There never was a state like Sequoyah.

July 27, 2007 7:35 PM

Between 1902 and 1905 representatives of five tribes in the Indian Territory of the southern United States lobbied for statehood. The tribes proposed creating a tribal state called Sequoyah (hi res image here). At the constiutional conference in 1905 a constitution was drafted and later forwarded to the federal Congress and President, but despite a successful ratification campaign, the effort died on the vine. The Indian Territory and Oklahoma were instead admitted to the Union two years later as one state.
posted by salishsea (19 comments total)

Some background posted previously on MeFi.
posted by salishsea at 7:35 PM on July 27, 2007

Arrgh. I was planning on doing a whole series of Oklahoma posts leading up to the centennial.

You left out the proposal to make Indian Territory a black state, though.
posted by dw at 8:03 PM on July 27, 2007

Rats...sorry dw. Go ahead though. Not knowing anything else about OK, I'd be interested to read more, especially after following the hi jinx in the constitutional conference link.
posted by salishsea at 8:08 PM on July 27, 2007

State song. The first link looks interresting, thanks for posting.
posted by Sailormom at 8:13 PM on July 27, 2007

It is posts like these that make me love MetaFilter.
posted by caddis at 8:28 PM on July 27, 2007

The first Oklahoma constitution was basically the Sequoyah constitution with appropriate language changes.

Oklahoma's seal
Sequoyah's proposed seal (bigger one in the map links above)
Oklahoma Territory Seal

So the Oklahoma seal is the Indian Territory seal with the star de-"pentagramed" and the "handshake" part of the O.T. seal replaced with the "marriage" -- O.T. groom, I.T. bride (it was a shotgun wedding).

And, of course, the Sequoyah seal was derived from the 7-pointed star on the Cherokee Nation seal.
posted by dw at 8:59 PM on July 27, 2007

Rats...sorry dw.

No worries. I've debated actually announcing the plan in MeTa and seeing if I can get the other Okies to join in, especially after Brittanie posting her family diaries from one of the land rushes.

Oklahoma is such an ugly, lovely state that we could milk a good post every couple of weeks until November 16.
posted by dw at 9:03 PM on July 27, 2007

We know we belong to the land
And the land we belong to is grand!
And when we say
Yeeow! Ayipioeeay!
We're only sayin'
You're doin' fine,
Sequoyah! Oklahoma!
Sequoyah Oklahoma
OK



posted by rob511 at 10:08 PM on July 27, 2007

This is an awesome post, salishsea.

Thank you very much.
posted by jason's_planet at 10:18 PM on July 27, 2007

reminds me that I need to go home to visit (Anadarko/Chickasha area).
posted by mrbill at 10:34 PM on July 27, 2007

I'm only two states away and I had no clue that Oklahoma was so late in the statehood game. We have dang near 40 years on'em.

"Hey you, Oakies!!! Get off my lawn!"
posted by RavinDave at 12:10 AM on July 28, 2007

hooray for history!
sad to think what might have been.
great stuff, thank you.
posted by Busithoth at 6:01 AM on July 28, 2007

We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee.
posted by Meatbomb at 6:47 AM on July 28, 2007

We don't take our trips on LSD.
posted by Meatbomb at 7:05 AM on July 28, 2007

On the subject of alternate histories of statehood, consider James Reavis, the would-be Baron of Arizona.
posted by SPrintF at 9:36 AM on July 28, 2007

I had no idea of any of this--thanks! (Imagine how different things might have been if it succeeded)
posted by amberglow at 10:42 AM on July 28, 2007

On the subject of alternate histories of statehood, consider James Reavis, the would-be Baron of Arizona.
Or Mirabeau Lamar, 2nd President of the Republic of Texas, and proponent of the "Screw the U.S., we're wiping out the Indians and conquering our way to the Pacific" policy. Tex Imperius, baby!
posted by ormondsacker at 3:32 PM on July 28, 2007

And dw:
series of Oklahoma posts leading up to the centennial
I'm in, long as we space it out enough not to wear out our welcome. Do you have contact info anywhere? And can I call a state song post, since that's one of the great epics of legislative wtf-ery anywhere ever?
posted by ormondsacker at 4:10 PM on July 28, 2007

I'm in, long as we space it out enough not to wear out our welcome. Do you have contact info anywhere? And can I call a state song post, since that's one of the great epics of legislative wtf-ery anywhere ever?

Hey, let's go to MeTa!
posted by dw at 3:17 PM on July 29, 2007