Choctaws Enact Plan for Comprehensive System of Schools as They Fully Commit to Educating Their Youth
One of the top priorities for the Choctaws after the Removal to Indian Territory were schools for their children. They envisioned the need for future Choctaw leaders and speakers who were educated, well-spoken and able to navigate the confusing white man’s world. The missionaries flooding into the new communities were more than willing to partner with the Choctaws if it meant also teaching Choctaws about their religious beliefs.
1842 Witnessed the Greatest Step Forward in Choctaw Education
Only nine years after leaving everything they knew behind in Mississippi, the Choctaws began to pursue their dream of education for their children. As historian Angie Debo termed it, “the greatest step forward in Choctaw education was taken in 1842, when the Choctaw Council provided for the establishment of a comprehensive system of schools.” [Rise and Fall of the Choctaw Republic, page 60]. By1848 the Choctaws had nine boarding schools supported by tribal funds, and usually operated under a contract with a missionary board, which furnished the teachers and paid their salaries.
>>> Link to Story-Maps article, with an interactive map and photos of six early Choctaw schools. Be sure to view ALL the photos. There are 4-5 for each school. Click on the first photo and cycle through all the photos by clicking on the > symbol on right side.
- Opened February 1844 – Spencer Academy was located nine miles north of current day Sawyer, supervised by Rev. J. B. Ramsey. Destroyed by fire 1900 with loss of life of several students.
- Opened 1844 – Fort Coffee Academy, at an abandoned military post on the Arkansas, five miles from Skullyville, supervised by Rev. W. L. McAlister; 54 students. Destroyed by Union forces during the Civil War.
- Opened 1845 – Armstrong Academy in the Pushmataha District, two miles from the Fort Smith, supervised by the Rev. Ramsey D. Potts. Destroyed by fire in 1921; site listed on the Nation Register of Historic Places.
- Opened 1846 – Hope Academy for Girls, near Skullyville; 25 students. Destroyed by fire the night of Dec 30, 1896.
- Funding approved 1842 for the support of schools established earlier by the American Board. From the “Annual Report of the Commissioners of Indian Affairs”, 1847, submitted by Samuel M. Rutherford, Acting Supt. Western Territory, pages 219-221.
- Chuahla Female Seminary at Pine Ridge near Fort Towson, supervised by the Rev. Cyrus Kingsbury; 44 students.
- Wheelock Female Seminary at Wheelock Mission, 15 miles east of Fort Towson [Military Post], supervised by the Rev. Alfred Wright; 45 students. In operation until the 1950s when students were sent to Jone Academy.
- Norwalk School for Boys, 5 miles from the Rev. Alfred Wright residence, under the immediate charge of Mr. H. U. Pitkin; 27 students
- Igunobi Female Seminary, at Goodwater Mission near the SE corner of the Choctaw country, supervised by the Rev. Cyrus Kingsbury; 50 students.
- Koonshu Female Seminary, opened 1842, about 4 miles west of current-day town of Frogville, supervised by the Rev. Ebenezer Hotchkin.
- Goodland Academy evolved from the early 1835 mission Yakni Achukma (Good Land) – Two Presbyterian ministers, Rev. Ebenezer Hotchkin and Rev. Cyrus Kingsbury, established this early mission in southeastern Indian Territory. Choctaw families recognized this good land as a place they could build their community.
“William Fields, a full-blood Choctaw, built the first house in 1838 on the Goodland property, soon to be followed by other Choctaw homes. As the community grew, the most vital concern of the Indian people was the education of their children. In 1848 the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), recognized the need for a permanent missionary to Good Land and sent Rev. and Mrs. John Lathrop to this mission station. John Lathrop built the first structure, a two-room log manse (house occupied by a minister of a Presbyterian church), where he and his wife lived and ministered to the Choctaws living in the surrounding community.”
“In 1850, the Rev. Oliver Stark and his wife Margaret moved to the mission to lay the groundwork for a boarding school. Rev. Stark mastered the Choctaw language in a remarkably short three years. Margaret began teaching four young Choctaw boys in her home with the Bible as her only textbook. Starting primarily as a day school, within two years the number had grown to 42 Indian children. Orphaned children were boarded by families on present day Goodland property, so they could receive an education.” ~ Goodland Academy website
Student Stipends for Eastern Colleges
“In addition, the Choctaws began the practice of sending a number of selected graduates from their boarding schools to attend college in the “States” at public expense, and several of the future Choctaw leaders received degrees from Dartmouth, Union, Yale, and other colleges. Besides the boarding schools, day or neighborhood schools were established rapidly in the various communities. At first these were the result of local enterprise or missionary encouragement, but very soon they were supported by public appropriations. In 1860 the Choctaws reported five hundred children enrolled in these neighborhood schools, which with the boarding school attendance brought the total school enrollment up to nine hundred. [Debo, page 61]
There is no complete record of the young men who went east to further their education. The most well-known were the Rev. Allen Wright, who served a term as a Principal Chief 1877-1870, and the great Choctaw historian, Peter J. Hudson, who was superintendent of the Tuskahoma Female Seminary as a young man. Wright graduated from Union College, Schenectady, NY and Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Another outstanding student was the Rev. William McKinney, who graduated from the Yale School of Divinity. Wright’s son, Eliphalet N. Wright, also attended Union College, graduating in 1884 with a Doctor of Medicine degree from Albany Medical College, Albany, NY.
At some point the Choctaw leaders realized that their young, educated men would want an educated wife. One such Eastern-educated woman, Jane Frances Austin, married rising Choctaw politician Jackson McCurtain future Principal Chief. She outlived her husband by 35 years, becoming one of the brilliant thought leaders for the blossoming Choctaw Nation from her home in Tuskahoma.
Another Choctaw figure, a lawyer and interpreter prominent in his day, was Alinton Telle, a nephew of Chief Allen Wright.
Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory
“He took his college preparatory work at Kemper Military Academy in Missouri, and graduated from Southwestern Presbyterian University at Clarksville, Tennessee, in 1879. He completed the study of law in Albany, New York, and was admitted to the Bar in the State of New York, in 1881.
Alinton Telle was appointed National Secretary of the Choctaw Nation in 1888 and was elected to the same office the next year, serving the four-year term until 1889. Mr. Telle was an excellent writer in English and was considered the best interpreter and translator serving in the United States Courts of the Indian Territory. From 1897 to 1900, he was a member of the Choctaw Commission in the work of the U.S. Dawes Commission when making the final Choctaw Rolls for allotment of lands in severalty. He resumed the practice of law in Atoka in 1900, in partnership with J. H. Chambers.”
~~From “Biographical Notes,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Autumn 1959, p 300.
I often wonder if Simon Dwight benefited from an eastern education. He was appointed the first superintendent for Jones Academy when it opened in 1891. Sadly, Simon Dwight fell ill and passed away in January 1894 [view his memorial page HERE.] He was the father of Choctaw Chief Ben Dwight.
Several Baptist ministers visited Jones Academy in 1893 and reported 90 male students enrolled. They also reported that the Choctaw government was funding an eastern education for 40 students at a cost of $300 each. ~reported in Baptist Watchman (McAlester, Oklahoma) Thursday, December 21, 1893, page 5, col. 2 (see below).
In the fall of 1892, the Tuskahoma Female Institute/Academy opened its doors, built at the cost of $22,000 at the direction of the Choctaw General Council. Its first Superintendent was Peter J. Hudson, who capably served as Superintendent for six years. Two of his teachers were Miss Anna Wright (Ludlow), front row, second right), and Miss Katherine Wright (Morris), back row, second left, the daughters of former Chief Allen Wright. The Tuskahoma Academy was in operation as a girls’ school as late as 1925 when it was accidentally destroyed by fire. See Muriel H, Wright, “Historic Spots in the Vicinity of Tuskahoma,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Spring 1931, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp 27-42.
Choctaw Orphan Schools
and the Miracle of Atoka Baptist Academy
In addition to income received from the sale of orphan lands in Mississippi, the Choctaw General Council allocated a yearly sum to the Orphan Fund. I am not sure if the funds were used to reimburse schools that accepted orphans or not. Below is an article that mentions two schools that received orphans as students: Armstrong Academy and Wheelock Seminary.
In October 1884 the Rev. J. S. Murrow, with backing by the Baptist Missionary Board, applied to the Choctaw Nation for permission to build the Atoka Baptist Academy for the education of Choctaw children. It was a miracle that the school came into existence and educated youth for almost twenty years. Without funds from the Choctaw Nation, the Baptist Board has a struggle – here are a few highlights along the way.
- In March 1887 the trustees of the Atoka Baptist Academy purchased buildings in Atoka in anticipation of opening the school in Sept 1887. It was common for smaller schools to house orphans with nearby charitable families when the school had no onsite housing.
- In April 1889 the school announced that total enrollment at the academy was 117 students, 57 of which were “native students” and of this number, about 25 were full-blood Choctaws. The same article pleaded for donations to build a boarding house for students who come from a great distance.
- Upon his death in 1889 at Wilburton, Choctaw Chief Thompson McKinney left two young surviving children. In the 1939 “Story of Choctaw Chiefs,” Peter Hudson mentions that the two orphans were taken to the Murrow Orphan Home at Atoka by their guardian. Possibly Mr. Hudson is remembering the Atoka Baptist Academy.
- In February 1890 school principal Rev. F. B. Smith reflected back on the two-year effort. Beginning with 40 students and three teachers, the academy had reached enrollment of 138 students and five teachers, with a clean pleasant boarding-house for students, who were charged $10 per month including washing. Each pupil was expected to work one hour each day.
- In 1892 the school advertisement advises potential Choctaw students that the Choctaw Nation will pay for their tuition.
- Finally in October 1897, after years of non-support, the Atoka Baptist Academy secured a contract with the Choctaw Supt. of Education to educate and board 50 orphan children – board, books, clothing and medical attention. In one news report, the Choctaw Council appropriated $5500 to the school for the care of orphan students [Indian Citizen, 21 Oct 1897, page 5].
- Under the Curtis Amendment of 1898 (supplement to the Dawes Act) the Choctaw Nation lost its sovereignty and right to govern, including right to manage school funds. The federal government assumed management and funding of all Choctaw schools.
- A rash of school fires ended the existence of many of these boarding schools, New Hope Seminary (1896), Spencer Academy (1900), Armstrong Academy (1921) and Tuskahoma Academy (1926) to mention a few of them. Others like the highly successful Bloomfield Girls Academy, operated by the Chickasaws, were able to re-build.
- The Atoka Baptist Academy continued through May1904 but did not re-open.
Meanwhile, in November 1902, a group of Baptists lead by the Rev. J. S. Murrow filed a petition with the U.S. District Court in McAlester for the incorporation of the Murrow Indian Orphans Home at Atoka, to be used exclusively for full blood orphans from all of the five civilized tribes. The federal government had placed the estates of all orphan and minor Indian children in the care of the U.S. District courts.
As you know, the story grows dark and bleak for a while. Even Choctaw parents were required to get guardianship papers for their own children. The courts required expensive bonds which could not be met by many of the Choctaws, opening the door for graft and fraud. An organization of “good-hearted Christian men” called the Southern Trust Company approached Rev. Murrow to help him obtain guardianships of the Indian orphans.
The Murrow Indian Orphans Home was built, and classes were organized by Prof. Edwin H. Rishel, the long-time Principal of the former Atoka Baptist Academy. The students learned useful trades such as woodworking, printing and farming. Meanwhile the town of Atoka built its first public school, a two-story brick building with eight classrooms and an auditorium. Many young souls fell through the societal cracks during that time, as still happens today, but the Baptist missionaries must be commended for their hard work in maintaining an important private academy for almost 20 years when it was desperately needed.
Saturday, 01 Nov 1890, page 2
A Glimpse into Boarding School Life
Aunt Martha Jackson Remembers Her Days at Old Spencer Academy
Mr. John Reed was the last Superintendent I knew, and I worked there six years. In addition to my work around the school, I washed and ironed clothes for the teachers. I helped the seamstress too. They made all of the boys’ clothes, and they sure dressed them nicely. They made their little jackets of gray jeans, and lined them, so they would be warm for winter. They fed them well, too. They had men cooks, generally. One I know was Mr. Sam Pipkin, a white man. He was the best cook I ever saw.
The teachers were all men, but they had women seamstresses. I remember two of the teachers were named, Harrison and Pennybacker.
They had a commissary there and had just everything in it that they needed. Of course, they ran out of things, but would haul supplies from Paris, Texas. Sometimes they would have to get supplies at Doaksville in the Indian Territory. There were always stores there, and they kept a pretty good stock of things.
There was an orchard at Spencer too, and they raised little patches of things to eat, and we canned lots of stuff for winter eating. They kept milk cows too. There was a big spring down close to the creek, close to the Superintendent’s house, and there was a milk house over the spring branch, with a trough in the branch and they kept milk in that to keep it cool. The spring was all walled up so nothing could get in it. They tell me that that spring is so filled in that it is very small now and that the milk trough is covered over with sand and the creek is filled up so with sand that it overflows the spring. It never did then.
When school began in the fall, every boy was cleaned up and his hair cut, for fear of lice and diseases. They were cleaned up good. The boys had to cut each other’s hair. The larger boys were assigned to take care of the smaller ones, and see that they were properly dressed, changed and bathed frequently, and ready for meals, etc.
The large boys cleaned and scrubbed their rooms, changed the linens, gathered up the laundry and took it to the wash house. Every boy was assigned certain tasks. Some waited on tables, some worked in gardens and patches, some cut wood, some milked, some cleaned yards, and then they changed around, took turn about.
We had a big bell that could be heard eight miles away, on a clear day. I heard it after I moved eight miles away. That bell was rung at four o’clock for us to get up.
We had alarm clocks too. We all got up and got ready for breakfast and when it was ready, then Mr. Coulton [the Superintendent] would always come to the kitchen door and tell us to be ready to come in the dining room for prayer meeting. We knew enough to put on clean aprons and be in there. Everybody on the place had to be there. The bell was rung again. It was rung at noon and at supper. It didn’t ring at bedtime for everybody knew we had to be in bed at nine o’clock.
Everybody had tasks to do until school took up at nine o’clock in the morning and after it turned out at four. Mr. Coulton was mighty strict about the morning prayers and so was Mr. Reed. Mr. Reed would let us colored folks go into the church sometimes, but we could never go to any parties or dances. I never went to parties or dances until after I left there.
The boys were not supposed to speak Choctaw, but they did sometimes, and as boys will, they sometimes fought a little and had to be punished but they were generally kept so busy they had not much time to get into trouble.
Occasionally one would take a notion to run off, but they always brought them back. I know of one little fellow who was brought back three times.
Sometimes when the boys would get through with tasks on Saturday, they were permitted to go fishing, or squirrel hunting down on the creek. The only game I ever saw them play was croquet. The school accommodated about forty boys and was always full.
There was a hospital room at the academy too where they took the pupils when they were sick. Mrs. Morrison was “Mother” to the boys and nursed them when they were sick and if they were sick enough to need attention at night, she took them to her room. She was still there when I left but she went away.
It was at a big school “turn out” that my old master and mistress came to, that I got acquainted with them again and went back to work for them. My old master’s name was Mr. Sampson Folsom and my old mistress – his wife – name was Mrs. Kitty Folsom. I called her “Miss Kitty.” I would work in the field and in the house and would do just anything they had for me to do. They were Choctaw Indians. My parents were their slaves when I was born. “
NOTE:
“The parents of Aunt Martha Jackson, a black Negress, and evidently almost a full blood Negro, were slaves of a Choctaw man, Sampson Folsom and his wife, Kitty. Her father died when she was almost a baby and she was too young to remember when the slaves were freed, but when they were, she went to Spencer Academy to do just any kind of work that they wanted her to do. She assisted in the cooking, sewing, cleaning, and did just anything that a girl of thirteen could do. She went to Spencer Academy just before school was resumed, after the Civil War [about 1870]. So she must have been born about 1857 at Horse Prairie, about fifteen miles southeast of the present town of Hugo. That would make her nearly eighty years old now” [at the time of the 1937 interview for the Indian Pioneer History Project]. Full interview available in the online Western History Collections, University of Oklahoma; link – http://digital.libraries.ou.edu/cdm/ref/collection/indianpp/id/2973
Further Reading
“The first school that I attended was at this place. It was home to me and today I can still see that same old school, the superintendent, teachers, matrons, and students as in 1904. Today nothing remains […] it would be impossible for one to locate the place but I can walk right to the spot, the same location where I first learned how to write my name, though the place has now returned back to what it was in 1844.”
~Peter W. Cole’s recollections of the old Armstrong Academy, Interview with Pete W. Cole (PDF), 1937, Western History Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries, Norman
Marking the Historic Spots in Oklahoma: Fort Coffee
THROUGH the influence of Major Francis Armstrong, Choctaw agent and a close friend of President Jackson, a new military post was established in 1834, fifteen miles up the Arkansas from Fort Smith. The new post was named Fort Coffee in honor of Gen. John Coffee of Tennessee, who had been one of the U.S. commissioners in negotiating the removal treaty with the Choctaws in Mississippi four years earlier. Fort Coffee was located on the south bank of the Arkansas on a high bluff, known as the Hirundal or Swallow Rock, about five miles north of Scullyville [later called Wilson’s Rock].
the location of the old Fort Coffee military post
From the tower of the guardhouse erected on the eminence of the Fort Coffee bluff, boats on the Arkansas could be seen many miles away. The officers’ quarters, barracks, etc., were substantial log buildings erected back from the bluff in a natural park of elms, oaks, pines, cedars, and other native trees, under the shade of which a rich sward of blue grass flourished winter and summer. With the establishment of the new post, Fort Smith was again abandoned. The garrison was withdrawn to Fort Coffee which was continuously occupied until its abandonment in 1838.
Following the suggestion of the commissioner of Indian Affairs, T. Hartley Crawford, in 1840, an academy for Choctaw boys was established in the abandoned buildings of Fort Coffee three years later, provisions having been made for its maintenance by an annual appropriation of $6,000 through the General Council of the Choctaw Nation. The operation of the academy was placed in charge of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Rev. William H. Goode and Rev. William Benson, being the first superintendent and principal teacher, respectively.
A boarding school for girls was also provided for in the same appropriation to be operated by the Methodist Episcopal Church. This school was located at a large spring about a mile cast of Scullyville and named New Hope. Both Fort Coffee academy and New Hope were in continuous operation until the outbreak of the Civil war. Some years after the war, New Hope was re-opened, new buildings were erected, and many Choctaw girls were schooled there until it was accidently destroyed by fire in 1897. All that remains of Fort Coffee today is a pile of chimney stones back from the bluff that still bears its name.
~from “Marking the Historic Spots in Oklahoma: Fort Coffee” by Muriel H. Wright, The Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma), Sunday, 18 June 1933, page 26.
Here are other Choctaw Journey blogs about early Choctaw education that you may also enjoy reading…
>>>Choctaw Academy – The Great Experiment
>>>Orphan in Search of Family – Wheelock Academy
>>>Superintendents of Wheelock Academy
>>>BIG LOVE -The Woman Who Saved Jones Academy – Dedication of Mrs. Jane McCurtain
>>>Weave For Us a Cloak of Light – Memories of Nunihtakali, Caddo Hills
>>>Great Educator M. Eleanor Allen
If you are new to our blog page, here are some other Story-Maps to explore, each with an interactive map of the places discussed in the related blog.
>>>Searching for the Long Ago – Travels in Mississippi
>>>Lost in Time-Our Choctaw First Ladies
>>>Dance – a modern day vision quest
YAHOKE, ikana! Thank you, friends. All my relations!
We are all one if we choose to be!
We can choose to practice tolerance and compassion instead of judgment and ridicule.
Much GRATITUDE for spending time on a Choctaw Journey with me.
Please sign up on my blog page at WordPress to receive notifications by email.
Featured Image: clockwise from the left, Spencer Academy, Armstrong Academy, Swallow Rock, south side of the Arkansas River, site of the old Fort Coffee military outpost, 1834-1838, and New Hope Female Seminary. from Oklahoma Historical Society, Research Division.
Photo credit, Faculty of Tuskahoma Female Academy: The Gateway to Oklahoma History, Tuskahoma Female Academy Faculty, photograph, 1896~/1897~; (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc1622555/: accessed January 15, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.
Photo Credit, Tuskahoma Female Academy building, Photo# 7723, McGrath-Benedict Collection under the label “Choctaw Female Seminary,” Oklahoma Historical Society, Research Division.
Photo Credit, Anna Wright: Photo# 20911.38., Oklahoma Historical Society Photograph Collection, Oklahoma Historical Society. Online via The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc1619949/
Photo Credit, Katherine Wright Morris: Photo# 21642.9, Muriel H. Wright Collection., Oklahoma Historical Society, Research Division.
Photo Credit, Atoka, Baptist Mission: “Joseph Samuel Murrow, Apostle to the Indians,” by Frank A. Balyeat, Chronicles of Oklahoma, Autumn 1957, Vol. 35, No. 3, page 305
NOTE: Muriel Hazel Wright was a talented and dedicated historian of both the Choctaw Nation and the State of Oklahoma. She served as editor 1943-1973 of The Chronicles of Oklahoma, the quarterly journal of historical articles published by the Oklahoma Historical Society. She was the granddaughter of Chief Allen Wright and the niece of Anna and Katherine Wright; her father being Dr. E. N. Wright. She attended Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts for two and a half years, and finished her degree at East Central State College at Ada, 35 miles from her family home. In 1916 she pursued a master’s degree at Barnard College, NYC, the historic women’s affiliate of Columbia University, but she was unable to continue when World War I commenced. Author of six books and numerous historical articles, she was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1940. Her collection of historical papers, containing 26 boxes, are located at the Oklahoma Historical Society Research Division (aka Oklahoma History Center).
See ” Muriel H. Wright, Historian of Oklahoma” [a biographical tribute], Chronicles of Oklahoma, Spring 1974; pages 3 – 29. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc2124195/m1/20/: accessed January 15, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.
CC/Creative Commons – Republish
Stories from this blog Choctaw Journeys into the Past may be republished or reprinted under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND. Please make changes only to shorten the text in a reasonable manner. Please provide proper attribution and a link to this blog page. Noncommercial use only. Do not republish this content behind a paywall.
Choctaw Journeys into the Past 
Halito! This is such a fantastic and important article. We loved reading it. Should you decide to write about Tushkalusa Academy at some point, please reach out to Talihina.org, we would love to collaborate.
So glad to hear you enjoyed the blog about the Choctaw boarding schools. My grandfather attended Spencer for a few years, as did many others, so I have a fond place in my heart for these Choctaw schools that helped so many. I would love to learn more about the Tushkalusa Academy. I will send an email to you!