Our core "map" actually consists of four maps published on a large single sheet of paper, known as a broadside. The entire document may be viewed as a single image showing the entire map. Images of each of the three smaller, or inset, maps on the broadside are also reproduced separately (see Resources). Taken together, the four maps on the broadside tell a compelling story about European Americans' thirst for western lands and the displacement of Native Americans that resulted.

The map was "drawn and published by T.J.J. Wiggins," a real estate agent in Norman, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). Wiggins sold copies of the map for fifty cents, but apparently its main purpose was to sell real estate in the city of Norman during the land rush that followed the opening of the "Oklahoma Country" for settlement by non-Indians in 1889.

Most of the territory that comprises the modern state of Oklahoma (with the exception of its "Panhandle") was carved out as part of a reserve for Indians displaced from their homelands by non-native settlers in the states and territories elsewhere. Originally, this reserve also included lands to the north of Oklahoma in the modern states of Kansas and Nebraska. The first of the displaced Indian groups to arrive in the Oklahoma portion of "Indian Territory" were the so-called Five Civilized Tribes, (the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles). In one of the most notorious episodes in American history, many of the people of the five tribes were forcibly removed from their homelands in the Southeastern states from 1830-42. The Indians often suffered horrible privations along the way, and many died; consequently, their migrations, particular the removal of the Cherokees, are remembered today as "Trails of Tears." In the 1850s, the Indian lands in Kansas and Nebraska were opened to settlement by non-Indians, displacing both tribes native to those areas and tribes, which had recently migrated to the area. After the Civil War, the Five Civilized Tribes were forced to cede much of the western part of Oklahoma to make room for these new tribes. The identities and locations of these new groups may be clearly identified on the small inset map of the Indian Territory that appears on the core map. A central portion of the territory, identified on the core map as the Oklahoma Territory, remained unassigned in 1872, when the first railroad was constructed in the area, bringing a wave of illegal non-Indian homesteaders in its wake. Federal troops were deployed in the area to eject the settlers, but on April 22, 1889 President Benjamin Harrison formally opened the central tract, known as the Oklahoma Country, to settlement by non-Indians. The entire western portion of Indian Territory was organized as the Oklahoma Territory in 1890, and additional Indian lands were opened to non-native settlers over the course of the 1890s. Finally, in 1907, the entire territory entered the Union as the 46th state. The Indian landholdings in the new state were mostly reduced to individual landholdings or to small reservations.

To orient yourself to the core map, it is perhaps best to start with the small inset map titled "Indian Territory," at the left center of the map. (For convenience this inset has also been provided in Flash format to allow panning and zooming, and include information pop-up windows.) This inset shows the entire Indian Territory as it existed in 1890. Note that most of the land was still a patchwork of Indian reserves. At upper left is a portion of still unassigned "public lands" that eventually formed part of the Panhandle of the state of Oklahoma. At the moment the map was made-in 1890-Oklahoma Territory was only a relatively small region at the center of the future state, containing the new cities of Guthrie, Kingfisher, Oklahoma City, and Norman.

A second inset map, at lower left, is an enlarged representation of this central tract, which included some 1,887,800 acres that had been opened for settlement on April 22, 1889. Non-Indian settlement of this tract was extremely rapid, encouraged by the stipulations of the 1862 Homestead Act were applied to this territory. The act declared that adult heads of households could claim up to 160 acres of land (or one quarter-section) for free, provided that they occupied the land for at least three years and made improvements on it. Note that by the end of 1889, the non-Indian population was already 90,000. The rapid settlement of the territory was also aided by the simple system of land division that had been adopted in most of the states west of the Appalachian Mountains. The Land Ordinance of 1785 established this system, known as the United States Public Land Survey (USPLS). It called for the division of all lands ceded by American Indians to the government of the United States to be subdivided into a grand checkerboard of square townships having 36 square miles each. Each township was further divided into 36 sections, having an area of one square mile, or 640 acres. These sections could be further subdivided as needed into subsections of 40, 80, 160 acres or more. (For a more complete explanation see the USPLS handout provided in Resources.) This USPLS system of land division made a permanent mark on the face of most of the Midwestern and Plains states, as well as much of the Far West. Roads, boundaries, and property lines frequently follow the straight lines made by early surveyors, and the regular rectangular shapes of American farms originally platted under this system can clearly be seen today from an airplane flying over the country's midsection. Look carefully at this inset map, and you will be able to see the boundaries of the townships and their sections, numbered from 1 to 36.

The third and largest map on the broadside shows only the southernmost portion of the Oklahoma Territory, centered on the city of Norman. This territory comprised 13 USPLS townships or partial townships, which are colored green, yellow, or white on the map. Numbered circles identify of the square-mile sections. Note that each section has been further subdivided into quarters, each of which comprised 160 acres. According to the note along the bottom of the map, by 1890, settlers had claimed 1300 of 1500 quarter-sections, or homesteads by 1890. The names of each of the claimants are written on the map inside the claimed quarter-sections. Many unclaimed quarter-sections still remained, however, most of which are on the eastern margin of the territory at some distance from the Canadian River. In most of the townships, sections 16 and 36 (shaded in gray on the map) were reserved as "school sections." The sale of land in these sections was earmarked to fund the construction and operation of public schools.

Our publisher, Mr. Wiggins, had his real estate office in Norman, the main city of this part of the Oklahoma Territory, and seems to have published the broadside primarily to promote the sale of lots inside the new town. The fourth map, an inset map of Norman at lower right, shows of these lots have been platted in neat rows of city of blocks, straddling the railroad. A manuscript addition to the map shows a northern extension of the city, identified as "Jones Add[ition]." Text attributed to Mr. Wiggins along the bottom of the map extols the virtues of the city, the economic advantages of its site, its good trading relations with nearby Choctaws and Potawatomies, and the establishment of civic institutions such as churches and newspapers.