Choctaw Academy was a historic Indian boarding school at Blue Spring in

Scott County, Kentucky Scott County is a county located in the central part of the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 57,155. Scott County is part of the Lexington–Fayette, Kentucky Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Native Ame ...

for Choctaw students. It existed from 1818 to 1842.

History

Baptists started an academy for Choctaws in 1818 near Georgetown, Kentucky, but it quickly failed due to lack of funding. The school was reopened around 1821 after the U.S. acquired Choctaw lands in Mississippi because Chief Peter Pitchlynn and other members of the tribe had worked with U.S. Representative Richard Mentor Johnson to request that part of the treaty money be used on schools. The original Baptist school was located near Johnson's home on his land, so he contacted his brother-in-law William Ward, a U.S. Indian agent, and the school was restarted as a Federal school in 1825, and a three-story stone building was constructed. Johnson's own mixed-race children and other family members attended the school as well as children from various tribes.

Closure and preservation of site

The Indian Removal Act of 1830 caused many Choctaw to move to what is now Oklahoma, and the Choctaw ceased funding the school in 1842 when various reservation schools were founded including Spencer Academy. As of 2017 the stone Choctaw Academy building was dilapidatated, and the roof was caving in, but private fundraising was started to save the 1825 building, and a grant was given by

Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma The Choctaw Nation (Choctaw: ''Chahta Okla'') is a Native American territory covering about , occupying portions of southeastern Oklahoma in the United States. The Choctaw Nation is the third-largest federally recognized tribe in the United S ...

's Chahta Foundation.Katherine Flynn, "Kentucky Ophthalmologist Fundraises to Save Choctaw Academy" Preservation Magazine, https://savingplaces.org/stories/kentucky-opthalmologist-fundraises-choctaw-academy#.Yg0ehurMJPY

Notable alumni and faculty

* Julia Chinn, wife/slave of Vice President Johnson, manager of the Choctaw Academy, * John Tecumseh Jones, interpreter, Baptist minister, businessman, friend of John Brown and founder of

Ottawa University Ottawa University (OU) is a private Baptist university with its main campus in Ottawa, Kansas, a second residential campus in Surprise, Arizona, and adult campuses in the Kansas City, Phoenix and Milwaukee metropolitan areas. It was founded in ...

in Kansas *

Robert Ward Johnson Robert Ward Johnson (July 22, 1814 – July 26, 1879) was an American planter and lawyer who served as the senior Confederate States senator for Arkansas, a seat that he was elected to in 1861. He previously served as a delegate from Arkansas ...

, U.S. Senator from Arkansas, Confederacy supporter *

Robert McDonald Jones Robert McDonald Jones (October 1, 1808 – February 22, 1872) was a Choctaw senator and prominent Confederate politician. He was born in Mississippi and later relocated to Indian Territory. He was educated at the Choctaw Academy in Blue Spri ...

, Choctaw tribal member, businessman, Confederate politician

References

{{coord missing, Kentucky Native American boarding schools Schools in Scott County, Kentucky School buildings completed in 1818 1818 establishments in Kentucky Choctaw culture Native American history of Kentucky 1840s disestablishments in Kentucky