Could present day Oklahoma actually have been two states: The State of Sequoyah in the east and the state of Oklahoma in west? The US Congressional Organic Act of 1890 created Oklahoma Territory (basically the Northwest half of present Oklahoma and Indian Territory As population increased in Oklahoma Territory, Statehood status came to the front. The sixth Territorial Governor of Oklahoma, T.B. Ferguson, actually favored a twin state arrangement for a period. The five eastern tribes, Chickasaw, Seminole, Creek, Cherokee and Choctaw, actually held a statehood convention and drew up a constitution in 1905 for the state of Sequoyah. (University of Tulsa) However, it became clear that the U.S. Congress would not accept the concept of twin states.
Ferguson then pushed hard for a combined Oklahoma statehood during his four-year term as Oklahoma Territory governor Jan 1901-Jan. 1906. (Ok Territorial Governors) On June 16, 1906, after months of political wrangling, Congress finally passed an act enabling the people of the Indian and Oklahoma Territories to form a state constitution and state government and to be admitted into the Union on equal footing with the existing states.
On September 17, 1907, the people of the Indian and Oklahoma Territories voted favorably on statehood. The vote was certified and delivered to the President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt and on November 16, 1907, Roosevelt issued Presidential Proclamation 780 admitting Oklahoma as the forty-sixth state. In his annual message on December 3, 1908—just a few weeks later—President Roosevelt announced to Congress, “Oklahoma has become a state, standing on full equity with her elder sisters, and her future is assured by her great natural resources.” (Oklahoma Archives) As the single state of Oklahoma, we owe a debt of gratitude for T.B. Ferguson guiding Oklahoma and Indian Territories into a single state, Oklahoma.