Over 200 years of
SERVICE TO NATIVE CHILDREN
Giving children hope and a chance.
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The Oaks Indian mission has roots which run deep into the history of the Cherokee Nation. Officially the Mission began in 1801, when the tribe invited Moravian missionaries to open a school in Georgia, a few miles from the seat of the Cherokee government. From 1801 to the present, the Oaks Indian Mission has been instrumental in preparing many Indian children to become successful adults.
MORAVIAN MISSIONARIES
1801 - 1898
The story of the Oaks Indian Mission begins with Moravian Missionaries who emigrated from Europe in the early to mid-1700s to what is now the Carolinas and Georgia, to establish mission work among the Cherokee people.
THE LUTHERANS
1898 - 1926
Niels Laudjids Nielsen was born in Denmark in 1863. In 1892, he spent the summer at Tahlequah, Oklahoma where he learned the Sequoyah Syllabary of 85 characters and mastered well enough in three weeks to read the Cherokee language. In September of the same year, he opened his first school with an enrollment of eight children.
OAKS INDIAN MISSION CHILDREN'S HOME
1926 - 1980
From its beginning, the Lutheran Missions were primarily focused on the education of Native American young people. The Oaks Mission as a Children’s Home was established in 1926 and is located approximately 65 miles east of Tulsa, Oklahoma, just 23 miles west of Siloam Springs, Arkansas.