The April 1897 drilling of the Nellie Johnstone No. 1 oil well marked a seminal moment in the development of what would become the state of Oklahoma. Glasscock’s history examines the peopling of Indian Territory following the removal of Native American tribes to the region, and the subsequent discovery of oil on lands allotted to those tribes during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In the book’s final chapter, Glasscock concludes that Oklahoma’s history is illustrative of the “astonishing effects” of oil wealth on a previously lawless and uncivilized territory. The author asserts that the discovery of oil in Oklahoma was decisive in the closing of “America’s Last Frontier”. Although colorful in detail, Then Came Oil is plagued …show more content…
Most glaringly, Glasscock makes numerous references to “savage Indians,” “red men,” and “negroes.” Glasscock’s analysis suffers from prejudicial statements attesting to the civilizing impact of oil, as demonstrated in the following excerpt from the book’s final chapter, “Witness the change from a territory virtually without government, overrun by bandits, restricted and retarded by a population of Indians of whom many were by slightly removed from savagery.” Glasscock’s argument that oil contributed to the “civilizing” of Indian Territory and resulted in the closing of America’s frontier is a specious assertion couched in romanticized, racially biased rhetoric. Stylistically, the book is weakened by Glasscock’s uneven historical narration. The author employs first person perspective at times throughout the book, and makes puzzling leaps in chronology and content. Most puzzling, was a six-page chapter on the Indian Wars of the upper Great Plains situated between chapters on the Cherokee Strip Livestock Association and the removal of tribes from Kansas to Indian Territory. There were also factual errors within the book, including the author’s assessment of the vote on separate statehood for Indian Territory. In chapter nine, Glasscock contends that the Sequoyah Constitution was approved by “a light vote indicating little interest.” In fact, the Sequoyah Constitution was overwhelmingly supported by residents of Indian Territory, passing by a margin of 56,279 in favor, to only 9,073