What was oklahoma called before statehood

Oklahoma Statehood, November 16, HR , A Bill to enabling the people of the Indian and Oklahoma Territories to form a state constitution and State government, January 20, The Oklahoma statehood bill, as originally introduced to the House, also included the admission of New Mexico and Arizona as one state.

The leaders of the Indians wanted to make their own state called Sequoyah. They applied for statehood in However, Congress rejected their application and instead reunited Oklahoma into a single state. Oklahoma became the 46th state on November 6, The original capital city was Guthrie. Discover the impact of teaching, research and outreach has on our world through an interactive timeline.

Begin typing your search term above and press enter to search. Press ESC to cancel. Skip to content Home Useful tips What was Oklahoma before it was state? Useful tips. Before the passage of the Oklahoma Enabling Act , four statehood plans evolved. They included single statehood, double statehood, piecemeal absorption, and admission of O. Single statehood involved the joining of the two territories, whereas double statehood meant separate statehood for each territory.

Numerous statehood conventions were held in O. Of significance was the meeting called in at Shawnee, when delegates formed the Single Statehood Executive Committee and elected Charles G. Jones of Oklahoma City as chair. This group lobbied for three years until the Enabling Act passed in At the first statehood convention, held in Oklahoma City on December 15, , delegates favored single statehood and wrote a memorial to Congress.

Consequently, in David A. Harvey, the first territorial delegate, submitted the memorial and introduced an unsuccessful bill in Congress calling for single statehood. Opposing the bill were Elias C.

McKellop Creek , and J. Standley Choctaw. In delegate Dennis T. Flynn advocated a piecemeal absorption approach, asking for immediate statehood for O. The driving forces of politics and economics created an ever-changing situation and caused individuals to waver in their support of the different statehood plans.

For example, Sidney Clarke initially favored single statehood but later supported statehood for O. At the national level, opposition arose in Congress from eastern representatives who were concerned that the admission of O. Southern Democratic representatives worried that O.

Others argued that the land area of O. In addition, there would be no tax base to support a state government for five years, because homesteaders were required to live on their claims for five years before receiving title to the land.

Therefore, no taxes could be generated until In addition, allotments to American Indians in O. American Indians generally opposed federal attempts to organize them as a territory or a state.

They wanted to retain their tribal governments and to continue their communal land ownership. Prior to the agitation for statehood in the s, events in I. As early as Arkansas Sen. Robert W. Johnson introduced a bill calling for the division of the Five Tribes' domain into three territories, allotting land in severalty to the American Indians, and selling surplus lands to non-Indian settlers. Later the three territories would be joined to form the state of Neosho.

In the s the federal government initiated steps toward governing the American Indians. Because some members of the Five Tribes supported the Confederacy during the Civil War, the tribes were required to sign new treaties with the United States after the war. The Reconstruction Treaties of and federal Indian policy envisioned the formation of an Indian territorial government.

To thwart this, representatives of the I. Although I. As whites continued to move into I.