[The Last Chickasaw Legislature in Tishomingo, Indian Territory]

Pictured: Jacob L. Thompson, back row, first on left; William T. Ward, back row, tenth from right]
1905-1906, reproduction
Juanita Johnston Smith Collection 
Oklahoma Historical Society Research Division

Before Congress dissolved the Chickasaw Legislature as part of the lead-up to Oklahoma statehood, legislators in the last session posed together in front of the Capitol in Tishomingo, Vanderbilt alumni William Thomas Ward and Jacob Loren Thompson among them. After leaving Vanderbilt and returning to Indian Territory, many of the former students worked with the Cherokee and Chickasaw legislatures in a variety of capacities and were deeply involved in tribal politics. Oklahoma statehood in 1907 destroyed longstanding tribal governing structures, transformed politics in the Cherokee and Chickasaw Nations, and forced indigenous Vanderbilt alumni into new jobs and new roles serving their nations, the state of Oklahoma, and the United States.