Location: Muskogee, Oklahoma, United States

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The institution that is today Bacone College was established in 1880 at Tahlequah, the capital of the Cherokee Nation, as an American Indian college. With Almon Clematus Bacone (1830-1896) as the first faculty member, the objective of this new school was training individuals for religious work. Only a short time later in 1881, the Academy found a more permanent home on 160 acres donated by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation to the American Baptist Home Mission Societies (ABHMS). This new location was more centrally located in Indian Territory, near both Muscogee Station on the MKT Railway and the new headquarters of the recently consolidated U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs office or Union Indian Agency for the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Muscogee Creek and Seminole, which was built just a few miles west on Agency Hill.
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Campus 1908 |
However, it was several years before enough funds were raised to build at the site and not until 1885 that the campus was ready to be occupied by the students and faculty. Now called Indian University the acadmey also had a broader educational focus. Almon Bacone served as President and oversaw the growth of the college until his death in 1896. The school was renamed Bacone College in 1910 to honor his service.
Bacone School/Style (of Art)
The Bacone school or Bacone style of painting, drawing, and printmaking is a Native American intertribal "Flatstyle" art movement, primarily from the mid-20th century in Eastern Oklahoma and named for Bacone College. This art movement bridges historical, tribally-specific pictorial painting and carving practices towards an intertribal Modernist style of easel painting. This style is also influenced by the art programs of Chilocco Indian School, north of Ponca City, Oklahoma, and Haskell Indian Industrial Training Institute, in Lawrence, Kansas and features a mix of Southeastern, Prairie, and Central Plains tribes.
Directors of Art
- 1935-1938 Alexander C McIntosh "Acee Blue Eagle" (1909-1959)
- 1938-1941/1943-1945 Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Crumbo (1912-1989)
- 1947-1970/1979-1986 Walter Richard "Dick" West (1912-1996)
- 1971-1976 Carl Terry Saul (1921-1976)
- 1979-2010 Ruthe Blalock Jones
- 2010-2014 Tony Tiger
- 2018-2021 Gerald Cournoyer
- 2021 Michael Elizondo Jr.
Notable Alumni/ae
Sources
- Oklahoma Historical Society, The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture:
- Crum, Steven J. The "Rise and Fall" of Indian Colleges in Indian Territory: Indian University, Henry Kendall College, and Other Colleges, 1880-1907, article, Spring 2015; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc2017367/: accessed October 15, 2023), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.
- University of Arkansas Libraries: Raising the Standard for Indian Art: The Legacy of Bacone College
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