Chief Gary Batton, Tribal Council Members, and descendents of the first institute superintendent unveil the highway marker.
Tvshka Homma Female Institute Highway Marker Unveiled
By Brandon Frye
Choctaw Nation
Tvshka Homma, Okla. - In 1892, near the Choctaw Capitol, the Tvshka Homma Female Institute (alternatively, the Choctaw Female Academy) opened its doors for up to 100 young Choctaw women to develop an education, and after burning down, being turned into a home, and purchased by the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma (CNO), the site received a historical highway marker on April 15.
Cooperation between CNO and the Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS) lead to the placement of the highway marker as part of a statewide program, which started in the 1940’s and has grown to include more than 650 markers.
According to Kathy Dickson, Director of Museums and Historic Sites for OHS, historical markers let travelers know when they are near a historical site, and inform them of what happened there. She said many times people travel and don’t know what is in the area or the historical importance, and the markers help.
The Tvshka Homma Female Institute location earned one of these markers for being of historic importance for the Choctaw Nation and the state of Oklahoma.
Peter Hudson was an original enrollee and the first superintendent for the institute. Three of his grandchildren–John Hooser, Suzanne Heard, and Betty Heard Watson (who were all educators themselves)–attended the unveiling of the highway marker to share their first and second-hand knowledge of the institute.
“After the location burned [in 1925], the land and material were sold. Anna Lewis, she was a teacher, bought this place,” Hooser said. He explained the new owners salvaged material from the institute to build a home for retirement, a home Hooser eventually lived in during his youth.
“If you look at the old pictures, you’ll find these rocks and bricks were all part of the original structure,” he said.
Ownership of the location changed hands a number of times, and the spacious interior and rolling hills of the surrounding land offered home and shelter to each new family.
In 2014, the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma purchased ownership of the historic site, which rests in the middle of established Choctaw land being used for ranching.
Hooser’s cousin, Suzanne Heard, said, “I’m so thrilled that our great Chief Gary Batton, Assistant Chief Jack Austin Jr., and the Tribal Council consented to buy the property here. My mother was born here, and my grandfather was the first superintendent.”
CNO’s departments of Historic Preservation and Tourism have not yet planned what is in store for the location, though contacts from both expressed a desire to work together.