Unpaved Roads to Oklahoma: Researching the Story of My Family’s Mineral Rights

Abstract

Abstract This article chronicles the author’s research into her family’s mineral rights, located in eastern Oklahoma. Tracing ownership back to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, she explores the circumstances and legal framework that led to her ancestors’ purchase of Creek property in 1910 and 1911. Collectively, the federal government’s allotment laws; various U.S. Supreme Court decisions; and even the author’s great-grandfather, who was a “boomer” journalist, created conditions that encouraged the loss of Creek land and sovereignty. Now exploitable with modern technology, and subject to Oklahoma’s oil and gas regulations, these familial mineral interests serve as just one example of the enduring legacy of the allotment era—a truly dark period of U.S. history.