Robert Latham Owen was elected in 1907 as one of the first two United States senators for the state of Oklahoma. He is one of a small group of United States senators known to be of Native American descent. He served three terms in the Senate. A member of the Cherokee Nation, Owen taught orphaned Cherokee children and represented the Five Civilized Tribes as a federal Indian agent before entering politics as a Progressive Democrat. In the Senate, Owen focused on national banking policy. The first chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking and Currency, he cosponsored legislation creating the Federal Reserve System in 1913.
