Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma

The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma will use its grant to fund programming enhancements at Wheelock Museum, which is located in Wheelock Academy, a model girls’ school established in the mid-19th century and run by the Choctaw National School System. The school was the Choctaw answer to assimilation. Choctaws saw that assimilation was inevitable but believed that education could be used to preserve rather than deny the Choctaw cultural identity. The school officially closed in 1955. This project will allow the Choctaw to interview former Wheelock students and then present these oral histories in an audio and video format within a new exhibit. Funding will also allow the Choctaw to acquire new exhibit cases to properly and safely display Wheelock artifacts.