Carter, Charles David, 1868-1929

Charles David Carter (August 16, 1868 – April 9, 1929) was a Native American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a U.S. Representative from Oklahoma's 4th and 3rd congressional districts from 1907 to 1927.

Born near Boggy Depot, Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory (in present-day Atoka County, Oklahoma), he moved with his father to Mill Creek, a stage stand on the western frontier of the Chickasaw Nation, in April 1876. Of Chickasaw and Cherokee descent, he attended the Indian day schools and Chickasaw Manual Training Academy at Tishomingo. He was employed on a ranch and in a mercantile establishment in Ardmore, Oklahoma before serving as an auditor of public accounts of the Chickasaw Nation, as a member of the Chickasaw Council, and as superintendent of schools of the Chickasaw Nation. Carter was appointed mining trustee of Indian Territory by President McKinley in November 1900 and served four years in that role. Carter was Secretary of the first Democratic executive committee of the proposed State of Oklahoma from June to December 1906. Upon the admission of Oklahoma as a State into the Union, he was elected as a Democrat to the Sixtieth and to the nine succeeding Congresses, serving from November 16, 1907, to March 4, 1927.

After leaving Congress, Carter was appointed to the Oklahoma State highway commission, serving in that role until his death in Ardmore, Oklahoma.