Chickasaw Cultural Center

The Chickasaw Cultural Center, opened in 2010 on a 109-acre campus on the southern edge of Sulphur, is the most ambitious tribal cultural institution in Oklahoma. It is run by the Chickasaw Nation itself, and the storytelling and exhibits are first-person rather than ethnographic — the visitor learns Chickasaw history, art, music and language as the Chickasaw choose to tell it.

The main exhibit hall traces the nation's history from the original Mississippian-era homelands through Removal to the present. Outside, a traditional village reconstruction includes a council house, summer and winter houses, and demonstration gardens. The Aaittafama' Room hosts live storytelling and music. The complex also has a cafe, a gift shop with Chickasaw-made craft, and a small theatre that screens short films about the nation. The visit pairs naturally with the recreation area itself.

things to do museum
A story
When the Chickasaw were forcibly removed from their ancestral lands in Mississippi and Alabama on the Trail of Tears in the 1830s, they were resettled here on what was then designated Indian Territory. The cultural centre is the nation's modern statement that it is still here, on its own terms — a contemporary campus rather than a museum of relics.