What state lies largely in the Great Plains but embraces part of the eastern Central Lowlands, yet is sometimes considered a part of the Southwest? Where can a buffalo rub shoulders with an alligator? The answer is Oklahoma, a geographic and cultural crossroads.
Led by Coronado, Spanish explorers crossed western Oklahoma half a century after Columbus landed in the New World in 1492. But Indians have lived in Oklahoma for more than 10,000 years.
Tribes living in Oklahoma shortly before it became a state included the Comanches, who were renowned horsemen. Cherokees, Chickasaws, Creeks, Choctaws, and Seminoles who had been forced off their lands in eastern states were relocated in Oklahoma, a word that means “red person.” Today, Oklahoma is dotted with place names from many cultures, such as Dancing Rabbit Creek, Going Snake, Lone Wolf, and Cimarron River.
With forests and highlands—including the Ouachita Mountains—eastern Oklahoma is similar to its eastern neighbors, Missouri and Arkansas. Farther west, scattered trees provide perches from which Oklahoma’s long-tailed state bird launches its ambushes. The scissor-tailed flycatcher, or “Texas bird of paradise,” is also beloved south of the Red River, which forms the Oklahoma-Texas border and is home to a few alligators.
Oklahoma and Kansas, its neighbor to the north, both call the bison their state animal. Today, cattle have replaced bison on the grasslands that stretch westward and upward across the narrow “Panhandle,” which touches the eastern border of New Mexico. Under the grasslands that bison once trod lies an underground sea of oil, one more thing Oklahoma shares with Texas.
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism - 
