Allen Wright

For the Bicktertonite figure see Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite)

Allen Wright (1826-1885) was Principal chief of the Choctaw from Fall 1866 to 1870. He also became a Presbyterian minister after graduating from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He was very active in the Choctaw government, holding several elected positions, and has been credited with the name "Oklahoma" for the land that would become the state.

Allen Wright was born in Attla (sic) County, Mississippi in November 1826. A member of the Choctaw Nation, his birth name was Kilihote. His father was named Ishtemahilvbi and his mother a full-blood Choctaw, who died in June 1832. The father and surviving members of the family let Mississippi in October 1833 and arrived in what is now McCurtain County, Oklahoma in March 1834. According to a biography published by the Chronicles of Oklahoma, his father died in 1839. He went to live with Reverend Cyrus Kingsbury near Doaksville, went to a mission school at Pine Ridge. After four years, he entered Spencer Academy, the main Choctaw tribal school. where he studied from 1844 to 1848. He was given the name Allen Wright. The surname honored Reverend Alfred Wright, a noted Presbyterian missionary to the Choctaws.

After four years at Spencer, he was one of four students chosen by the Choctaw Council to attend college in an eastern state of the United States. Wright attended Delaware College in Newark, Delaware from 1848 to 1850, when the school closed. then enrolled at Union College in Schenectady, New York, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in July 1852 and joined a fraternity. In September 1852 he entered Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where he received a Master of Arts degree in Theology in May 1855. He was the first Native American student from Indian Territory to earn this degree. After graduation from the seminary he was ordained as a minister by the Presbyterian Church. He returned to the Choctaw Nation and became the principal instructor at Armstrong Academy during the 1855-1856 school term.

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