In the 1950s, U.S. federal policy sought to terminate tribal nations, end federal trust responsibilities, and assimilate Native peoples into American society. Chief Guy Jennison (1930–1962) became an unusual supporter of this policy. Frustrated by decades of corruption, neglect, and paternalistic control by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Jennison viewed termination as a path to regain self-governance and freedom from federal oversight. Jennison and the Business Committee endorsed termination legislation, and Congress passed a law in 1956 that called for the termination of the Ottawa Tribe in 1959.

Most tribal members knew nothing about termination. Tribal member Norman Holmes, a BIA enrollment officer at the Anadarko Agency in Oklahoma, emerged as an ardent Ottawa opponent of the policy. Risking his career, Holmes fought to overturn the recently passed termination legislation, and he called for a special meeting on the issue in May 1958.

At the meeting, tribal debates on termination came down to a vote. Surprised by the sudden criticism of their leadership, Chief Jennison and the entire Business Committee voluntarily resigned to trigger an immediate tribal election. Nominations followed, with both Jennison and Clarence King, an opponent of termination and the cousin of Norman Holmes, put forward for chief. Although only three votes dictated the outcome, Jennison won reelection. It was the closest most Ottawas ever got to a vote on termination itself. Ultimately, four of the five members of the Business Committee who had endorsed termination legislation won reelection, with the only one not reseated opting not to run; however, in a move demonstrating the collective interests uniting all Ottawas, Clarence King won election as Second Chief. This was Clarence King’s first entrance into tribal politics, but he would succeed Jennison as chief in 1962 and spearheaded a cultural revival in the 1960s.

Together, Jennison and King developed the charter and bylaws for the Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma as a state-chartered non-profit organization. This would be the vehicle through which tribal government operated from 1959 until 1978, when the Ottawa were reinstated as a federally recognized tribe.