Part II: What will become of the community?
Date not available
Pre-schooler Dylan Thomas Jones will probably never know the pleasure of walking to school.
November 18 will be a day of decision for Nuyaka voters. The community�s fate lies in their hands as they vote whether or not to close the heart of their community, Nuyaka School. Knowing that how the ballot is marked may affect generations for years to come, residents will struggle with their conscious on how to mark the ballot.
Finances are causing the closure, according to Superintendent Garland Lane.
�There are not enough kids to generate state aid, there are not federal grants, so our only sources are state and local. Taxes would have to go up tremendously if the school stays open.�
�It�s all the community we have�, says Nuyaka Mall owners Pete and Dianne Jones.
�Where are we going to hold the fish-fry fundraiser for the fire department, and what is the point of having our parade for education now?�
�These kids are too little to be busing them so far. We let too many of our kids transfer out. They need to redistrict and move the schools back to the neighborhoods. At least the grade schools, the kids just learn the basic skills there, what do these little ones need a counselor for?�
Jones believes that the rumors affected the closing of the school more than any other factor. Rumors of financial woes at the beginning of the year forced the delay of opening day at Nuyaka for a week as the administration scrambled to fill two teaching positions lost because of concern about job security, according to Jones. She also believes rumors played a part in Nuyaka�s low enrollment as panicked parents transferred students to more stable school districts for the year.
�We�ve got a lot of little ones coming up next year, I think if we could have just made it through this year, we�d have been ok.�
Jones and her husband are angered because no on has talked to the community about what it would take to keep the school open or how the annexation to Beggs will affect their property taxes.
�There should be a meeting to explain that tax issue before voting, this is a decision for the community not just the parents of school children.�
Chelsea Evans is four and was looking forward to the Pre-Kindergarten class at Nuyaka this year. Evans mother chose to keep her home instead, knowing that classes were uncertain at Nuyaka. �She�s too little to ride the bus all the way to Beggs,� explained Evans� aunt, Ella Dunegan.
�So she is staying home.� Dunegan continues, �I�d even vote for a tax increase just to keep it going.�
Fifth and Sixth Grade teacher, Linda Daniels, has taught at Nuyaka for the last 11 years.
�It will be hard on all of us,� Daniels states as she explains she has a lot of mixed emotions about the closing. �It�s a combination of a lot of things that has brought us to this point, no school is as much a part of the community as Nuyaka.� Daniels feels that the only church left in town will become the cement of the community.
�I have watched kids here from kindergarten on, the people out here are great. I will miss being connected to Nuyaka.� Parental involvement at the school has been high, Daniels explained, with some parents taking off work to attend field trips with their children. That is something that Daniels feels is not found in larger schools.
While opinions vary about closing of the school, most are united in one area. The school building needs to be utilized. Fear is that it will be boarded up and become a target for vandals. Ideas flow including using it as a community center or a county alternative school for troubled youth. Most don�t want it just sitting empty.
Jones sadly peers across the road from her store, gazing at the empty playground, �My grandson will probably never go to school there, never get to walk to school, just spend hours on a bus going back and forth to Beggs while an empty school sits right across the street.�
Part III: Beggs � nursery rhyme in real life?
Friday, September 19, 1997
Just like the old woman who lived in the shoe, Beggs Schools may have so many children, they don�t know what to do.
On November 18, Nuyaka voters will decide whether to annex their school system into Beggs School District. Thirty-seven students will be absorbed into an already overflowing Beggs School system.
Beggs Middle School principal, David Haynes, is �Glad to have them here� when asked about the influx of Nuyaka students. �There�s only eight so that will be no problem.�
It�s a different situation when it comes to the two anticipated Nuyaka teachers that probably will be moving to middle school classes. When asked where Haynes would put their classrooms, he hesitated, �I don�t know, we are out of room.�
According to Haynes, BMS has been in desperate need of at least four new classrooms and an auditorium. Hopes were to build those additions this summer now that the elementary school is finished, but hopes were waylaid with the new weight room built to fulfill Title IX requirements for the school district.
�We will welcome them with open arms and do whatever it takes to make this a smooth transition,� stated Beggs Elementary School Principal Marsha Norman. Plans are to bring Nuyaka students and staff over to acquaint them with the school and other students before the move.
For now, the elementary school sits in a better position to receive Nuyaka students and staff than BMS. BES was just recently completed with classes opening at the new facility in the fall of 1995.
According to Norman, a couple of extra classrooms were part of the school plans. One of those rooms is currently used for audio-visual. Norman is anticipating making three new classrooms to accommodate the three Nuyaka teachers probably coming to the elementary. At this point, new pre-kindergarten, first, and second grade classes are being considered, which will benefit current Beggs students by creating smaller classes.
However, if enrollment continues to increase, BES may be forced to disband its computer lab for a classroom, moving computers to individual classrooms for the 1998-99 school year.
There are other considerations besides students, classrooms, and staff with the annexation issue.
Beggs School District will acquire Nuyaka�s equipment, buildings, funding, and bills, including an outstanding bond on a new building that was constructed at Nuyaka a few years ago.
When asked if the Beggs school budget can afford to assume the Nuyaka bills, Superintendent Les Johnston confidently stated that the school board had been keeping spending down in anticipation of the assumption of Nuyaka�s bills. Grants and funding will follow the Nuyaka students to Beggs, which will also help.
Johnston added that he hates to see a school close. �This touches my heart.� Johnston went through this same predicament in 1968 when Stidham High School closed while he was on staff there. Ironically, that was the same year Nuyaka closed its high school.
From Johnson�s understanding, Nuyaka voters won�t have much of a choice on November 18. If voters approve the annexation, the district will be voluntarily annexed into the Beggs School District. If voters don�t approve the annexation, Nuyaka School District will have a forced annexation. The difference between a forced and a voluntary annexation is that Nuyaka district could be divided between several districts instead of being annexed as a whole to Beggs.
Beggs school district has been steadily growing in the last few years. In the 1980�s, during the oil boom, Beggs School boasted close to 1,000 students. In later years, that figure dropped to the upper 700�s.
�In the good times, people move to the country. In bad times, they move back to town.� Johnston stated. Beggs School district currently coverers approximately 22 square miles.
In the last few years, there has been an influx of people moving to the rural areas, thus causing another growth spurt to the Beggs system. Currently Beggs schools have an enrollment of 940 students. Nuyaka�s students will push that figure closer to 1,000.
With the census coming up in the year 2000, if Beggs has 1,000 students or more, the school district will have to be divided into wards, according to Johnston. Each ward will then elect a school board member. This could be very beneficial to the smaller rural areas that have children in the school district, as each area would have a representative.
Johnston feels that taxes for Nuyaka residents will probably stay about the same, considering that the mileage for the two districts is similar. Beggs is at 76 miles, while Nuyaka�s mileage for this year is approximately 74.5.
When asked about Nuyaka�s school building, Johnston said the school district would have three options: 1) maintain the school, 2) give the buildings to a government agency and 3) put the buildings up for public auction. This option could only be done after the building has been closed for one year and declared surplus.
Johnston would be in favor of giving the building to Nuyaka, if the city was incorporated, to be used as a community building, thus allowing its heritage to continue. Beggs second option would allow the district to do just that. The fact that Nuyaka is not incorporated makes this option impossible.
Unlike the old woman who lived in the shoe, it�s clear with Beggs school districts� impending growth that this story cannot be closed and put up on a shelf until read the next time. Portable classrooms and/or additional classrooms are future realities that will have to be addressed by the Beggs Board of Education soon.
Part IV: Is Nuyaka�s fate a forecast for the future?
Date not available
On November 18, Nuyaka�s voters will decide if the tiny rural school district will close forever.
Statewide, a number of school closings and consolidations have taken place over the years since 1990 and the passage of House Bill 1017. Nuyaka appears to be just one more added to that list.
Is this a growing trend in rural Oklahoma? Are the rural communities dying by a lethal injection of school closures?
There are 117 dependent school districts in the state of Oklahoma, three of which are in Okmulgee County. Nuyaka probably will be closed on December 19, leaving only Twin Hills and Liberty Morris.
In 1891, the Oklahoma Territorial Legislature enacted a law organizing the school districts into political subdivisions of four school districts per township. These school districts were approximately nine square miles, with the point being that students would be assured of living within walking distance of their school.
In 1914, an overwhelming 5,880 school districts were present to accommodate students. With technology growing rapidly, transportation improved, and educational demands increased, school districts changed in size and organization, with consolidations becoming increasingly more apparent.
School districts dwindled to 609 by 1989. That year brought the passage of SB 74, establishing the Voluntary School Consolidation Act. Four schools in the state consolidated that year, with one school, Connerville, being mandatorily annexed.
That legislation was amended by HB1017 in 1990. Thirteen schools closed their doors that year.
Rural schools closings continued with 14 districts closing in 1991, nine in 1992, 15 in 1993, three in 1994 and one district closing for 1995 and 1996.
Stony Point School closed in June of this year, and Nuyaka School appears to be number two for 1997.
Sixty-one schools have closed since SB 74. The probable closing of Nuyaka will push that number to 62 closed schools with 547 remaining. Can other schools keep afloat in the HB017 ocean of mandates?
�Twin Hills School is going strong,� emphasized principal Bob Pinkston in a telephone interview recently. With 244 students and more residents moving into the popular rural area, Pinkston has a strong basis for his statement. Knowing that mandates were forthcoming, Twin Hills Board of Education hired a teacher on staff that was also a certified librarian.
According to Pinkston, the schools are only required to have one-seventh of a librarian, thus allowing that staff member to be in the library one hour daily for students and still maintain a class the other six periods. The same is true of the mandated counselor, allowing smaller schools to �co-op� with other school districts.
Liberty-Morris also has a certified librarian on staff and will be able to take advantage of a counselor �co-op� like its counterpart Twin Hills, however, enrollment figures are not as assuring as Twin Hills. Liberty-Morris currently has 57 students, down from the 66 students at the end of the last school year. Principal Carl King stated that Twin Hills has the advantage of an upward growth of new development in that area. Currently, Liberty-Morris does not see that same rate of growth. �We are stable,� cites King.
Will Liberty-Morris be next? That is something that only time will tell, as the death of rural Oklahoma school districts continues.
Part V: Comments from State Superintendent Sandy Garrett
Date not available
On December 19 the final bell may ring at Nuyaka School District. The decision will be made by Nuyaka�s voters on November 18.
According to Oklahoma State Department of Education Superintendent Sandy Garrett, �It�s an unfortunate situation when schools get in financial binds. Unfortunately demographics change and money becomes scarce, and so it is up to the voters.�
Garrett is quick to state that it is not just the small schools that are closing. Sixty-one schools have closed since 1989 and the dependent schools, with grades kindergarten to eighth grade are not the only ones that are closing. There are still 117 dependent schools in the state.
Surprisingly enough Garrett states, �It�s the small high schools that are the most expensive element in education and the most in jeopardy. Laboratory equipment, band uniforms, all are added expenses for a small high school.�
In fact, one of Oklahoma�s largest school districts, Tulsa, got the least amount of aid this year, according to Garrett.
The process to close a school takes time. First the board of education has to vote to approve a resolution to annex to another district. Once that is done, the resolution is brought before the receiving school districts board of education. If the resolution is accepted, an application is made to the County Election Board to request an election. The decision is left up to the voters of the closing school district.
Ultimately, it is up to a simple majority vote to decide whether the school will close. Unfortunately, in Nuyaka�s case there may not be much of a choice. If the election fails, Nuyaka School District may be forced into an annexation. A forced annexation would mean the Nuyaka School District would be absorbed into several surrounding school districts instead of being totally absorbed by the Beggs School District as would happen if the annexation were voluntary. That decision will remain up to the voters.
Garrett encourages the Nuyaka voters to consider what is at stake.
�Beggs is welcoming Nuyaka with open arms, I urge the voters to consider what is best for the students when they go to the polls.�
No matter what Nuyaka voters decide on November 18, the fact remains that due to low enrollment and lack of funding the future for Nuyaka School District looks bleak. The saga of the death of rural Oklahoma schools continues on with one more school being added to the ever-growing list.
It�s on to Beggs next year
Saturday, December 20, 1997
Teachers choked back tears bravely telling students, �We�ll see you at the new school!�
Superintendent Garland Lane greeted the media with an open invitation to look around.
The coke machine was open so students could drink whatever soda was left before the machine was hauled away.
Parents helped teachers pack up their things while students partied and watched videos on their last day.
�The kids have been partying all day,� said Lane.
The secretary busily worked on the computer putting in final entries for the school before the bell rang.
Visitors admire the championship basketball trophies from 1939 and 1940 in the case, eyes reading intently each prize trophy locked behind the glass, fearing it may be the last.
A mother and teacher packing up stop to visit.
But, Phyllis Breedlove is excited about her new classroom at Beggs.
�I have a 12�X5� closet in my new room,� she exclaims. When asked if she will have the same students in Beggs, she hesitated.
�No, I�ll have former students,� she explains. Breedlove is teaching pre-kindergarten today and will be teaching first grade on Jan. 5 at Beggs.
Mary Toon helps Breedlove pack up her room stopping occasionally to wipe her nose. Small sniffles can be heard as the mother of four battles to keep her composure.
�My youngest is excited to be going to a new school,� Toon states. Tristina is in pre-kindergarten. The other two school age children are not quite so ecstatic.
�My middle one is not so sure, but my oldest is in middle school and is very apprehensive,� Toon adds. J.R. is a first grade student and Amber is in sixth grade. A fourth child, Cody Eli, will never get the opportunity of going to the Nuyaka School. Cody is only four months old.
Toon explains that her children attended Beggs School before the family moved to Nuyaka. The annexation of Nuyaka to Beggs apparently is difficult for this mother.
�Now, now, we�ll have none of that. We are just thinking of the new school,� Breedlove chides.
�We�ve all decided there will be no tears today,� she adds.
The final bell rings, it�s 3 o�clock. Students overloaded with books and papers, mementos of their half-year, spilling over in their arms. Walking the last walk to board the bus form Nuyaka.
Parents pick up their children. Cars pull away.
The coke machine is gone.
The rooms are packed. A quiet falls over the buildings.
The playground is empty, the bus is gone.
Nuyaka has closed its doors forever.
Good-bye tiny school.
The buildings are closed and locked.
The memories will continue in the hearts of all who Nuyaka School touched.
History Restored!
Nuyaka Indian Mission Dedication June 26
Wednesday, June 2, 1999
The historical Nuyaka Indian Mission is alive once again to tell its stories thanks to a group of volunteers. The Nuyaka Homecoming and Historical Society Inc. is a group of dedicated citizens with a love for the mission in their hearts.
�We couldn�t just let it sit there, so we started fixing it up on weekends,� said Florence Cahalen, a member of the group.
The mission will open with a dedication at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 26 with the official name of the Nuyaka Creek Indian Mission Museum. The dedication is part of the Nuyaka annual homecoming celebration and will feature a craft and quilt show to help raise money for the new museum.
The craft and quilt show will be June 25, 26 and 27. The mission is located 17 miles west of Okmulgee off of Highway 56. The quilt show is under the care of Clara Barefoot Schorn, who is known for her summer quilt shows in Portland, Oregon. Soap making and candle molding demonstrations are also part of the events to be held at the mission.
The museum will be operated by the Nuyaka Homecoming and Historical Society Inc. on a volunteer basis, Cahalen said.
�We are so excited about the dedication. Muscogee (Creek) Nation Principal Chief Perry Beaver will be the featured speaker,� explained Cahalen.
Also scheduled to speak is Dr. William B. Lees, director of the Oklahoma State Historical Society from Okalahoma City.
�We are still looking for memorabilia to place in the museum,� said Cahalen. The group is trying to track down a complete set of class pictures that used to hang in the Creek Council House.
�No one seems to know where they went to after the Creek Council House renovation,� she explained.
The Nuyaka Indian Mission evolved a long time ago, when in 1790 President George Washington invited a delegation of 26 Creek Indians to visit his capital, according to an article written in 1974 by Okla Spears. Okla and her husband Bill Spears purchased the mission and worked diligently to restore the museum.
Washington invited the Creeks to visit his capital, New York City, she writes.
�So astounded were these simply yet dignified Creeks with the magnificence of the white man�s city that they determined to do something to commemorate this great experience. Their little villages lined the Georgia and Alabama streams and when the next new settlement was begun they decided to name it for the white man�s capital. Since the Muskogee language did not have an R in it, they could not call it New York, but in their way of softening and beautifying words, they called their village Nu Yaka,� Spears penned.
She continues that life didn�t remain peaceful for the Creeks and their brothers and in the 1830�s the white men forced them to leave their little villages of Okemah, Okmulgee, Tulsey, Wewoka, Nu Yaka and others and to walk through marsh and sand to ford rivers and streams, along the Trail of Tears into a strange new land. Homesick and longing for their beloved old homes, they tried to assuage their grief by naming their new villages those lovely names of Okfuskee, Wealaka, Okmulgee, Okeman, and Nuyaka.
The trust the Creek once had in his white brother had been destroyed, Spears writes, and he wanted no more of the white man�s friendship or the white man�s God. Many missionaries who had conducted schools among the Creeks for generations so that the young Creeks could go north or across the ocean to college, had also walked that Trail of Tears, but they had, for the time, lost all favor with their beloved Creeks.
In 1842, the Presbyterians sent a young Presbyterian Princeton graduate, Robert Laughridge, to the Creek Nation in an effort to talk them into letting his people establish mission schools. Laughridge made the 600-mile trip on horseback and with his persuasiveness obtained permission to set up a mission school, provided that the white man�s God was never mentioned outside the building�s four walls.
Laughridge rode back those 600 miles and spent the years gathering books and charts and dozens of needed articles, including a charming young Scotch bride, Spears writes.
He rode back again to become the founder of the first mission school for the Indians, named Coweta Mission.
With the gates open, soon trust was restored and other religions joined in finding other missions.
Laughridge became the superintendent of the lovely and successful Tullahassee Mission, of which William Robertson was principal. Now Robertson had two remarkable daughters, Alice and Augusta.
When the Civil War broke out, teachers had to flee for their lives, most of them taking refuge in Kansas, where they were cared for by the Sac and Fox Indians. Their missions were left to the ravages of battle, of being used as hospitals or stables, so that at the war�s end, the missionaries and their faithful Indian students found their buildings in partial ruins or gone. Many of the buildings were patched up and scrubbed out and school began again.
The Tullahassee School seemed doomed though, for within a few years, on Christmas Eve, a fire broke out and the entire school, housed in one large building was completely destroyed.
William Robertson, his family and his faculty tried to carry on in stables and workshops but to no avail. Tullahassee was abandoned and Robertson died. Augusta married one of the finest Creek Indians of this period, Napoleon Buonaparte Moore, an ancestor of Judge Tom Moore of Okmulgee and Alice accepted a teaching job at Carlisle.
Teaching did not satisfy Alice. One thought was dominant, the Creeks must have another school, but this time it must be near the Creek Capital and never again should the entire mission be housed in one building. Alice couldn�t wait until the school year was out, she drove out to Half Moon Ranch and insisted that her sister Augusta, should move in to Okmulgee and finish up her term of school, while Alice set out to raise money for another mission for her beloved Creeks.
She went to where the money was � New York State and enlisted the help of two of the most famous and persuasive people of that time, the brother and sister, Henry Ward Beecher, the Great Abolitionist and Harriet Beecher Stowe of Uncle Tom�s Cabin fame. Together they covered the state, speaking mostly to women�s groups begging money and support for a new Creek Mission. At the end of the first year, the trio had raised $12, 500.
Alice met with the Creek officials and gained both their approval and pledge of $2,500 to be paid annually. With $15,000, Alice was ready to build a new mission.
A crew of well diggers was hired so that a satisfactory site could be chosen with an abundant supply of water. The crew would be paid for the digging by the foot.
The first site chosen wasn�t far from the Creek Council House but after days and weeks of digging, no water was found. The second site was near the little Creek town of Nuyaka on the banks of the Deep Fork River. No water was found at this site either, so a site was chosen farther north but still near the Deep Fork. Because of expenses, the first crew was dismissed and another crew was hired and they would only be paid if they were successful.
The digging began and eighteen feet down, solid rock was hit. Week after week, the men pounded and chiseled through this rock until they reached 40 feet and still no water.
One night the men loaded barrels onto their freight wagon and drove to the muddy Deep Fork River. They filled their barrels, returned to the dry hole and poured the water in. Several trips were made, until the water stood halfway up to the top. When the missionaries arrived to check the progress of the well, they found a happy crew � water had been reached. The canny Presbyterians drew up a bucketful or so and pronounced it extremely dirty, but were satisfied and paid the crew. Interestingly enough, over 100 years later, that well still offers an abundant supply of water, Spears wrote.
This was the site of the Nuyaka Mission. Lumber, square nails, plaster, glass and St. Louis brick were ordered from the Missouri town. Goods were loaded on to flat boars, towed down the Mississippi to the mouth of the Arkansas, west along the Arkansas to Red Fork, near Tulsey Town, unloaded on freight wagons and pulled by mules and horses across the roadless prairie to the future home of the Nuyaka Mission.
The first building erected was the superintendent�s home and sometimes office, sometimes post office, and sometimes residence for faculty members. In the 1920�s the rooms upstairs were packed full with Indian children from six to eight years.
Spears writes, it was at this time that little Alex McIntosh from the Okemah area, slid down the banisters with a whoop, threw rocks at the mission chickens and sometimes at other little Indian boys, and often sat by himself, scratching pictures in the dirt. Years later, he was to be known to the world as Acee Blue Eagle.
The first building was completed in 1883 and Nuyaka Mission was a reality. Alice persuaded her sister Augusta to serve as its first superintendent, assisted by her honest and able husband.
Each little Indian Village was allowed to choose its most able boys and girls for enrollment in the school. It should be noted that as far back as history can inform us, Spears writes, the civilized tribes gave their women equal authority and equal opportunity. The usual enrollment at Nuyaka was around 100 pupils, 50 boys and 50 girls.
Building after building rose on the campus until seven large framed buildings had been erected, the president�s home, boys dormitory, girls� dormitory, farm shop and manual training building, steam laundry, dining hall and kitchen, schools building and one a smaller one-story commissary. The campus was extensive with the buildings so widely spaced that the burning of one would not endanger the others. Through the years, the buildings became modernized with electricity furnished by its own Delco plant and with a septic system serving all buildings and with sidewalks built and landscaping beautifying the campus.
Augusta Robertson served for only five or six years and then retired on Half Moon Ranch near Old Council Hill. Those first years were crucial to the mission with the government often failing to send the Creek Nation its money, so its share of the financing was not on hand. Augusta scrimped and saved and tried to manage with only the expense money furnished by the northern Presbyterians during those years, the Creek Nation couldn�t furnish money but the Presbyterians couldn�t either and Augusta faced the fact of having no money for salaries, for the upkeep of the buildings or even for food for her 100 children and her seventeen or eighteen faculty members.
She was faced with the possibility of having to send the pupils home and the closing down of Nuyaka Mission. But two Okmulgee merchants, W.C. Trent and James Parkinson and one merchant rancher, F.B. Severs came to the rescue. For one full year these men paid all the expenses of Nuyaka Mission and thus keeping it alive. When the following year both the Creek nation and the Northern Presbyterians sent double payments these men refused to accept a repayment of the monies they had spent. As a result, Alice, every on the alert for an unexpected blessing, used this extra money to move the struggling little Henry Kendall College from Muskogee to Tulsa where it thrived amazingly. It is now known as Tulsa University perhaps the foster child of Nuyaka Mission.
Following Augusta Robertson Moore�s administration, there entered into the history of Nuyaka Mission a very able and much beloved family, which was to dominate its history for many, many years. This was the Robe family. First the father, W.B. Robe and then the son, John M. Robe served as superintendent and under their capable and honest management Nuyaka Mission existed the rest of its life as a Presbyterian mission. The word honest has been used many times and for a reason.
It was either the incompetence of the dishonesty of their officials that brought about the downfall of most of these missions for the Indians. When statehood finally arrived very few of those early missions, which served so magnificently in their early years, were still in existence. Almost all had been destroyed by fire or has been closed by the government because of mismanagement. But in all the ugly stories of later day misuse of monies and outright neglect and mistreatment of the pupils, the name of Nuyaka Mission is never found. Due to this vigilance of such Creeks as Napoleon Buonaparte Moore and to the truly Christian administration of the Robes, no criticism of this mission has been found.
Children of Indian chiefs and other officials, future lawyers, teachers, artists and writers learned their basic skills and how to use them at Nuyaka Mission. When statehood became an almost certain thing in 1905, the Creek Nation, wishing to continue this mission for their children, bought from the Presbyterians the Mission buildings and the land belonging to it. The Presbyterians prepared to leave to return to their homes in the east. But the wise Creek officials, realizing that in a white man�s world many of their people could be misled and victimized, begged the Presbyterian teachers and superintendent to remain and continue the management of their school.
And so it was that way until 1921, the Creek Nation maintained its own school at Nuyaka Mission. It was in operation long after almost all other missions were in ruins or long abandoned. In 1921, the Creeks realized that their children should enter the world of his white neighbor and thus learn to trade, to work and to exist in equality. So Nuyaka Mission, as a Creek Indian School ceased to exist. The fact that it was bought by the state Baptist Association and later transferred to the Southern Baptist Convention and thus continued serving as a school for Indian orphans is another story which extends into the 1930�s.
Rather than have the old buildings destroyed by vandalism or fall to pieces through neglect, the Baptists chose to auction each building off so that the lumber might be used in homes and farm buildings. Thanks to the fact that in every period of crisis some individual always came to its aid. This time a Bristow resident, Emmett Mount joined W.C. Trent, James Parkinson and F.B Severs in the history of Nuyaka Mission. He bought all the buildings that were still standing and the land formerly owned by the Northern Presbyterians and the Southern Baptists so that in time they might become the property of the Oklahoma Historical Society and thus be saved for the future.
In a letter to Okmulgee Daily Times Historian Joe Foster, the late D.J. Blaylock, one of the last students to graduate from the mission, added more information to its� history. Blaylock graduated on April 25, 1933, the last day the school was open. Their information came partly from the Baptist Historical Commission of Oklahoma City and its Director, Dr. J.M. Gaskin of Durant.
In 1882 a wealthy Baptist Baltimore couple, Mr. And Mrs. Joshua Levering provided funds to establish a boarding school for Indian boys at Wetumka. In 1891 the school and equipment was moved to Nuyaka and consolidated with the Creek Indian School. It was then that the school was called the Nuyaka Levering Indian School and Orphanage.
In 1921 the school was sold to Rev. J.M. Wiley on behalf of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma and taken over by the Education Board of the Southern Baptist Convention soon afterwards.
Mr. J.P. Peden served as superintendent until 1925 with about 50 students. J.M. Wiley ran the school up until 1929, according to Blaylock.
A Baptist Preacher, L.B. Alder became the principal in 1929 with six workers and about 85 boarding students.
�A few students worked for their room and board but the others were paid for by tribal fund. Eight tribes were represented,� Blaylock wrote.
Churches helped support the school with money and supplies but times were hard and the school was expected to close.
There was one last hope for its survival. An oil drilling company started drilling on school land. Blaylock recalled how eagerly and hopefully Mr. Alder watched the drilling process. Sadly, it turned out to be a dry well, so the school closed in the spring of 1933.
Many of the library books were given to Oklahoma Baptist University at Shawnee, but Blaylock was told to take whatever books he wanted. His family still has the old blue back speller and a McGuffey reader.
Dr. Gaskin asked Blaylock if he would donate his original diploma to the Baptist Archives in Oklahoma City and it now hangs nicely framed and displayed in their historical division.
Blaylock was one of the few non-Indian students.
At the age of 14 he was determined to get an education, by then being �on his own�. Blaylock was told he could find work and go to school at Hartford, Ark. There he worked for E.M. Bartlett, Sr. He was tested and started in the low fifth grade. He finished fifth and sixth grades the first year and seventh and eighth grades the next. Someone told him about Nuyaka Mission School and he hitchhiked there.
�There were four dormitories, one for big boys, one for big girls, one for little boys and one for little girls,� he said. Each room was heated by a wood heater stove. Blaylock, being older, was put in charge of tree cutting and sawing into blocks. Other boys hauled the wood, split and stacked it. The kitchen also cooked on a wood burning range.
Anyone interested in donating to the museum can send their donation to Genevieve Ledbetter, Rt. 2 Box 7020, Okmulgee, OK 74447, or by calling Florence Cahalen at 627-7241.