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{{Short description|Settlers in Oklahoma, now a demonym}}
{{About||the University of Oklahoma's athletic teams|Oklahoma Sooners|the Canadian football team|Ottawa Sooners|other uses|Sooner (disambiguation)}}
[[Image:Unassigned Lands 1885.jpg|right|thumb|375px|Unassigned Lands – 1885]]
'''Sooners''' is the name given to [[settler]]s who entered the [[Unassigned Lands]] illegally in what is now the state of [[Oklahoma]] before the official start of the [[Land Rush of 1889]].  The Unassigned Lands were a part of [[Indian Territory]] that, after a lobbying campaign, were to be opened to American settlement in 1889.  President [[Benjamin Harrison]] officially proclaimed the Unassigned Lands open to settlement on April 22, 1889. As people lined up around the borders of the [[Oklahoma Territory|Oklahoma District]], they waited for the official opening. It was not until noon that it officially was opened to settlement. The name derived from the "sooner clause" of ''Proclamation 288 — Opening to Settlement Certain Lands in the Indian Territory'', which stated that anyone who entered and occupied the land prior to the opening time would be denied the right to claim land.<ref name="ohssooners">{{cite web |url=http://www.ok-history.mus.ok.us/enc/sooner.htm |title=Sooners |access-date=2007-05-11 |last=Blochowiak |first=Mary Ann |publisher=[[Oklahoma Historical Society]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060218001824/http://www.ok-history.mus.ok.us/enc/sooner.htm |archive-date=2006-02-18 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The designation "Sooner" had a very negative connotation.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first=Stan |last=Hoig |title=Boomer Movement |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture |publisher=Oklahoma Historical Society |edition=online |date=2009}}</ref>  While "Boomers" were merely expressing pioneer spirit in their desire to take land, Sooners were essentially stealing from those arriving with the legally authorized period. However, these negative connotations cooled as time passed after 1889 and land claims were settled.  In 1908, the [[University of Oklahoma]] football team adopted the nickname "Sooners". The U.S. state of Oklahoma has adopted the nickname the "Sooner State" since the 1920s.<ref name="ohssooners"/>

==Characteristics==
Sooners are not to be confused with [[United States Marshals Service|deputy marshals]], [[surveying|land surveyors]], railroad employees, and others who were able to legally enter the territory early.<ref name="cityoftulsa">{{cite web |publisher=City of [[Tulsa, Oklahoma]] |url=http://www.cityoftulsa.org/OurCity/budget/documents/Sec03a-DepartmentalBudgetHighlights-PublicSafetyAndProtection.pdf |title=The Land Run – Boomers vs. Sooners |work=2007–2008 Proposed Budget |access-date=2007-05-11}}</ref>  Sooners who crossed into the territory illegally at night were originally also sometimes called "moonshiners" because they had entered "by the light of the moon". These Sooners would hide in ditches at night and suddenly appear to stake their claim after the land run started, hours ahead of legal settlers.<ref name="ohssooners" />

==Relationship with Boomers==
The term [[Boomers (Oklahoma settlers)|Boomer]] relating to Oklahoma refers to participants in the "Boomer Movement", white settlers who believed the Unassigned Lands were public property and open to anyone for settlement, not just Native American tribes. Their reasoning came from a clause in the [[Homestead Act of 1862]], which said that any settler could claim {{convert|160|acre|km2}} of public land.<ref>{{cite web | url= http://www.netstate.com/states/intro/ok_intro.htm |title =The State of Oklahoma | publisher =Netstate.com | access-date =2007-05-22 }}</ref> Some Boomers entered and were removed more than once by the United States Army.<ref>{{cite book |first=Carl Coke |last=Rister |title=Land Hunger, David L. Payne and the Oklahoma Boomers |location=Norman, Oklahoma |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |date=1942 |pages=41, 45–50}}</ref>

Those who actually observed the official start of the land run and began the race for free land often found choice sections of land already occupied by Sooners or, in some cases, by Boomers. Problems with Sooners continued with each successive land run; in an 1895 land run as much as half of the available land was taken by Sooners. Litigation between legitimate land-run participants and Sooners continued well into the 20th century, and eventually the [[United States Department of the Interior]] was given ultimate authority to settle the disputes.<ref name="ohssooners" />

==Sports==
In 1908, the University of Oklahoma adopted "Sooners" as the nickname of its football team, after having first tried "Rough Riders" and "[[Boomers (Oklahoma settlers)|Boomers]]". Eventually, Oklahoma became known as "The Sooner State".<ref name="ohssooners"/> The school fight song is titled "[[Boomer Sooner]]". The school "mascot" is a replica of a 19th-century covered wagon, called the "[[Sooner Schooner]]".  When the OU football team scores the Sooner Schooner is pulled across the field by a pair of ponies named "Boomer" and "Sooner". There are a pair of costumed mascots also named "Boomer" and "Sooner".

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{cite web |url=http://www.okhistory.org |title=Home Page |publisher=Oklahoma Historical Society}}
* {{cite web |url=http://www.library.okstate.edu/okmaps/ |title=Oklahoma Digital Maps: Digital Collections of Oklahoma and Indian Territory |publisher=Oklahoma State University |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121024013411/http://www.library.okstate.edu/okmaps/ |archive-date=2012-10-24 }}
* {{cite encyclopedia |first=Stan |last=Hoig |title=Boomer Movement |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture |publisher=Oklahoma Historical Society |edition=online |date=2009}}

[[Category:Indian Territory]]
[[Category:Culture of Oklahoma]]
[[Category:History of agriculture in the United States]]
[[Category:American regional nicknames]]
[[Category:Agriculture in Oklahoma]]
[[Category:Oklahoma Territory]]