Early education system chaotic

By Jonita Mullins
Phoenix Correspondent

March 28, 2009 08:12 pm

— Indian Territory’s early schools were a patchwork system set up by the various tribes and by different mission organizations and churches. Schools were segregated from the beginning, often even separating boys and girls.
Schools for Native American students were the first to be established by missions organizations. Some, such as the Union Mission near Mazie, operated as early as the 1820s. By the 1840s, the Five Tribes had established schools for their own tribal members. Mission schools continued to develop throughout the Three Forks region at places like Tullahassee, Park Hill, Koweta and Nuyaka.
Following the Civil War, some of these mission schools began to teach the children of freedmen members of the tribes. But schools for children who were not tribal members were scarce at first. As towns began to develop along the rail lines in the 1870s and more and more settlers moved into Indian Territory, the need for schools for their children became acute.
In towns such as Muskogee, subscription schools were started. Parents could pay a “subscription” or tuition for their children to attend. In rural areas, education was often neglected. Children were either schooled at home, walked for miles to the nearest subscription school, or received no education at all. Most of the schools were one-room buildings with teachers who themselves had often received only a limited education.
In 1898, with the passage of the Curtis Act, towns in Indian Territory could finally incorporate, elect a city government, raise taxes and establish public services including schools. The Curtis Act also transferred oversight of Indian Territory schools away from the tribes to the Interior Department.
Interior Secretary Ethan Allan Hitchcock appointed John D. Benedict, an educator from Illinois, as superintendent of schools for all of Indian Territory. He arrived in Muskogee in February 1899 to begin the enormous task of bringing Indian Territory schools into a uniform public education system.
While the residents of Indian Territory were proud of the strides they had made in education since the passage of the Curtis Act, Benedict felt there was much room for improvement. However, he met with resistance from the tribes, and so he spent his first months in Indian Territory traveling among the nations and getting acquainted with education leaders.
Benedict felt that one of the most effective ways to improve public education in the territory would be to provide better teacher training. Working with Benjamin Coppock, appointed superintendent of Cherokee schools, and Alice Robertson, superintendent of Creek schools, Benedict began summer training courses for teachers.
In the Cherokee Nation, the first teaching course was held at the Cherokee Female Seminary in Tahlequah in June 1900. The summer school brought a noticeable improvement in Cherokee schools. So, the following summer the course was opened to any teacher in the territory who would like to attend. Benedict was especially interested in seeing teachers from the rural subscription schools be able to receive further training.
These teacher training schools continued each summer until Oklahoma became a state in 1907. Then schools passed from federal supervision to the state. The Cherokee Female Seminary had established itself as a teacher training facility and would eventually become Northeastern State University.

Reach Jonita Mullins at jonita@netscape.com.

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