Article 12: Choctaw Leadership in Oklahoma: The Allen Wright Family and Education in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

Sociologist Duane Champagne has pointed out, “Theories of colonization must … develop a more complete and balanced understanding of the complexities of life among the colonized” (Champagne 1996, 3–14). More particularly, he calls for the continuing investigation of Native colonization. Against the backdrop of internal colonialism, this paper will examine the educational and social lives of Allen Wright and his children to better understand how this Choctaw family successfully navigated the pressures of dual cultures by: 1) providing the socio–political context of the indigenous culture prior to Allen’s birth; 2) chronicling and examining the social and educational experiences of young Allen Wright as he grew to adulthood and became an important leader in the Choctaw culture and in Oklahoma’s march toward statehood; and 3) analyzing the lives of his children as leaders who continued his fight for the survival of Choctaw society during the growth and development of Oklahoma as the 46th state in the Union.