Territory/State of Oklahoma legislature, House journals: 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.” Addi-tional
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”. The journals of the Council and House of Representatives for that first session were published jointly. Not until the 2nd
session of the Territorial Legislative Assembly in 1893 were the legislative journals issued separately. 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.)
(Documents that are part of the Early Records collection were digitized from a microfilm copy of titles originally held the Library of Congress and the
Oklahoma State Library).
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