"Manifest destiny" and the desperation of the settlers involved in the rush provides the opening drama and sets the stage for the twists and turns in the book.

The piece of land in question had been allotted to the Cherokee Nation as part of the 1828 Treaty of New Echota, while the rest of the Oklahoma Territory had been opened to settlers.

As commerce grew across the area of Kansas and Oklahoma, cattlemen became increasingly annoyed by the presence of the Cherokee on prime land that they wanted to use to drive cattle from northern ranches to Texas.

Some of this annoyance with the Native people can be attributed to the decision made by the Cherokees to side with the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War.

They emigrate from Wichita, Kansas, to the fictional town of Osage, Oklahoma with their son Cim and—unknowingly—a black boy named Isaiah.

[2][3] Throughout the novel, Sabra's practice of imperial domesticity can be seen in her attempts to "civilize" Native Americans by forcing them to adopt white values, and her fixation on expanding her own sphere of influence, which as a woman, was traditionally her home.

Despite America being in the depths of the Depression, RKO immediately prepared for a big-budget picture, investing more than $1.5 million into Ferber's novel Cimarron.

Director Wesley Ruggles would direct stars Richard Dix and Irene Dunne with a script written by Howard Estabrook.

More than 5,000 extras, twenty-eight cameramen, and numerous camera assistants and photographers were used to capture scenes of wagons racing across grassy hills and prairies.

With the Civil Rights Movement gaining momentum, the script, written by Arnold Schulman, took a kinder approach to Native Americans.

He also introduced several minor characters, such as journalist Sam Pegler (Robert Keith) and Wes Jennings (Vic Morrow), a prominent member of Cherokee Kid's (Russ Tamblyn) gang.