An Okie is a person identified with the state of

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

. This connection may be residential, ethnic, historical or cultural. For most Okies, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being Oklahoman. In

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, the term came to refer to very poor migrants from Oklahoma coming to look for employment. The

Dust Bowl The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s. The phenomenon was caused by a combination of both natural factors (severe drought) a ...

and the "Okie" migration of the 1930s brought in over a million migrants, many headed to the

farm labor The primary sector of the economy includes any industry involved in the extraction and production of raw materials, such as farming, logging, fishing, forestry and mining. The primary sector tends to make up a larger portion of the economy in d ...

jobs in the Central Valley. By 1950, four million individuals, or one quarter of all persons born in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, or Missouri, lived outside the region, primarily in the West. Prominent Okies included singer/songwriter

Woody Guthrie Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer-songwriter, one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American socialism and anti-fascism. He has inspire ...

and country musician

Merle Haggard Merle Ronald Haggard (April 6, 1937 – April 6, 2016) was an American country music singer, songwriter, guitarist, and fiddler. Haggard was born in Oildale, California, toward the end of the Great Depression. His childhood was troubled a ...

John Steinbeck John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. (; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer and the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature winner "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social ...

wrote about Okies moving west in his

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made ...

-winning 1939 novel ''

The Grapes of Wrath ''The Grapes of Wrath'' is an American realist novel written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939. The book won the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and it was cited prominently when Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Priz ...

'', which was filmed in 1940 by

John Ford John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), known professionally as John Ford, was an American film director and naval officer. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation. He ...

Great Depression usage

In the mid-1930s, during the

era, large numbers of farmers fleeing ecological disaster and the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

migrated from the

Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, a ...

and Southwest regions to California mostly along historic U.S. Route 66. Californians began calling all migrants by that name, even though many newcomers were not actually Oklahomans. The migrants included people from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, Colorado and New Mexico, but were all referred to as "Okies" and "Arkies". More of the migrants were from Oklahoma than any other state, and a total of 15% of the Oklahoma population left for California. Ben Reddick, a free-lance journalist and later publisher of the ''Paso Robles Daily Press,'' is credited with first using the term ''Oakie,'' in the mid-1930s, to identify migrant farm workers. He noticed the "OK" abbreviation (for Oklahoma) on many of the migrants' license plates and referred to them in his article as "Oakies". The first known usage was an unpublished private postcard from 1907.

Living conditions in California during the Great Depression

Once the Okie families migrated from Oklahoma to California, they often were forced to work on large farms to support their families. Because of the minimal pay, these families were often forced to live on the outskirts of these farms in shanty houses they built themselves. These homes were normally set up in groups called Squatter Camps or Shanty Towns, which were often located near the irrigation ditches which ran along the outskirts of these farms. Indoor plumbing was inaccessible to these migrant workers, and so they were forced to resort to using outhouses. Unfortunately, because of the minimal space allotted to the migrant workers, their outhouses were normally located near the irrigation ditches, and some waste would inevitably runoff into the water. These irrigation ditches provided the Okie families with a water supply. Due to this lack of sanitation in these camps, disease ran rampant among the migrant workers and their families. Also contributing to disease was the fact that these Shanty Town homes that the Okie migrant workers lived in had no running water, and because of their minimal pay medical attention was out of the question. However, what native Californians failed to realize at the time was that these Okie migrant farm workers did not always live in the conditions that the Dust Bowl left them in. In fact, often these families had once owned their own farms and had been able to support themselves. This had often placed these migrant workers in a relatively comfortable situation for these families prior to the devastating drought (the Dust Bowl) in Oklahoma.

Post-Great Depression usage

Historian James Gregory has explored the long-term impact of the Okies on California society. He notes that in ''

,'' novelist

saw the migrants becoming active union and New Deal agitators demanding higher wages and better housing conditions. Steinbeck did not foresee that most Okies would move into well-paid jobs in war industries in the 1940s. When a man named Oliver Carson visited Kern County in the 1930s, he became fascinated with the Okie culture and lifestyle. He travelled back in 1952 to see what the Okies had made of themselves and saw that the difference was astounding. They were not living in roadside encampments anymore or driving run-down cars- they had better living situations and better views on life. When

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

began, large amounts of money went flooding to California to aid the USA in the war. This was highly helpful for the Okies, as jobs of higher quality opened up in larger numbers and they were able to make their lives better over time. Other Okies saw this and decided they wanted to go to California to make even more money. An oil worker wanted to make enough money to go back to Oklahoma and buy a farm, another family wanted to rent out their farm while they were away to potentially double their earnings. These families that came during the 1940s lived in California's biggest cities, Los Angeles, San Diego and various cities in the San Francisco Bay Area. Other families who moved to California before had usually moved to the valleys and rural areas. While many families had plans to leave California after making a good amount of money, they often didn't; the children and grandchildren of Okies also seldom returned to Oklahoma or farming, and are now concentrated in California's cities and suburbs. Long-term cultural impacts include a commitment to evangelical Protestantism, a love of country music, political conservatism, and strong support for traditional moral and cultural values. It has been said that some Oklahomans who stayed and lived through the Dust Bowl see the Okie migrants as quitters who fled Oklahoma. Other Oklahoma natives are as proud of their Okies who made good in California as are the Okies themselves – and of the Arkies, West Texans, and others who were cast in with them. In the later half of the 20th century, there became increasing evidence that any pejorative meaning of the term Okie was changing; former and present Okies began to apply the label as a badge of honor and symbol of the Okie survivor attitude. In one example,

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

Oklahoma Governor The governor of Oklahoma is the head of government of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Under the Oklahoma Constitution, the governor serves as the head of the Oklahoma executive branch, of the government of Oklahoma. The governor is the ''ex officio ...

Dewey F. Bartlett Dewey Follett Bartlett Sr. (March 28, 1919 – March 1, 1979) was an American politician who served as the 19th governor of Oklahoma from 1967 to 1971, following his fellow Republican, Henry Bellmon. In 1966, he became the first Roman Cat ...

launched a campaign in the 1960s to popularize ''Okie'' as a positive term for Oklahomans; however, the Democrats used the campaign, and the fact that Bartlett was born in

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

, as a political tool against him, and further degraded the term for some time. In 1968, Governor Bartlett made Reddick, the originator of the California usage, an honorary Okie. And in the early 1970s,

's country song ''

Okie from Muskogee ''Okie from Muskogee'' is the first live album by Merle Haggard and the Strangers released in October 1969 on Capitol Records. Background The album was a recorded performance at the Civic Center in Muskogee, Oklahoma on October 10, 1969, the da ...

'' was a hit on national airwaves. During the 1970s, the term Okie became familiar to most Californians as a prototype of a subcultural group, just like the resurgence of Southern American regionalism and renewal of ethnic American (

Irish American , image = Irish ancestry in the USA 2018; Where Irish eyes are Smiling.png , image_caption = Irish Americans, % of population by state , caption = Notable Irish Americans , population = 36,115,472 (10.9%) alone ...

Italian American Italian Americans ( it, italoamericani or ''italo-americani'', ) are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan areas, w ...

Polish American Polish Americans ( pl, Polonia amerykańska) are Americans who either have total or partial Polish ancestry, or are citizens of the Republic of Poland. There are an estimated 9.15 million self-identified Polish Americans, representing about 2.83 ...

) identities in the

Northeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sep ...

and Midwest states at the time. In the early 1990s the

California Department of Transportation The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is an executive department of the U.S. state of California. The department is part of the cabinet-level California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA). Caltrans is headquartered in Sacram ...

refused to allow the name of the "Okie Girl" restaurant to appear on a roadside sign on

Interstate 5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Californi ...

, arguing that the restaurant's name insulted Oklahomans; only after protracted controversy and a letter from the Governor of Oklahoma did the agency relent. Since then, the children and grandchildren of Okies in California changed the meaning of Okie to a self-title of pride in obtaining success, as well to challenge what they felt was snobbery or "the last group to make fun of" in the state's urban area cultures. Muskogee Mayor

John Tyler Hammons John Tyler Hammons (born September 4, 1988) is an American politician who served as the 47th Mayor of Muskogee, Oklahoma from 2008 to 2012. He gained national attention when he was elected on May 13, 2008, as a 19-year-old freshman at the Universi ...

used the phrase "I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee" as the successful theme of his 2008 mayoral campaign. He was 19 years old at the time. 2020 U.S. Presidential candidate and U.S. Senator from Massachusetts

Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth Ann Warren ( née Herring; born June 22, 1949) is an American politician and former law professor who is the senior United States senator from Massachusetts, serving since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party and regarded as ...

, who was born in Oklahoma, frequently referenced her "Okie" roots during campaign events.

In popular culture

Novels *

's 1939 novel ''

'' won the

for its characterization of the Okie lifestyle and journey to California. *In

James Blish James Benjamin Blish () was an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He is best known for his '' Cities in Flight'' novels and his series of ''Star Trek'' novelizations written with his wife, J. A. Lawrence. His novel '' A Case of Conscie ...

's ''

Cities in Flight ''Cities in Flight'' is a four-volume series of science fiction novels and short stories by American writer James Blish, originally published between 1950 and 1962, which were first known collectively as the "Okie" novels. The series features ent ...

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

series, the term "Okie" was applied in a similar context to entire cities that, thanks to an anti-gravity device, take flight to the stars in order to escape an economic collapse on Earth. Working as a migrant labor force, these cities act as cultural pollinators, spreading technology and knowledge throughout the expanding human civilization. The later novels focus on the travels of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

as one such Okie city, though there are many others. *In the novel ''

On the Road ''On the Road'' is a 1957 novel by American writer Jack Kerouac, based on the travels of Kerouac and his friends across the United States. It is considered a defining work of the postwar Beat and Counterculture generations, with its protagonis ...

'' by

Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian an ...

– written between 1948 and 1949, although not published until 1957 – the term appears to refer to some of the people the main character, a New York author, meets in one of his trips around the United States. *In the novel ''

Paint it Black "Paint It Black" is a song recorded in 1966 by the English rock band the Rolling Stones. A product of the songwriting partnership of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, it is a raga rock song with Indian, Middle Eastern, and Eastern European in ...

'' by

Janet Fitch Janet Fitch (born November 9, 1955) is an American author. She wrote the novel '' White Oleander'', which became a film in 2002. She is a graduate of Reed College. Fitch was born in Los Angeles, a third-generation native, and grew up in a fa ...

, the protagonist (an LA punk-rocker in the early 1980s) thinks of herself and her family as "Okies." *

Frank Bergon Frank Bergon (born 1943) is an American writer whose novels, essays, anthologies, and literary criticism focus primarily on the American West. Biography Frank Bergon was born in Ely, Nevada, and grew up on a ranch in Madera County in California ...

's 2011 novel ''Jesse's Ghost'' draws attention to today's sons and daughters of the California Okies portrayed in

Steinbeck John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. (; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer and the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature winner "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social ...

's ''

''. *

Kristin Hannah Kristin Hannah (born September 25, 1960) is an American writer. Her most notable works include ''Winter Garden'', '' The Nightingale'', '' Firefly Lane'', '' The Great Alone'', and ''The Four Winds''. Biography Kristin Hannah was born in Califor ...

's 2021 novel ''The Four Winds'' portrays the life, struggle and survival of a single mother and her two children during the days following the Great depression (1929) and Dust Bowls. She and people like her are often termed as ''Okies'' by the Californian natives. *

Sanora Babb Sanora Babb (April 21, 1907 – December 31, 2005) was an American novelist, poet, and literary editor. Early life and career Sanora Babb was born in Otoe territory in what is now Oklahoma, though neither her mother nor father were of the Otoe ...

's 2004 novel ''

Whose Names Are Unknown ''Whose Names Are Unknown'' is an American novel by Sanora Babb, written in the 1930s but not published until 2004. It centers on members of a High Plains farm family during the Great Depression as they endure the poverty inflicted by drought an ...

'' is based on the author's first-hand experience. The novel was originally scheduled to be published in 1939, but publication was shelved when Steinbeck's ''

'' came out. The title is taken from a legal eviction notice. Music *''April The 14th Part I & Ruination day Part II'' "And the Okies fled. And the great emancipater" (Time-The Revelator – Gillian Welch. Welch/Rawlings (2001). *''California Okie'' –

Buck Owens Alvis Edgar Owens Jr. (August 12, 1929 – March 25, 2006), known professionally as Buck Owens, was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and band leader. He was the lead singer for Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, which had 21 No. 1 hits on ...

(1976). *''Dear Okie'' – Doye O’Dell/Rudy Sooter (1948) – ''"Dear Okie, if you see Arkie, tell ’im Tex’s got a job for him out in Californy."'' *''Israelites & Okies'' -- The Lost Dogs (from the 2010 album ''Old Angel''). *''Lonesome Okie Goin’ Home'' –

Merl Lindsay Merle Lindsay Salathiel (1916 – October 12, 1965), better known as Merl Lindsay, was one of the premier American Western swing musicians from the 1930s to the mid-1960s and founder of Merl Lindsay and His Oklahoma Night Riders. Life and care ...

and the Oklahoma Night Riders (1947). *''

Oakie Boogie "Oakie Boogie" (sometimes "Okie Boogie") is a Western swing dance song written by Johnny Tyler in 1947. It is recognizable by its refrain: Jack Guthrie's version (Capitol 341) reached number three on the charts in 1947 and is often included in ...

'' – Jack Guthrie and His Oklahomans (1947) – considered by many to be the first Rock & Roll song. *''Okanagan Okie'' – Stompin' Tom Connors.•–•Okanagan Okie•–•
*''

Okie An Okie is a person identified with the state of Oklahoma. This connection may be residential, ethnic, historical or cultural. For most Okies, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being Oklahoman. ...

'' – J. J. Cale (1974). * ''Okie From Muskogee'' –

(from the 1969 album of the same name). *"Okie" – a parody of the above by

Patrick Sky Patrick Sky (born Patrick Linch; October 2, 1940May 26, 2021) was an American musician, folk singer, songwriter, and record producer. He was noted for his album '' Songs That Made America Famous'' (1973). He was of Irish and Native American an ...

from his 1973 album

Songs that made America Famous ''Songs That Made America Famous'' is the fifth album by Patrick Sky, released on Adelphi Records in 1973. Sky recorded the album in 1971 but had difficulty finding a label to release it, as the satirical lyrics are explicit. Track listing Al ...

. *''Okie Skies'' – The Bays Brothers (2004). *''Okies in California'' – Doye O'Dell (1949). *'' Oklahoma Swing''-by Reba McEntire and Vince Gill (1990). *''Ramblin' Okie'' – Terry Fell. *''Southeast Texas Girl'' – Jeremy Castle (2021) – ''"I’m as Okie as a rose rock, native as the red fern grows."'' Poetry *Cahill, Charlie. ''Point Blank Poetry: Okie Country Cowboy Poems''. Midwest City, OK: CF Cahill, 1991. LoC Control Number: 92179243 *Harrison, Pamela. ''Okie Chronicles''. Cincinnati: David Robert Books, 2005. *McDaniel, Wilma Elizabeth. California Okie

Poet Laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch ...

. All works. *Rose, Dorothy. ''Dustbowl Okie Exodus''. Seven Buffaloes Press, 1987. Other fiction *Charles, Henry P. ''That dumbest Okie, and other short stories: Oklahoma! "The land of honest men and slender women."'' Wetzel, c1952. *Cuelho, Artie, Jr. ''At the Rainbow's End: A Dustbowl Collection of Prose and Poetry of the Okie Migration to the San Joaquin Valley''. Big Timber, Montana: Seven Buffaloes Press, 1982. *Haslam, Gerald. ''Okies: Selected Stories''. Santa Barbara, California: Peregrine Smith, Inc, 1975. *Hudson, Lois Phillips. ''Reapers of the Dust.'' Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1984.

References

Notes Further reading *Gregory, James N. ''American Exodus: The Dust Bowl Migration and Okie Culture in California''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. *Haslam, Gerald W. ''The Other California: The Great Central Valley in Life and Letters''. University of Nevada Press, 1993. *Igler, David; Clark Davis. ''The Human Tradition in California''. Rowman & Littlefield, 2002. *La Chapelle, Peter. ''Proud to Be an Okie: Cultural Politics, Country Music, and Migration to Southern California''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007. *Lange, Dorothea; Paul S. Taylor. ''An American Exodus: A Record of Human Erosion''. 1939. *Morgan, Dan. ''Rising in the West: The True Story of an "Okie" Family from the Great Depression through the Regan Years''. New York: Knopf, 1992. *Ortiz, Roxanne Dunbar. ''Red Dirt: Growing up Okie''. New York: Verso, 1997. *Ortiz, Roxanne Dunbar. "One or Two Things I Know about Us: Rethinking the Image and Role of the 'Okies'," ''Canadian Papers in Rural History'' 1996 10: 15–43 * Shindo, Charles J. Dust Bowl Migrants in the American Imagination. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1997. *Sonneman, Toby F. ''Fruit Fields in My Blood: Okie Migrants in the West''. Moscow, Idaho:

University of Idaho Press The University of Idaho Press is a university press that is part of the University of Idaho The University of Idaho (U of I, or UIdaho) is a public land-grant research university in Moscow, Idaho. It is the state's land-grant and primary rese ...

, 1992. *Weisiger, Marsha L. ''Land of Plenty: Oklahomans in the Cotton Fields of Arizona, 1933–1942''. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995. *Windschuttle, Keith. "Steinbeck's Myth of the Okies". ''The New Criterion'', Vol. 20, No. 10, June 2002

External links