The words okla and humma from the “Choktaw” language mean red people. The state of Oklahoma is also often referred to by its nickname The Sooner State. The term Sooners was used for the settlers who came to the “Unassigned Lands” of present-day Oklahoma before President Grover officially declared Cleveland as a settlement area. Indigenous people lived in this area long before the Spaniard Francisco Vásquez de Coronado traveled through the country in 1541. French explorers claimed the terrain in the 1700s and it remained under French control until 1803, when the United States bought large areas west of the Mississippi River from the French in the “Louisiana Purchase. “Thousands of Native Americans were brought to Oklahoma in the 1830s from their lands in Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee. By 1890, over 30 Native American tribes had been resettled there by the US federal government. At the beginning of the 20th century there were efforts to establish an Indian state that should be called Oklahoma, but failed. In another attempt, a pure Indian state called Sequoyah should be founded. The 1905 Sequoyah Statehood Convention eventually laid the groundwork for the Oklahoma Statehood Convention, held two years later. Finally, on November 16, 1907, Oklahoma became the 46th state to join the Union. The new state came under the spotlight of the oil industry as large oil fields were discovered there. Rapidly growing population figures and increasing prosperity were the result. Tulsa became known as the “Oil Capital of the World”. Businessman Cyrus Avery, who made a name for himself as the “Father of Route 66”, campaigned in 1927 and established US Route 66. The stretch from Amarillo, Texas to Tulsa, Oklahoma was the first leg of this legendary route. Major industries in Oklahoma today include aviation, energy, transportation, electronics, telecommunications, and the food industry. Oklahoma ranks second in the United States in natural gas production. Check topschoolsoflaw.com for brief history of the state of Oklahoma.