Choctaw Capitols

The government that first met at Nanih Waiya kept remaking itself in the West. The Choctaw adopted a new constitution in 1838, needed because they had agreed to lease their westernmost land to the Chickasaw Nation; it gave the Chickasaw a fourth district and kept three branches, with the district chiefs as executive, a council as legislature, courts, and the lighthorse to enforce the laws. In 1842 another constitution created a two-house legislature, and the nation took charge of its mission schools, among them Nanawaiya Academy near the Council House west of present Tuskahoma.

What the plaque says

Choctaw Capitols This is the site of "Nanih Waiya," first Choctaw capitol and council ground where first constitution written in Oklahoma was adopted by Choctaw Nation, 1834. Joseph Kincaid, Thomas LeFlore and Nitakechi, chiefs. Tuskahoma Council House, last Choctaw capitol erected 1884. Jackson McCurtain, Princ. Chief. Oklahoma Historical Society 213-1995

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tvshkahomma Capitol Museum — 2.5 mi
  The Choctaw Nation's 1884 brick capitol in the Kiamichi valley, seat of its senate, house and supreme court until statehood, now the Nation's museum and the ground of its Labor Day Festival.
• Robbers Cave State Park — 24 mi
  A sandstone cave in the Sans Bois Mountains north of Wilburton, wrapped in outlaw stories, and the park that Boy Scouts, prison labor and the CCC built around it.

More markers nearby

• The Choctaw Nation Capitol Building — 2.6 mi
• Mountain Station — 15 mi
• Bernard de La Harpe 1719 — 19 mi
• Riddle's Station — 20 mi