In January, 1901, full-blood Creeks under the leadership of Chitto Harjo, or Crazy Snake, made public their intention of retaining the old tribal government. Harjo claimed that his rights under the old treaties were preserved by his service as a Union soldier in the Civil War. He and his followers penalized tribesmen who accepted allotments and denied the old laws, whipping some of them as punishment for their disobedience

The prairie’s natural lack of timber and the absence of commercial building supplies made permanent housing impossible. Instead, families lived in “dugouts,” shelters dug from a hillside and covered with log and earth roofs, and “soddies,” homes made from blocks of turf which were stacked like bricks.

Dugout housing was insufficient to prevent invasion of homes by rattlesnakes, prairie rats, and poisonous insects. One family claimed they became so accustomed to snakes crawling across their beds at night that they would “just give a kick, and they [snakes] would hurry on somewhere else.”

The Sequoyah constitution received little serious attention.The Hamilton Bill, otherwise known as the Oklahoma Enabling Act, passed on June 16, 1906, providing for the creation of a single state combining the territories.