Key events that shaped law and society:
| New states: Kansas – 1861 Nebraska – 1867 North Dakota – 1889 South Dakota – 1889![]() Kansas anti-slavery poster (1855) - courtesy Wikimedia Commons
![]() Sod house (1901) - courtesy Wikipedia ![]() Oklahoma land rush (1889) - courtesy Wikipedia “The failure to recognize the fact that the Plains destroyed the old formula of living and demanded a new one led the settlers into disaster, the lawmakers into error, and leads all who will not see into confusion. … [T]he man of the timber and the town made the law for the man of the plain; the plainsman, finding this law unsuited to his needs, broke it, and was called lawless.” – Walter Prescott Webb, The Great Plains (1931) |