Choctaw Academy
The Choctaw Academy was a historic Indian boarding school at Blue Spring in Scott County, Kentucky for Choctaw students. It existed from 1818 to 1842.
History
[edit]Baptists started an academy for the Choctaw in 1818 near Georgetown, Kentucky, but it quickly failed due to lack of funding. The school was reopened around 1821 after the United States acquired Choctaw lands in Mississippi through a treaty with the tribe. Chief Peter Pitchlynn and other leaders of the Choctaw had worked with U.S. Representative Richard Mentor Johnson (D-Kentucky) to request that part of the treaty money be used on schools.
The original Baptist school was located on Johnson's land near his house. He contacted his brother-in-law William Ward, an Indian agent to make arrangements for the school. The academy was restarted in 1825 as a federally funded school; a three-story stone building was constructed. Johnson had a common-law marriage with an enslaved woman of mixed race; their two daughters and other family members attended the school, in addition to Native American children from the Choctaw and other tribes.
Closure and preservation of site
[edit]Under the Indian Removal Act of 1830, most Choctaw were forced by the US to move to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) west of the Mississippi River. The Choctaw ceased funding the school in 1842 when various reservation schools were founded at their new location, including Spencer Academy.[1][2]
Long abandoned, by 2017 the stone Choctaw Academy building was dilapidated, and the roof was caving in. Private fundraising was started in Kentucky to save the 1825 building, and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma's Chahta Foundation made a grant for preservation.[3]
Notable alumni and faculty
[edit]- Julia Chinn, wife/slave of Vice President Johnson, manager of the Choctaw Academy,
- John Tecumseh Jones, interpreter, Baptist minister, businessman, friend of John Brown and founder of Ottawa University in Kansas
- Robert Ward Johnson, US Senator from Arkansas, Confederacy supporter
- Robert McDonald Jones, Choctaw tribal member, businessman, Confederate politician
References
[edit]- ^ Tim Talbott, "Choctaw Indian Academy," ExploreKYHistory, accessed February 28, 2021, https://explorekyhistory.ky.gov/items/show/594.
- ^ "Not Just a Hunting Ground: Native Americans in Kentucky - Choctaw Academy." Lex History, Lexington History Museum, lexhistory.org/edu/not-just-hunting-ground-native-americans-kentucky-choctaw-academy. Exhibit Panel http://lexhistory.org/sites/default/files/Choctaw%20academy.pdf
- ^ Katherine Flynn, "Kentucky Ophthalmologist Fundraises to Save Choctaw Academy", Preservation Magazine, https://savingplaces.org/stories/kentucky-opthalmologist-fundraises-choctaw-academy#.Yg0ehurMJPY