Mayes County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2020 census, the population was 39,046. Its county seat is Pryor Creek. Named for Samuel Houston Mayes, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1895 to 1899, it was originally created at the Sequoyah Convention in August 1905.
Pensacola Dam on the Neosho River in-between Disney and Langley on Oklahoma State Highway 28, creating Grand Lake o' the Cherokees.
The Cherokee Nation, formerly known as the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is the largest of three federally recognized tribes of Cherokees in the United States. It includes people descended from members of the Old Cherokee Nation who relocated, due to increasing pressure, from the Southeast to Indian Territory and Cherokees who were forced to relocate on the Trail of Tears. The tribe also includes descendants of Cherokee Freedmen, Absentee Shawnee, and Natchez Nation. As of 2023, over 450,000 people were enrolled in the Cherokee Nation.
Example of a Cherokee census card for Fairland, Oklahoma from the first few years of the 20th century.
Cherokee Nation Historic Courthouse in Tahlequah, built in 1849, is the oldest public building standing in the state of Oklahoma.
Cherokee Nation Marshal Service Patch
Basket weaving workshop sponsored by the nation.