Our Federal Government has a history of not enforcing border law and of allowing law-breakers to reap the benefits of their transgressions.

I wonder if others see parallels between the 1889 land rush in Oklahoma and the current massive invasion of our country by illegal aliens. The contemporary rushers seek forms of wealth such as jobs, free social services, water and space, and yes, even title to property. The laws of our government, as they did to the Native Americans concerning Oklahoma, promise that this land will be ours forever. Those nineteenth century promises only lasted until economic pressures to break them began to rise. Now, current economic pressures have risen to break current laws. Only this time, the promises being broken are not those made to citizens of the Indian Nations. They are those that have been made to the citizens of the United States.

It seems that “forever” these days only means until corporate America needs cheap labor. Then, any citizen’s job and any home for sale in the U.S is fair game to dispose of to illegal aliens.

Soon we’ll be outvoted by this fecund influx. It’s already happening in a few places, according to the news reports and anecdotal evidence. They have even flaunted their lawlessness by carrying foreign flags in massive demonstrations to support their law-breaking.

Harper’s Weekly is quoted in an article posted on the internet that describes the shenanigans of May 18, 1889.

“In 1889 the opening to white settlement of a choice portion of Indian Territory in Oklahoma set off one of the most bizarre and chaotic episodes… This account is by a trained observer who was present on the day the territory was opened and who remained there for some time afterwards. It appeared less than a month later in the pages of Harper's Weekly and provides a vivid picture of what occurred. It documents the massive stupidity of federal policy with regard to the disposal of the public domain, but it scarcely more than hints at the tragic consequences to follow for the Indian tribes who had been forcibly relocated to Oklahoma under solemn promises that their land would be theirs forever.”

“As the expectant home-seekers waited with restless patience, the clear, sweet notes of a cavalry bugle rose and hung a moment upon the startled air. It was noon. The last barrier of savagery in the United States was broken down. Moved by the same impulse, each driver lashed his horses furiously; each rider dug his spurs into his willing steed, and each man on foot caught his breath hard and darted forward. A cloud of dust rose where the home-seekers had stood in line, and when it had drifted away before the gentle breeze, the horses and wagons and men were tearing across the open country like fiends. The horsemen had the best of it from the start. It was a fine race for a few minutes, but soon the riders began to spread out like a fan, and by the time they had reached the horizon they were scattered about as far as eye could see. Even the fleetest of the horsemen found upon reaching their chosen localities that men in wagons and men on foot were there before them. As it was clearly impossible for a man on foot to outrun a horseman, the inference is plain that Oklahoma had been entered hours before the appointed time. Notwithstanding the assertions of the soldiers that every boomer had been driven out of Oklahoma, the fact remains that the woods along the streams within Oklahoma were literally full of people Sunday night. Nine-tenths of these people made settlement upon the land illegally. The other tenth would have done so had there been any desirable land left to settle upon. This action on the part of the first claim-holders will cause a great deal of land litigation in the future, as it is not to be expected that the man who ran his horse at its utmost speed for ten miles only to find a settler with an ox team in quiet possession of his chosen farm will tamely submit to this plain infringement of the law.”

Here is the link to the full article: 

http://www.library.cornell.edu/Reps/DOCS/landrush.htm 

© 2007 R. Leland Waldrip