Historic Landscape and Interpretive Plan, Nuyaka Mission , Okmulgee County, Oklahoma
As stated in the document, the purpose of this study was to develop a "Historic Landscape and Interpretive Plan" for the Nuyaka Mission site by researching the landscape history of the mission site as it was during the years 1885-1933. It was the intension of the plan to create a landscape setting similar to the presentation of the site during its years of historical significance. Owned in 1994 by the Oklahoma Historical Society, Dr. Charles L. Leider of Leider and Associates, Stillwater, Oklahoma, was hired to conduct the study and prepare the landscape and interpretive plan. This document includes a breif history of the school and details regarding the study and the four restorative landscaping concepts created for the site.
Authorized by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation National Council and founded by the Presbyterian Synod of Indian Territory in 1882, the Nuyaka Mission boarding school was one of many Muscogee (Creek) Nation Reservation schools. The William S. Robertson family, a prominent nineteenth-century Presbyterian mission family, worked extensively within the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. William's daughter, Alice M. Robertson, raised funds in the east to help build Nuyaka, and her sister Mrs. Augusta Moore was made superintendent and principal of the school by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. Located fifteen miles west of Okmulgee, the school, where both Mvskoke boys and girls attended, remained in operation until 1922. Alice Robertson taught at Nuyaka before moving to Muskogee in 1885 and becoming principal at the Presbyterian School for Indian Girls. In 1922, after the mission school closed, the site became an orphanage operated by the Southern Baptist Convention until 1931. The mission site became a private residence in the following years, and the Oklahoma Historical Society currently owns the property.