[Looking at why our area has its unique political and religious attitudes.]

Daytrip. Which direction are we going? If we have spent more than a week without a daytrip, one of us will ask the question.  We seldom have a destination, but pick a direction and go. Our goal is to learn Oklahoma and its history and to have fun. In one day, you can travel and return from most of Oklahoma except far southwest and the panhandle, neither of which has an extensive history or settlement. We do the backroads in a 4wd pickup, looking, trying to get our eyes full. But sometimes a huge pick pops-up right in front.

Drive down US 59 in the far eastern part of the state, along the Arkansas border. The first thing you notice is the four-lane superhighway, which parallels the old 1920s era two-lane road. The jaunt from Watts (Fort Wayne, 1838) to Westville, in Adair County, through lush mountainous terrain with glens and streams is both picturesque and very rugged.

Hey, what is that old building on the rise? We do not recall who said it first, but it is a common refrain. The answer, turn at the first gravel road to edge your way back. In short order, the gravel intersects the 100-year-old, mostly abandoned highway. Zipping back along the broken concrete road of yesteryear, we come to Old Baptist Mission Church, one of the most significant locations in Indian Territory history.

Where do we start, the gripping cemetery of ancients or the romantic, well-kempt, wooden, country church with the sign proclaiming “Church body moved over Trail of Tears 1838-1839?í

As you would expect at such a hallowed site, numerous markers tell the framework for some of the story. There is the old green highway sign by Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS)of 1949. The red Oklahoma-granite markers erected by the OHS are my favorites with this one erected in 1995. Another red granite marker commemorates the grandfather of famed Will Rogers, Robert Rogers, who signed the New Echota Treaty provoking his assassination for it. The cemetery plaques and tombstones tell the terminal expectation of all. The most ironic is the National Park Service story board, which relates the abusive events forced on these people by the same government run amok, not in keeping with the Founding Fathers.

The OHS marker relates the sad tale and the triumph.

“Baptist Mission. Rev. Jesse Bushyhead settled here in 1839 following the Cherokee removal from the east and held church services at his home until the Baptist Mission was established in 1841 by Rev. Evan Jones. This site was also one of the ration stations known as GA-DU HO-GA-DU or Breadtown by the Cherokee’s following removal. A Cherokee National school was founded near here in 1843 and the mission established a female seminary the same year. The Cherokee Messenger printed here beginning in August 1844, was the first periodical in Oklahoma. The mission station was burned during the Civil War by the Confederates because of the anti-slavery teaching of the missionaries. While the mission was never rebuilt the church has continued to meet. The present church building was built in 1888.î

But in true Indian Territory and Oklahoma fashion, the story does not stop there.

The little white church has held services continuously since its construction in 1888. Call to worship comes at 10:00 AM with the ringing of the bell, a highly desired chore.

The Cherokee coercion to the unsettled, wild west, forcibly moved a people with a higher literacy rate than their neighbors of any ethnicity. After Sequoyah developed their syllabary just 15-years before, the literacy was near 100%, considerably better than our culture today.

A Cherokee, Rev. Bushyhead, continued their religious tradition from their ancestral home in the southeast until a dedicated structure could be built. Notice that educational institutions and printing of periodicals were immediately established. In keeping with the Founding Fathers and the Northwest Ordinance, education, religion, and culture were by the same people. Humm, it seems Baptist Mission was one of the most advanced societies west of St. Louis.

Another bit of irony is the present U.S. Representative for the Second District of Oklahoma, Markwayne Mullin, is from Westville, is an enrolled Cherokee, and is one of four Native Americans in the House. Another nugget reveals he is only the second Republican after Dr. Tom Coburn, to represent the District, since the noted Alice Mary Robertson (1854-1931) in 1923.

As an old professor would question, what should we learn?

“The caution is to prevent the natural tendency of government to discriminate against any group in favor of another for any reason.” [1]

Think about how our state has rebounded from its rocky start. How did we overcome the unfathomable odds to be one of the states with freest thinking? Could it be what anchored Jesse Bushyhead, Evan Jones, and the survivors at Baptist Mission, I.T.?

What is the root of your values?

[1] Excerpts from one of our books:

Where Indians, Outlaws, and Oilmen Were Real, ISBN: 9781658834643.