RIP State of Sequoyah
RIP State of Sequoyah
The State of Sequoyah was an attempt by the "Five Civilized Tribes" (Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Muscogee "Creek", and Seminole) to make Indian Territory a US State after the effects of the US Indian Removal Act of 1830, the US Supreme Court case Worcester v. Georgia (1832), the US Dawes Severalty Act of 1887, and the US Curtis Act of 1898.
"From time immemorial, the Indians, as a heritage of the original inhabitants, have been promised a state, an Empire of their own. Driven west by successive invasions, the Indians were forced to settle in this territory, which is undoubtedly Indian Country. They have taken on the dress, the customs, and the religion of the white man, and welcomed him as a brother. The national government must grant us separate statehood, or make a confession."—Muscogee (Creek) Nation Chief Pleasant Porter.
"I recommend that Indian Territory and Oklahoma be admitted as one state, and that New Mexico and Arizona be admitted as one state. There is no obligation upon us to treat territorial subdivisions, which are matters of convenience only, as binding us on the question of admission to Statehood... There is no justification for further delay; and the advisability of making the four Territories into two States has been clearly established."—Staunch Imperialist US President Theodore Roosevelt.
[We] have never dreamt of incorporating into our Union any but the Caucasian race the free white race. To incorporate Mexico, would be the very first instance of the kind of incorporating an Indian race; for more than half of the Mexicans are Indians, and the other is composed chiefly of mixed tribes. I protest against such a union as that! Ours, sir, is the Government of a white race. The great misfortunes of Spanish America are to be traced to the fatal error of placing these colored races on an equality with the white race….
Are we to associate with ourselves as equals, companions, and fellow-citizens, the Indians and mixed race of Mexico? [Mr. President], I would consider such a thing fatal to our institutions….
We make a great mistake, sir, when we suppose that all people are capable of self-government. We are anxious to force free government on all; and I see that it has been urged in a very respectable quarter, that it is the mission of this country to spread civil and religious liberty over all the world, and especially over this continent. It is a great mistake. None but people advanced to a very high state of moral and intellectual improvement are capable, in a civilized state, of maintaining free government.—John C. Calhoun, “A Southern Senator Opposes the "All-Mexico" Plan,” SHEC: Resources for Teachers, accessed December 25, 2025, https://shec.ashp.cuny.edu/items/show/1273.
Knights of the Golden Circle, (Imperial US Government Pro-Slavery Secret Society).
First recorded user of the term "racism" Richard Henry Pratt, who started the infamous "Boarding Schools".
A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one, and that high sanction of his destruction has been an enormous factor in promoting Indian massacres. In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him...—Proceedings of the National Conference of Charities and Correction, at the Nineteen Annual Session Held in Denver, Col. June 23-29, 1892. Boston: Press of Geo. H. Ellis.
Richard Henry Pratt - Wikipedia.
Kill the Indian, Save the Man - Wikipedia.
This and other treaty violations (like US Indian Termination Policy, the US Indian Relocation Act of 1956, etc.) the US later led to the necessity to create the civil rights group AIM (American Indian Movement).
"Creek Indian Removal from Alabama" by Christopher Haveman
"1989 - American Indian Activist Russell Means Testifies at Senate Hearing" by CSPAN
"The Native American State That Never Was" by Johnny Harris
And of course, always gotta bring up Operation Paperclip, Operation Condor, and the Bellamy Salute.