2000:     The various tribes in the Oklahoma area agree to form a union similar to the United Nations, where each tribe is sovereign unto itself, yet allied for the benefit of all. This is named The Union of Native Peoples of Oklahoma. One of the first motions is a declaration that any dealings with the U.S. Department of the Interior must be handled by the council of the Union rather than by the individual tribe. It is passed unanimously since in this way each tribe gains the benefits of strong legal counsel that would otherwise only be available to the wealthier tribes.

2001:     The Union of Native Peoples of Oklahoma is invited to join the United Nations, along with several other tribes. They accept the invitation and send a delegate to New York.

Bush administration declares the U.N. membership of any American Indian tribe to be invalid due to the members of the tribe holding American citizenship.

Supreme Court rules in favor of the Bush administration.

When the U.N.P.O. refuses to remove its delegate to the UN, the Bush administration declares all the tribes to be no longer legally recognized entities and that all debts to any tribe in the U.N.P.O. to be null and void and stops any federal assistance to any person listed as a member of any of the tribes.

Using the monies they received during 2000 and early 2001 the utility companies within Oklahoma begin to upgrade their systems. Phone companies replace copper on the poles with underground fiber optics. Power companies begin implementing a series of microwave frequency power relay systems as a redundant means to transmitting power should a line break occur.

2002:     The IRS launches an audit of every person listed as a member of a U.N.P.O. tribe. Any irregularities are grounds for seizing the assets of the person. Those that challenge the rulings are given the option of renouncing their tribal membership or face eviction from US soil.

After the trial in the World Court the IRS audits (which had initially targeted only the richest tribal members) are stopped by the administration. Occasional threats of eviction from US soil are still made whenever legal actions are attempted.

Episode Two of the Star Wars saga meets better fan reviews than episode one did, yet was still considered to have a lower quality storyline than the first trilogy. During an interview Mr. Lucas storms off the set, but the audio system was able to overhear his parting muttered comment. "Idiots can't appreciate epic storytelling, the whole thing is wasted on those blathering fans!"

Despite widespread approval of the latest series and movie, Paramount announces that it will no longer continue the Star Trek enterprise. Fans worldwide protest the decision, but Paramount refuses to alter its stance. They site the slowly diminishing return on investment as the cause, but many think it was actually caused by the growing egoism of the people who assumed control of the projects following the death of Mrs. Roddenberry.

2003:     Moonlight Sanctuary gives the U.N.P.O. $50,000,000. This money is to help with assisting its members who are facing hardships due to the loss of federal funds.

The U.N.P.O. representative in the Oklahoma state government requests a general election be held with the objective of determining the popular opinion on secession from the US. The motion is denied.

A startup company in Tulsa produces an OS that can run any Windows application, yet is fully modular and the most stable and self-maintaining OS seen to date. Microsoft immediately sues for an injunction against the company claiming that the level of support of Windows API calls evidenced within the OS can only be reached by theft of Microsoft proprietary code. The U.S. Justice Department finds no fault in the company or their code. The Bush administration requests that the ruling be overturned. Microsoft appeals to the Supreme Court. The startup company (founded by a Native American) is able to obtain counsel from the U.N.O.P. and narrowly manages to sway the court away from the Bush dictated ruling. The first production run of the OS sells out within 48 hours of shipping. The OS is named Sequoyah. At the NYSE, Microsoft stock closes at half its opening value. By the end of the year, estimates indicate that more copies of Sequoyah have sold than all previous versions of Windows combined. Microsoft announces that any of their Office applications running on Sequoyah will no longer receive technical support, even for those customers with prepaid corporate support plans. Lawsuits follow this announcement and the Microsoft is ordered to refund any customers denied support in this fashion.

2004:     James Cameron wins another Oscar for best picture for his latest movie "Trail of Tears". A historically accurate and emotional movie, dealing with the events prior to, and during the forced relocation of the Native Americans to the Indian Territories. Robert Beltran (Star Trek Voyager's "Chakotay") portrays Sequoyah, the man who invents a written version of the Tsaligi (Cherokee) spoken language. The movie is made in response to growing public and international awareness of the situation between the US government and the various tribes.

The Washington Redskins win their playoff game against the Dallas Cowboys. Some see it as an omen that perhaps the future holds hope for Native Americans.

Oklahoma elections show only 1% vote for Bush, none for the Beatty/Brown ticket, and 90% for Ventura in the presidential elections. The remaining 9% were for various write in candidates. Ventura's win is glad news, but the people remain skeptical.

In December, a storm develops when a mass of arctic air moving south from the Rockies meets an unseasonably warm front moving up from the Gulf. The storm clouds cover all of Oklahoma, a sizable portion of Arkansas and northern Texas as far south as Dallas/Ft Worth. Air travel in the region is nearly impossible. Travel along the roads is difficult and slow but possible. Railways are the fastest method of shipping supplies and material into the area. Tinker, Wichita Falls, and Ft. Chaffee air bases do their best to move their aircraft into protected hangers and hope they are not called upon during the storm. The temperatures in general are in the low 30's to the mid 40's. But the high winds near the airports and airbases cause the plane's wings to ice up before take off speed can be achieved. Every day brings either snow or freezing rain. Constant, massive thunderstorms also are a problem, but surprisingly little damage is done to property. Tornadoes are spotted frequently but few touch down. Meteorologists are puzzled, and later alarmed as the storm continues unabated and unchanged in position, despite the changes in the surrounding air currents. The NSA begins to worry as well when it is discovered that satellite observation of the area has become impossible due to the constant ionizing effect of the thunderstorms. Residents are confronted with periodic loss of power and phone services, despite the improvements in the utilities in the last few years after the 2000 ice storms showed them where the weaknesses in the system were. Wal-Mart stores are doing a record business in all manner of "survival" gear. They begin to have trainloads brought in to meet the demand.

Essex births are up to one per 1,000.

2005:     January dawns and the storm, which many are referring to as the "Tears of the People" continues, unaltered in size, location or ferocity.

February 2nd     Rivers and lakes begin to overflow their banks. Heroic efforts amongst the populace, the local National Guard and army reserve units manage to prevent widespread disaster. These efforts continue throughout the month and into March before the immediate danger is deemed over.

February 18th     A riot breaks out in the penitentiary at McAlester. The town of McAlester is destroyed by what the few surviving eyewitnesses described as an atomic bomb.

February 19th     The clouds over Ardmore thinned enough to allow a small amount of direct sunlight through. The mayor announced a local holiday and called upon everyone to meet at the municipal park for a celebration. Over two thousand people showed up for the festivities. Unfortunately the NSA/CDC forces in the area heard the radio broadcast, and stopping only to get re-enforced by the local reserve units, made an appearance at the celebration. With one hundred reserve units and nearly a hundred of his own troops the NSA officer orders that anyone whose name he reads off step forward for testing. He announces that he is here to test likely Essex carriers and that in order to protect the population of the United States, anyone found to be Positive will have to be removed to a quarantine facility. When the Mayor, Chief of Police and county Sheriff challenge his authority and the legality of the testing, he pulls his gun and shoots them each in the head once. He then orders his men to open fire on anyone who resists. When the local police attempt to protect the citizens and the NSA troops begin firing, the reservists turned upon the NSA troops and opened fire.

February 22nd     Most people are so focused on surviving the Storm, or dealing with flood control that the time of the Change has little immediate impact on the region.

The heavy rains all over the region combined with the relatively low population density helped to keep the initial damage low. Most population centers avoided being more than half destroyed.

February 24th     Crews who were working to prevent further flooding in area around Lake Thunderbird report seeing an eagle, grizzly bear and white bison at the lake. What makes the event truly memorable is that the reports state that the eagle was roughly the size of a commercial jetliner, and the bear and bison were roughly as large. One person mentioned it seemed as if the three creatures were having a discussion.