State of Sequoyah

Sequoyah, named in honor of the great Cherokee, Sequoyah, was the proposed name for the eastern part of Indian Territory during the attempts to have it admitted into the United States as a single state.

The movement to secure statehood for Indian Territory began in 1902 with a convention in Eufaula consisting of representatives of the Five Civilized Tribes. The representatives met again in 1903 to organize a constitutional convention.

The Sequoyah Constitutional Convention met in Muskogee, August 21, 1905. General Pleasant Porter, Principal Chief of the Creeks, was chosen president by the elected delegates from the several districts. The delegates decided that the vice-presidents would be the executive officers of the Five Civilized tribes. There were five Vice-Presidents: Principal Chief of the Cherokees, William C. Rogers; William H. Murray, appointed by Chickasaw Governor Douglas H. Johnston to represent the Chickasaws; Chief Green McCurtain of the Choctaws; Chief John Brown of the Seminoles; and Charles N. Haskell, selected to represent the Creeks as General Porter had been elected President.

The convention organized a government for Indian Territory, wrote the constitution, drew up a map of the counties, and elected a proposed set of delegates to Congress. These proposals were sent to a vote by the citizens of Indian Territory and passed overwhelmingly. The delegation received a cool reception in Washington however. Eastern politicians, fearing the admission of two more western states, put pressure on President Theodore Roosevelt. He finally issued a proclamation declaring that Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory would be combined into a single state.

The hard work of the Sequoyah State Constitutional Convention was not entirely lost, however. When representatives from Indian Territory joined the Oklahoma State Constitutional Convention in Guthrie the next year, they brought their constitutional experience with them. The Sequoyah Constitution served in large part as the basis for the Oklahoma Constitution. Oklahoma and Indian Territories became the state of Oklahoma in 1907.

Sequoyah in Fiction

In the alternate history novel How Few Remain by Harry Turtledove, the Confederate States of America is given Indian Territory which becomes the Confederate State of Sequoyah. The state is populated almost completely by different tribes, with few whites and black laborers. The state is very pro-Confederate, especially compared with its hostile attitude to the USA.

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