Tishomingo

The academy in the plaque's last line was one of the Chickasaw Nation's own schools. In its first written laws after removal, in 1844, the Nation founded the Chickasaw Manual Labor Academy for boys, then opened Wapanucka Institute and Bloomfield Academy for girls in 1852, Collins Institute in 1854 and Burney Institute in 1859, some twenty years before the first federal off-reservation boarding school. The Nation paid most of the cost while missionary boards hired the teachers. Closed by the Civil War, the schools reopened in 1876, and the Curtis Act of 1898 put them under federal control.

What the plaque says

Tishomingo Capital of the Chickasaw Nation which was organized in 1856, under a written constitution. Named for revered Chief Tishomingo who had died on the Trail of Tears during Indian Removal from Mississippi. Last Chickasaw Governor was Douglas H. Johnston who served 39 years. Stone capitol was built in 1897. The Chickasaw Academy for boys opened in 1851, about 3 miles S.E. Oklahoma Historical Society and State Highway Commission 1949

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Chickasaw National Capitol — 1.0 mi
  The red granite capitol the Chickasaw Nation finished at Tishomingo in 1898, forced out of at statehood, used as the county courthouse for most of a century and reclaimed by the Nation in 1992.
• Chickasaw National Recreation Area — 23 mi
  Springs the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations sold to the government in 1902 rather than lose them to developers, later Platt National Park, now the Travertine district's creeks, CCC stonework and bison pasture.
• Chickasaw Cultural Center — 25 mi
  The Chickasaw Nation's 184-acre campus at Sulphur, opened in 2010, with an exhibit hall on the Nation's history, a recreated 1700s town with daily stomp dance, and a bridge into the national recreation area.
• Choctaw Cultural Center — 25 mi
  The Choctaw Nation's history told from the Chahta side at Calera, with galleries from Nanih Waiya to the Trail of Tears and the reservation today, a living village and daily stickball.

More markers nearby

• General Douglas Hancock Cooper — 13 mi
• Fort Washita — 13 mi
• Camp Leavenworth — 17 mi
• Fort McCulloch — 18 mi