Although our principal focus is on Tulsa, we can only properly understand our city if we understand its place in the state where it is located and its multiple levels of relationships with state government and the rest of the state.

In our studies we are looking to identify the dynamics that explain how Tulsa interacts with non-Tulsa Oklahoma and how this process of interaction mutually influences the two sides.

• Who were the people that settled in Indian Territory and in Oklahoma Territory?;
• The geography of the locations of settlement and the economic possibilities that different locations offered;
• How the settlers and the geography interacted to change each other;
• The processes of cultural formation produced by the intermingling of cultures that the settlers brought with them;
• Cultural and historic differences between Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory and how these divergent (and sometimes conflicting) cultures co-existed in the unified State of Oklahoma;
• The structural contexts (government, financial, and public services) that influenced early development and how these factors have changed over time in different parts of the state;
• Descriptive analysis of the resulting “Oklahoma Culture” that was the result of the mixtures of settler cultures;
• Comparisons with other frontier experiences in America and other strategies applied by westward expansion Pioneers in America;
• Identifying and analyzing factors currently influencing cultural and economic change in the state;
• Review of external factors (political, economic, cultural, and physical) currently shaping changes in the state, as well as the consideration of future impacts resulting from currently on-going changes.

Methods for these studies will include original observational articles using the qualitative research approaches, recorded interviews (podcasts) photographic illustration, and the compilation of original source material from external sources.

Prof. Rodger Randle
December, 2025