Tahlonteeskee Courthouse
open Monday - Saturday 9am-5pm
Sunday noon-5pm, or by appointment (918) 489-5663
Cherokee Courthouse,RR 2, Box 37-1,Gore, OK 74435-9414

The site was named after the Chief Tahlonteeskee who presided over the Cherokee Nation from 1809 to 1818. He was part of the "Western" band of Cherokees who moved from the ancestral lands in the Southeast United States. They settled in Arkansas and Tahlonteeskee permitted missionaries to establish Dwight Mission. He was the first western Chief to allow Christianity to come to the Cherokees.

The original Tahlonteeskee became the first capital of the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory from 1828-1839 and is considered the oldest governmental capital in Oklahoma. It was operational in the Illinois district as a courthouse and meeting place for the Cherokee Nation. Meetings held here were for the purpose of settling differences between the factions of the tribe. In 1839 the capital at Tahlonteeskee was discontinued and moved to Tahlequah, Oklahoma where it remains today.

If you would like to visit the reconstructed Tahlonteeskee, it is open Monday - Saturday 9am-5pm; Sunday noon-5pm, or by appointment (918) 489-5663.