The Only Obtainable Map of the Unrecognized State of Sequoyah
. . . from one of the rarest of American Constitutions

18. Gast & Co. “State of Sequoyah [Indian Territory]” (St. Louis: Augustus Gast Bank Note and Litho. Company, Map Publishers, 1905 [1902]). From Constitution of the State of Sequoyah (Muskogee, I.T.: Phoenix Printing Co., 1905). Lithograph in full original color. 16 3/16 x 14 13/16" at neat line. Sheet size: 17 1/2 x 15 3/4" (plus binding tab at upper left margin). In fine condition, a superb example.

Price: $4,500. [ Order ]

This extremely rare, privately issued map of the eastern half of Indian Territory was bound into the Constitution of the State of Sequoyah, a document prepared by the Five Civilized Nations as application for U. S. statehood in 1905. Sequoyah comprised the eastern half of present-day Oklahoma and was the remnant of what first became Indian Territory in the 1830s. The Five Civilized Nations petitioned for statehood in response to the creation in 1889 of Oklahoma Territory, in which the federal government opened up unused Indian lands in the western half of the present-day state for sale to white settlers. The officers of the new territory included many individuals who were experienced in politics before coming to Oklahoma. The leaders of the Indian nations apparently feared that the west side would dominate them if the two territories were combined.

According to Streeter, the 1905 application for the State of Sequoyah “was an attempt by the Five Civilized Tribes and some white inhabitants of Indian Territory to forestall the creation of one state out of Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory. The convention met at Muskogee, 21 August 1905, and the constitution worked out by a committee of fifty was adopted 8 September. It was submitted to popular vote in the 7 November 1905 election, and carried by an overwhelming vote. All this was to no avail, for the act creating the present state of Oklahoma became law 16 June 1906. This is one of the cases in our history [at the moment I can think of no other] where a separate region seeking statehood and adopting a constitution was finally denied statehood by Congress. The map is of great interest [italics added]. It divides the Indian Territory into nearly fifty counties but very few of the county names or even the boundaries can be found on today's map of that part of Oklahoma.”

The proposed state of Sequoyah received its name from the great Cherokee statesman and inventor of a written form for the Cherokee language. Sequoyah worked to create a united government among Cherokee tribal factions upon their relocation to Indian Territory in 1839.

Oklahoma entered the Union officially in 1907 and, as the Indians feared, it absorbed the remains of Indian Territory in the process. At that time, Oklahoma retained the names of 20 of the 48 counties from the State of Sequoyah, including the county of Sequoyah at the central east border. These county names are all that remain of the valiant American Indian effort to retain its own political entity on par with the rest of the Union.

Drafted by D. W. Bolich, the 1905 map represents a revision of the first appearance of the Map of Sequoyah in 1902. A note on the left side of the present map indicates that its county divisions were updated by the Sequoyah Statehood Convention for publication in the constitution.

An historically important and rarely offered map with excellent color.

Refs.: Graff, 3730; Hargrett, A Bibliography of the Constitutions and Laws of the American Indians (1976, reprint ed.), p. 110; Howes, S295; Morris et al., Historical Atlas of Oklahoma, no. 56; Streeter sale, lot no. 605.

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