Anna Lewis

Lewis was born on October 25, 1885, near the town of Cameron in the Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory. Of mixed Choctaw and European ancestry, her parents were William Ainsworth Lewis and Betty Ann (née Moore). She was the fourth of ten children, three of whom died in childhood. She got her first education in what were known as "subscription schools" and from private teachers at home.[1] Her higher education began at the Tuskahoma Female Institute in 1900. She then went to Mary Connor Junior College in Paris, Texas. She returned to Indian Territory and, after attending a summer at the normal school of Jones Academy, near Hartshorne, began a career as a teacher in the Bokchito and Durant public schools. After a few years, she enrolled in the University of California, Berkeley (UCB), earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1915. Continuing at UCB), she earned a Master of Arts degree in 1918 with the thesis, History of the Cattle Industry in Oklahoma, 1866-1893.[2]

Like most of her contemporaries, Lewis found that most major colleges and universities were unwilling to hire women. In 1917, she joined the faculty of the Oklahoma College for Women (OCW) in Chickasha, Oklahoma, as a history teacher. She chose to remain there for the rest of her career.[3]

By her second year at OCW, Lewis had been named the chair of the school's History Department. She also took on the position of school Registrar, to help President G. W. Austin organize that office. Dean James S. Buchanan of Oklahoma University helped her establish the system. Buchanan later became President of OU.[3]

In her academic career, Lewis specialized in American history and the history of the Southwest, rapidly becoming well known as a teacher, lecturer and writer, as well as a popular after-dinner speaker.[3] Although she wrote only two books, Along the Arkansas (1932) and Pushmataha-the American Patriot (1962). She frequently contributed articles to the Chronicles of Oklahoma, the Mississippi Valley Review, The University of California Press, and the Arkansas Historical Quarterly.[1]

While continuing her career at OCW, she went to the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma, and wrote her doctoral dissertation, A History of the Arkansas River Region, 1541–1800. She received her Ph.D. in 1930, becoming the first woman to be awarded a doctoral degree by Oklahoma University.[3]

Lewis built a home on the site of the defunct Tuskahoma Female Institute in Pushmataha County, Oklahoma.[lower-alpha 1] She named the house "Nunih Wayah", after the mountain where Choctaw legend says the tribe originated. She lived there full-time after retiring from OCW in 1956. Located 4 miles (6.4 km) from Tuskahoma and 6 miles (9.7 km) from Clayton, she died in her home on August 1, 1961.[1]

• Named one of the twenty-four most prominent women of Oklahoma in 1930.
• Listed in Who's Who (1932), Women in Who's Who, and Who's Who in Oklahoma.
• Elected to the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1940.
• Received a scholarship to the Peterborough Artist Colony in New Hampshire.
• Named Professor Emeritus after retiring from USAO in 1956.[1]
• Posthumously inducted to Oklahoma Educator Hall of Fame in 1985.[5]

She was a member or honorary member of many organizations such as the Baptist church, Daughters of the American Revolution, Eastern Star, Oyohoma (McAlester),

• American Association of University Women
• American Pen Women
• Delta Kappa Gamma
• Mississippi Historical Society
• Oklahoma Historical Society[1]

• "Chatah Hopake Holissochi:Dr. Anna Lewis, Choctaw Historian" An online collection of documents and photographs either by or related to Dr. Anna Lewis selected from materials archived at University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. Last updated July 5, 2016.