History of the Cherokee Female Seminary, 1851-1910

Abstract

Spanning almost six decades, the Cherokee Female Seminary, located at Tahlequah, Oklahoma, served as the focal point of the tribe's efforts to provide its young women with a quality education. Since traditional Cherokee culture was practically ignored at the seminary, and the curriculum and educational philosophy were patterned after the prestigious New England girls' institution, Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, the girls who attended the Cherokee seminary were profoundly affected by their association with the school. Many of these Cherokee women assumed prominent positions within the tribe and in the State of Oklahoma. The alumnae became doctors, businesswomen, politicians, educators, and social workers. The Cherokee Female Seminary was an effective agent of acculturation among the Cherokees, but unlike some Federal Boarding Schools, it was not mandatory that the Cherokees enroll. Not all the tribesmen supported the seminary, but the affluent mixed-bloods and full-bloods of the tribe were advocates of education and adaptation to the white man's world