The land that became Oklahoma was added to the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, and the government spent much of the 19th century relocating Native American tribes from the Southeast to this region. In 1830, Congress adopted the Indian Removal Act.

Army Gen. Andrew Jackson, who later became president, led the forced evacuation of tribes. Nearly 125,000 lived in lands spanning from Tennessee and Alabama to Georgia, North Carolina and Florida. By the end of the 1830s, few remained. The forced and often fatal journey for many, some 15,000 dying in the drive west, became known as the “Trail of Tears.”

In 1905, representatives of the Cherokee, Choctaw and several other tribes proposed a constitution for a separate Indian state to be called Sequoyah. Congress rejected the request, and in 1907 the Indian and Oklahoma territories were combined to form the state of Oklahoma – the name derived from the Choctaw for “red people.”

With statehood came an oil boom, and much of the state's early growth came from oil exploration and drilling. In the 1930s, the Great Depression era was made even more difficult with the drought that afflicted the nation, and many fled westward escaping the “Dust Bowl.”

Today, the state's economy is still largely dependent on the oil and natural gas industry, and Oklahoma's state capitol building in Oklahoma City sits above an oil well.