The Choctaw are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Their Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are enrolled in three federally recognized tribes: the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, and Jena Band of Choctaw Indians in Louisiana.
Pushmataha County is a county in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2010 census, the population was 11,572. Its county seat is Antlers.
The Chickasaw are an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. Their traditional territory was in the Southeastern United States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee. 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.
Antlers is a city in and the county seat of Pushmataha County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 2,453 at the 2010 census, a 3.9 percent decline from 2,552 in 2000. The town was named for a kind of tree that becomes festooned with antlers shed by deer, and is taken as a sign of the location of a spring frequented by deer.
Lake Eufaula, sometimes referred to as Eufaula Lake, is a reservoir in Oklahoma. It is located on the Canadian River, 27 mi (43 km) upstream from its confluence with the Arkansas River and near the town of Eufaula. The lake covers parts of McIntosh County, Pittsburg, Haskell and Okmulgee counties and drains 47,522 square miles (123,080 km2). Water sources include the Canadian, North Fork Canadian and Deep Fork rivers. It is the largest-capacity lake in the state of Oklahoma with a volume of 2,099,000 acre-feet (2.589×109 m3), a surface area of 102,000 acres (410 km2) and 600 miles (970 km) of shoreline.
The Kiamichi River is a river in southeastern Oklahoma, United States of America. A tributary of the Red River of the South, its headwaters rise on Pine Mountain in the Ouachita Mountains near the Arkansas border. From its source in LeFlore County, Oklahoma, it flows approximately 177 miles (285 km) to its confluence with the Red River south at Hugo, Oklahoma.
The Choctaw Nation is a Native American territory covering about 6,952,960 acres, occupying portions of southeastern Oklahoma in the United States. The Choctaw Nation is the third-largest federally recognized tribe in the United States and the second-largest Indian reservation in area after the Navajo. As of 2011, the tribe has 223,279 enrolled members, of whom 84,670 live within the state of Oklahoma and 41,616 live within the Choctaw Nation's jurisdiction. A total of 233,126 people live within these boundaries, with its tribal jurisdictional area compromising 10.5 counties in the state. It shares borders with the reservations of the Chickasaw, Muscogee, and Cherokee, as well as the U.S. states of Texas and Arkansas.
The Chickasaw Nation is a federally recognized Native American tribe, with its headquarters located in Ada, Oklahoma in the United States. They are an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, originally from northern Mississippi, northernwestern Alabama, southwestern Kentucky, and western Tennessee. Today, the Chickasaw Nation is the 13th largest tribe in the United States.
Choctaw Country is the Oklahoma Department of Tourism and Recreation's official tourism designation for Southeastern Oklahoma. The name was previously Kiamichi Country until changed in honor of the Choctaw Nation headquartered there. The current definition of Choctaw Country includes ten counties, being Coal, Atoka, Bryan, Choctaw, McCurtain, Pushmataha, Le Flore, Latimer, Haskell, and Pittsburg counties. The Department created the term as one of six designated travel regions within the state. However, other definitions of Southeastern Oklahoma may include additional counties.
Lake Atoka Reservoir is a reservoir in southeastern Oklahoma, 4 miles (6.4 km) north of Atoka, Oklahoma, county seat of Atoka County, Oklahoma. It was built in 1959 to expand the water supply for Lake Stanley Draper in Oklahoma City and Atoka.
South Central Oklahoma is an amorphous region in the state of Oklahoma, perhaps encompassing 10 counties. It is centered on the Arbuckle Mountains, an ancient, eroded range traversing some 70 miles (110 km) across the region, and surrounded by rivers and lakes, notably Lake Texoma, Lake Murray and Lake of the Arbuckles. For tourism purposes, the Oklahoma Department of Tourism has more narrowly defined South Central Oklahoma, which they refer to as Chickasaw Country, as being a seven-county region including Pontotoc, Johnston, Marshall, Garvin, Murray, Carter, and Love counties. A ten-county definition might also include Coal, Atoka, and Bryan counties, although the Department of Tourism includes those in Choctaw Country. The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma covers the eastern third of the region. Its headquarters is in Durant, and its capitol building, now a museum, is in Tuskahoma. The Chickasaw Nation lies within the region, with the tribal capitol building located at Tishomingo and its headquarters in Ada. The Chickasaw Nation, which runs "Chickasawcountry.com"., promotes the idea of Chickasaw Country as the 13 south-central Oklahoma counties that comprise the Chickasaw Nation, being the Tourism Department’s seven counties plus Coal, Bryan, Jefferson, Stephens, Grady, and McClain counties.
Hugo Lake is manmade lake located 7 miles (11 km) east of Hugo, in Choctaw County, Oklahoma, United States. It is formed by Hugo Lake Dam on the Kiamichi River 18 miles (29 km) upstream from the Red River. The dam is visible from U.S. Route 70, which crosses its spillway just west of Sawyer. Lake Hugo features approximately 110 miles (180 km) of shoreline and covers over 13,250 acres (53.6 km2), or 20 square miles (52 km2). Its normal pool elevation is 404.5 feet (123.3 m) above sea level and its normal storage capacity is 157,600 acre-feet (194,400,000 m3). At flood stage its elevation is at 437.5 feet (133.4 m) above sea level and it is capable of storing 966,700 acre-feet (1.1924×109 m3) of flood waters. The lake's primary functions are to provide flood control, water storage, and recreational opportunities.
Allen Wright was Principal Chief of the Choctaw Republic from late 1866 to 1870. He had been ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1852 after graduating from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He was very active in the Choctaw government, holding several elected positions. He has been credited with the name Oklahoma for the land that would become the state.
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 extinguished tribal government 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 Kiamichi Mountains are a mountain range in southeastern Oklahoma. A subrange within the larger Ouachita Mountains that extend from Oklahoma to western Arkansas, the Kiamichi Mountains sit within Le Flore, Pushmataha, and McCurtain counties near the towns of Poteau and Albion. The foothills of the Kiamichi Mountains sit within Haskell County, Northern Latimer County, and Northern Pittsburg County. Its peaks, which line up south of the Kiamichi River, reach 2,500 feet in elevation. The range was the namesake of Kiamichi Country, the official tourism designation for southeastern Oklahoma, until the designation was changed to Choctaw Country.
The Oklahoma Water Resources Board (OWRB) is an agency in the government of Oklahoma under the Governor of Oklahoma. OWRB is responsible for managing and protection the water resources of Oklahoma as well as for planning for the state's long-range water needs. The Board is composed of nine members appointed by the Governor with the consent of the Oklahoma Senate. The Board, in turn, appoints an Executive Director to administer the agency.
J.D. Strong is a civil servant from the U.S. state of Oklahoma and the current Executive Director of the Oklahoma Water Resources Board (OWRB). As Executive Director of OWRB, Strong is responsible for carrying out the agency's mission to protect and enhance the quality of life for Oklahomans by managing and improving the state's water resources to ensure clean and reliable water supplies, a strong economy, and a safe and healthy environment. Under Strong's leadership, the OWRB updated the Oklahoma Comprehensive Water Plan, a 50-year water supply assessment and policy strategy to meet Oklahoma's future water needs. Strong also oversees administration of Oklahoma's AAA-rated $3 billion Financial Assistance Program, which assists more than two-thirds of Oklahoma communities and rural water districts in financing water infrastructure projects. Other significant programs under Strong's direction include the administration of almost 13,000 water rights permits allocating some 6 million acre-feet of stream and groundwater, hydrologic studies, licensure of water well drillers, floodplain management, dam safety, and a water quality management program that includes establishment of standards and statewide monitoring of lakes and streams. Strong represents Oklahoma on the Western States Water Council and Chairs its Water Quality Committee, and also serves as Oklahoma's Commissioner on four Congressionally-approved interstate water Compact Commissions.
Sardis was a community in northern Pushmataha County, Oklahoma, United States, six miles northwest of Clayton.
An Organic Act is a generic name for a statute used by the United States Congress to describe a territory, in anticipation of being admitted to the Union as a state. Because of Oklahoma's unique history an explanation of the Oklahoma Organic Act needs a historic perspective. In general, the Oklahoma Organic Act may be viewed as one of a series of legislative acts, from the time of Reconstruction, enacted by Congress in preparation for the creation of a unified State of Oklahoma. The Organic Act created Oklahoma Territory, and Indian Territory that were Organized incorporated territories of the United States out of the old "unorganized" Indian Territory. The Oklahoma Organic Act was one of several acts whose intent was the assimilation of the tribes in Oklahoma and Indian Territories through the elimination of tribes' communal ownership of property.
Harry James Watson "Jimmy" Belvin was an educator and served as an Oklahoma State Representative and Senator. He was the first elected principal chief of any of the Five Civilized Tribes in the 20th century, and the longest serving principal chief of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. He saw his tribe through termination, restoration, and a rebirth of Native Pride. He was a polarizing leader, seen by some as a semi-dictator who held onto the office of principal chief and used his power to advocate for complete assimilation into the dominant society, suppressing Choctaw traditions, language and ceremonial practices as undesirable remnants of an unrefined history. To others, he was a well-liked, populist leader, who went door-to-door talking with tribe members, informing them on issues, and trying to develop the means the alleviate the poverty and unemployment they faced.
