Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1908-05-22
Is THn cHnRoKnns, pRrpn
An Indian Nation Regards n SchO,
=. Il. C-..a. A.n.l....-.

An Indian Nation Regards n school
as Hts Greatest Achievement.
There is most unusual spirit behinG
the fight that is being made to secure
one Of the Oklahoma State normal
schools for Tahlequah, says the Kansas
City Star. 1t has passed beyond the
stage of an Individual town fight and
in very large measure has become a
national question with the Cherokee
people, Ask any Cherokee and he will
tell you that a State normal should be
located In Tahlequah, no matter wheth-
er he lives there or not.
So determined are the Cherokees that
training school for teachers shall be
established in their nation that they
would be willing to give to the State
their girls seminary building and
grounds, worth at least $4,000, IL 1t
became necessary to do so and the Sec
rotary of the Interior would consent to
such transaction. This Is the finest
school building ever built by an Indian
nation with its own funds for the high,
er education of its women.
The underlying principle that makes
the Cherokees lnsistent about the mat
ter Is more a sentimental than a .flnan-
cial one. For more than sixty years
the Cherokee female seminary has been
as much part of the national life OF
that nation as has the capital itself.
For generation after generation Chero-
kee women have been educated there.
Out Of 300 teachers in the neighborhood
schools Of the Cherokee nation 40 are
Cherokees and practically every one Of
them was educated at the seminary. 1t
was a training place where the Chero-
KEGS educated their own children to be-
come the teachers Of the following gen.
Grafton. 1t placed the Cherokee nation
at the head Of all Indian nations Ia an
educational way and there are more
Cherokee school teachers to-day than
there are In the other four Of the five
civilized tribes combined. Ask any
Cherokee what he considers the great
est achievement Of his nation and, next
to the invention of an alphabet by an
individual, he will invariably point to
he seminary here.
And as the day of the disintegratior
of their nation 10 at hand, the Chero
KEGS want to see continued the school
which has for years been a training
place for teachers, the only change be-
Ing that the school would pass from the
control Of the Cherokee nation to the
control of the State.
The seminary was ordered built BY
an act Of the Cherokee Council Nov.
20, 1S46. 1t was opened for enrolment
of students May Z, 1850. Easter Sun
day, April 10, 1887, the building burn.
ed. 1t was rebuilt the following year
and the building made larger and mod
ern. 1t will readily be seen what an
enormous task 1t was to erect such a
building when one understands that
there was not a railroad within thirty
miles.
Oklahoma could be searched from
end to end and no more ideal spot for
such an institution would be found. The
building is a forty-acre tract that be.
longs to the school, surrounded by a
forest Of native trees. 1t is on an
eminence that overlooks the town, and
just in front Of it are some of the finest
springs Of water In the State. 1t was
these springs that caused the Cherokees
to select this spot as their permanent
home when they came west in 1896.
Secluded, clean, healthful, 1t is pro-
nounced by all school men who have
ever seen 1t as being as ideal as an In
stltution of this character could well
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