Saturday, November 26, 2022

Celebrating Native American Heritage Month: William Wirt Hastings, first US Representative from Oklahoma


 William Wirt Hastings, born December 31, 1866 in Benton County, Arkansas, moved with his family to the Cherokee Nation, in Indian Territory.  He attended Cherokee tribal school and graduated from Cherokee Male Seminary in 1884.  He graduated from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee in 1889 and began his law practice in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. 

He was first elected to the US House of Representatives, making him the first Native American representative in Congress from Oklahoma. He served for three terms from March 1915 to March 1921.  He was defeated by Alice Mary Robertson in 1920, but re-elected in 1923 and served for five more terms to January 1935.  He did not seek re-election in 1934 and returned to his practice in Tahlequah. 

He passed away in April 1938 in Tahlequah.


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