WI: Sequoya and Oklahoma

[Jackson Lennock]

At one point, it was proposed to admit a Native American State of Sequoyah. This was rejected for two reasons: (1) A non-white state couldn't be tolerated and (2) Theodore Roosevelt - a Republican President - wasn't inclined to risk the admission of two Democratic-leaning states.

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What I think is interesting is that around the same time, there were complaints in West Texas which prompted people to want to form their own state.

Failure to reapportion representation after the Thirteenth Census brought new agitation on the division question in 1914. The growth of the western part of the state made it necessary for more representation from that section, a need the legislature ignored. West Texans were also annoyed because few state institutions were established in their region. The result was the proposal in the Texas Senate for the state of Jefferson, to be composed of the Twenty-fifth, Twenty-sixth, Twenty-eighth, and Twenty-ninth senatorial districts. No more than six senators supported the measure, and other proposals to the Thirty-fourth Legislature were equally fruitless. In 1921 the veto of a bill calling for the location of an agricultural and mechanical college in West Texas revived the whole question. Mass meetings were held in West Texas, but the agitation died down quickly.

I had trouble finding a map of state senate districts at the time, but did find this bill proposing such districts. It would have meant all of Texas west of the Texas Triangle plus the Rio Grande Valley.

The sense of alienation in West Texas and Western Oklahoma wouldn't go away. In the 1930s, it was proposed that a State of "Texlahoma" be formed!

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Going with the above, I just split the difference. I extended the Sequoyah border South to the 32nd parallel and had it head due west to the New Mexico border. The aim was to create another Republican-leaning state, since West Oklahoma had Great Plains Republican pockets.

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[Ricardolindo]

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At one point, it was proposed to admit a Native American State of Sequoyah. This was rejected for two reasons: (1) A non-white state couldn't be tolerated

Actually, for a long time in the 19th century, there was the idea that there should be an exclusively Native American state as part of the United States. For a long time, that was supposed to be the Indian Territory once it got statehood. However, that became unfeasible because from the 1880s, Whites outnumbered Native Americans in the Indian Territory.

 

[Time Enough]

At one point, it was proposed to admit a Native American State of Sequoyah. This was rejected for two reasons: (1) A non-white state couldn't be tolerated and (2) Theodore Roosevelt - a Republican President - wasn't inclined to risk the admission of two Democratic-leaning states.

Also Roosevelt was racist towards native Americans as well, however there was one future President who supported it, William Howard Taft, who supported it from a legal standpoint.

So if you had McKinley survive and have Taft as a compromise Republican Presidential Candidate in 1904, not that outrageous, then you could see Sequoyah being supported by President Taft (with probably some compromises to ensure that it’s not wholly Democrat controlled).

Amusingly a Sequoyah existing probably see’s William H. Murray having an earlier political career.

Edit - There would probably have to be a lot of wrangling over Oil rights as well.

 

[Ricardolindo]

Also Roosevelt was racist towards native Americans as well, however there was one future President who supported it, William Howard Taft, who supported it from a legal standpoint.

So if you had McKinley survive and have Taft as a compromise Republican Presidential Candidate in 1904, not that outrageous, then you could see Sequoyah being supported by President Taft (with probably some compromises to ensure that it’s not wholly Democrat controlled).

Amusingly a Sequoyah existing probably see’s William H. Murray having an earlier political career.

Edit - There would probably have to be a lot of wrangling over Oil rights as well.

As I said, though, a Native American state wasn't feasible by this point as Whites outnumbered Native Americans in the Indian Territory.

 

[Jackson Lennock]

As I said, though, a Native American state wasn't feasible by this point as Whites outnumbered Native Americans in the Indian Territory.

They would still be a substantially large minority in the State of Sequoyah, which itself would be very significant.