Robert Latham Owen, Jr. was one of the first two senators to represent the State of Oklahoma. Owen was a Cherokee through his mother who was a big part of his life. Owen aided Native Americans in many ways in the early part of the 20th century. Owen used his position to secure monetary gains for Native Americans through action in the United States justice system and through congressional legislation. After Owen finished getting a higher education at William and Lee University, he moved to the Indian Territory in the city of Salina. Here he taught at a Cherokee orphan asylum and held other senior positions in the area before he began practicing law in 1880. At that time, Indian Territory did not have a U.S. court system within its borders, but Owen promoted a mandatory arbitration system. Through this Owen was able to settle thousands of civil cases among the people of the Indian Territory. This lasted until Owen helped establish the U.S. courts in the territory in 1889. This was the beginning of many cases that Owen would be a part of when representing various Native American groups. The most important case for Owen was when he represented the Eastern Cherokees in a lawsuit against the United States government in 1906. The lawsuit involved land. and payment for that land as outlined in a treaty signed in 1893. Owen won this case for the Eastern Cherokee and was awarded nearly five million dollars. This was a victory not only for Owen and the Eastern Cherokee but also for all Native American groups. This allowed them to make at least some kind of income after being removed from their lands. Owen represented other bands such as the Western Cherokees who were awarded $800,000 and the Choctaws and Chickasaws who were awarded three... Oklahoma." New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf ?res=F70F10F7395517738DDDA80894DB405B888CF1D3 (accessed November 29, 2013). Keso, Edward E.. The senatorial career of Robert Latham Owen,. Gardenvale, PQ, Can.: Garden City Press, 1938. “First Senator from Oklahoma Dies.” Oklahoma Chronicles. http://digital.library.okstate.edu/chronicles/v025/v025p178.pdf (accessed November 30, 2013). Owen, Narcissa and Karen L. Kilcup. American Memoirs of a Cherokee Woman by Narcissa Owen , 1831-1907. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2005. Owen, Robert and Gertrude Coogan. "Forward." In Hawthorne, California: Omni Publications, 1-2.202 US 101; 588; 50 L. Ed. 949; 1906 US LEXIS 1522. Accessed 04/12/2013.