The Chickasaw Cultural Center is a campus located in Sulphur, Oklahoma near the Chickasaw National Recreation Area. Its 184-acre (74 ha) campus is home to historical museum buildings with interactive exhibits on Chickasaw tribal history, traditional dancing, and Chickasaw language.[1] The campus includes a historically accurate traditional tribal village recreated in the rear lot and a garden honoring members of the Chickasaw Nation Hall of Fame. It is one of two museum campuses presented by the Chickasaw Nation, the other being the First Americans Museum in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.[2]
In the 1960s, Chickasaw Nation Governor Bill Anoatubby decided something had to be built to preserve Chickasaw culture. The nation was not in a position to make that happen at the time, but in 1980 Price Waterhouse conducted a feasibility study to determine whether a Chickasaw/Native American theme park could be built in the Arbuckle area. The study concluded that there was not enough population in the area to support it.[3][full citation needed] This was followed by a survey conducted by the Chickasaw government in October 2000, for over 1,200 members of the nation to provide suggestions regarding the creation of a cultural center.[4]
U.S. Representative Tom Cole (a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation) drafted a land exchange agreement between the Nation, the City of Sulphur, and the National Park Service, which was approved on September 28, 2004 in order to provide a favorable location for the Center's campus.[5] The symbolic breaking of the ground of the Center was started two days later on September 30, 2004.[6][full citation needed][7]
Construction began shortly after in 2004, took six years to complete, cost $40 million,[8] and opened in 2010.[9]
The Chickasaw Cultural Center features different seasonal exhibits, some of which are listed below.
The buildings and other structures on the campus were designed by architectural group Frankfurt Short Bruza (FSB)[12] who have also done multiple other projects with the Chickasaw Nation.
One of the biggest features of the Cultural Center is the historically accurate recreation of a traditional Chickasaw village. The Center hosts cultural re-enactments and daily Stomp dances in the village on the campus.[14]
The campus also has an outdoor amphitheater, sky bridge overlooking the recreated tribal village, hiking trails, plants native to Oklahoma and Mississippi, and a statue by sculptor and former Oklahoma state senator Enoch Kelly Haney.[15]
34°29′34″N 96°59′45″W / 34.49278°N 96.99583°W / 34.49278; -96.99583
