Wheelock Academy Historic Site

The Choctaw Nation sees in Wheelock its leaders' conviction, from the early 1800s, that formal education was essential to Choctaw survival as a sovereign nation, and that educated young women were its foundation. The mission school that Alfred and Harriet Wright began after removal had become a girls' school by 1842. After the Civil War a fire left only the church standing.

In 1883 the Choctaw General Council appropriated money for a new academy near the old mission. The first buildings went up in 1883 and 1884, and fifty girls moved into the new dormitory, Pushmataha Hall, named for the chief. Federal involvement shifted control again and again, and by 1932 it was a United States Indian School. The Nation's history series keeps both memories of those years: girls who were not allowed to speak their own language, the work they were made to do and the illnesses they endured, and also the laughter, music, games and lifelong friendships. The last class graduated in 1955, when the school merged into Jones Academy at Hartshorne.

After the closing, seventeen buildings dwindled to six, and the Nation worked to restore them in the 1970s and 1980s and again from 1998. Wheelock became a National Historic Landmark in 1965, and in 2000 the National Trust for Historic Preservation named it one of the eleven most endangered historic places in the country. LeFlore Hall, the old teachers' dormitory, holds the museum and gift shop, with photographs and the belongings of students. Tours of the museum and grounds are given on request.