Editing Sequoyah County, Oklahoma (section)

==History==
Archaeological sites within the borders of the present county date to the [[Archaic period in North America|Archaic Period]] (6000 BC to 1 AD). A slightly smaller number of sites date to the [[Plains Village period]] (1000 to 1500 AD).<ref name="EOHC-SequoyahCo"/>

[[File:Sequoyahs Cabin.jpg|thumb|left|alt=text|Sequoyah's Cabin in 2004]]French traders came to this area in the 1700s, as they had posts in neighboring present-day Arkansas, part of their ''La Louisiane'' colony. Spain claimed the area until 1800, when France under [[Napoleon]] re-asserted control. He was making a last effort for French colonization in North America. But he ceded control by selling the [[Louisiana Purchase|Louisiana]] in 1803, when the United States purchased all French territory west of the Mississippi River.

Until 1816 the powerful [[Osage Nation]] dominated this and a much larger territory, reaching to the Mississippi River. With [[Lovely's Purchase]], the US bought some of their land. Under pressure in the Southeast, some Cherokee migrated to the west early, and settled here on land granted by the US. The area was then known as [[Lovely County, Arkansas Territory]].

The US forced removal of the Western Cherokee from Arkansas in 1829, resettling them in Indian Territory: present-day Sequoyah County, Oklahoma. [[Sequoyah]] was among the Cherokee who moved into this area, where he built a cabin that still stands. The Dwight Mission was moved to a site on Sallisaw Creek, and it still stands.<ref name="EOHC-SequoyahCo"/>

In the late 1830s, the US forced [[Indian Removal]] of most of the Cherokee in the Southeast from the remainder of their lands. They had to trek under Army escort to [[Indian Territory]], a passage they called the [[Trail of Tears]] for its high fatalities and sorrows of leaving their homelands.

[[File:Dwight Mission.jpg|thumb|alt=text|Dwight Mission in October 1969]]

The Cherokee Nation established its first capital at a place called [[Tahlonteeskee, Oklahoma|Tahlonteskee]] (Tahlontuskey), near the present town of [[Gore, Oklahoma]]. Tahlonteskee remained the capital until 1839, when it was superseded by [[Tahlequah, Oklahoma|Tahlequah]]. It continued as a meeting place for the "Old Settlers," as the Western Cherokee were known.<ref name="EOHC-SequoyahCo"/>

This area, then known as the Sequoyah District, was dominated by Cherokee who were Confederate sympathizers during the Civil War, as were the majority of the nation. Many of the Cherokee were slaveholders; they also had been told that the Confederates would provide them with a Native American state if victorious in the war. The only combat was on June 15, 1864, when Colonel [[Stand Watie]] and his Confederate troops conducted the [[Ambush of the steamboat J. R. Williams|ambush of the Union steamboat ''J. R. Williams'']] on the [[Arkansas River]].<ref name="EOHC-SequoyahCo"/>