Founded in 1899 under the name, Metz, the City of Nowata is the county seat of Nowata County located within the northeast region or better known as "Green Country" of the State of Oklahoma.
The root of the Nowata namesake goes back to the area’s years of American Indian settlement, most notably the Delaware. For it’s the Delaware word “no-we-ata,” meaning “welcome,” that Nowata is said to garner it’s name from. This historical connection to our Delaware ancestors is the core reason for the new City messaging campaign, Welcome is Our Name.
Today, the City of Nowata boasts an estimated 15% of its total population being registered citizens of the Cherokee Nation and the City proudly resides within the Cherokee Nation Reservation.
