A look into the Archives: Kate Barnard Oklahomas First Woman Elected into Statewide Office

Kate Barnard, Oklahoma’s first woman elected to statewide office, became one of the state’s most powerful reformers by fighting for children, Native American families, prisoners, the poor, and corruption long before she even had the right to vote.

Catherine Ann “Kate” Barnard, born in Geneva, Nebraska, in 1875, spent her early years in the care of relatives and neighbors before joining her father in Oklahoma City in 1891. 

She attended St. Joseph’s Academy, intending to become a teacher, and after earning her territorial teaching certificate, she taught in several schools within commuting distance of Oklahoma City.

Alongside her teaching work, she enrolled in secretarial courses at a local business school, which helped her secure a series of clerical patronage positions within the territorial government. 

After serving as a hostess in the Oklahoma exhibit at the St. Louis World’s Fair and witnessing severe urban poverty firsthand, Kate Barnard committed herself to charity work and to advocating for children—especially protecting Native American children and their land. 

Her political career began in 1906, when she successfully urged delegates at Oklahoma’s Constitutional Convention to adopt two major reforms: banning child labor and establishing the office of Commissioner of Charities and Corrections.

Backed by the Democratic Party, she ran for that office and won by a larger margin than any other candidate in Oklahoma’s first general election, at a time when women still could not vote. 

Barnard’s fight began after her reelection in 1910, when she turned her attention to the widespread exploitation of Native American orphans’ land in Oklahoma. 

Under federal policy, the majority of the land allotted to Native families, who at the time were not considered citizens, was held in trust. 

Native children as young as six or seven were losing land rich in oil, coal, and timber through fraudulent mortgages, forged signatures, inflated debt, and sham guardians arranged by local officials. As Commissioner of Charities and Corrections, Barnard was one of the only state officials willing to investigate these abuses. 

Traveling across Oklahoma, she met with Native families, collected affidavits, examined county records, and gathered evidence. She then discovered that some county judges were approving land transfers without notifying families, while others mortgaged or sold off children’s allotments for pennies. 

She publicly accused influential businessmen, attorneys, and politicians of orchestrating a conspiracy to strip Native Americans, especially full-blood orphans, of more than $200 million worth of land, which would translate to several billion dollars today. 

She called the practice “the most cold-blooded form of graft in the United States,” and began drafting legislation to protect Native estates from fraudulent sales. 

Senate Bill 350, introduced at her request, required all proposed sales or mortgages of Indian orphans’ land to be reviewed by her office, and mandated independent attorneys to investigate each case before any transfer could occur.

 Oil and land barons saw Barnard’s reforms as a threat to their profits, and legislators who had previously supported her were now turned against her. Over the next two years, they retaliated by blocking her bills, smearing her in newspapers, and slashing her department’s budget to a point where she could barely operate. 

Even with those circumstances, she persisted; she traveled to Washington, D.C., urging federal officials to intervene and demanding that restrictions on Native lands remain in place to protect them from buyers. 

In her speeches, she warned that without safeguards, Oklahoma would create “a hundred thousand paupers” out of the state’s Native families, but her calls were unanswered. By 1915, her office had been stripped of funding and authority, and she was pushed out of public service. 

Yet, she continued privately advocating for Native rights throughout her life. Although she died in 1930 with little recognition, the story of her fight on behalf of Native American Children remains one of the most significant chapters in Oklahoma history. 

Today, much of Barnard’s work, her reports, letters, and investigations into the exploitation of Native children, survives in the UCO Library Archives, preserving the story of her fight for justice. 

Her legacy during Native American Heritage Month stands as a powerful reminder of the courage it takes to confront injustice, even when it costs you everything.