Oldest Choctaw Congregation in Southeast Oklahoma
Idabel, OK
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free to visit as an active church; services open to community
Access
Limited Access
Rural road access, grass grounds, cemetery adjacent
Equipment
Photos OK
The name comes from the land itself. Two sandy springs at the site gave the place its Choctaw designation, Kvlli Tuklo, meaning Two Springs. When Choctaw families arrived here in the late 1830s following forced removal from Mississippi under the Indian Removal Act of 1830, they built community infrastructure quickly: stores, a post office, a school, and, by the late 1830s, a small log building serving as a church.
The congregation affiliated with Methodism around 1847 and eventually joined the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference. Kulli Tuklo served an administrative function beyond worship — as the county seat of Bok Homma County in the Appukshunubbe District, the settlement hosted trials, marriages, civil suits, and capital proceedings. It was a functioning civic center for Choctaw governance in Indian Territory.
The church hosted the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church twice: in 1921 and again in 1948. Both gatherings drew Native American Methodist representatives from across Oklahoma who camped on church grounds for several days, creating an interdenominational, multicultural gathering that historical records describe as a place where several cultures mixed and co-existed in the name of religion.
The building has required substantial maintenance. A 2021 restoration effort, funded by Global Ministries and the South Central Jurisdiction United Methodist Volunteers in Mission with labor contributed by Kansas State University students, replaced deteriorating siding and rebuilt the porch. The congregation remains active, comprising Choctaw elders alongside Cherokee, African American, and Caucasian members who sing traditional tribal hymns alongside standard Methodist hymnody.
Sources
The legend at Kulli Tuklo centers on the bell. In the 19th century, the church bell functioned as a gathering call — anyone within earshot who wished to attend services would follow its sound to the church. That practical function has accumulated folk memory: the story passed through the community holds that the bell's summons persists beyond the living congregation.
Visitors who ring the bell at night have reported hearing doors open within the church building, followed by the sound of conversation and, in some accounts, singing — as though an unseen service is assembling. A figure has been described walking up from the direction of the cemetery toward the church entrance, following the same path that generations of worshippers would have taken.
The legend frames these occurrences not as frightening but as residual — the faithful, as the traditional telling goes, still respond to the bell. The specific phrasing that circulates locally is that "the faith bell will forever call the faithful." Whether this is folk comfort after generations of loss and displacement, or simply the acoustics and atmospherics of a rural church at night, the accounts have persisted alongside the congregation itself.
Independent investigation or documentation of these phenomena beyond community oral tradition is not available in current sources.
Visit one of the oldest Choctaw congregations in Oklahoma, established in the 1830s after the Trail of Tears removal. The adjacent cemetery predates Oklahoma statehood and holds generations of Choctaw community members. The church bell, rung before services since the 19th century, remains a functioning part of the congregation's tradition.
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