Elliott Academy

The Choctaw Nation did not run schools for its freedmen directly. After the 1866 treaties required each of the Five Tribes to recognize its former slaves as members, Choctaw freedmen got schools through missionary groups using federal funds: the families supplied the building, the mission the teacher and supplies. The first, a Baptist school at Boggy Depot, opened in 1874. High schools came the same way, Tuskalusa Academy and Oak Hill Mission near the Red River among them. The encyclopedia's Valliant entry calls the Alice Lee Elliott Memorial Academy the only institution of its type in Indian Territory.

What the plaque says

Elliott Academy Established here in 1869 as Oak Hill Industrial Academy by Presbyterian Board of Missions as boarding school for children of Choctaw Freedmen. Academy succeeded small school begun in 1860 by ex-slave and Presby- terian minister Charles W. Stewart to serve numerous Black families who had settled here after Civil War. Name changed in 1912 after David Elliott gave funds for new dormitory in memory of his wife, Alice Lee. Students cleared and operated large farm to help support school. Hundreds of students trained at academy before closure in 1936. Oklahoma Historical Society 198-1995

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Towson Historic Site — 8.0 mi
  The 1824 Red River post where arriving Choctaw and Chickasaw families were dispersed after removal, beside the site of Doaksville, the Choctaw capital where Stand Watie surrendered in 1865.
• Beavers Bend State Park — 27 mi
  Pine and hardwood Ouachita hills where the Mountain Fork leaves Broken Bow Lake, a 1930s CCC park named for a Choctaw citizen, with trout water, a 26-mile ridge trail and the Forest Heritage Center.

More markers nearby

• Clear Creek Water Mill — steps away
• Wheelock Mission — 7.5 mi
• Fort Towson — 7.7 mi
• Fort Towson Landing — 7.7 mi