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117-583: James Francis Thorpe ( Meskwaki : Wa-Tho-Huk , translated as "Bright Path"; May 22 or 28, 1887 – March 28, 1953) was an American athlete and Olympic gold medalist. A member of the Sac and Fox Nation , Thorpe was the first Native American to win a gold medal for the United States in the Olympics. Considered one of the most versatile athletes of modern sports, he won two Olympic gold medals in

234-585: A 27–6 victory over the West Point Army team . In that game, Thorpe's 92-yard touchdown was nullified by a teammate's penalty, but on the next play Thorpe rushed for a 97-yard touchdown. Future President Dwight D. Eisenhower , who played against him in that game, recalled of Thorpe in a 1961 speech: Here and there, there are some people who are supremely endowed. My memory goes back to Jim Thorpe. He never practiced in his life, and he could do anything better than any other football player I ever saw. Thorpe

351-911: A brief time in 1913, he was considering going into professional hockey for the Tecumseh Hockey Club in Toronto , Ontario, Canada. Thorpe married three times and had a total of eight children. In 1913, Thorpe married Iva M. Miller, whom he had met at Carlisle. In 1917, Iva and Thorpe bought a house now known as the Jim Thorpe House in Yale, Oklahoma , and lived there until 1923. They had four children: James F., Gale, Charlotte, and Grace Frances , an environmentalist and Native rights activist. Miller filed for divorce from Thorpe in 1925, claiming desertion. In 1926, Thorpe married Freeda Verona Kirkpatrick (September 19, 1905 – March 2, 2007). She

468-550: A coaching assistant. It was also distributed in the United Kingdom, where it was called Man of Bronze . Apart from his career in films, he worked as a construction worker, a doorman/bouncer , a security guard, and a ditchdigger. He briefly joined the United States Merchant Marine in 1945, during World War II. Thorpe was a chronic alcoholic during his later life. He ran out of money sometime in

585-420: A consonant plus /j/ or /w/ , the only possible consonant cluster is /ʃk/ . Until the early 1900s, Fox was a phonologically very conservative language and preserved many features of Proto-Algonquian ; records from the decades immediately following 1900 are particularly useful to Algonquianists for this reason. By the 1960s, however, an extensive progression of phonological changes had taken place, resulting in

702-850: A description of the removal of the Choctaw Nation in 1831, although the term is usually used for the Cherokee removal. Seventeen thousand Cherokees and 2,000 of their black slaves were deported. The area, already occupied by Osage and Quapaw tribes, was called for the Choctaw Nation until revised Native American and then later American policy redefined the boundaries to include other Native Americans. By 1890, more than 30 Native American nations and tribes had been concentrated on land within Indian Territory or "Indian Country". All Five Civilized Tribes signed treaties with

819-474: A focal point for the emerging oil industry , as discoveries of oil pools prompted towns to grow rapidly in population and wealth. Tulsa eventually became known as the " Oil Capital of the World " for most of the 20th century and oil investments fueled much of the state's early economy. In 1927, Oklahoman businessman Cyrus Avery , known as the "Father of Route 66", began the campaign to create U.S. Route 66 . Using

936-634: A kicking coach teaching young football players to drop-kick . He played the captain of the guard in 1935's She , an umpire in the 1940 film Knute Rockne, All American , and a member of the Navajo Nation in the 1950 film Wagon Master . An American Indian Magazine article states Thorpe appeared in over 70 films. In 1931, during the Great Depression, Thorpe sold the film rights to his life story to MGM for $ 1,500 (equivalent to $ 30,000 in 2023). Warner Bros. eventually acquired

1053-520: A marked decrease in rainfall during June and early July. Mid-summer (July and August) represents a secondary dry season over much of Oklahoma, with long stretches of hot weather with only sporadic thunderstorm activity not uncommon many years. Severe drought is common in the hottest summers, such as those of 1934, 1954, 1980 and 2011, all of which featured weeks on end of virtual rainlessness and highs well over 100 °F (38 °C). Average precipitation rises again from September to mid-October, representing

1170-531: A non-sports-related job and never held a job for an extended period of time. During the Great Depression in particular, he had various jobs, among others as a movie actor, mostly as an extra , usually playing an American Indian in Westerns , starting with the 1931 serial Battling with Buffalo Bill . In the 1932 comedy Always Kickin ' , Thorpe was prominently cast in a speaking part as himself,

1287-481: A precise times as each prospective settler literally raced with other prospective settlers to claim ownership of 160 acres (65 ha) of land under the Homestead Act of 1862 . Usually land was claimed by settlers on a first come, first served basis. Those who broke the rules by crossing the border into the territory before the official opening time were said to have been crossing the border sooner , leading to

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1404-405: A secondary wetter season, then declines from late October through December. The entire state frequently experiences temperatures above 100 °F (38 °C) or below 0 °F (−18 °C), though below-zero temperatures are rare in south-central and southeastern Oklahoma. Snowfall ranges from an average of less than 4 in (102 mm) in the south to just over 20 in (508 mm) on

1521-561: A similar competition known as the all-around championship had been part of American track meets since the 1880s. A men's version had been featured on the program of the 1904 St. Louis Olympics . The events of the new decathlon differed slightly from the American version. Thorpe was so versatile that he served as Carlisle's one-man team in several track meets. According to his obituary in The New York Times , he could run

1638-507: A statute authorizing the people of the Oklahoma and Indian Territories (as well what would become the states of Arizona and New Mexico ) to form a constitution and state government in order to be admitted as a state. On November 16, 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt issued Presidential Proclamation no. 780 , establishing Oklahoma as the 46th state in the Union. The new state became

1755-465: A stretch of highway from Amarillo, Texas to Tulsa, Oklahoma to form the original portion of Highway 66, Avery spearheaded the creation of the U.S. Highway 66 Association to oversee the planning of Route 66, based in his hometown of Tulsa. In late September 1918, the first cases of the Spanish flu appeared in Oklahoma. Though public health authorities statewide had some indication that the pandemic

1872-629: A team composed entirely of American Indians. From 1920 to 1921, Thorpe was nominally the first president of the American Professional Football Association, which became the NFL in 1922. He played professional sports until age 41, the end of his sports career coinciding with the start of the Great Depression . He struggled to earn a living after that, working several odd jobs. He suffered from alcoholism , and lived his last years in failing health and poverty. He

1989-588: A thriving area. Social tensions were exacerbated by the revival of the Ku Klux Klan after 1915. The Tulsa race massacre broke out in 1921, with White mobs attacking Black people and carrying out a pogrom in Greenwood. In one of the costliest episodes of racist violence in American history , sixteen hours of rioting resulted in the destruction of 35 city blocks, $ 1.8 million in property damage, and an estimated death toll of between 75 and 300 people. By

2106-496: A ticket that documented his time in professional basketball was discovered in an old book in 2005. By 1926, he was the main feature of the World Famous Indians of LaRue, Ohio , a traveling basketball team. The team barnstormed for at least two years (1927–28) in multiple states. Although stories about Thorpe's team were published in some local newspapers at the time, his basketball career is not well-documented. For

2223-657: Is Oklahoma City . The state's name is derived from the Choctaw words okla , 'people' and humma , which translates as 'red'. Oklahoma is also known informally by its nickname , "The Sooner State", in reference to the Sooners , American settlers who staked their claims in formerly American Indian-owned lands until the Indian Appropriations Act of 1889 authorized the Land Rush of 1889 opening

2340-462: Is also responsible for many of the tornadoes in the area, such as the 1912 Oklahoma tornado outbreak when a warm front traveled along a stalled cold front, resulting in an average of about one tornado per hour. The humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa ) of central, southern, and eastern Oklahoma is influenced heavily by southerly winds bringing moisture from the Gulf of Mexico . Traveling westward,

2457-569: Is assumed that around 7,500 proved fatal, placing total mortality rates for the state in the area of 7.5%. Oklahoma also has a rich African-American history . Many Black towns, founded by the Freedmen of the Five Tribes during Reconstruction, thrived in the early 20th century with the arrival of Black Exodusters who migrated from neighboring states, especially Kansas. The politician Edward P. McCabe encouraged Black settlers to come to what

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2574-614: Is counted as a separate language rather than a dialect of Fox, then only between 200 and 300 speakers of Fox remain. Extinct Mascouten was most likely another dialect, though it is scarcely attested. Most speakers are elderly or middle-aged, making it highly endangered . The tribal school at the Meskwaki Settlement in Iowa incorporates bilingual education for children. In 2011, the Meskwaki Sewing Project

2691-776: Is divided between Missouri and Arkansas. The Missouri-Oklahoma border is defined as the Meridian passing through the Kawsmouth, where the Kansas River meets the Missouri River. This is the same Meridian as the Kansas-Missouri border. The Oklahoma-Arkansas border was originally defined by two lines: the borders between Arkansas and the Cherokee and Choctaw Reservations. This formed two diagonal lines meeting at

2808-524: Is going to tackle Jim", while flipping him the ball. Thorpe first gained nationwide notice in 1911 for his athletic ability. As a running back , defensive back , placekicker and punter , Thorpe scored all of his team's four field goals in an 18–15 upset of Harvard , a top-ranked team in the early days of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). His team finished the season 11–1. In 1912, Carlisle won

2925-629: Is now the U.S. state of Oklahoma ). As a youth, he attended Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania , where he was a two-time All-American for the school's football team under coach Pop Warner . After his Olympic success in 1912, which included a record score in the decathlon, he added a victory in the All-Around Championship of the Amateur Athletic Union . Later in 1913, Thorpe signed with

3042-538: Is serving life in prison without parole for helping plan the attack and prepare the explosive. On May 31, 2016, several cities experienced record setting flooding . On July 9, 2020, the Supreme Court of the United States determined in McGirt v. Oklahoma that the reservations of the Five Tribes, comprising much of Eastern Oklahoma, were never disestablished by Congress and thus are still "Indian Country" for

3159-665: Is the oldest and largest of nine National Wildlife Refuges in the state and was founded in 1901, encompassing 59,020 acres (238.8 km ). Of Oklahoma's federally protected parks or recreational sites, the Chickasaw National Recreation Area is the largest, with 9,898.63 acres (40.0583 km ). Other sites include the Santa Fe and Trail of Tears national historic trails, the Fort Smith and Washita Battlefield national historic sites, and

3276-437: The 1912 Summer Olympics (one in classic pentathlon and the other in decathlon ). He also played football (collegiate and professional), professional baseball, and professional basketball. He lost his Olympic titles after it was found he had been paid for playing two seasons of semi-professional baseball before competing in the Olympics, thus violating the contemporary amateurism rules. In 1983, 30 years after his death,

3393-481: The 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden, two new multi-event disciplines were included, the pentathlon and the decathlon . A pentathlon, based on the ancient Greek event, had been introduced at the 1906 Intercalated Games . The 1912 version consisted of the long jump , javelin throw , 200-meter dash, discus throw , and 1500-meter run. The decathlon was a relatively new event in modern athletics, although

3510-711: The 1913 National League champions . Immediately following the Giants' October loss in the 1913 World Series , Thorpe and the Giants joined the Chicago White Sox for a world tour. Barnstorming across the United States and around the world, Thorpe was the celebrity of the tour. Thorpe's presence increased the publicity, attendance and gate receipts for the tour. He met with Pope Pius X and Abbas II Hilmi Bey (the last Khedive of Egypt ), and played before 20,000 people in London including King George V . Thorpe

3627-555: The American alligator . Oklahoma has fifty-one state parks , six national parks or protected regions, two national protected forests or grasslands , and a network of wildlife preserves and conservation areas. Six percent of the state's 10 million acres (40,000 km ) of forest is public land, including the western portions of the Ouachita National Forest , the largest and oldest national forest in

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3744-498: The Choctaw language phrase okla , 'people', and humma , translated as 'red'. Choctaw Nation Chief Allen Wright suggested the name in 1866 during treaty negotiations with the federal US government on the use of Indian Territory . He envisioned an all exclusive American Indian state controlled by the United States bureau of Indian Affairs . Oklahoma later became the de facto name for Oklahoma Territory , and it

3861-564: The Great Plains near the geographical center of the 48 contiguous states . It is bordered on the east by Arkansas and Missouri , on the north by Kansas , on the northwest by Colorado , on the far west by New Mexico , and on the south and near-west by Texas . Oklahoma's border with Kansas was defined as the 37th Parallel in the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act . This was disputed with the Cherokee and Osage Nations, which claimed their border extended North of this line and could not be part of

3978-558: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) restored his Olympic medals with replicas, after ruling that the decision to strip him of his medals fell outside of the required 30 days . Official IOC records still listed Thorpe as co-champion in decathlon and pentathlon until 2022, when it was decided to restore him as the sole champion in both events. Thorpe grew up in the Sac and Fox Nation in Indian Territory (what

4095-808: The Kansas Territory . This was resolved in 1870 with the Drum Creek Treaty , which reestablished Kansas's southern border as the 37th parallel. This also applied to the then No-Man's Land that became the Oklahoma Panhandle . The Oklahoma-Texas border consists of the Red River of the South in the south and the 100th meridian west as the western border between Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle. These were first established in

4212-539: The National Football League (NFL) two years later. Thorpe was nominally their first president , but spent most of the year playing for Canton; a year later, he was replaced as president by Joseph Carr . He continued to play for Canton, coaching the team as well. Between 1921 and 1923, he helped organize and played for the Oorang Indians ( LaRue, Ohio ), an all-Native American team. Although

4329-637: The New York Giants , and he played six seasons in Major League Baseball between 1913 and 1919. Thorpe joined the Canton Bulldogs American football team in 1915, helping them win three professional championships. He later played for six teams in the National Football League (NFL). He played as part of several all-American Indian teams throughout his career, and barnstormed as a professional basketball player with

4446-489: The Oklahoma City National Memorial . Oklahoma is in a humid subtropical region that lies in a transition zone between semiarid further to the west, humid continental to the north, and humid subtropical to the east and southeast. Most of the state lies in an area known as Tornado Alley characterized by frequent interaction between cold, dry air from Canada, warm to hot, dry air from Mexico and

4563-969: The Ouachita Mountains , the Arbuckle Mountains , the Wichita Mountains , and the Ozark Mountains . Contained within the U.S. Interior Highlands region, the Ozark and Ouachita Mountains are the only major mountainous region between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachians . A portion of the Flint Hills stretches into north-central Oklahoma, and near the state's eastern border, The Oklahoma Tourism & Recreation Department regards Cavanal Hill as

4680-563: The South Central region of the United States . It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northeast, Arkansas to the east, New Mexico to the west, and Colorado to the northwest. Partially in the western extreme of the Upland South , it is the 20th-most extensive and the 28th-most populous of the 50 United States. Its residents are known as Oklahomans and its capital and largest city

4797-714: The Southern United States . With 39,000 acres (160 km ), the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in north-central Oklahoma is the largest protected area of tallgrass prairie in the world and is part of an ecosystem that encompasses only ten percent of its former land area, once covering fourteen states. In addition, the Black Kettle National Grassland covers 31,300 acres (127 km ) of prairie in southwestern Oklahoma. The Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge

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4914-399: The Wichita Mountains dot southwestern Oklahoma ; transitional prairie and oak savannas cover the central portion of the state. The Ozark and Ouachita Mountains rise from west to east over the state's eastern third, gradually increasing in elevation in an eastward direction. More than 500 named creeks and rivers make up Oklahoma's waterways, and with 200 lakes created by dams, it holds

5031-423: The discus 136 feet. Thorpe entered the U.S. Olympic trials for both the pentathlon and the decathlon. He easily earned a place on the pentathlon team, winning three events. The decathlon trial was subsequently cancelled, and Thorpe was chosen to represent the U.S. in the event. The pentathlon and decathlon teams also included Avery Brundage , a future International Olympic Committee president. Thorpe

5148-512: The fifty largest cities in the United States are in Oklahoma, Oklahoma City and Tulsa , and sixty-five percent of Oklahomans live within their metropolitan areas, or spheres of economic and social influence defined by the United States Census Bureau as a metropolitan statistical area . Oklahoma City, the state's capital and largest city, had the largest metropolitan area in the state in 2020, with 1,425,695 people, and

5265-606: The metropolitan area of Tulsa had 1,015,331 residents. Between 2000 and 2010, the leading cities in population growth were Blanchard (172.4%), Elgin (78.2%), Jenks (77.0%), Piedmont (56.7%), Bixby (56.6%), and Owasso (56.3%). In descending order of population, Oklahoma's largest cities in 2010 were: Oklahoma City (579,999, +14.6%), Tulsa (391,906, −0.3%), Norman (110,925, +15.9%), Broken Arrow (98,850, +32.0%), Lawton (96,867, +4.4%), Edmond (81,405, +19.2%), Moore (55,081, +33.9%), Midwest City (54,371, +0.5%), Enid (49,379, +5.0%), and Stillwater (45,688, +17.0%). Of

5382-470: The (higher-elevation) panhandle average 58 °F (14 °C), with annual rainfall under 17 in (430 mm). Over almost all of Oklahoma, winter is the driest season. Average monthly precipitation increases dramatically in the spring to a peak in May, the wettest month over most of the state, with its frequent and not uncommonly severe thunderstorm activity. Early June can still be wet, but most years see

5499-425: The 100-yard dash in 10 seconds flat; the 220 in 21.8 seconds; the 440 in 51.8 seconds; the 880 in 1:57, the mile in 4:35; the 120-yard high hurdles in 15 seconds; and the 220-yard low hurdles in 24 seconds. He could long jump 23 ft 6 in and high-jump 6 ft 5 in. He could pole vault 11 feet; put the shot 47 ft 9 in; throw the javelin 163 feet; and throw

5616-632: The 1819 Adams–Onís Treaty between the United States and Spain. The Oklahoma panhandle was originally part of the Panhandle of the Republic of Texas, but when Texas joined the Union as a slave state, it could not retain any lands north of 36 degrees 30 minutes, as specified in the Missouri Compromise . The Panhandle existed as a no-man's land until 1907 when Oklahoma acquired the territory upon gaining statehood. Oklahoma's Eastern border

5733-467: The 1912 intercollegiate ballroom dancing championship. Pop Warner was hesitant to allow Thorpe, his best track and field athlete, to compete in such a physical game as football. Thorpe, however, convinced Warner to let him try some rushing plays in practice against the school team's defense; Warner assumed he would be tackled easily and give up the idea. Thorpe "ran around past and through them not once, but twice". He walked over to Warner and said, "Nobody

5850-653: The 1912 Olympics , which featured two teams composed mostly of U.S. track and field athletes. Thorpe had previous experience in the sport, as the public soon learned. After his victories at the Olympic Games in Sweden, on September 2, 1912, Thorpe returned to Celtic Park, the home of the Irish American Athletic Club , in Queens , New York (where he had qualified four months earlier for

5967-542: The AAU and IOC did not follow their own rules for disqualification. The rulebook for the 1912 Olympics stated that protests had to be made "within 30 days from the closing ceremonies of the games." The first newspaper reports did not appear until January 1913, about six months after the Stockholm Games had concluded. There is also some evidence that Thorpe was known to have played semi-professional baseball before

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6084-409: The Arkansas River and the Poteau River. This became the site of a smuggling camp called "Coke Hill", noted mostly for its importance in cocaine smuggling. After Petitioning congress to hand over jurisdiction, the 57 acres was given to Arkansas in 1905. The 1985 US Supreme Court Case Oklahoma v. Arkansas decided the land would remain Arkansas, even though the Choctaw had not been notified or asked about

6201-528: The Confederate military during the American Civil War . The Cherokee Nation had an internal civil war. Slavery in Indian Territory was not abolished until 1866. In the period between 1866 and 1899, cattle ranches in Texas strove to meet the demands for food in eastern cities and railroads in Kansas promised to deliver in a timely manner. Cattle trails and cattle ranches developed as cowboys either drove their product north or settled illegally in Indian Territory. In 1881, four of five major cattle trails on

6318-706: The Mississippi River, a route for cattle drives from Texas and related regions, and a destination for Southern settlers. There are currently 26 Indigenous languages spoken in Oklahoma . According to the 2020 U.S. census, 14.2 percent of Oklahomans identify as American Indians , the highest indigenous population by percentage in any state. A major producer of natural gas, oil, and agricultural products, Oklahoma relies on an economic base of aviation, energy, telecommunications, and biotechnology. Oklahoma City and Tulsa serve as Oklahoma's primary economic anchors, with nearly two-thirds of Oklahomans living within their metropolitan statistical areas . The name Oklahoma comes from

6435-449: The Olympic Games), to compete in the Amateur Athletic Union 's All-Around Championship. Competing against Bruno Brodd of the Irish American Athletic Club and John L. Bredemus of Princeton University , he won seven of the ten events contested and came in second in the remaining three. With a total point score of 7,476 points, Thorpe broke the previous record of 7,385 points set in 1909 (also at Celtic Park), by Martin Sheridan ,

6552-447: The Olympic trials held at Celtic Park in New York, his all-round ability stood out in all these events and so he earned a place on the team that went to Sweden. The poet Marianne Moore , who taught Thorpe at Carlisle, recalled: He had a kind of ease in his gait that is hard to describe. Equilibrium with no stricture, but couched in the lineup of football he was the epitome of concentration, wary, with an effect of plenty in reserve. For

6669-458: The Olympics and time for myth making, and in books as early as 1952. Thorpe's successes were followed in the United States. On the Olympic team's return, Thorpe was the star attraction in a ticker-tape parade on Broadway . He remembered later, "I heard people yelling my name, and I couldn't realize how one fellow could have so many friends." Apart from his track and field appearances, Thorpe also played in one of two exhibition baseball games at

6786-465: The Olympics, and other U.S. newspapers followed up the story. Thorpe had played semi-professional baseball in the Eastern Carolina League for Rocky Mount, North Carolina , in 1909 and 1910, receiving meager pay; reportedly as little as US$ 2 ($ 65 today) per game and as much as US$ 35 ($ 1,145 today) per week. College players, in fact, regularly spent summers playing professionally in order to earn some money, but most used aliases, unlike Thorpe. Although

6903-420: The Olympics, but the AAU had ignored the issue until being confronted with it in 1913. The only positive aspect of this affair for Thorpe was that, as soon as the news was reported that he had been declared a professional, he received offers from professional sports clubs. In 1910, Thorpe had the unusual status of a sought-after free agent at the major league level during the era of the reserve clause , because

7020-484: The Reds and Hippo Vaughn of the Chicago Cubs , Thorpe drove in the winning run in the 10th inning. Late in the season, he was sold back to the Giants. Again, he played sporadically for them in 1918 before being traded to the Boston Braves on May 21, 1919, for Pat Ragan . In his career, he amassed 91  runs scored , 82  runs batted in and a .252  batting average over 289 games. He continued to play minor league baseball until 1922, and once played for

7137-429: The Sac and Fox Indian Agency school in Stroud , with his twin brother, Charlie. Charlie helped him through school until he died of pneumonia when they were nine years old. Thorpe ran away from school several times. His father sent him to the Haskell Institute , an Indian boarding school in Lawrence, Kansas , so that he would not run away again. When Thorpe's mother died of childbirth complications two years later,

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7254-509: The Southwestern U.S., and warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico. The interactions between these three contrasting air currents produces severe weather (severe thunderstorms, damaging thunderstorm winds, large hail and tornadoes) with a frequency virtually unseen anywhere else on planet Earth. An average 62 tornadoes strike the state per year—one of the highest rates in the world. Because of Oklahoma's position between zones of differing prevailing temperature and winds, weather patterns within

7371-438: The U.S. In 1995, Oklahoma City was the site of the most destructive act of domestic terrorism in American history. The Oklahoma City bombing of April 19, 1995, in which Timothy McVeigh detonated a large, crude explosive device outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building , killed 168 people, including 19 children. For his crime, McVeigh was executed by the federal government on June 11, 2001. His accomplice, Terry Nichols ,

7488-459: The United States (later Oklahoma ), but no birth certificate has been found. He was generally considered to have been born on May 22, 1887, near the town of Prague . Thorpe said in a note to The Shawnee News-Star in 1943 that he was born May 28, 1888, "near and south of Bellemont – Pottawatomie County – along the banks of the North Fork River ... hope this will clear up the inquiries as to my birthplace." Most biographers believe that he

7605-432: The acts was the forced assimilation of Indians into white society. Land not allotted to individual Indians was owned by the U.S. government and sold or distributed to settlers and railroads. The proceeds of the land sales were used to educate Indian children and advance the policy of assimilation. As a result of the two acts about one-half of land previously owned by Indian tribes was owned by whites by 1900. Moreover, much of

7722-399: The border of Colorado in the panhandle. The state is home to the Storm Prediction Center , the National Severe Storms Laboratory , the Warning Decision Training Division , and the Radar Operations Center , all part of the National Weather Service and in Norman . Oklahoma had 598 incorporated places in 2010, including four cities over 100,000 in population and 43 over 10,000. Two of

7839-420: The champion athlete of the Irish American Athletic Club. Sheridan, a five-time Olympic gold medalist, was present to watch his record broken. He approached Thorpe after the event and shook his hand saying, "Jim, my boy, you're a great man. I never expect to look upon a finer athlete." He told a reporter from New York World , "Thorpe is the greatest athlete that ever lived. He has me beaten fifty ways. Even when I

7956-492: The climate transitions progressively toward a semiarid zone (Köppen BSk ) in the high plains of the Panhandle and other western areas from about Lawton westward, less frequently touched by southern moisture. Precipitation and temperatures decline from east to west accordingly, with areas in the southeast averaging an annual temperature of 62 °F (17 °C) and an annual rainfall of generally over 40 in (1,020 mm) and up to 56 in (1,420 mm), while areas of

8073-410: The consonant: "Fox II" is a consonant–vowel alphabet. According to Coulmas, /p/ is not written (as /a/ is not written in Fox I). Vowels (or /p/ plus a vowel) are written as cross-hatched tally marks. Oklahoma Oklahoma ( / ˌ oʊ k l ə ˈ h oʊ m ə / OHK -lə- HOH -mə ; Choctaw : Oklahumma , pronounced [oklahómma] ) is a state in

8190-552: The decathlon and Czar Nicholas II of Russia for the pentathlon. Several sources recount that, when awarding Thorpe his prize, King Gustav said, "You, sir, are the greatest athlete in the world", to which Thorpe replied, "Thanks, King". Thorpe biographer Kate Buford suggests that the story is apocryphal , as she believes that such a comment "would have been out of character for a man who was highly uncomfortable in public ceremonies and hated to stand out." The anecdote appeared in newspapers by 1948, 36 years after his appearance in

8307-442: The early 1950s. When hospitalized for lip cancer in 1950, Thorpe was admitted as a charity case. At a press conference announcing the procedure, his wife, Patricia, wept and pleaded for help, saying, "We're broke ... Jim has nothing but his name and his memories. He has spent money on his own people and has given it away. He has often been exploited." Meskwaki language The three distinct dialects are: If Kickapoo

8424-569: The gold medal. That same day, he qualified for the high jump final, in which he finished in a tie for fourth. On July 12, Thorpe placed seventh in the long jump. Thorpe's final event was the decathlon, his first (and as it turned out, his only) decathlon. Strong competition from local favorite Hugo Wieslander was expected. Thorpe, however, defeated Wieslander by 688 points. He placed in the top four in all ten events, and his Olympic record of 8,413 points stood for nearly two decades. Even more remarkably, because someone had stolen his shoes just before he

8541-415: The land allotted to individual Indian heads of families became white-owned. Allottees often sold or were fraudulently deprived of their land. The acquisition of tribal lands by the U.S. government led to land runs , also called "land rushes," from 1887 and 1895. Major land runs, including the Land Rush of 1889 , opened up millions of acres of formerly tribal lands to white settlement. The "rushes" began at

8658-404: The land to settlement. With ancient mountain ranges, prairie, mesas , and eastern forests, most of Oklahoma lies in the Great Plains , Cross Timbers , and the U.S. Interior Highlands , all regions prone to severe weather. Oklahoma is at a confluence of three major American cultural regions . Historically, it served as a government-sanctioned territory for American Indians moved from east of

8775-661: The late 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan had declined to negligible influence within the state. During the 1930s, parts of the state began to suffer from the consequences of poor farming practices. This period was known as the Dust Bowl , throughout which areas of Kansas, Texas, New Mexico, and northwestern Oklahoma were hampered by long periods of little rainfall, strong winds, abnormally high temperatures, and most notably, severe dust storms sending thousands of farmers into poverty and forcing them to relocate to more fertile areas of

8892-480: The loss of intervocalic semivowels and certain other features. Mesquakie numerals are as follows: Besides the Latin script , Fox has been written in two indigenous scripts. "Fox I" is an abugida based on the cursive French alphabet (see Great Lakes Algonquian syllabics ). Consonants written by themselves are understood to be syllables containing the vowel /a/ . They are: Vowels are written by adding dots to

9009-480: The low wetlands of its southeastern boundary. Its highest and lowest points follow this trend, with its highest peak, Black Mesa , at 4,973 feet (1,516 m) above sea level, situated near its far northwest corner in the Oklahoma Panhandle . The state's lowest point is on the Little River near its far southeastern boundary near the town of Idabel , which dips to 289 feet (88 m) above sea level. Among

9126-555: The minor league Toledo Mud Hens . Thorpe had not abandoned football either. He first played professional football in 1913 as a member of the Indiana-based Pine Village Pros , a team that had a several-season winning streak against local teams during the 1910s. He signed with the Canton Bulldogs in 1915. They paid him $ 250 ($ 7,530) a game, a tremendous wage at the time. Before signing him Canton

9243-554: The minor league team that last held his contract had disbanded that year, so he was free to choose which baseball team to play for. In January 1913, he turned down a starting position with the St. Louis Browns , then at the bottom of the American League . Thorpe signed with the New York Giants baseball club in 1913, the defending 1912 National League champion . With Thorpe playing in 19 of their 151 games, they repeated as

9360-515: The most geographically diverse states, Oklahoma is one of four to harbor more than 10 distinct ecological regions , with 11 in its borders—more per square mile than in any other state. Its western and eastern halves, however, are marked by extreme differences in geographical diversity: Eastern Oklahoma touches eight ecological regions and its western half contains three. Although having fewer ecological regions Western Oklahoma contains many rare, relic species. Oklahoma has four primary mountain ranges:

9477-623: The nation's highest number of artificial reservoirs. Most of the state lies in two primary drainage basins belonging to the Red and Arkansas Rivers, though the Lee and Little Rivers also contain significant drainage basins. Due to Oklahoma's location at the confluence of many geographic regions, the state's climatic regions have a high rate of biodiversity. Forests cover 24 percent of Oklahoma and prairie grasslands composed of shortgrass, mixed-grass, and tallgrass prairie , harbor expansive ecosystems in

9594-492: The nation's largest prairie dog towns inhabit shortgrass prairie in the state's panhandle. The Cross Timbers , a region transitioning from prairie to woodlands in Central Oklahoma, harbors 351 vertebrate species . The Ouachita Mountains are home to black bear , red fox , gray fox , and river otter populations, which coexist with 328 vertebrate species in southeastern Oklahoma. Also in southeastern Oklahoma lives

9711-529: The national collegiate championship largely as a result of Thorpe's efforts: he scored 25 touchdowns and 198 points during the season, according to CNN 's Greg Botelho. Steve Boda, a researcher for the NCAA, credits Thorpe with 27 touchdowns and 224 points. Thorpe rushed 191 times for 1,869 yards, according to Boda; the figures do not include statistics from two of Carlisle's 14 games in 1912 because full records are not available. Carlisle's 1912 record included

9828-421: The public did not seem to care much about Thorpe's past, the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), and especially its secretary James Edward Sullivan , took the case very seriously. Thorpe wrote a letter to Sullivan, in which he admitted playing professional baseball: I hope I will be partly excused by the fact that I was simply an Indian schoolboy and did not know all about such things. In fact, I did not know that I

9945-762: The purposes of criminal law. Later decisions by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals also found the Quapaw Nation, Ottawa Tribe, Peoria Tribe, and Miami Tribe also had existing reservations. The Osage Nation is awaiting for a possible appellate decision after a district judge had ruled that the Osage reservation was disestablished. Oklahoma is the 20th-largest state in the United States, covering an area of 69,895 square miles (181,030 km ), with 68,591 square miles (177,650 km ) of land and 1,304 square miles (3,380 km ) of water. It lies partly in

10062-479: The rights and memorialized Thorpe in Jim Thorpe – All-American (1951), starring Burt Lancaster . The film was directed by Michael Curtiz . Although there were rumors that Thorpe received no money, he was paid $ 15,000 by Warner Bros. plus a $ 2,500 donation toward an annuity for him by the studio's head of publicity. The movie included archival footage of the 1912 and 1932 Olympics. Thorpe was seen in one scene as

10179-427: The state can vary widely over relatively short distances, and they can change drastically in a short time. On November 11, 1911, the temperature at Oklahoma City reached 83 °F (28 °C) (the record high for that date), then a cold front of unprecedented intensity slammed across the state, causing the temperature to reach 17 °F (−8 °C) (the record low for that date) by midnight. This type of phenomenon

10296-603: The state in 1541, but French explorers claimed the area in the early 18th century. By the 18th century, Comanche and Kiowa entered the region from the west and Quapaw and Osage peoples moved into what is now eastern Oklahoma. French colonists claimed the region until 1803, when all the French territory west of the Mississippi River was acquired by the United States in the Louisiana Purchase . The territory

10413-518: The state's southeastern quarter , while mixtures of largely post oak , elm , red cedar ( Juniperus virginiana ), and pine forests cover northeastern Oklahoma . The state holds populations of white-tailed deer , mule deer , antelope , coyotes , mountain lions , bobcats , elk , and birds such as quail , doves , cardinals , bald eagles , red-tailed hawks , and pheasants . In prairie ecosystems, American bison , greater prairie chickens , badgers , and armadillo are common, and some of

10530-643: The state's central and western portions, although cropland has largely replaced native grasses. Where rainfall is sparse in the state's western regions, shortgrass prairie and shrublands are the most prominent ecosystems, though pinyon pines , red cedar ( junipers ), and ponderosa pines grow near rivers and creek beds in the panhandle's far western reaches. Southwestern Oklahoma contains many rare, disjunct species , including sugar maple , bigtooth maple , nolina , and Texas live oak . Marshlands , cypress forests, and mixtures of shortleaf pine , loblolly pine , blue palmetto , and deciduous forests dominate

10647-599: The state, with a subgroup, the Panhandle culture people, living in the panhandle region. Caddoan Mississippian culture peoples lived in the eastern part of the state. Spiro Mounds , in what is now Spiro, Oklahoma , was a major Mississippian mound complex that flourished between AD 850 and 1450. Plains Apache people settled in the Southern Plains and in Oklahoma between 1300 and 1500. The expedition of Spaniard Francisco Vázquez de Coronado traveled through

10764-569: The team's record was 3–6 in 1922, and 1–10 in 1923, Thorpe played well and was selected for the Green Bay Press-Gazette 's first All-NFL team in 1923. This was later formally recognized in 1931 by the NFL as the league's official All-NFL team. Thorpe never played for an NFL championship team. He retired from professional football at age 41, having played 52 games for six teams from 1920 to 1928. Most of Thorpe's biographers were unaware of his basketball career until

10881-663: The term sooners , which eventually became the state's official nickname. George Washington Steele was appointed the first governor of the territory of Oklahoma in 1890. Attempts to create an all-Indian state named Oklahoma and a later attempt to create an all-Indian state named Sequoyah failed but the Sequoyah Statehood Convention of 1905 eventually laid the groundwork for the Oklahoma Statehood Convention, which took place two years later. On June 16, 1906, Congress enacted

10998-672: The territory being handed over. Therefore, the Poteau River serves as the Oklahoma-Arkansas boundary for approximately 1 mile, reducing the Choctaw Reservation and later Oklahoma by 57 acres as established in the treaties of the early 1800s. Oklahoma is between the Great Plains and the Ozark Plateau in the Gulf of Mexico watershed, generally sloping from the high plains of its western boundary to

11115-569: The western United States. Over a twenty-year period ending in 1950, the state saw its only historical decline in population, dropping 6.9 percent as impoverished families migrated out of the state after the Dust Bowl. Soil and water conservation projects markedly changed practices in the state, leading to the construction of massive flood control systems and dams to supply water for domestic needs and agricultural irrigation. As of 2024, Oklahoma had more than 4,700 dams, about 20% of all dams in

11232-592: The western edge of Fort Smith Arkansas, with one line running northeast from the Red River and the other running southeast from the Oklahoma-Arkansas-Missouri border. The Choctaw-Arkansas border was established in the 1820 Treaty of Doak's Sand , and later refined in the 1830 Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek . These treaties left a 57-acre exclave of the Choctaw reservation bounded by Arkansas,

11349-657: The western frontier traveled through Indian Territory. Increased presence of white settlers in Indian Territory and their demand for land owned and guaranteed to Indian tribes by treaties with the U.S. government prompted the United States to enact the Dawes Act in 1887 and the Curtis Act of 1898 . The acts abolished tribal governments, eliminated tribal ownership of land, and allotted 160 acres (65 ha) of land to each head of an Indian family. An objective of

11466-544: The world's tallest hill; at 1,999 feet (609 m), it fails their definition of a mountain by one foot. The semi-arid high plains in the state's northwestern corner harbor few natural forests; the region has a rolling to flat landscape with intermittent canyons and mesa ranges like the Glass Mountains . Partial plains interrupted by small, sky island mountain ranges like the Antelope Hills and

11583-437: The youth became depressed. After several arguments with his father, he left home to work on a horse ranch. In 1904, the sixteen-year-old Thorpe returned to his father and decided to attend Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania . There his athletic ability was recognized and he was coached by Glenn Scobey "Pop" Warner , one of the most influential coaches of early American football history. Later that year

11700-579: The youth was orphaned after his father Hiram Thorpe died from gangrene poisoning, after being wounded in a hunting accident. The young Thorpe again dropped out of school. He resumed farm work for a few years before returning to Carlisle School. Thorpe began his athletic career at Carlisle in 1907 when he walked past the track and, still in street clothes, beat all the school's high jumpers with an impromptu 5-ft 9-in jump. His earliest recorded track and field results come from 1907. He also competed in football, baseball, lacrosse , and ballroom dancing , winning

11817-686: Was a part of the Arkansas Territory from 1819 until 1828. During the 19th century, the U.S. federal government forcibly removed tens of thousands of American Indians from their ancestral homelands from across North America and transported them to the area including and surrounding present-day Oklahoma. The Choctaw was the first of the Five Civilized Tribes to be removed from the Southeastern United States . The phrase " Trail of Tears " originated from

11934-479: Was a third-team All-American in 1908 and a first-team All-American in 1911 and 1912. Football was – and remained – Thorpe's favorite sport. He did not compete in track and field in 1910 or 1911, although this turned out to be the sport in which he gained his greatest fame. In the spring of 1912, he started training for the Olympics. He had confined his efforts to jumps, hurdles and shot-puts, but now added pole vaulting, javelin, discus, hammer and 56 lb weight. In

12051-663: Was averaging 1,200 fans a game, but 8,000 showed up for Thorpe's debut against the Massillon Tigers . The team won titles in 1916, 1917, and 1919. Thorpe reportedly ended the 1919 championship game by kicking a wind-assisted 95-yard punt from his team's own 5-yard line, effectively putting the game out of reach. In 1920, the Bulldogs were one of 14 teams to form the American Professional Football Association , which became

12168-405: Was born on May 22, 1887, the date listed on his baptismal certificate . Thorpe referred to Shawnee as his birthplace in his 1943 note to the newspaper. Thorpe's father, Hiram Thorpe, had an Irish father and a Sac and Fox Indian mother. His mother, Charlotte Vieux, was the daughter of Citizen Potawatomi Nation members Elizabeth and Jacob Vieux, and was a descendant of Chief Louis Vieux. Thorpe

12285-776: Was created, to bring mothers and girls together "with elder women in the Meskwaki Senior Center sewing traditional clothing and learning the Meskwaki language." Prominent scholars doing research on the language include Ives Goddard and Lucy Thomason of the Smithsonian Institution and Amy Dahlstrom of the University of Chicago. The consonant phonemes of Fox are given in the table below. The eight vowel phonemes are: short /a, e, i, o/ and long /aː, eː, iː, oː/ . Other than those involving

12402-444: Was doing wrong, because I was doing what I knew several other college men had done, except that they did not use their own names ... His letter did not help. The AAU decided to withdraw Thorpe's amateur status retroactively. Later that year, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) unanimously decided to strip Thorpe of his Olympic titles, medals and awards, and declare him a professional. Although Thorpe had played for money,

12519-481: Was due to compete, he found a mismatched pair of replacements, including one from a trash can, and won the gold medal wearing them. Overall, Thorpe won eight of the 15 individual events comprising the pentathlon and decathlon. As was the custom of the day, the medals were presented to the athletes during the closing ceremonies of the games. Along with the two gold medals, Thorpe also received two challenge prizes, which had been donated by King Gustav V of Sweden for

12636-428: Was extremely busy in the Olympics. Along with the decathlon and pentathlon, he competed in the long jump and high jump. The first competition was the pentathlon on July 7. He won four of the five events and placed third in the javelin, an event he had not competed in before 1912. Although the pentathlon was primarily decided on place points, points were also earned for the marks achieved in the individual events. Thorpe won

12753-533: Was in my prime, I could not do what he did today." In 1912, strict rules regarding amateurism were in effect for athletes participating in the Olympics. Athletes who received money prizes for competitions, were sports teachers, or had competed previously against professionals, were not considered amateurs. They were barred from competition. In late January 1913, the Worcester Telegram reported that Thorpe had played semi-professional baseball before

12870-552: Was married three times and had eight children, including Grace Thorpe , an environmentalist and Native rights activist, before suffering from heart failure and dying in 1953. Thorpe has received numerous accolades for his athletic accomplishments. The Associated Press ranked him as the "greatest athlete" from the first 50 years of the 20th century, and the Pro Football Hall of Fame inducted him as part of its inaugural class in 1963. The town of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania ,

12987-485: Was named in his honor. It has a monument site that contains his remains, which were the subject of legal action. Thorpe appeared in several films and was portrayed by Burt Lancaster in the 1951 film Jim Thorpe – All-American . Information about Thorpe's birth, name and ethnic background varies widely. He was baptized "Jacobus Franciscus Thorpe" in the Catholic Church . Thorpe was born in Indian Territory of

13104-474: Was officially approved in 1890, two years after that area was opened to American settlers . Indigenous peoples were present in what is now Oklahoma by the last ice age . Ancestors of the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes (including Teyas and Escanjaques and Tawakoni ), Tonkawa , and Caddo (including Kichai ) lived in what is now Oklahoma. Southern Plains villagers lived in the central and west of

13221-447: Was raised as a Sac and Fox, and his native name, Wa-Tho-Huk , is translated as "path lit by great flash of lightning" or, more simply, "Bright Path". As was the custom for Sac and Fox, he was named for something occurring around the time of his birth, in this case the light brightening the path to the cabin where he was born. Thorpe's parents were both Roman Catholic, a faith which Thorpe observed throughout his adult life. Thorpe attended

13338-576: Was the last man to compete in both the Olympics (in a non-baseball sport) and Major League Baseball before Eddy Alvarez did the same in 2020. Thorpe played sporadically with the Giants as an outfielder for three seasons. After playing in the minor leagues with the Milwaukee Brewers in 1916, he returned to the Giants in 1917. He was sold to the Cincinnati Reds early in the season. In the "double no-hitter " between Fred Toney of

13455-478: Was then Indian Territory. McCabe discussed with President Theodore Roosevelt the possibility of making Oklahoma a majority-Black state. By the early 20th century, the Greenwood district of Tulsa was one of the most prosperous African-American communities in the United States. Jim Crow laws had established racial segregation since before the start of the 20th century, but Tulsa's Black residents had created

13572-517: Was westward, the turmoil caused by the rapid advancement of the disease quickly overwhelmed both health workers and local governing bodies. In Oklahoma City, shortages of both supplies and personnel were mitigated, in part, by the mobilization of the American Red Cross. Rough estimates based on contemporary reports indicate that approximately 100,000 people fell ill with the disease before the pandemic ebbed in 1919. Of those 100,000 cases, it

13689-432: Was working for the manager of the baseball team for which he was playing at the time. They had four sons: Phillip, William, Richard, and John Thorpe. Kirkpatrick divorced Thorpe in 1941, after they had been married for 15 years. Lastly, Thorpe married Patricia Gladys Askew on June 2, 1945. She was with him when he died. After his athletic career, Thorpe struggled to provide for his family. He found it difficult to work

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