Editing Pushmataha County, Oklahoma (section)

==History==
[[File:Pushmataha high resolution.jpg|thumb|250px|Chief [[Pushmataha]], 1824. From ''[[History of the Indian Tribes of North America]].'']]

===Administrative history===
* Ca. 1000–1500: Caddoan Mississippian culture at Spiro Mounds
* 1492–1718:  Spain
* 1718–1763:  France
* 1763–1800:  Spain
* 1800–1803:  France
* 1803–present:  United States (after Louisiana Purchase)
:* 1824–1825:  Miller County, Arkansas Territory (eastern portion of the county)
:* 1825–1907:  Choctaw Nation of Indian Territory
:* 1907–present:  State of Oklahoma<ref>John W. Morris, ''Boundaries of Oklahoma'', pp. 4 & 14</ref>

===Prehistory and exploration===
During prehistoric times, Pushmataha County was part of the territory during the [[Woodland period|Middle Woodland period]] of the [[Fourche Maline culture]]. Over time, and possibly through contact with the Middle [[Mississippian culture]] to their northeast, the Fourche Maline became the [[Caddoan Mississippian culture]]. Their center was at [[Spiro Mounds]], near [[Spiro, Oklahoma]]. The elite organized the construction of complex earthwork mounds for burial and ritual ceremonial purposes, arranged around a large plaza that had been carefully graded. This center of political and religious leadership had a trade territory encompassing the full extent of the [[Kiamichi River]] and [[Little River (Red River)|Little River]] valleys.<ref>Claudette Marie Gilbert and Robert L. Brooks, ''From Mounds to Mammoths—A Field Guide to Oklahoma Prehistory'', page 74.</ref> This 80-acre site is preserved as Oklahoma's only Archeological State Park. The larger Mississippian culture traded from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast.

North America's history changed after the arrival of Europeans in 1492 under [[Christopher Columbus]] in the Caribbean. In the 16th century, European explorers began to enter the North American interior, seeking fame, treasures, and conquests on behalf of their empires.

[[File:Caddoan Mississippian culture map HRoe 2010.jpg|thumb|225px|left|Map showing extent of the [[Caddoan Mississippian culture]], including [[Spiro Mounds]] and the [[Kiamichi River]] valley.]]

France's [[Bernard de la Harpe]] explored the area of the modern Pushmataha County in 1719, in the era when France was establishing settlements on the Gulf Coast. They had founded [[New Orleans]] the year before. De la Harpe's exploration of the [[Mississippi River]] valley was part of an effort to seek trade with the native peoples and also a route to [[New Mexico]]. After this time France claimed this region of North America as La Louisiane. It explored Canada to the north from the Atlantic coast along the [[St. Lawrence River]] valley, where it founded New France.<ref>Goins, ''Historical Atlas of Oklahoma'', p. 13; William H. Goetzmann and Glyndwr Williams, ''Atlas of North American Exploration'', pp. 92–93.</ref>

The area that became Pushmataha County was bought by the United States from France as part of the large [[Louisiana Purchase]] in 1803.

The first American explorer to set foot in the modern county was Major [[Stephen H. Long]] in 1817. He was followed in 1819 by [[Thomas Nuttall]], a scientist. Both explored the [[Kiamichi River]] valley, which Nuttall described in detail.<ref>Thomas Nuttall, ''A Journal of Travels into the Arkansas Territory During the Year 1819'', pp. 163–177; Goins, ''Historical Atlas'', p. 16.</ref>

The [[Red River of the South|Red River]] became an international boundary in 1819 when the United States concluded the [[Adams-Onis Treaty]] with the [[Spanish Empire]]. Fortifying the [[frontier]] from Spanish incursion, and securing it against potential uprisings by [[Native Americans in the United States|American Indians]], was important to United States policy. The federal government established a chain of [[forts]] along its southern border.<ref>John W. Morris, ''Boundaries of Oklahoma'', p. 27.</ref>

[[Fort Towson]], established at the mouth of Gates Creek on the Kiamichi River, just upstream from its confluence with the Red River, was charged with providing security for the region encompassing modern Pushmataha County. As the fort was built in what was considered frontier wilderness, the [[U.S. Army Corps of Engineers]] constructed a military road connecting Fort Towson with [[Fort Smith, Arkansas]] for purposes of supply and provision. Passing through the Little River valley, this military road was Pushmataha County's first modern [[roadway]]. It lapsed into disuse after Fort Towson was abandoned after the [[American Civil War]]. Traces of the road may still be seen.<ref>[[Odie B. Faulk]], Kenny A. Franks, and Paul F. Lambert, ''Early Military Forts and Posts in Oklahoma'', pp. 3, 9–11.</ref>

===The Indian Territory===
Pushmataha County's modern origins lie in the [[Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma|Choctaw Nation]], during its time as a sovereign nation in the [[Indian Territory]], prior to [[Oklahoma]] statehood.

====Political Organization====
The Choctaw territory comprising the modern county was, until statehood in 1907, divided among two of the three administrative districts, or regions, comprising the nation – Pushmataha and Apukshunnubbee. Each of these districts was subdivided into counties. The modern county fell within [[Cedar County, Choctaw Nation|Cedar County]], [[Nashoba County]] and [[Wade County]] of the [[Apukshunnubbee District]]—today the county's eastern area – and [[Jack's Fork County]] and [[Kiamitia County]] (Kiamichi County) of the [[Pushmataha District]] – today the county's western area.<ref>Morris, John, Charles R. Goins, and Edwin C. McReynolds.  ''Historical Atlas of Oklahoma'', plate 38. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1986.</ref>

====The American Civil War====
During the [[American Civil War]] federal troops withdrew from the Indian Territory and the Choctaw Nation allied itself with the [[Confederate States of America]]. The Choctaw government sent a representative to the [[Confederate Congress]], meeting in the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia, and raised battalions of warriors to participate with Confederate troops.

[[File:Peter perkins pitchlynn.jpg|left|220px|thumb| [[Peter Pitchlynn]], Principal Chief of the Choctaw Nation during the Civil War.]]

Although no battles were recorded as occurring within the present-day confines of Pushmataha County, the Battle of Perryville occurred just outside modern-day [[McAlester, Oklahoma|McAlester]] and the Battle of Middle Boggy Depot took place outside present-day [[Atoka, Oklahoma|Atoka]]. Numerous Choctaws left their homes in the present-day county to join the battalions and participated in the [[Battle of Pea Ridge]], in Arkansas, and at the [[Battle of Honey Springs]] in the Cherokee Nation, which pitted them against a Unionist faction of Cherokee Indians.

Contemporary accounts make mention of many refugees streaming through the Kiamichi River valley. The war itself finally ended with the surrender of the last Confederate army—Cherokee General [[Stand Watie]]'s forces, who surrendered at [[Fort Towson]] in June 1865, over two months after General [[Robert E. Lee]] surrendered the [[Army of Northern Virginia]]—and with it any chance of Confederate success.

{{Infobox song
| name       = Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
| cover      = SwingLowSweetChariot1873.jpg
| alt        =
| caption    = Page from ''The Jubilee Singers'', 1873
| type       =
| artist     = [[Fisk Jubilee Singers]] (earliest attested)
| album      =
| EP         =
| written    = Prior to 1862
| published  =
| released   =
| format     =
| recorded   =
| studio     =
| venue      =
| genre      = [[Spiritual (music)|Negro spiritual]]
| length     =
| label      =
| writer     = [[Wallace Willis]]
| composer   =
| lyricist   =
| producer   =
| prev_title =
| prev_year  =
| title      =
| next_title =
| next_year  =
}}

Sometime before 1862 a Negro slave, [[Wallace Willis]], composed the Negro spiritual "[[Swing Low, Sweet Chariot]]". He was then working at Spencer Academy, a Choctaw Nation boarding school located at [[Spencerville, Oklahoma|Spencervile, Indian Territory]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/printedition/life/20060815/d_sweetchariot.art.htm|title=Story behind spiritual 'Swing Chariot' emerges|website=usatoday30.usatoday.com|access-date=December 4, 2018}}</ref><ref name="Tulsa World, January 28, 2019">{{cite web | url=https://www.tulsaworld.com/homepagelatest/michael-overall-how-an-oklahoma-slave-came-to-write-one/article_89101718-6427-5b56-bcb0-a17f798589be.html  | title= Michael Overall, How an Oklahoma slave came to write one of the world's most famous songs | publisher=Tulsa World, January 28, 2019| access-date=January 28, 2019}}</ref>  The site of the academy and old Spencerville was located less than 1,000 yards from the current southern border of Pushmataha County. Known as Uncle Wallace, Willis may have resided in Pushmataha County. He died in present-day [[Atoka County, Oklahoma|Atoka County]] and is buried in an unmarked grave.{{citation needed|date=January 2016}}

====Railroads arrive====
The Choctaw people were sedentary. Their lives were tied to their farms and small acreages. The Choctaw Nation was not home to industry of any sort. As a result, the territory comprising modern-day Pushmataha County was still virgin wilderness decades after the Choctaws’ arrival.

During the 1880s the [[St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad]] – popularly known as the Frisco—built a line from [[Fort Smith, Arkansas]] to Paris, Texas. The federal government granted the railroad rights-of-way in Indian Territory to stimulate development and attract European-American settlers. Station stops were established every few miles, both to aid in developing towns and also to serve the railroad.

The Frisco's route traveled along the Kiamichi River valley, entering the present-day county near [[Albion, Oklahoma|Albion]] and leaving the river only at Antlers, to skirt the massive bluff where it is located.  
[[File:George Mayo Map.png|left|thumb|400px|This 1887 map shows the newly opened Frisco Railroad. Its construction stimulated development of a massive logging industry, attracting workers and other immigrants from the United States to the Choctaw Nation—and communities along its length.]]
The railroad stimulated development of businesses and other ties to mainstream United States society. The [[telegraph]] was developed and constructed along with the railroad, providing rapid news of events outside the Choctaw Nation.

Logging companies opened operations immediately. Rough-and-tumble sawmill communities began growing up around the railroad station stops.  [[Kosoma, Oklahoma|Kosoma]], a veritable boomtown, boasted several hotels, doctors’ offices, and general stores during its heyday.

During the next few decades, loggers harvested the entire region, using the railroad stations as transshipment points. These transshipment points developed into the present-day communities of Albion, [[Moyers, Oklahoma|Moyers]], and Antlers. Other communities along the railroad between these points later vanished or are today only place names, such as [[Kellond, Oklahoma|Kellond]], [[Stanley, Oklahoma|Stanley]] and [[Kiamichi, Oklahoma|Kiamichi]].

For decades the Frisco constituted the greatest feat of engineering and manmade structure in Pushmataha County. Workers moved and shaped huge amounts of earth to form its elevated roadbed, and constructed numerous wooden trestles over creeks and rivers. Once in place the railroad attracted commerce and industry, where white men in the Indian Territory hoped to stake a claim.

====Bid for self-determination====
Although the [[Five Civilized Tribes]] of the Indian Territory opposed being incorporated within a United States state, by the turn of the 20th century, statehood of some sort appeared inevitable. A group of leaders from the Five Civilized Nations – Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole – met at Muskogee in an attempt to seize the initiative and fashion a state from the Indian Territory, a jurisdiction to be controlled by Native Americans. Their meeting, which came to be known as the [[Sequoyah Constitutional Convention]], established the proposed [[State of Sequoyah]].<ref>Amos D. Maxwell, ''The Sequoyah Constitutional Convention'', pp. 60–61; Plate 56, Historical Atlas of Oklahoma.</ref>

The leaders meeting in Muskogee recognized that the counties of the Choctaw Nation, drawn to reflect easily recognizable natural landmarks such as mountain ranges and rivers, were not economically viable. Jack's Fork County, as example – in which Antlers was located – was a vast territory whose tiny county seat was Many Springs (modern-day [[Daisy, Oklahoma]]). But the only commercially successful town within its boundaries was Antlers, and it was situated in its far southeastern corner.

County boundaries for the new State of Sequoyah were crafted to take into account the existing towns and the range of their commercial interests. County seats were centered geographically within the populations of the areas they would govern.

The area comprising modern-day Pushmataha County proved a particular challenge. Huge areas of its eastern portion had few people. Its population was centered in towns along the railroad in the Kiamichi River valley. A county was eventually drawn with the crescent of the Kiamichi River valley forming its commercial heart, and it was to be called [[Pushmataha County, Sequoyah]].<ref>Morris, ''Historical Atlas'', Plate 56.</ref>

Records of the Sequoyah Constitutional Convention's committee on counties are lost, and no evidence remains to document the committee's deliberations. They wanted an area named after their [[Pushmataha|Chief Pushmataha]], and singled out the future Pushmataha County, Sequoyah for this honor.

Hugo's businesses served an area extending as far north as [[Kent, Oklahoma|Kent]], [[Speer, Oklahoma|Speer]], [[Hamden, Oklahoma|Hamden]], and nearly to [[Rattan, Oklahoma|Rattan]]. As a result, the county boundary for the proposed [[Hitchcock County, Sequoyah|Hitchcock County]] – with Hugo as county seat – was established along the line of the existing boundary between Choctaw and Pushmataha counties. Similar considerations governed the establishment of the county's northern, eastern and western borders.

The United States Congress failed to admit the proposed State of Sequoyah into the Union, preferring to await a possible federation of the Indian Territory and [[Territory of Oklahoma]]. This was soon proposed. In 1907 the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention met in [[Guthrie, Oklahoma|Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory]] to create the new State of Oklahoma. During these deliberations it became clear that the work of the Sequoyah Constitutional Convention had been groundbreaking: the Guthrie meeting essentially adopted nearly the same boundaries for Pushmataha County, Oklahoma as were proposed earlier for it in the state of Sequoyah, again identifying Antlers as county seat.

===Since statehood===
[[File:PushmatahaCounty1909.jpg|thumb|250px|Map of Pushmataha County, 1909]]
Pushmataha County at statehood was considered an agricultural paradise. Local residents believed the soil to be fertile and the weather enviable and moderate; it seemed that almost any fruit or vegetable could be grown. Most residents at the time were farmers who lived off their land.

Cotton was king for the county's first few decades. It was grown throughout the Kiamichi River valley. Growers hauled it into Antlers, Clayton, [[Albion, Oklahoma|Albion]], and other railroad towns to be weighed and shipped to distant markets on the [[Frisco Railroad]].

Many of the farmers or hired hands were African Americans, descendants of slaves of the Choctaw. After being emancipated following the American Civil War under an 1866 treaties that the United States made with each of the Five Civilized Tribes, African Americans who stayed with the Choctaw were called [[Choctaw Freedmen]]. They were granted membership in the nation with voting rights. Others came to the area as laborers in the late 19th century. The county had a significant African-American population in the early 20th century, although this has since dwindled to almost nothing, as people left to seek work. Many African Americans worked in cotton cultivation and, after cotton's decline, they moved elsewhere for other work.

The territory comprising Pushmataha County had been part of the Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory. It was almost completely unimproved in the European-American sense. The Choctaw government owned land in "severalty", or common, controlling the communal land. The Choctaw had their own culture and did not need bridges, roads, or [[public works]].<ref>Angie Debo, ''Rise and Fall of the Choctaw Republic'', p. 222.</ref>

Early business leaders at statehood immediately sought to fund public improvements by asking local voters to pass bonds. The state government did not invest in such infrastructure. Businessmen tried to pass bridge bonds, as example, to build bridges across the Kiamichi River and Jack Fork Creek. These uniformly failed to gain approval, slowing the county's business development. [[Choctaw County, Oklahoma|Choctaw County]], by contrast, passed bonds almost immediately, causing bridges to be built throughout the county. This proved excellent for business and commerce, and after this point Hugo grew significantly faster than Antlers.

Pushmataha County began to develop as European Americans settled and founded communities throughout the county. Each community built its own school, and raised money with which to hire a teacher or teachers. Residents also founded churches, mostly of various Protestant denominations with which they were affiliated. Residents of some of the more significant towns, such as Jumbo, Moyers, Clayton and Albion, also established cultural leagues or institutions—poetry clubs, music groups, and [[literary societies]] – in a bid for cultural refinement.
The Choctaw continued playing a role in the region; its members were elected to local government and served as other government and society leaders in Pushmataha County.

During World War I, county resident [[Tobias W. Frazier]] (Choctaw) was a soldier in the U.S. Army and a member of the famous [[Choctaw Code Talkers]]. Other Code Talkers were from just over the border in McCurtain County. The fourteen soldiers were part of a pioneering use of American Indian languages as military code during war, to enable secret communications among the Allies. Their contributions helped gain victory and brought World War I to a quicker close.<ref>"Choctaw Code Talkers", ''Oklahoma Today'', July–August 1988; "Choctaw Tongue Proved Too Tough for Germans", ''Antlers American'', March 5, 1966. For full information on the Code Talkers see the unpublished compilation of research by the school students of Rattan, Oklahoma, on file in the school library and the Pushmataha County Historical Society.</ref>
[[File:USA work program.svg|thumb|WPA graphic]]
Federal government programs developed by the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the [[Great Depression]] of the 1930s brought substantial improvements and infrastructure to the county: the federal [[Works Progress Administration]] (or WPA) directed the construction with local workers of handsome, sturdy schools and school [[gymnasiums]] in numerous communities. The new buildings were built of native "red rock" gathered in nearby fields. They aged very well. Several are still in use, notably in Moyers, Rattan and Antlers. But the school at Jumbo was bulldozed by a local farmer in the 1990s to clear the field for cattle.

The [[Rural Electrification Administration]] provided guidance and funding to bring electricity to the rural county; electrical lines were strung, connecting homes to the electrical grid. These changes improved indoor conditions, and people began to acquire [[air conditioning]] and television from the 1950s on. People more often conducted their social lives inside rather than on town streets. Architectural design changed, as stores, churches and homes no longer had to allow for maximum ventilation via the free flow of air from open windows and doors.

Highways were paved and standardized in the 1950s, making travel easier and linking farms and countryside to the town markets, and the towns to one another. As people bought more automobiles, they stopped using the railroad. The Frisco ceased passenger operations in the late 1950s as unprofitable. Wholesale changes resulted from railroad restructuring in the later 20th century, and the Frisco ended freight operations in the early 1980s. At that time the [[trestle bridge]]s were dismantled, rails removed and the roadbed was abandoned to nature.

The [[Indian Nation Turnpike]], which opened in 1970, had only one interchange in all of Pushmataha County, at Antlers, connecting residents to freeway travel to [[Oklahoma City]] and [[Tulsa]].