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Cherokee Female Seminary

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Coordinates: 35°55′13″N 94°58′12″W / 35.92028°N 94.97000°W / 35.92028; -94.97000
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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Gg808 (talk | contribs) at 20:42, 6 December 2023 (Added a section called "Location and Property" with information about the physical area the seminary is in and the building itself). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Cherokee Female Seminary
Front of the building
Cherokee Female Seminary is located in Oklahoma
Cherokee Female Seminary
Cherokee Female Seminary is located in the United States
Cherokee Female Seminary
LocationNortheastern State University campus, Tahlequah, Oklahoma, United States
Coordinates35°55′13″N 94°58′12″W / 35.92028°N 94.97000°W / 35.92028; -94.97000
Built1889[3]
ArchitectC.E. Illsley
NRHP reference No.73001558[1][2]
Added to NRHPApril 5, 1973

The Cherokee Female Seminary was built by the Cherokee Nation in 1889 near Tahlequah, Indian Territory. It replaced their original girls' seminary, the first Cherokee Female Seminary, that had burned down on Easter Sunday two years before. The Seminary was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.[4]

The Cherokee Council chose to rebuild the school on a 40-acre (160,000 m2) site north of Tahlequah, near Hendricks Spring. Two years later, on May 7, 1889, the dedication ceremonies were held in honor of the new building. The Female Seminary was owned and operated by the Cherokee Nation until March 6, 1909, after Oklahoma had been admitted as a state as a state in 1907, and tribal land claims were extinguished. At this point, the state converted the seminary into a normal school.[5]

The Cherokee Nation ran both a male and female seminary in this territory, showing the importance placed on education within the Nation. Female seminaries were a larger cultural movement across the United States in the mid-nineteenth century, by which time they had taken over the role played traditionally by the boarding school, which had offered a more family-like atmosphere.

Location and Property

The Cherokee Female Seminary was located in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, a small city near the Ozark Mountains. Tahlequah was also home to the Cherokee Male Seminary and public schools and was the capital of the Cherokee Nation.[6]

The Seminary consisted of a large building on a hill that housed up to 175 students plus staff and stewards. At the new site's creation in 1889, the building had electric lights, steam-powered heating, and water supplied from a local spring. It housed a parlor, a library, a kitchen, a chapel and bedrooms.[6] The staff included teachers and a medical superintendent as Cherokee social progress placed an increasing emphasis on providing quality healthcare alongside education.[7]

Institutional History

The Cherokee Nation increasingly valued education throughout the 17th century and set aside proceeds from land cessions to the United States in 1819 to be invested in education for their children.[6] The Cherokee Female Seminary was established alongside the Cherokee Male Seminary during the annual session of the Cherokee Nation's National Council in November 1846. The Female Seminary opened to students in 1850, one year before the Male Seminary.[8]

After a fire burned down the original site, a new building opened in 1889. According to the Cherokee Advocate newspaper, up to three thousand people attended the reopening celebrations in a precession that totaled a mile long.[9]

Cherokee Female Seminary graduating class of 1902, photographed by Jennie Ross Cobb (Cherokee)

When the state converted the seminary into a normal school, the new State Legislature of Oklahoma passed an act providing for the creation of Northeastern State Normal School at Tahlequah, Oklahoma. The act also authorized purchase from the Cherokee Tribal Government of the building, land, and equipment of the Cherokee Female Seminary. At the start of the next academic year, on September 14, the state held its first classes at the newly founded Northeastern State Normal School, primarily intended to train teachers of elementary grades. The institution has been developed over the decades and is now Northeastern State University, offering a range of curriculum and graduate programs.[10]

Present Day and Legacy

What is now called Seminary Hall, in honor of the Cherokee Seminary, is the oldest building on NSU's campus. It was built in 1889 by St. Louis architect C.E. Illsley, who designed it in the Romanesque Revival style, complete with fortress-like turrets flanking the main entrance and a clock tower that resembles a church steeple and rises two stories above the rest of the building.[11] In 1994 the building was completely restored.

The building was renovated and upgraded in 2020, with the work aided by a $4 million grant from the Cherokee Nation.[11] That work included using salvaged wood and brick from the 1800s to match the original building materials where needed, and replacing aluminum window frames from a prior renovation with custom wood frames typical of the period. In addition, half-octagon-shaped roof dormers were added, as they were drawn in the original architect's plans.[11]

A portrait of Isabel "Belle" Cobb, one of the first graduates of the Cherokee Female Seminary
Isabel Cobb, one of the first alumni of the Cherokee Female Seminary, who later practiced medicine

The building now houses classrooms along with academic and faculty offices. It was the first campus classroom building wired for multimedia instruction. At the main entrance of the building are three murals painted in the 1930s as a WPA project by Stephen Mopope and Jack Hokeah (both Kiowa) and Albin Jake (Pawnee).[12]

Notable Alumni

The first class to graduate from the Cherokee Female Seminary had two students, Tennie Steele Fuller and Belle Cobb. Belle returned back to the Seminary to teach before studying medicine.[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. ^ "Oklahoma Historical Society State Historic Preservation Office".
  3. ^ "What We're Celebrating". Northeastern State University. 2008-02-14.
  4. ^ "National Register Database and Research - National Register of Historic Places (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  5. ^ Legg, Emily (2014). "Daughters of the Seminaries: Re-landscaping History through the Composition Courses at the Cherokee National Female Seminary". College Composition and Communication. 66 (1): 67–90. ISSN 0010-096X.
  6. ^ a b c d "An illustrated souvenir catalog of the Cherokee National Female Seminary, Tahlequah, Indian Territory, 1850-1906 - American Indian Histories and Cultures - Adam Matthew Digital". www.aihc.amdigital.co.uk. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  7. ^ Reed, Julie L. (2016). Serving the nation: Cherokee sovereignty and social welfare, 1800-1907. New directions in Native American studies. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-5224-0.
  8. ^ Legg, Emily (2016-08-01). "Listening to our stories in dusty boxes: Indigenous storytelling methodology, archival practice, and the Cherokee Female Seminary". Open Access Dissertations.
  9. ^ "1889 Reconstruction of NSU's Seminary Hall". nsuok.edu. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  10. ^ "Heritage of Northeastern State University". nsuok.edu. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  11. ^ a b c Overall, Michael (October 18, 2020). "It takes 'extreme attention to detail' to restore one of Oklahoma's oldest buildings". Tulsa World. Retrieved October 18, 2020.
  12. ^ "Northeastern State University's historic Seminary Hall". Communicators Council. 2008-02-14.
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