A historic heritage once housed by a boarding school for Young Native Americans has been reclaimed through a tribal country traditionally connected to the site.
The Dwight Mission Camp and Conference Center, a 201-acre asset between Vian and Sallisaw, purchased through Cherokee Nation last June, the tribe purchased the assets of Dwight Mission Camp Inc. , affiliated with the Presthroughterian Church in the United States.
A personal signature rite that was held on the site of the historic Dwight Mission School since 1917 to formalize the transfer of property.
Chuck Hoskin Jr. , senior leader of the Cherokee Nation, said the acquisition of the asset component of a solemn oath he made when he became a tribal leader to protect the culture and history of his tribal nation. of historical places in 1973.
“We will continue to repair the historic property, as preserving the sites that shape our history as Cherokees is a gift to past generations,” Hoskin wrote in a recent letter to the tribe.
Hoskin said there has been a concerted effort to maintain historic sites in the Cherokee National Tribal Lands following the enactment of the Cherokee Nation Historical Record Act of 2020.
Travis Owens, director of cultural tourism for the Cherokee Nation, said the sprawling Dwight Mission campus joins the tribal country’s other seven cultural sites and museums. He said the Cherokee Nation’s vision for the assets is to use them for camps and meetings for the tribal country. network and the network as a whole. Assets include several buildings that were built after the creation of the state.
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William “Bill” Wiles, treasurer of dwight Mission Camp’s board of trustees, said the board learned that “it was necessary to put the camp in more powerful hands. “The board of trustees is composed of representatives of the 3 presbyteries of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, which are oklahoma regional administrative bodies: Cimarron, Eastern Oklahoma, and Indian Nations.
Wiles, of Tulsa, said council members felt the Cherokee Nation would be an ideal candidate to obtain the assets of the tribal nation’s ancient connection to assets and the long-standing association with Presbyterians.
“They understood its historical, cultural and sacred nature,” he said.
Owens claimed that the Cherokee Nation had a long history with the Dwight Mission, prior to the tribe’s forced displacement to Indian territory. He claimed that the Cherokee had invited the project to their first lands in Arkansas and had moved it with them when they settled. in Indian territory before what is like the Path of Tears.
Owens said the shared history continued through the status quo of boarding school and through a camp and convention center there.
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“We hope to repair the but also honor this history. It is a confusing story, that of the missionaries and their paintings within tribal nations, especially the Cherokee Nation. We hope to find a way to percentage this story, interpret it, and locate a way to honor our ancestors.
The residential schools of yesteryear for Native Americans will soon come under the microscope of the federal government.
The Associated Press reported that U. S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced the government’s intentions to investigate beyond surveillance residential schools and Native American paintings to “uncover the fact about the loss of life and lasting consequences” of policies that for decades thousands of young people in their families and communities. Haaland’s June 22 announcement follows the discovery of the remains of young people buried in a publicly funded residential school for Aboriginal youth in Canada.
Owens and Wiles claimed that Dwight Mission School had a “complicated” history, but, according to accounts, it was another of other establishments of the time. Both said this was due in large part to the fact that the young Native Americans at boarding school were allowed to stay connected to the communities they came from.
Wiles said it had something to do with his origins. He claimed that the original Dwight Mission land near Russellville, Arkansas, had been ceded to Christian missionaries in 1820 through Walter Webber, a leader of the former Cherokee settlers who had a Wiles stated that Webber imagined a position in which young Native Americans could be well informed and informed to assimilate into culture.
Owens said the Cherokee Nation sought to honor and honor this “complicated” history of the Dwight Mission, noting that the Cherokee Nation had invited missionaries into their lives.
“The Post-Agreement European influence of the Cherokee country sought to locate tactics to paint with its surroundings. Missionaries have an integral component as they have helped shape changes in the way of life,” he said.
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“Some of those things are and others, we now understand, have had negative implications: a loss of culture, a loss of identity. Some Cherokees resisted non-traditional ideals and some accepted them completely. “
He said Dwight Mission other of some of the boarding school facilitated through the federal government.
“Yes, they were eliminated from their communities, but exclusively,” Owens said.
Wiles said the federal government had created a new agreement with the Cherokees to remove them from Arkansas and bring them into Indian territory in what is now eastern Oklahoma. He said that, according to old Dwight Mission documents, the government sent evaluators to the project. and donated $11,615 to move it to Indian territory.
The project school moved in 1828-1829 to its existing location between Vian and Sallisaw. The resettlement effort occurred around the time when Amerindians were resettled on Indian territory under the Indian Expulsion Act. Wiles said presbyterians were among the Christian projects affiliated with the Dwight Mission that he did with Native Americans.
The project was deserted during the Civil War and Wiles stated that many structures had been destroyed by fire. He claimed that the devout Congregational organization that constituted most of the school’s early projects had withdrawn from the site at the time because they were abolitionists and there were many wealthy Amerindian families who had taken their African slaves to Indian territory.
Wiles said Presbyterians returned to the project site in 1900 and reestablished it as an educational facility for Native Americans. She said a women’s organization from a wealthy Presbyterian church in New York City provided the investment to rebuild the buildings and get the school back up and running.
Wiles agreed with Owens that Dwight Mission was another of the native American schools administered by the federal government and said that the school’s missionaries had learned to speak Cherokee and Choctaw so they could teach the youth in their own language as well as English. .
Wiles said this went against the prevailing winds at the time “because the federal government did everything imaginable to break the local American culture and circle of kin and local Americans were asked not to speak their language. “
Wiles said the school is known for educating highly trained students, many of whom attended Ivy League universities like Harvard and Yale. The school is known for the athletic prowess of its basketball team and other sports teams.
“It’s the most productive educational establishment in those areas,” Wiles said.
Wiles said the school closed in 1948 when national leaders of the Presthroughterian Church learned that other educational opportunities had been opened up for Native Americans. Dwight Mission Camp Inc. , founded in 1951 through an organization of local pre-passerians and assets acquired through the Oklahoma Presthroughterian Synod.
Wiles said the assets have been used as a Presbyterian camp and convention for decades.
“It’s a position where heaven and earth can touch others. Hundreds of young people and adults have discovered non-secular connections there with the Dwight mission,” he said.
“It’s a special place, a non-secular place. That’s probably why he survived so long: it’s been 191 years. “
Owens said Cherokee Nation considers the Dwight Mission to be special and that an asset assessment is being conducted lately. The Cherokee nation helped fund the renovation of the 1917 Dwight Mission Schoolhouse in 2014.
“We expect it and maintain it for generations in the long term,” he said.
SOURCE: Encyclopediaofarkansas. net