m the advent of
the railways than any other section of the remote West. They had
attracted population to their camps during the Civil War, and now they
grew in size and permanence. But only such regions reached permanent
importance as had valleys to be irrigated and fields to be cultivated.
Without agriculture no important region has flourished in the West.

Toward the end of the eighties the pressure of the population for more
homestead lands brought about the opening of Oklahoma. Here, for over
half a century, the Indian tribes had lived in full possession. After
the Civil War the plains tribes had been colonized here too. Now, as the
lands were awarded to the Indians in severalty under the Dawes Act, the
old tribal holdings were surrendered and large areas were offered to
white settlement. After ten years of ejectment and restraint the
Oklahoma boomers were let into the country in 1889. Guthrie and Oklahoma
City were created overnight, and in 1890 the Territory of Oklahoma
received permanent organization.

Before the last continental railway was finished, the Territories were
asking for statehood and were showing advance in population to justify
it. When Villard aided in the corner-stone laying at Bismarck in 1883
there were already three clearly defined groups of population in Dakota
and an ultimate division had been determined upon by the settlers.
Repeatedly, in the decade, the Dakota colonists framed constitutions and
signed petitions, and the Republicans in Congress sought to give them
statehood. The Democratic House, which prevailed from 1883 to 1889, saw
no reason for creating more Republican States, as these would likely be,
and found pretexts for holding up the bills. Montana, less advanced than
Dakota, and Idaho and Wyoming which were yet more primitive, joined the
forces of the statehood advocates. Arizona and New Mexico did the same,
and Utah had been a suitor since 1850. Washington, with a growing
population on Puget Sound and in the Spokane country, was obviously not
long to be denied.

For party purposes, the Democrats resisted the demands for statehood
until the election of 1888 insured Republican control through every
branch of the United States Government. Thereafter there was no point to
resistance, and Cleveland, in 1889, signed an "omnibus" bill under which
North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington were admitted. Idaho
and Wyoming, defeated at this time, were let in by the Republicans