If you read *anything* about last night, read this: Charles P. Pierce is a man on fire.

[hfojvt]

16. Her statement was awful, but Pierce's reply not much better

"sand, with a whole lot of pissed-off Native Americans".

My uncle from OKC once commented that my hometown, where streets are named after states in the US, does not have an Oklahoma street. I figured that was because the city of 12,000 was not big enough to have enough streets to include all 50 states.

What I did not know at the time was that Oklahoma, like Vermont, was not even supposed to be a state. As probably most DUers know, before Oklahoma was opened to white settlers in 1889, it was first set aside, (and forcibly populated) as permanent Native American territory.

As Donald J Berthrong wrote in 1976, the settlement looked like this from the Native American side

Of the millions of acres once controlled by the tribes, they now retained only 529,692 acres. Even that small remnant would in another ten years begin to slip away from their possession because of the acts of Congress and the greed of land-hungry farmers and landjobbers. 181

At high noon on April 19, 1892, between 25 and 30,000 settlers made a run into the Cheyenne-Arapaho Reservation, and immediately began a new era for the Cheyennes and Arapahoes. The tribesmen had long been in contact with white men, but never as neighbors and never in such overwhelming numbers. Within a few hours, the Cheyennes and Arapahoes became a minority, constituting about 10% of the population among the farmers, small ranchers, and inhabitants of the small towns in the six counties that had formerly constituted the Cheyenne-Arapaho Reservation. As citizens of the U.S. and Oklahoma Territory the Indians in theory possessed all the rights and privileges of citizenship with their lands and property protected from alienation under the terms of the Dawes Act and other legislation. In practice, however, it was difficult to guard the Indians against the prejudices and the avariciousness of the new residents and officials of the Cheyenne-Arapaho country. 182


Yet Pierce wants to make sure the Federal Government gets credit for this?

The other part I would scoff at is the Governor's claim that "Oklahoma is one of the nation's job creators".

Oklahoma is one of the poorest states in the region. Oklahoma's neighbors are Kansas, Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado.
Here's median income in 2010

Oklahoma - 43,400
Kansas - 46,229
Arkansas - 38,571
Texas - 47,464
New Mexico - 45,098
Colorado - 60,442
US - 49,445

Oklahoma's poverty rate of 15.6% makes them 44th. Meaning they have a higher poverty rate than 43 of the other 49 states. (although better than their neighbors Arkansas and Texas who are 45th and 46th http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_poverty_rate)

Oklahoma DOES have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation, but seems to have created a mere 60,000 jobs in the last 3 years whereas a state like Minnesota created over 100,000 in the last two, but Oklahoma has clearly been helped in this recession by basically being a member of OPEC.

Still, considering their poverty rate and their median income, I wouldn't brag about their economy.