One of the fifty states of the U.S.A., and the 46th state to enter the Union, in 1907. Known for oil fields and cattle ranches, with mountain ranges in the southwest, south central, southeast, and eastern parts of the state, Oklahoma borders Arkansas and Missouri to the east, Texas to the south, New Mexico via its western strip of land known as The Panhandle, and Colorado and Kansas to the north. It’s also home to two major cities: Oklahoma City, its capital and largest city, and Tulsa, largely known as the alleged homebase of The Most Ever Company art collective (the rent's real cheap). Oklahoma is also known for its severe weather, particularly its tornadoes; warm air from the Gulf of Mexico meets with cool air from the Rocky Mountains, resulting in an average of 62 tornadoes per year.
The state is also notorious for its high Native American population. Prior to the state's founding, the United States government displaced multiple Native American tribes and relocated them to the eastern half of the future state, which was legally defined as the Indian Territory. This territory originally included much of the land acquired in the Louisiana Purchase, but over time shrank to most of present-day Oklahoma. In 1890, the western half of the Indian Territory was split off by the US government and renamed the Oklahoma Territory; the Panhandle, which hadn't been assigned to any particular territory and was known as "No Man's Land", was given to the Oklahoma Territory. In 1906, Congress allowed the Oklahoma and Indian Territories to draft a constitution and become one state: Oklahoma.
The landmark Supreme Court case, McGirt v. Oklahoma, 591 U.S. ____ (2020), found in a 5-4 majority that much of Eastern Oklahoma, including the state's second largest city, Tulsa, remains as tribal land as per treaties between the federal government and tribal residents for the purposes of prosecution under the Major Crimes Act, removing much of the state's jurisdiction over Native residents in the area and sparking an ongoing jurisdictional dispute between the state and the tribal governments.
Politically, the state is strongly Republican, with the state voting for the Republican Party in every presidential election since 1952 (with the exception of Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964), and every single one of the state's 77 counties voting Republican in every presidential election since 2000. Currently, the Republican Party also has a lock on the governorship, the state's Congressional delegation, as well as the majority in both the State Senate and the State House of Representatives.
In sports, the state is home to only one professional sports team: the Oklahoma City Thunder of the National Basketball Association. The team was established in 1969 as the Seattle SuperSonics and relocated to OKC in 2008, following disputes regarding their old arena. On the collegiate level, the state is home to four Division I schools: the University of Oklahoma (Big 12, moving to the SEC in 2024) in the Oklahoma City suburb of Norman, Oklahoma State University (Big 12) in Stillwater, the University of Tulsa (The American) in... Tulsa, and Oral Roberts University (which doesn't have a football team, and plays in the non-football Summit League), a Christian Evangelical school in south Tulsa.
Oklahoma in media:
- Oklahoma!, of course.
- Chandler from Friends briefly worked in Tulsa.
- Twister was filmed on location throughout the state.
- HBO's Watchmen is set in Tulsa and deals with the legacy of the 1921 race riots, but was actually mostly filmed in Georgia.
- Killers of the Flower Moon is set in Osage County in the 1920s and deals with another ugly episode of Oklahoma history—the killings of many members of the Osage Native American nation as part of a scheme to steal Osage oil wealth.
- The webcomic Wilde Life is set in the fictionalizednote town of Podunk, Oklahoma.
- Mary Bubnik of Bad News Ballet originally came from Oklahoma and doesn't want to return—not because she doesn't like it, but she doesn't want to live with her father and his new wife.
- The House of Night series is set in and around Tulsa.
- The Stand: while wandering through May, an actual town in northwestern Oklahoma, Nick Andros encounters May native Tom Cullen, and later Nick and Tom are rescued by another Oklahoman, Ralph Brentner.
- Thunderstruck, featuring the Oklahoma City Thunder and starring then-OKC superstar Kevin Durant, is of course set and filmed in Oklahoma City.
- The Tokimeki PokéLive! and TwinBee Original Character Yoko Catherine Osaka White as well as her (now-deceased) biological parents were originally from Lawton before they moved to Japan. Her older sister, Beverly Lynn Osaka White, was also originally from the state too, having lived in Chickasha for the first 14 years of her life.
- Tulsa King, starring Sylvester Stallone. The first season was filmed on location in Oklahoma but subsequently moved production due to the intense summer heat.
- Reservation Dogs
- Crash 'n' the Boys: Street Challenge, a NES game by Technos Japan, features the Oklahoma High School team.
Famous Oklahomans:
- The All-American Rejects (Stillwater)
- Garth Brooks (born in Tulsa, raised in Yukon)
- Kristin Chenoweth (Broken Arrow)
- Joe Diffie (Tulsa)
- The Flaming Lips (Oklahoma City)
- James Garner (Norman). A section of Jones Avenue in Norman was renamed in his honor.
- Vince Gill (Norman)
- Bill Goldberg (Tulsa)
- Woody Guthrie (Okemah)
- Bill Hader (Tulsa)
- Jake Hager (born in North Dakota, raised in Perry)
- Hanson (Tulsa)
- Ron Howard (Duncan)
- Jennifer Jones (Tulsa)
- Toby Keith (born in Clinton, raised in Moore)
- Mickey Mantle (born in Spavinaw, raised in Commerce)
- Rue McClanahan (Healdton)
- Hayley McFarland (Edmond)
- Reba McEntire (born in McAlester, raised in Chockie)
- Clarence "Ducky" Nash, the original voice of Donald Duck (Watonga). A major highway in Watonga is named in his honor.
- Chuck Norris (Ryan)
- Will Rogers (Oologah)
- Jim Ross (born in California, raised in Westville)
- Blake Shelton (Ada)
- Carrie Underwood (born in Muskogee, raised in Checotah)
- Mae Young (Sand Springs, nowadays a Tulsa suburb)
