Everything about Sooners totally explained
Sooners were settlers of Oklahoma who earned a part in the Homestead Act, giving each 160 acres to farm on.
The term
Sooners was used to describe
settlers who entered the
Unassigned Lands, located in the current state of
Oklahoma, before President
Benjamin Harrison officially proclaimed them open to settlement with the
Indian Appropriations Act of 1889 on
March 2 1889. The name derived from the "sooner clause" of the Indian Appropriation Act, which stated that no one should be allowed to enter and occupy the land prior to the opening time and that such people would be denied rights to illegally-claimed land.
Sooners were often deputy marshals,
land surveyors, railroad employees, and others who were able to legally enter the territory early to mark out choice pieces of land for themselves or others. Some sooners crossed into the territory illegally at night and were originally called "moonshiners" because they entered "by the light of the moon." These sooners would hide in ditches at night and suddenly appear to stake their claim after the land run started, hours ahead of legal settlers. Some boomers entered and were removed more than once by the
United States Army.
Those who observed the official start of the land run and began the race for free land at the sound of the starting boom were also called "boomers." These boomers, however, often found choice sections of land already occupied by sooners or, in some cases, by boomers. Problems with sooners continued with each successive land run, with as much as 50% of available land taken by sooners in an 1895 land run.
Litigation between boomers and sooners continued well into the 20th century, and eventually the
United States Department of the Interior was given ultimate authority to settle the disputes.
In 1908 the
University of Oklahoma adopted "Sooners" as the nickname of their football team (after having first tried "Rough Riders" and "Boomers"). Within about a decade, the word 'Sooner' mostly lost its association with those who had broken the law and it became a "badge of pride and progressivism".
Eventually Oklahoma became known as "The Sooner State."
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