From the welcome lobby, visitors will pass through a short corridor lined with murals of the Choctaw reservation that funnels into a welcome space. Featured in this area will be a grouping of 12 exhibit vignettes featuring a Choctaw community member and the 12 districts they are from. The area ends at the entrance to the Orientation Theater, where visitors will view a short video about Choctaw culture.
From April 11 to October 14, 2023, an exhibit of District Nine elder and registered Choctaw artist Carole Ayers’ work, will be on display. Her watercolor paintings illustrate various aspects of Choctaw heritage and celebrate our culture in its diverse forms.
The permanent exhibitions are constructed of a four-part story focusing on the history of the Choctaw tribe from ancestral times to present day. These immersive exhibits will take viewers into Choctaw life, putting them face to face with culture and history as it was lived throughout time.
This exhibition shares the origins and creation stories of the Choctaw people. These stories have been passed down from generation to generation. In addition to the oral tradition, archaeological perspectives on these stories help illustrate them.
The second exhibit landscape takes guests to the time of Shomo Takali, or Hanging Moss. Shomo Takali was one of the earliest settlements founded during the time of European arrival and lasting until the early years of the Trail of Tears. Here, guests will be surrounded by the sights and sounds of the Mississippi homelands as they existed hundreds of years ago.
The third landscape depicts how the Choctaw people maintained their government-to-government relations with the United States through a series of treaties and negotiations. Such treaties would ultimately lead to what is known as the Trail of Tears, which would last over 70 years. The exhibit features two families in different times and routes of the trail, each sharing their own challenges and hardships that they had to overcome.
The largest and most complex of the four landscapes interprets the Choctaw Story in Oklahoma, stemming from the early years of the 1830’s to the modern Choctaw Nation. Guests will learn about the policies of land allotment, Choctaw schools and education and stickball, as well as ways the Choctaw Nation continues to invest in tribal members and their communities.
The Choctaw Cultural Center is conveniently located off Highway 75 in Calera, Oklahoma. In the immediate vicinity, guests will also find the Choctaw Nation’s Headquarters, dining and entertainment options and Travel Plazas.