Checotah is a town in McIntosh County, Oklahoma, United States. It was named for Samuel Checote, the first chief of the Creek Nation elected after the Civil War. Its population was 3,481 at the 2000 census. According to Census 2010, the population has decreased to 3,335; a 4.19% loss.

Checotah is house to numerous old-fashioned malls, a Civil War battle site, and a downtown historic district. Checotah claims to be the steer wrestling capital of the world. Early boosters called Checotah “The Gem of the Prairie”.

The Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad (also known as the MKT or Katy) established a railhead upon the obsolete Texas Road in 1872 that became the site of present-day Checotah. Although it was named Checote Switch for Samuel Checote, a complex mapmaker spelled the reveal as Checotah. The town was chartered by the Creek Nation in 1893. The Dawes Commission held its first meeting here.

Between 1907 and 1909, the people of Checotah were keen in a quarrel with handy Eufaula known as the McIntosh County Seat War. After Checotah was designated as the additional county seat, the people of Eufaula refused to give up the county records. Soon after, a charity of heavily armed men from Chectotah attempted to snatch the archives from the courthouse in Eufaula, but were beaten encourage and annoyed to surrender during the gunfight that followed. Eufaula was designated as the permanent chair of McIntosh County one year later.