Alice Brown Davis - Notable Native Americans
Alice Brown Davis was the first female Principal Chief of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma . She served from 1922 to 1935. She spoke both English and Mikasuki fluenty, and was well educated in Oklahoma, where her Tribe had been forced to on the Trail of Tears. She was a teacher at Mesukey Academy for Boys in Sasakwa, Oklahoma, as well as at Emakwha Academy. She often worked as an interpreter for the Seminole Nation. She became the superintendent of the Seminole Nation's girls' school, Emahaka in 1892. In 1903, she traveled to Mexico with a Seminole delegation to pursue possible land grant claims there. In 1961, she was inducted into the recently founded National Hall of Fame for Famous Native Americans in Anadarko, Oklahoma, and also the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. The University of Oklahoma named Davis Hall in her honor. Alice Brown Davis believed that Natives should adapt the white man's lifestyle to their own, retaining their Seminole heritage while taking advantage of the benefits offered by another culture. Her life's work and defense of her people reflected that mission.
