Oklahoma City has a council-manager form of government. The voters elect a mayor and eight council members to four-year terms. The council appoints a city manager. In 1971, the voters elected Patience S. Latting mayor. She became the first woman mayor of a United States city of more than 200,000 people.
Sales taxes provide most of the city's revenue.
Creek and Seminole Indians lived in what is now the Oklahoma City area before white settlers first arrived. In 1889, the government bought the land there from the two tribes. By the evening of that day, about 10,000 settlers had arrived there. Oklahoma City was incorporated in 1890. By 1910, it was the state's largest city.