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El Meta Christian College
Christian Standard
March 20, 1897
Located at Minco, Indian Territory, at the cost of about $8,000, which amount was raised by the church at Minco, to whom the college belongs. But little,
very little help has been received from any other source.
Ten acres of land, well located, are set aside for the College, and enclosed. In the southeast
corner of the lot is a splendid chapel. Miss Meta Chestnut, from North Carolina, has been instrumental in the growth of interest in the education of
the coming man and woman of our country. From ten to twenty-five poor
children are in school free of charge each year. The boarding department is
good. There are no other than subscription schools for the white children; no
school system in our country; no public funds for white children so that they
are, many of them, growing up in poverty and ignorance. What we want is for
the churches of Christ, as well as individuals to give $200 to this department
of our work, and so provide for twenty children in school for a year. I know
of no better investment of time and means than this for the glory of God and
the good of mankind.
Atoka, Indian Territory. R. W. Officer
Picture from the estate of
Oscar Morse, Yuma, Arizona
OKLAHOMA CHRONICLES
Originally printed in Oklahoma Chronicles Vol.
XXXIII, pgs 183-192
ST. AGNES SCHOOL OF THE CHOCTAWS By Velma
Nieberding
(partial article focusing on funding for
Indian Schools)
In 1915-16, the contract was not renewed
because of a ruling by the comptroller of the treasury which
read: "The tribal funds of the Choctaws and Chickasaws for
the maintenance of mission or private schools during the fiscal
year, 1916, is unauthorized".
It affected four Catholic Indian Schools
(Antlers, Ardmore, Chickasha and Purcell) and four private
schools (old Goodland School, Hugo; El Meta Bond College,
Minco, Oklahoma; Presbyterian College, Durant; and the
Murray State School of Agriculture, Tishomingo). At that time
(1915) Congressman C. D. Carter of Ardmore declared that the new
ruling "will deprive of school facilities from 1000 to 1600
Indian children." By one stroke of the pen the four above
institutions and mission schools were permanently deprived of
the $12.50 a month for board and tuition for each boarding pupil
which the Government paid out of the "Educational
Funds" of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, to be used for
tribal and other schools. The intolerant rebuff and set-back of
education in those two nations seriously affected the
maintenance and progress of the institutions named above, for a
number of years.
PDF link to reference below - must have a PDF
reader to view
http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v033/v033p183.pdf
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