Cedar County was a political subdivision of the

Choctaw Nation The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma (Choctaw: ''Chahta Okla'') is a Native American reservation occupying portions of southeastern Oklahoma in the United States. At roughly , it is the second-largest reservation in area after the Navajo, exceeding t ...

in the

Indian Territory Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United States, ...

. The county formed part of the nation’s

Apukshunnubbee District Apukshunnubbee District was one of three provinces, or districts, comprising the former Choctaw Nation in Indian Territory. Also called the Second District, it encompassed the southeastern one-third of the nation. The Apukshunnubbee District was ...

, or Second District, one of three administrative super-regions. The word for "Cedar" in the

Choctaw language The Choctaw language (Choctaw: ), spoken by the Choctaw, an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, US, is a member of the Muskogean languages, Muskogean language family. Chickasaw language, Chickasaw is a separate but closely related l ...

is ''Chuala''. The county was often referred to as Chuala County. Cedar County was established by the Choctaw Nation’s Doaksville Constitution of 1860. It ceased to exist on November 16, 1907, along with the Choctaw Nation and the Indian Territory, upon the advent of Oklahoma’s statehood. The territory comprising the former county is now included in the Pushmataha County and

McCurtain County McCurtain County is a county in the southeastern corner of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2020 census, its population was 30,814. Its county seat is Idabel. It was formed at statehood from part of the earlier Choctaw Nation in Indian ...

in Oklahoma. The county seat of Cedar County was Sulphur Springs, located near present-day

Rattan, Oklahoma Rattan is a town in Pushmataha County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 276 at the 2020 census. Geography Rattan is located in southern Pushmataha County at the intersection of Oklahoma routes 3 and 93. Rock Creek flows past just ...

in Pushmataha County. Like all Choctaw

counties A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

, Cedar County served as an election district for members of the National Council, and as a unit of local administration. Constitutional officers, all of whom served for two-year terms and were elected by the voters, included the

county judge The term county judge is applied as a descriptor, sometimes as a title, for a person who presides over a county court. In most cases, such as in Northern Ireland and the Victorian County Courts, a county judge is a judicial officer with civi ...

sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland, the , which is common ...

, and a ranger. The judge’s duties included oversight of overall county administration. The sheriff collected taxes, monitored unlawful intrusion by intruders (usually white Americans from the United States), and conducted the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

. The county ranger advertised and sold strayed

livestock Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...

. Choctaw political subdivisions were drawn according to easily recognizable or popular natural

landmarks A landmark is a recognizable natural or artificial feature used for navigation, a feature that stands out from its near environment and is often visible from long distances. In modern-day use, the term can also be applied to smaller structures ...

, such as

mountain ranges A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have arise ...

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

s or

streams A stream is a continuous body of surface water flowing within the bed and banks of a channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to by a variety of local or regional names. Long, large stream ...

. Cedar County’s boundaries were determined likewise—its western boundary was the

Kiamichi River The Kiamichi River is a river in southeastern Oklahoma, United States of America. A tributary of the Red River of the South, its headwaters rise on Pine Mountain in the Ouachita Mountains near the Arkansas border. From its source in Polk County, ...

and its eastern boundary was

Little River (Red River) The Little River is a tributary of the Red River of the South, Red River, with a total length of , within the Choctaw Nation, Choctaw Indian Reservation in southeastern Oklahoma and in southwestern Arkansas in the United States. Via the Red, ...

. Its northern border ran along the top of the

Kiamichi Mountains The Kiamichi Mountains (Choctaw: ''Nʋnih Chaha Kiamitia'') are a mountain range in southeastern Oklahoma. A subrange within the larger Ouachita Mountains that extend from Oklahoma to western Arkansas, the Kiamichi Mountains sit within Le Flor ...

south of Tuskahoma. The county took its name from Cedar Creek—today known as Big Cedar Creek—which in turn lent its name to Old Cedar Church, a

Choctaw The Choctaw ( ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States, originally based in what is now Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choct ...

Indian Methodist congregation around which the present-day settlement of Finley, Oklahoma was established. Cedar County was large, scenic and mountainous. Due to the rough terrain imposed by the Kiamichi Mountains the county was not home to any towns, only isolated settlements and encampments. After the Choctaw Nation’s settlement by whites in the 1880s and 1890s the county became known for its

hunting Hunting is the Human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products (fur/hide (sk ...

and

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

opportunities, and

tourists Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as ...

from

Paris, Texas Paris is a city and county seat of Lamar County, Texas, United States. Located in Northeast Texas at the western edge of the Piney Woods, the population of the city was 24,171 in 2020. History Present-day Lamar County was part of Red River ...

and elsewhere took the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway to

Antlers, Oklahoma Antlers is a city in and the county seat of Pushmataha County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 2,221 as of the 2020 United States census. The town was named for a kind of tree that becomes festooned with antlers shed by deer, and ...

from which they traveled east to Cedar County for hunting and fishing expeditions lasting for several days or more.Many accounts were published by the ''Antlers Democrat'', ''Antlers News'', ''Antlers News Record'', and ''Antlers American'' newspapers.

References

Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma Indian Territory 1860 establishments 1907 disestablishments History of Indian Territory