[Why our area has its unique political and religious attitudes.]

As I sit at my computer, looking through the windowpanes across the valley at the next ridge, I am awestruck at the beauty of God’s creation. The fall colors are just past peak, but stunning red oaks, with remnants of golden green on the white oaks and sycamore, the brilliant yellows of hickory, and the occasional bold evergreen pine and cedar instill a communion with nature. The sensation is pushed further by the magnificent deer we encountered on the trail and the eagle circling overhead earlier in the week.

Why and how we arrived here is the story of Indian Territory. The independence of our non-city culture is in stark contrast to those souls embedded in their dark tunnel of streets among high-rises, where sunrise and sunset never enter. Their submissive spirit in the name of progress, security, and safety cannot comprehend the Indian Territory attitude of nature which reveals an obvious God and our responsibility to a lifestyle which admires, respects, yes even reverences the precepts of that concept.

How did we get to have such a different sense of freedom, independence, and religion? It is historical.

Our last story was relating to an Indian mother who raised sons that influenced the destiny, direction, and culture of our land. Why were they and their clans obligated to move from their homeland to this place where a few hundred Osage and Caddo Native Americans literally roamed?

The story starts with the very first Europeans to arrive on the pristine shores of the North Atlantic Ocean, where Mom’s family and other Indians met them. Dad’s family arrived from northern England at Virginia in 1721, before the birth of George Washington or Thomas Jefferson, and long before any thought of a new country or a Revolution to separate from the old country.

With that well-documented heritage, I cannot take sides in a rewrite of pseudo-history trying to create a cultural war. Just one more observation, is Dad’s family as found in contemporary biographies never owned slaves and did not believe in slavery. Conversely some of Mom’s Indian ancestors were slaves.

Neither culture understood the other. Both could have done things differently. In general, both sides were just leave me alone. Unfortunately, a few leaders on both sides refused to believe the others were human.

One thing is absolutely apparent. Other countries had tried to make a go of it in the New World. The British were the only culture capable of making a new country. Had the British subjects not taken the risk, investment, and challenge, Mom’s family would still be living a subsistence lifestyle. Since they were a matrilineal society, so would I.

No, I do not think that would be a good thing. I thoroughly enjoy rural living, but I like my air-conditioning, computers, and diesel equipment to reshape the trails. Even the wildlife prefers the trails to the harsh tangle of greenbrier, scrub oak, and sumac. I much prefer the blended lifestyle. There is no better or worse culture, just different.

Even from the beginning of European arrival, this embryonic country was separated and has remained that way to this day. We will necessarily make some generalizations, which are generalizations only because there are exceptions. Ponder that statement.

From the earliest days of English influence, the colonies had three centers of cultural development, Boston, Philadelphia, and Richmond, Virginia environs. How were they different?

Boston was largely a mercantile society. They built substantial houses, which often became homes for generations. They were traditionalists, who promoted book-learning, erudite education. They originally arrived because of religious freedom, as long as it was their religion. The Ivy League was principally Church colleges, until they migrated from their religious principles to secular. In keeping with their traditional, hierarchal, social structure, their religion was predominantly Reformed, including Congregational and Presbyterian.

Philadelphia was largely a manufacturing society. They built substantial row-houses, which were little more than apartments with a common wall. They were creative thinkers, who promoted practical education in the form of craftsmen, architects, and printers. They developed coal and iron ore mining consistent with the manufacturing needs. Their elegant old buildings are a testament to their skill. They too originally arrived because of religious freedom for the Society of Friends (Quakers), which is an intellectual religion not firmly in orthodox teachings.

Virginia was largely a farmer, planter, natural resources society. They built a few ostentatious houses, but most were functional hovels for the transient rural society. They were ardently independent thinkers, who too arrived for religious freedoms. The first landlords were Anglican, Church of England, Episcopalian. The influx from maverick harvesters of natural resources quickly led to the predominance of Baptist with their independent free-churches and radical-reformed teachings of personal responsibility and accountability. These mavericks fostered the Revolution in Virginia.

As the three cultures grew, they mostly spread the only way they could – west, carrying their philosophy with them. It was this push, which put pressure on the relations with the Native Americans, forcing them to surrender their ancestral grounds. The pushing from Virginia propagated through Tennessee, Carolinas, and Georgia to Indian Territory.

The context of history is crucial to understanding current events. The difference in original cultures still carries to our regional approaches for politics and religion. Politics and religion are the same thing. The other regions do not understand us and vice-versa.

Think about it. Should we be surprised that Oklahoma is a largely rural, agricultural, natural resources economy with predominant Baptist-type independent, personal responsibility culture?

We will remain the most independent, free-thinking state only as long as we support those cultural principles.

Excerpts from our book:

Where Indians, Outlaws & Oilmen Were Real, ISBN: 9781658834643.