Historical Marker Program

Goodwater Choctaw Mission/Koonsha Female Seminary

Choctaw County
Location: on US-70 east of Sawyer
Coordinates: 34.019065, -95.362666
Material: Aluminum
Sponsor(s): Oklahoma Historical Society and the Oklahoma Department of Transportation
Topics: American Indians; Education; Religion/Philosophy; Westward Expansion, 1803–1861

Goodwater Choctaw Mission was established in Indian Territory in 1832 after the forced removal of the Choctaw from Mississippi. Goodwater had several notable founding members, including the Reverends Cyrus Byington, Cyrus Kingsbury, and Ebenezer Hotchkin. In 1842 the Choctaw Nation opened Koonsha Female Seminary in conjunction with the mission. Both institutions closed by the beginning of the Civil War.