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Sallisaw is a city and county seat of Sequoyah County. Its name was derived from the French word salaison meaning "salt meat" or "salt provisions." The population was 8,880 at the 2010 Census, an 11.2 percent increase from 7,891 at the 2000 census. Sallisaw is part of the Fort Smith, Arkansas–Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area. In the 1840s and 1850s, Sallisaw had been the name of a steamboat landing on the Arkansas River between Fort Smith and Fort Gibson. Modern Sallisaw's beginning as a permanent community began in 1887–1888, when Argyle Quesenbury and Will Watie Wheeler laid out lots for a town. Several post offices had existed in the area nearby, even before there was a named community. There was a post office called Childer's Station from 1873 to 1888 when its name was changed to Sallisaw. Another community fifteen miles north bore the name Sallisaw until 1888, when the name of the post office there was changed to Mays, remaining so until it closed in 1896. Will Watie Wheeler established several businesses in the town during the 1880s and 1890s. These included a cotton gin, saw mill, grist mill and lumberyard. In 1896, he opened the Coffin Shop, which later became the Wheeler Funeral Home. The latter was still doing business in Sallisaw in the twenty-first century. The local newspaper, Sequoyah County Times, began publication in 1932. It was founded by Wheeler Mayo, son of an earlier Sallisaw businessman, and his wife. As of 2005, the paper was still owned by the Mayo family.

Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central United States. It is the 20th most extensive and the 28th most populous of the 50 United States. The state's name is derived from the Choctaw words okla and humma. It is also known informally by its nickname, The Sooner State. On November 16, 1907, Oklahoma became the 46th state to enter the union. Its residents are known as Oklahomans, or informally "Okies," and its capital and largest city is Oklahoma City. A major producer of natural gas, oil, and agricultural products, Oklahoma relies on an economic base of aviation, energy, telecommunications, and biotechnology. In 2007, it had one of the fastest-growing economies in the United States, ranking among the top states in per capita income growth and gross domestic product growth. Oklahoma City and Tulsa serve as Oklahoma's primary economic anchors, with nearly two-thirds of Oklahomans living within their metropolitan statistical areas. With small mountain ranges, prairie, mesas, and eastern forests, most of Oklahoma lies in the Great Plains, Cross Timbers, and the U.S. Interior Highlands—a region especially prone to severe weather. In addition to having a prevalence of English, German, Scottish, Scotch-Irish, and Native American ancestry, more than 25 Native American languages are spoken in Oklahoma, second only to California.