Indian Capital AVTS District #4, Indian Capital Technology Center

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INDIAN CAPITAL AVTS DISTRICT #4
INDIAN CAPITAL TECHNOLOGY CENTER
The Indian Capital Technology Center, Muskogee Campus, is celebrating 40 years of education excellence this year. The following is an over-view of the history of the district from 1967 to 2010.
1967
In 1967, meetings were held by community members to form a Vo-Tech district. Among those attending was Mort Glassner, a reporter for the Muskogee Phoenix and Times-Democrat newspapers which were owned at that time by Tams Bixby. Glassner covered the story from the organizational meetings, the bond issues to the development and opening of the school. It was in one of the early meetings when they were deciding on a name that he suggested the name “Indian Capital.” The committee decided on the name and it remains Indian Capital today.
For a little background about how Indian Capital Technology Center got its name; I am including a newspaper article that was printed in the Muskogee Phoenix on Sunday, April 27, 2008, written by Jonita Mullins about Three Rivers History:
Muskogee became ‘Indian Capital’ with Dawes Commission
In 1887, Congress passed the Dawes Act with the intent of ending the reservation system among the Native American tribes in Indian Territory. The goal was to better assimilate Indians into the mainstream of American culture with the hope that the Indian Territory would then come into the Union as a state.
To achieve this goal, the lands held in common by the tribes would be distributed to individual members of the tribe. Eventually, tribal governments were to be dissolved.
On March 3, 1893, Congress formed a three-man commission – named the Dawes Commission after its chairman, Henry Dawes – to negotiate new treaties with the Five Civilized Tribes. The treaties would allow for the enrollment of tribal members with the intent of making individual allotments of land to those members.
The three commissioners traveled extensively throughout Indian Territory to meet with tribal leaders. They kept temporary offices at McAlester and Muskogee while treaty negotiations took place. Once those were completed, however, the Commission chose Muskogee for its headquarters.
Some have said it was this decision that established Muskogee as the “Indian Capital,” and the town was often referred to in that way. With the Dawes Commission here, literally thousands of individuals claiming Indian blood flooded into the Territory hoping to gain an allotment. Dawes Commission workers had to interview each one and examine any documentation they provided as proof of their Indian heritage.