Valley Town Baptist Mission

The Valley Town Baptist Mission was a boarding school that became an important center of Cherokee scholarship and resistance to Removal. It contained a model farm, gristmill, and blacksmith shop. It became the most popular of the mission schools in the Cherokee Nation, after its directors adopted the Cherokee language for instruction and preaching. The school trained Cherokee leaders like Peter Oganaya, John Wickliff, and James Wafford, men who led the opposition to Removal in this part of the Cherokee Nation.

Scene depicting a Protestant Indian school, circa 1830