Thlopthlocco Tribal Town, a federally recognized Muscogee Indian tribe, is headquartered in Okemah.

Historically occupied by the Osage and Quapaw, who ceded their lands to the United States by 1825, the area was assigned to the Creek Nation and specifically the Thlopthlocco Tribal Town after Indian Removal of tribes from the Southeast United States in the 1830s.

In March 1902, Chief Okemah built a bark house in his tribe's traditional fashion.

[citation needed] In preparation for Oklahoma's statehood, the Dawes Commission was authorized in 1896 to work with the Five Civilized Tribes to enroll their members for allotments of tribal land to individual households.

After allotment, the government was going to declare the remaining tribal lands "surplus" and sell them to European-American settlers.

Okemah was platted by a group of Shawnee residents in March 1902 on land belonging to Mahala and Nocus Fixico, full-blood Creek.

The Fixicos had no legal right at the time to sell their holding, as enrollment of tribal members on the Dawes Roll continued until 1906, and no land-sales were to take place by Indians until it was completed.

In the town's first week, the following stores were established: four general merchandise, two hardware, one 5 & 10 cent store, three drugstores, four groceries, three wagon-yards, four lumberyards, three cafes, one bakery, two millineries, four livery-barns, three blacksmiths, two dairies, two cotton-gins, and two weekly newspapers.

[6] The town's first state-chartered bank began business the day of the opening, April 22, 1902, in a tent on the northwest corner of the present Fifth and Broadway (now City Hall).

J. E. Galloway was the first mayor; Perry Rodkey, first postman; E. D. Dexter, first hotel operator; Dill ran the first telephone company; John D. Richards had the first hardware store; McGee Brothers put in the first cotton gin; and E. E. Shook established the first lumberyard.

Although a police force was organized in the town soon after its founding (a Mr. Franklin wore the first city policeman's badge), vigilantes were active during Okemah's early years.

In 1911, a black woman, 35-year-old Laura Nelson, and her teenage son, L. D., were lynched by a mob of white men.

Accused of killing a police officer in an altercation at their home near Paden, they were kidnapped from the Okfuskee county jail and hanged from a suspension bridge over the North Canadian River.

[11] Okemah’s Municipal Park at Ash St. and S. 2nd St., now with picnic tables and playground equipment, was originally constructed by the WPA in 1935.

[15] Okemah Airport (FAA Identifier: F81), two miles south of town, features a 3,400-foot runway.