Gather up your class and lead them on the exciting Oklahoma Land Rush — the greatest land giveaway in history, which was decided by lotteries and actual races for homestead sites. Hands-on replicas of historical documents — the first English language alphabet for the Cherokees, which empowered them to read and write; an act of Congress to move Indian tribes; maps of the territory; an actual homestead application; and the handwritten, presidential order opening the Oklahoma Territory — chronicle the politics and economics of this era, and prove another instance of broken U.S. promises to the Indians and the hardships endured by the homesteaders. Historian: Sidney Theil. The contents of this Jackdaw feature:

• The Permanent Solution
• The Impossible Dream
• Harrison’s Hoss Race
• The Homesteaders
• Statehood and Beyond

• Sequoyah’s Cherokee alphabet, 1821.
• A congressional act to provide for an exchange of lands with the Indians and for their removal west of the Mississippi River, 1829, and a transcript.
• Certificate from President James Polk to an Indian chief, 1846.
• Boomer broadside: “Grand Rush for the Indian Territory,” 1879.
• A license to trade with Indians, 1883.
• A map of the Indian Territory, 1885.
• The first page of a presidential proclamation by Benjamin Harrison announcing the opening of the Oklahoma lands, 1889, and a transcript.
• A map of the territory opened to settlement, 1889.
• An application and final certificate for a homestead claim.
• The first page of the act to provide a temporary government for the Territory of Oklahoma, 1889, and a transcript.
• A presidential proclamation by Theodore Roosevelt admitting Oklahoma into the Union as a state, 1907.