Happy Birthday, Oklahoma!

On this day, one hundred years ago, Oklahoma became a state. I suspect that Native Americans, particularly the Cherokee and Osage, will not be celebrating. I can't really blame them, as it put paid to their very last hopes of a land of their own, as promised to them by our less-than-faithful-to-its-word government. The Cherokee were moved there, after being robbed of their lands in the East in Tennessee, the Carolinas, and Georgia, by President Andrew Jackson (who really had a serious thing about "Indians", and today would be rotting in prison for committing "hate crimes" against them), which made the indigenous Osage less than happy. Oddly, for such "savage barbarians", they managed to settle the differences between them without maiming and killing each other. Would that we 'eurotrash' could follow their example...

It's a lovely place, Oklahoma, from the forested rolling hills of the eastern half to the miles and miles of miles and miles of prairie of the western half. The weather does tend to get a bit extreme, however - there's a reason why the National Severe Storms Laboratory is located in the center of the state.

My father moved our family to Tulsa when the state was two years shy of its fiftieth birthday, and I more or less grew up there, went to college there (Yay, SOONERS!), met my now-ex husband there, and so many other milestones. It's been years since I've even been there, but I still get homesick.