized the latter philosophy in his landmark 1776 work The Wealth of Nations. Laissez faire, in contrast to mercantilism, argues against restrictive tariffs toward other nations, the always selective governmental subsidization of industry with citizens’ tax revenues, and the federal financing of internal improvements (infrastructure) to any extent beyond what is necessary.

Laissez faire also supports limited government involvement in every area of life, particularly economic matters; low tariffs to stimulate trade between cities, states, and countries; and the notion of an ever-expanding economic pie, rather than a static one. It anticipates vigorous economic competition taking place alongside mutually beneficial results with no specter of serious international tension due to the “win-win” rather than the mercantilist “dog-eat-dog” process between individuals, companies, and nations alike.

Discovery and Exploration 1541–1820, the first of Miami, Oklahoma artist Charles Banks Wilson’s epic cycle of four 13 x 27 foot murals that adorn the Oklahoma State Capitol. It depicts famed Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado atop his armored horse in the present-day Oklahoma Panhandle, amidst the Catholic missionaries who accompanied him, Wichita Indians, buffalo, and the Antelope Hills, a key landmark for travelers. (Courtesy Charles Banks Wilson and the Oklahoma State Senate Historical Preservation Fund, Inc., Photo John Jernigan)

Read the entire Oklahoma story in John J. Dwyer’s The Oklahomans: The Story of Oklahoma and Its People volume 1 of a 2-part series on the 46th state and the people who make this state very special.

First Settlers

Extant remains multiply during the Mound Builders Epoch, which covered the period roughly from AD 500 to 1350. Manmade mounds across the eastern portion of the state mark this period. Descendants of the Caddoan-language family of tribes who likely emigrated west from the Mississippi River Valley area constructed them after settling in the area. These non-nomadic early Oklahomans used them for a variety of purposes, including religious temples, burial shelters, and homes-the latter designed for protection against flooding.

The Spiro Age, roughly AD 900 to 1450, was the “Golden Age” of the state’s pre-recorded history period. Leading Oklahoma historian Bob Blackburn says that though Spiro never had a population of more than five thousand people and was not an economic power, it was the spiritual/religious center of the ancient Southern Mississippian Empire. A manmade hill designed as a burial temple and discovered in the 1930s near the Poteau River valley town of the same name in eastern Oklahoma provides rich insight into the Oklahomans of this period. Featuring a rot-resistant cedar structure and millions of tons of moved earth, the artifacts contained in the Spiro Mound reveal the history of its people, which included artisan and priestly classes.

Read the entire Oklahoma story in John J. Dwyer’s The Oklahomans volume 1 of a 2-part series on the 46th state and the people who make this state very special.