Bluejacket is a town in eastern Craig County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 339 at the 2010 census, an increase of 23.7 percent over the figure of 274 recorded in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

.CensusViewer: Population of the City of Bluejacket (Blue Jacket), Oklahom

/ref> Bluejacket was named for its first postmaster, the Rev. Charles Blue Jacket, one-time chief of the

Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...

and grandson of noted leader

Blue Jacket Blue Jacket, or Weyapiersenwah (c. 1743 – 1810), was a war chief of the Shawnee people, known for his militant defense of Shawnee lands in the Ohio Country. Perhaps the preeminent American Indian leader in the Northwest Indian War, i ...

.Craig County Genealogical Society, "Bluejacket," ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture''
Accessed April 18, 2015.

History

Bluejacket was founded as a station designated by the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway (KATY) in 1871, as it built a line through

Indian Territory The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign ...

from Kansas to Texas. A post office was established in 1882, and Chief Bluejacket was appointed as the first postmaster. The town was incorporated in the Cherokee Nation in 1894. During the late 1930s, two tornadoes severely damaged Bluejacket. The first, on May 4, 1938, destroyed some barns and killed a farmer and several head of livestock. The second, on August 24, 1939, destroyed much of the business district. This storm killed two young men and caused an estimated half million dollars' worth of damage in the county.

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of t ...

, the town has a total area of , all land. It is approximately northeast of Vinita, the county seat.

Demographics

In the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

of 2000, there were 274 people, 99 households, and 69 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 112 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 66.42%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

, 18.25% Native American, 1.09%

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, and 14.23% from two or more races. There were 99 households, out of which 40.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.5% were married couples living together, 13.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.3% were non-families. 28.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 18.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.72 and the average family size was 3.33. In the town, the population was spread out, with 31.8% under the age of 18, 9.1% from 18 to 24, 24.5% from 25 to 44, 21.5% from 45 to 64, and 13.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 81.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 81.6 males. The median income for a household in the town was $26,458, and the median income for a family was $33,250. Males had a median income of $26,000 versus $23,750 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. Per capita i ...

for the town was $11,755. About 11.3% of families and 14.3% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...

, including 17.3% of those under the age of eighteen and 30.6% of those 65 or over.

Notable people

Fern Holland Fern Leona Holland (August 5, 1970 – March 9, 2004) was an American lawyer who was killed in the Iraq conflict that began in 2003. Holland died on March 9, 2004, while working for the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq. Profession ...

, a lawyer who was killed in the

Iraq conflict Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

Martha Goodwin Tunstall Martha Goodwin Tunstall (1838-1911) was an abolitionist and Unionist, supporter of Radical Republicans and one of the earliest organizers of the Texas women's suffragist movement. She was politically active in the movement from the late 1860s t ...

, women's suffragist and temperance activist, d. 1911 in Bluejacket

References

{{authority control Towns in Craig County, Oklahoma Towns in Oklahoma