Pontotoc County is in the south central part of Oklahoma. As of the 2020 census,the population was 38,065. Its county seat is Ada. The county was created at statehood from part of the Chickasaw Nation in Indian Territory. It was named for a historic Chickasaw tribal area in Mississippi. According to the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture,Pontotoc is usually translated "cattail prairie" or "land of hanging grapes."
The Chickasaw are an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands,United States. Their traditional territory was in northern Mississippi,northwestern and northern Alabama,western Tennessee and southwestern Kentucky. Their language is classified as a member of the Muskogean language family. In the present day,they are organized as the federally recognized Chickasaw Nation.
The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma is a Native American reservation occupying portions of southeastern Oklahoma in the United States. At roughly 6,952,960 acres,it is the second-largest reservation in area after the Navajo,exceeding that of eight U.S. states. The seat of government is located in Durant,Oklahoma.
The Five Civilized Tribes Museum in Muskogee,Oklahoma,showcases the art,history,and culture of the so-called "Five Civilized Tribes":the Cherokee,Chickasaw,Choctaw,Muscogee (Creek),and Seminole tribes. Housed in the historic Union Indian Agency building,the museum opened in 1966.
The Chickasaw Nation is a federally recognized Native American tribe with headquarters in Ada,Oklahoma,in the United States. They are an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands,originally from northern Mississippi,northwestern Alabama,southwestern Kentucky,and western Tennessee. Today,the Chickasaw Nation is the 13th largest tribe in the United States.
Billy Joe Anoatubby is the 30th Governor of the Chickasaw Nation,a position he has held since 1987. From 1979 to 1987,Anoatubby served two terms as Lieutenant Governor of the Chickasaw Nation in the administration of Governor Overton James,after being popularly elected to office. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
Douglas Hancock Cooper Johnston,also known as "Douglas Henry Johnston",was a tribal leader who served as the last elected governor of the Chickasaw Nation from 1898 to 1902. He was re-elected in 1904 and,after the Dawes Act changed how tribal lands were allocated and regulated in Indian Territory to allow statehood in 1907,he was appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 as governor of the tribe under federal authority. He served until his death in office in 1939.
The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) is an American Indian and Alaska Native rights organization. It was founded in 1944 to represent the tribes and resist U.S. federal government pressure for termination of tribal rights and assimilation of their people. These were in contradiction of their treaty rights and status as sovereign entities. The organization continues to be an association of federally recognized and state-recognized Indian tribes.
Brian John Bingman is an American politician from the U.S. state of Oklahoma who has served in elected and appointed offices since the 1990s. A member of the Republican Party,he was first elected to the Sapulpa city commission in 1992,before being elected mayor by his fellow commissioners in 1994. He would serve in both of these offices until 2004,when he was elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives to represent the 30th district. After one term in the house,Bingman ran for the 12th district of the Oklahoma Senate in 2006 and would hold the seat until term limited in 2016. In 2011,he was elected by Republican senators to serve as the President pro tempore of the Oklahoma Senate,a position he would hold until retirement in 2016.
On the eve of the American Civil War in 1861,a significant number of Indigenous peoples of the Americas had been relocated from the Southeastern United States to Indian Territory,west of the Mississippi. The inhabitants of the eastern part of the Indian Territory,the Five Civilized Tribes,were suzerain nations with established tribal governments,well established cultures,and legal systems that allowed for slavery. Before European Contact these tribes were generally matriarchial societies,with agriculture being the primary economic pursuit. The bulk of the tribes lived in towns with planned streets,residential and public areas. The people were ruled by complex hereditary chiefdoms of varying size and complexity with high levels of military organization.
Czarina Conlan (1871-1958) was a Choctaw-Chickasaw archivist and museum curator. She worked at the Oklahoma Historical Society museum for 24 years. She founded the first woman's club in Indian Territory and served as the chair of the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Committee of the Oklahoma State Federation of Women's Clubs for 12 years. She was the first woman elected to serve on a school board in the state. Although the Attorney General of Oklahoma ruled she could not serve,she defied the order and completed a two-year term on the Lindsay School Board.
Cyrus H. Harris,a mixed-blood Chickasaw born in Mississippi,was elected the first Governor of the Chickasaw Nation,and served five non-consecutive two-year terms. Although his formal schooling was limited at an elementary level,he became fluent in both the English and Chickasaw languages. He and his family relocated to Indian Territory in 1837,where he was employed in business and also served as an interpreter and developed a keen interest in Chickasaw politics. In 1856,he was elected to his first term as governor of the newly established Chickasaw Nation His accomplishments included organizing a national government after the Chickasaw Nation and Choctaw Nation formally separated into two distinct entities. He also executed a formal alliance between his nation and the Confederate States of America after the outbreak of the American Civil War. After the cessation of hostilities,he played a major role in the recovery of the nation from its devastated condition. He retired from politics in 1874,after serving his fifth term as governor. He died in 1887 at his home in Mill Valley,and was buried at the cemetery in Mill Valley.
John Kevin Stitt is an American businessman and politician serving as the 28th governor of Oklahoma since 2019. A member of the Republican Party,he was elected in 2018,defeating Democrat and former state Attorney General Drew Edmondson with 54.3% of the vote. Stitt was reelected to a second term in 2022,defeating Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister,a Republican turned Democrat,with 55.4% of the vote. A member of the Cherokee Nation,Stitt is the second Native American governor after former Oklahoma governor Johnston Murray.
Chuck Hoskin Jr. is a Cherokee Nation politician and attorney currently serving as the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation since 2019. He was re-elected to a second term in the 2023 Cherokee Nation principal chief election.
McGirt v. Oklahoma,591 U.S. ___ (2020),was a landmark United States Supreme Court case which held that the domain reserved for the Muscogee Nation by Congress in the 19th century has never been disestablished and constitutes Indian country for the purposes of the Major Crimes Act,meaning that the State of Oklahoma has no right to prosecute American Indians for crimes allegedly committed therein. After McGirt,the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals applied the McGirt rationale in six similar cases,finding that Congress established reservations within the final incarnation of the Indian Territory for eight other Indigenous nations which have not been disestablished. As a result,almost the entirety of the eastern half of what is now the State of Oklahoma remains Indian country,meaning that criminal prosecutions of Native Americans for offenses therein falls outside the jurisdiction of Oklahoma’s court system. In these cases,jurisdiction properly vests within the Indigenous judicial systems and the federal district courts under the Major Crimes Act.
The 2022 Oklahoma gubernatorial election was held on November 8,2022,to elect the governor of Oklahoma. Incumbent governor Kevin Stitt was re-elected to a second term,defeating Joy Hofmeister.
John Wesley "Wes" Nofire is a Cherokee Nation and American politician and a former heavyweight professional boxer who has served as the Oklahoma Native American Affairs Liaison since 2023. During his boxing career Nofire fought under the name "The Cherokee Warrior". Nofire served on the Cherokee Nation tribal council between 2019 and 2023. He was a Republican candidate in the 2022 primary election for Oklahoma's 2nd congressional district and candidate in the 2023 Cherokee Nation principal chief election.
The Native American Affairs Liaison is a position in the executive branch of Oklahoma government responsible for representing federally recognized tribes in the state within the executive branch. The position replaced the Oklahoma Indian Affairs Commission in 2011. The current Native American Affairs Liaison is Wes Nofire.
The Oklahoma Secretary of Native American Affairs is a cabinet-level executive official in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The office was created in January 2019. The position has been vacant since September 2023.
