Mayes County Roots
Named for Sam Houston Mayes, principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1895 to 1899, Mayes County was created by the Sequoyah Convention in 1905. As the ancestral home of Native American people, Mayes County has many prehistoric sites including evidence of Paleo-Indian, Archaic, Woodland, and Plains Village occupation periods. – the earliest of which is estimated to be before 6,000 B.C.
Many of the names within the County are credited to the French voyageurs that explored the area in the early 18th century, naming many of the waterways and other local sites. The state’s earliest mission, school, church and cemetery were a part of one of the first white settlements, Union Mission, in Oklahoma near present day Salina. Jean Pierre Chouteau, from whom the town of Chouteau derives its name, who traded with the Osage tribe that lived in the area.
CHEROKEE NATION RESERVATION
The Cherokee Nation is the sovereign government of the Cherokee people.
In Oklahoma, the Cherokee Nation exercises tribal jurisdiction over a 7,000 square mile area in northeastern Oklahoma which was established more than 180 years ago. This jurisdiction encompasses all or parts of 14 counties including Mayes County.
RURAL AND AGRICULTURAL LANDS
Mayes County consists primarily of rural and agricultural land uses, with around 60% of the land being dedicated to farmland. Information from the last census of agriculture (2017) indicates that there were approximately 271,232 acres at the time of the census. The fertile soils of the Ozark Plateau and the favorable conditions of the Prairie Plains facilitate the cultivation of many crops including corn, soybeans, sorghum, hay, wheat with more rugged lands used for cattle and dairy farming.