WHAT:
The Cherokee Nation will celebrate five boarding school-era day school properties across the Cherokee Nation Reservation being placed into trust by the United States following decades of work with the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
WHEN:
Thursday, December 5 at 11 a.m.
WHERE:
Former Oak Hill-Piney Day School site
43839 County Road 641
Jay, Oklahoma
WHO:
Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr.
Deputy Chief Bryan Warner
Council of the Cherokee Nation
Bureau of Indian Affairs Regional Leaders
TAHLEQUAH, Okla.— Cherokee Nation officials will gather with Bureau of Indian Affairs regional leaders Thursday to celebrate the deed transfers of five separate, historic boarding school-era day school properties that were located across the tribe’s reservation.
The five properties that have been placed into trust include Ballou Day School in Mayes County; Mulberry Hollow Day School, also known as Rabbit Trap School, in Adair County; Oak Hill-Piney Day School in Delaware County; Oaks Mission Day School, also known as Rocky Ford, in Cherokee County; and Redbird Smith Day School in Sequoyah County. Combined, the five properties represent nearly 84 acres of land.
Each of the five properties had been previously placed into federal ownership in the 1900s. The deed transfers of the properties, each finalized between September and November of 2024, mark decades of work between the Cherokee Nation and BIA officials.
“In the name of our ancestors and for the sake of our descendants, we are committed to bringing about a restoration through initiatives like this project with the BIA,” Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said. “These deed transfers have occurred amid the active dialogue we have begun across the nation and world as part of the Cherokee Nation Repatriation Project to restore historical and cultural belongings to Cherokee Nation. Core to this project is partnering with the organizations that hold these significant items to ensure they are returned in a culturally appropriate and mutually beneficial manner.”
During the 2023 State of the Nation address, Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. and Deputy Chief Bryan Warner announced the Cherokee Nation Repatriation Project focused on creating new dialogue with institutions and governments across the country that hold Cherokee cultural patrimony and other stolen or dispossessed cultural materials, properties and archives.