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University Microfilms International 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor. Michigan 48106 USA S t John’s Road, Tyler's Green High Wycombe. Bucks. England HP10 BHR il 77-32,883 SPEAR, Eloise G., 1917- CHOCTAW INDIAN EDUCATION WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO CHOCTAN COUNTY, OKLAHOMA: AN HISTORICAL APPROACH. The University of Oklahoma, Ph.D., 1977 Education, minorities I University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, Michigan asioe | 0 1977 ELOISE G. SPEAR ALL RIGHTS RESERVED THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE CHOCTAW INDIAN EDUCATION WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO CHOCTAW COUNTY, OKLAHOMA An Historical Approach A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY ELOISE SPEAR Norman, Oklahoma 1977 CHOCTAW INDIAN EDUCATION WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO CHOCTAW COUNTY, OKLAHOMA An Historical Approach APPROVED BY (L DISSERTATION COMMITTEE ACKNOl^LEDGEMESTS The writer wishes to express her gratitude to Professor Glenn R. Snider, the director of this work, for his time, patience, and helpful advice- Without his guidance this study would not have been completed. Thanks is also given to Professors Robert P. Bibens, Gene D. Shepherd, and Omer J. Rupiper for reading the thesis and making useful suggestions. Appreciation is extended to many others who assisted the writer in locating and compiling the research materials used in this endeavor. The librarians and curators of the various reporitories were of invaluable assistance. Lucien Spear and Tony Thomas, of Choctaw County, Oklahoma, patiently accompanied the writer on the many history-hunting excur­ sions in the area. Simon Parker, Superintendent of Schools of Hugo, Oklahoma, deserves special mention for his help in securing educational informa­ tion relating to more recent times. Finally, special thanks is extended to the writer's many Choctcw friends, to the Indian students in Choctaw County, and to their teachers. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS................................ iii LIST OF T A B L E S .................................. v LIST OF M A P S .............................. vi Chapter I. INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDf ......... 1 II. FORMATION OF THE SCHOOLS, 1831-1841 . 28 III. ESTABLISHMENT OF A COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL SYSTEM, 1842-1860 ............. 59 IV. THE WAR YEARS AND THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT AND STRENGTHENING OF THE SCHOOLS, 1861- 1898 ................................ 134 V. INTEGRATION OF THE SCHOOLS, 1899-1977 . 192 VI. SUMMARY AND ANALYSES....................264 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................... 284 APPENDIX A .......................... 304 APPENDIX B ......................................... 307 APPENDIX C ............... 309 iv LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1 Students Signing Petition, Choctaw Academy, Kentucky, 1839 ................... 64 2 Students of Sue McBeth, 1860-1861 .......... 100 3 Report of Providence Station Under the Super­ intendence of Ramsey D. Potts, 1844 110 4 Estimated Expenses of Choctaw Mission, 1854 . 121 5 Choctaw Educational Expenses, 1895 ........ 162 6 Neighborhood Schools and Teachers in Choctaw County, 1901 ........... ........ 200 7 New Schools Reported in Choctaw County from 1902-1904 ................................ 202 8 Schools in Choctaw County, 1906 ......... 209 9 Schools in Choctaw County, 1912 ............ 216 10 A Partial List of Teachers in the Early Schools after Statehood in Choctaw County, Oklahoma, 1907 .......................... 218 11 Distribution of Population of the Six- County Area, and Oklahoma by Race and Nativity, 1940 .......................... 245 12 Choctaw County Education Profile, 1975 . 246 13 Choctaw Nation Census Project, 1975 . 249 14 Summary of Interview-Scheduies of Educators in Choctaw County, 1975 ......... 251 LIST OF MAPS Map Page 1 Choctaw Nation: Political Divisions, 1832 . 12 2 Historical Sites in Choctaw County, 1830-1907 37 V i CHOCTAW INDIAN EDUCATION WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO CHOCTAW COUNTY, OKLAHOMA An Historical Approach CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY I have been talking to my people, and have advised them for the best, turn their attention to industry and farming, and lay their hunting aside. And here is one point of great work, is just come to hand, before us which is the establishment of a school; and the Choctaws appear to be pleased. Written when a youth by Colonel David Folsom Introduction Choctaw education in Choctaw County, Oklahoma, had its roots in the old Choctaw country east of the Mississippi River. After reaching their new home in the West, the Choctaws established schools patterned after the system which had been so forcibly uprooted. Generally, these schools existed until the coming of Niles' Register. Vol. XVI (1819), Supplement, p. 97. Folsom apologized for his bad English, saying he had attended school only six months, but he said education was vital to the survival of his people, since the hunting had declined and those dependent upon it had come to want. statehood. Since then, except for Goodland Indian Orphanage, known today as Goodland Children's Home, the history of Indian education in Choctaw County became the history of the public schools coupled with the government policies related to Indian education. Yet, the Indian students are still there — the LeFlores, Oakes, Wilsons, Folsoms, Belvins, Springs; the Jeffersons, Walls, Bohannons, Nelsons, Roberts, Ervins, Simpsons, Durants, and McIntyres; the Tims, Fishers, Pisachubbes, Roebucks, and many others. Background As one of the Five Civilized Tribes, which included the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole, the Choctaws had lived for the most part in the territory which today comprises the state of Mississippi and the western side of the state of Alabama. With an estimated population of 19,000, the Choctaws were not nomads. After almost three hundred years of contact with the white man, they had established themselves firmly as an agrarian people. They built homes and farms, cultivated tha land, raised varied herds and crops, including cotton. They carded, spun, wove the cotton into cloth, and made clothing not unlike the style of the white man of comparable financial means. They built roads and mills, engaged in commerce, established a representative form of government, and wrote a code of laws. The Choctaws also came to believe in the value of education 2 and sent their children to schools established by missionaries. Grant Foreman, Indian Removal (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1932), Preface. 2 A number of outstanding white men had intermarried with members of the tribe and exerted a great influence upon the Choctaws. Among the more prominent of these were the Nail brothers and the Folsom brothers; John Pitchlynn and George Harkinds; and the French Canadians, Louis and Michael LeFlore. The sons of these men became leaders of progress and education within the tribe, and most of them settled in or near the section known today as Choctaw County, Oklahoma. In 1818, the newly formed American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, an organization supported by several Christian denominations, established a station among the Cherokee near Chattanooga, Tennessee. In response to a request from the Choctaws, Cyrus Kingsbury, a Presbyterian and an instructor in the Cherokee school, was sent to their country. Within a year, Kingsbury and his four assistants had erected buildings, cleared land for a demonstra­ tion farm, and established a mission school at Eliot on the Yalabusha River in Mississippi. The next year with the help of John Pitchlynn and David Folsom, Kingsbury located a mission school a few miles