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Dissertation Information for Mara Darleen Rutten

NAME:
- Mara Darleen Rutten

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- History

SCHOOL:
- Arizona State University (USA) (2000)

ADVISORS:
- Peter Iverson

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Philip VanderMeer
- Robert A. Trennert Jr.

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: The Sequoyah statehood movement and the Indian fight for sovereignty

Abstract: In 1905, delegates from across Indian Territory met in Muskogee to write a constitution for the proposed Indian state of Sequoyah. The purpose and goals of the convention primarily expressed Indian concerns: the imminent abolition of their tribal governments and the joint admission of Indian and Oklahoma Territories to the United States. At the time of their removal from the Southeast, these tribes had been promised a territory--and eventually, a state--where their nations could develop without the encroachment of the expanding United States. This promise went unfulfilled as the federal government lost interest in preserving the autonomy of Indian nations within its expanding borders and instead scheduled their termination. To withstand this latest threat, the Indian nations drew upon a long history of resisting the federal government's demand that they disappear. If necessary, they would enter the Union as American citizens, but they intended to enter with their rights intact. Though Sequoyah never became a state, it opened the door for an Indian presence in state politics and left an important legacy in the Oklahoma state constitution.

The historiographical record is nearly silent on the Sequoyah movement, in part because the movement failed, and in part because historians have concentrated on the white perspective. Through the use of Indian sources such as newspapers, letters, and tribal government records, this work shows that the nations made an astute political move designed to retain local tribal control and national identities within the larger United States. The movement's failure can not be attributed to those who worked so arduously for the cause or to the people they represented, but to the federal government's policy intolerance of American Indian sovereignty.


MPACT Scores for Mara Darleen Rutten

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-05-04 18:54:51

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Students under Mara Darleen Rutten

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None