Territory/State of Oklahoma session laws: title varies, 1890–, various state printers, 1891– (The area now known as Oklahoma was once part of a vast
“Indian Territory” assigned by the United States, both to its indigenous inhabitants, the Plains Indians, and also to those Native Americans of the
“Five Civilized Tribes” that were driven west of the Mississippi in the event known to history as the “Trail of Tears.” Additional newly-landless
eastern tribes such as the Delaware and Shawnee were moved in following the Civil War. At that time also began a great migration of white settlers into the
Indian Territory, so that by the 1880s the conflicts between Native Americans and white settlers became so exacerbated that it became federal policy
to separate the two groups. In 1890 the western section of what is now Oklahoma was organized into the Territory of Oklahoma, while the Native
Americans were restricted to the eastern section of the future state in a smaller Indian Territory. The first session of the western section’s Oklahoma
Territorial Legislative Assembly met in August of 1890, with the upper house of the Legislative Assembly during the territorial period being styled the
“Council”. Finally, in 1907 the Territory of Oklahoma and the Indian Territory were joined to become the State of Oklahoma. The first legislative session
of the State of Oklahoma began in Dec. of 1907.)
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