Carl Coke Rister

Land Hunger - David L. Payne and the Oklahoma Boomers Carl Coke Rister

Publisher Marketing: Preface - The restless land hunger which drew thousands of men into the Boomer Movement to open the Oklahoma district of the In dian Territory to settlement is a phenomenon of power and of human determination. It is personified in the character of David L. Payne, the Oklahoma Boomer, a border adventurer of much the same mold as Buffalo Bill Cody, Kit Carson, Ewing Young, and Sam Houston. Like these others, Payne was not content to settle down to the tedium of a sedentary life, to be hedged about by long-established social conventions. He was essentially a bor der leader, seeking those fields of activity in which his bold, restless spirit could meet the challenge of a hazardous life. In a never-ending effort to enter and settle Oklahoma he found such a field. The Indians of the Five Civilized Tribes, the cattlemen, and even the federal government offered strong opposition, but this seemed only to stimulate him to greater effort to force the opening of the unassigned lands to white settlement. The narrative in the following pages, then, is more than a biography, for Paynes life from 1879 to J884 was so dedicated to the Boomer cause that its portrayal also depicts the movement. In the first three chapters the author presents Payne during his years in Indiana and Kansas when he was being conditioned in mind and body to meet the hard experiences of Oklahoma in vasions. There is in Chapter IV a sketch of the Indian settle ments after the Civil War incident to Indian Territory reserva-Vll Land Hunger tion assignments and to the origin of the Boomer Movement. The next eleven chapters are devoted to the high tide of the Boomer Movement while Payne was its leader, a period of field operations. Paynes death in 1884 brought to the front his able friend William L. Couch, who was leader of the Boomers until the final success of their movement. Although Payne was dead, his spirit now, as a pillar of fire, furnished Couch and other Boomer leaders the inspiration to carry on to ultimate success. For this reason the last two chap ters constitute a fitting climax in a sense, Paynes posthumous victory. In this great border movement, the author has sought to portray Payne, the principal actor, objectively, and not to con demn or condone his many acts and motives. He must be judged in the light of his times. At best, the frontier was raw, and mens virtues were not polished by education and traditional influences. The prairie frontier was cruelly exacting of body, mind and soul, and only the strongest personalities could finally emerge un blemished. It so resulted, paradoxical as it may seem, that the average leader revealed striking qualities of strength and con spicuous elements of weakness, as was the case with Payne. CARL COKE RISTER Norman, Oklahoma July i6 y 1942 vm Acknowledgments My task in preparing this study for publication was made easier than it otherwise would have been because of the many courtesies extended by others. The University of Oklahoma Faculty Re search Committee awarded me a grant-in-aid with which to buy microfilms and maps. The National Archives made available manuscripts for microfilming from the files of the Department of Justice, the Department of Interior, and the Department of War... Contributor Bio:  Rister, Carl Coke Carl Coke Rister was a research professor of history at the University of Oklahoma. His many books include Southern Plainsmen; Border Captives: The Traffic in Prisoners by the Southern Plains Indians, 1835-1875; Land Hunger: David L. Payne and the Oklahoma Boomers; and Border Command: General Phil Sheridan in the West.