Mekasukey Academy

Mekasukey belonged to a school system the Seminole Nation ran for itself. After the Presbyterian Oak Ridge school of 1848 and the Methodists' Sasakwa Female Academy, which the Nation took over in 1887, it opened this academy for boys and later built Emahaka for girls to the same design. About eighty-five students raised livestock, vegetables and dairy products, and the staff lived on campus. Instructors spoke only English, and children were not permitted to speak their own language during the nine-month term. The site entered the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

What the plaque says

Mekasukey Academy Established and handsome build- ing erected by Seminole Nation. Opened for Seminole boys, 1891. "Mikasuki" was name of ancient "war" town whose people were no- ted for courage. From 1914, school was coeducational; closed 1930. Building later accidentally burned. Oklahoma Historical Society and State Highway Commission 1950

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Seminole Nation Museum — 12 mi
  A community museum in Wewoka, capital of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, telling the Seminole story from Florida to Indian Territory and the town that John Horse's people founded in 1849.
• Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center — 14 mi
  The Citizen Potawatomi Nation's national museum and archive in Shawnee, telling a Great Lakes people's road through Kansas to Indian Territory in the Nation's own words and objects.
• Boley Historic District — 24 mi
  The downtown of the largest of Oklahoma's All-Black towns, praised by Booker T. Washington, squeezed by Jim Crow and white land oaths, bankrupt in 1939 and still living today.

More markers nearby

• Lima — 6.2 mi
• Shawnee Mission — 14 mi
• Home on the Range — 16 mi
• Birthsite of Jim Thorpe — 16 mi