Editing Hugo, Oklahoma (section)

==History==
[[File:Hugo, Oklahoma (1910).jpg|thumb|right|Broadway at Duke looking north, 1910]]
This was part of the [[Indian Territory]] to which the United States government relocated Native American tribes from east of the [[Mississippi River]] in the 1830s under its [[Indian Removal]] policy. Among the nations relocated here were the [[Choctaw]], for whom the county is named. They were one of what were called the "[[Five Civilized Tribes]]" of the southeastern United States, as some of their people had adopted many elements of European-American culture. When they relocated, they brought with them the numerous [[Slavery in the United States|enslaved African-Americans]] whom they held as workers and property.

As the majority of the Choctaw allied with the [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] South during the [[American Civil War]], the United States government insisted on a new peace treaty with them after its end. A condition was the Choctaws' [[abolitionism in the United States|emancipation]] of their slaves and granting to the [[freedmen]] of rights of full citizenship in the Choctaw nation, as the US was granting citizenship to former slaves of the South.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Carter |first=Ray |date=August 19, 2020 |title=Slave-owning past remains problem for Choctaws |url=https://www.ocpathink.org/post/slave-owning-past-remains-problem-for-choctaws |website=Oklahoma Council Of Public Affairs}}</ref>

In 1902 the [[St. Louis, San Francisco and New Orleans Railroad]] (later the [[St. Louis–San Francisco Railway]] or "Frisco") built a line from [[Hope, Arkansas]], to [[Ardmore, Oklahoma]]. It crossed the north–south line Frisco had built in 1887 to connect [[Monett, Missouri]], to [[Paris, Texas]].<ref name="EOHC-Hugo"/> The territorial town that sprang up at the crossing would soon be named Hugo. The town's name was recommended by the wife of local surveyor W.H. Darrough, a fan of French writer [[Victor Hugo]].<ref>[http://www.kten.com/Global/story.asp?S=4673703&nav=menu410_8_3_7 "Welcome to Hugo." K-Ten CommunityInfo - Hugo, OK.] Retrieved August 8, 2014.</ref>  At the time of its founding, Hugo was located in [[Kiamitia County]], a part of the [[Pushmataha District]] of the Choctaw Nation.

As the end of the Indian Territory drew near, tribal citizens and other inhabitants organized an effort for the territory to be admitted to the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] as a state.  The [[State of Sequoyah]], which they proposed, divided the territories of the five tribes into counties.  Hugo was designated as the county seat of [[Hitchcock County, Sequoyah|Hitchcock County]].  Although neither Congress nor the president were interested in admitting Sequoyah as a state, the county boundaries proposed for Sequoyah were in some cases adopted for counties in the future state of Oklahoma.

In southeastern Oklahoma, the future Choctaw County's boundaries were generally those of Hitchcock County, Sequoyah.  Similarly, boundaries proposed for [[Pushmataha County, Sequoyah]] served, in general, as the boundaries for [[Pushmataha County, Oklahoma]].  And [[McCurtain County, Oklahoma]] generally follows the boundaries proposed for McCurtain County, Sequoyah.  Both counties are adjacent to and share boundaries with Choctaw County.<ref>Edwin C. McReynolds, ''Historical Atlas of Oklahoma'', 1965; Amos Maxwell, ''The Sequoyah Constitutional Convention'', 1953.</ref>