Historical Marker Program

Red Wheat Allotment

Custer County
Location: east of Clinton on OK-66
Coordinates: 35.513783, -98.936039
Material: Granite
Sponsor(s): Cheyenne Cultural Center and the Oklahoma Historical Society
Topics: Agriculture; American Indians; Ethnic Diversity; Territorial Period, 1861–1907

Prior to the Cheyenne and Arapaho Reservation land run of April 19, 1892, this quarter-section of land was allotted to a Cheyenne woman named Red Wheat. Wheat was not of the Cheyenne culture but was associated with Mennonite immigrants from Russia who introduced 'Turkey red' winter wheat to northwest Oklahoma. Mennonites were among the first to do educational work with the Cheyenne and Arapaho people. 'Red Wheat,' although a mistranslation of an Indian woman’s name, is meaningful to two distinct peoples who lived and interacted with each other during the reservation period and through Oklahoma statehood after 1907.