Hastings, William Wirt, 1866-1938

William Wirt Hastings (December 31, 1866 – April 8, 1938) was a Native American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as U.S. Representative from Oklahoma's 2nd congressional district from 1915 to 1921 and 1923 to 1935.

Born in Benton County, Arkansas, he moved with his parents to a farm at Beatties Prairie, Delaware County (then part of the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory), Oklahoma, and attended the Cherokee tribal school before graduating from Cherokee Male Seminary at Tahlequah, Oklahoma. He worked as a teacher in Cherokee tribal schools, briefly interrupting his work to earn a law degree from Vanderbilt University. He served as Attorney general for the Cherokee Nation from 1891 to 1895, and as National attorney for the Cherokee tribe from 1907 to 1914. He served as delegate to the Democratic State convention in 1912, as well as delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1912.

He was elected to the U.S. House in 1912, serving three terms until being defeated by Republican Alice Robertson, the first time in American history that an incumbent U.S. Congressman was defeated by a female candidate. Hastings defeated Robertson in 1922 and was re-elected five times thereafter, retiring in 1934. In Congress, he chaired the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Interior from 1917 to 1919. For several years Hastings served on the Committee on Indian Affairs. He sponsored legislation affecting American Indians, supporting education and federal protection of their land. In 1925 he presented the Democratic Party viewpoint in a committee report on Indian affairs in Oklahoma. In part through his efforts in 1934, the main provisions of the Indian Reorganization (Wheeler-Howard) Act excluded Oklahoma's Indians. Hastings also served on the Committee on Appropriations.

After leaving Congress, Hastings resumed practicing law in Tahlequah. On January 22, 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt commissioned him as chief of the Cherokees for one day. Hastings died in Muskogee, Oklahoma.