State of Sequoyah facts for kids
Quick facts for kids State of Sequoyah |
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The State Seal
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Proposed State of Sequoyah
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| Constitutional convention: | August 21, 1905 |
| Convention President: | Pleasant Porter |
| Vice President(s) | William C. Rogers, Cherokee William H. Murray, Chickasaw |
| Statehood | |
| Approved 1905 by referendum. Denied by United States Congress. Annexed to the State of Oklahoma in 1907. |
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| Historical population | ||
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| Year | Pop. | ±% |
| 1905 | 600,000 | — |
The State of Sequoyah was a plan to create a new state in 1905. It would have been formed from the Indian Territory, which is now the eastern part of Oklahoma.
At that time, the United States government was planning to end the special governments of Native American tribes. To keep control of their lands, the Native American leaders of the Five Civilized Tribes had an idea. These tribes were the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole. They wanted to create their own state with a Native American constitution and leaders.
They decided to name the proposed state "Sequoyah." This name honored Sequoyah, a famous Cherokee man. In 1825, he created a special writing system for the Cherokee language.
Why a New State?
By 1890, the land that is now Oklahoma was divided into two areas. To the west was Oklahoma Territory. To the east was the Indian Territory. The Indian Territory was home to many Native American tribes.
Over the years, the size of the Indian Territory had shrunk. This happened because of land sales and treaties with the United States. In 1900, Native Americans made up about 13.4% of the people in the future state. By 1905, the Five Civilized Tribes were about 10% of the Indian Territory's total population of 600,000.
For a long time, the Five Civilized Tribes did not want the Indian Territory to become a state. They also did not want it to join with Oklahoma Territory. But things changed as a deadline from the United States Congress got closer. Congress planned to end tribal governments and shared tribal lands by March 4, 1906.
To protect their historic power and keep their lands together, tribal leaders decided to act. They wanted the Indian Territory to become a single state, separate from Oklahoma Territory. This led to the Sequoyah Convention in 1905.
The Sequoyah Convention
The Sequoyah Constitutional Convention was a big meeting held in Muskogee. It started on August 21, 1905.
General Pleasant Porter, who was the main chief of the Creek Nation, was chosen to lead the convention. The delegates also picked other important tribal leaders to be vice-presidents. These included William Charles Rogers of the Cherokees, William H. Murray for the Chickasaws, Chief Green McCurtain of the Choctaws, Chief John Brown of the Seminoles, and Charles N. Haskell for the Creeks. A journalist named Alexander Posey worked as the secretary.
The people at the convention worked hard. They wrote a constitution for the proposed state. They also made a plan for how the government would work. They even drew a map showing the new counties.
After that, they chose delegates to go to the United States Congress. These delegates would ask Congress to approve their new state. They also picked four people to serve as congressmen if the state was approved.
On November 7, 1905, the people in the territory voted on the new constitution and the statehood plan. Many people approved it, with 56,279 votes for and 9,073 against.
Why Sequoyah Didn't Become a State
Even though the people voted for it, the State of Sequoyah was never created. President Theodore Roosevelt suggested a different idea. He wanted to join the Indian Territory with Oklahoma Territory to form just one state.
This idea led to the Oklahoma Enabling Act, which President Roosevelt signed on June 16, 1906. Finally, Oklahoma became the 46th state of the United States on November 16, 1907.
Even though the State of Sequoyah never happened, its constitution was very important. Many ideas from the Sequoyah constitution were later used in the Oklahoma Constitution. Both constitutions showed a distrust of elected officials, which was a common idea in the Populist Movement at the time.
The convention also helped make leaders like Haskell and Murray well-known. This gave the Indian Territory a strong voice in the discussions about creating the state of Oklahoma.
