Education, Teaching, and Early Public Service
Robertson was born in Creek Nation, Indian Territory, to William Schenck Robertson and Ann Eliza Worcester, who were missionaries. The 1860 United States Census shows the family living in Creek Nation, Indian Lands, Arkansas. Her parents were missionaries to the Creek Nation. They translated many works into the Creek language, including the Bible. In early life, Mary Alice Robertson was self-taught under the supervision of her parents. She attended Elmira College, in Elmira, New York.
Robertson started working as a clerk in the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C. (1873 to 1879). She returned to the Indian Territory and taught briefly in the school at Tullahassee. Later she taught at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania from 1880 to 1882.
After returning to the Indian Territory, Robertson established the Nuyaka Mission, which was run by Presbyterians reporting to the Creek Council. She taught in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, where she had charge of a Presbyterian boarding school for Native American girls. It eventually developed into Henry Kendall College and then the University of Tulsa).
Robertson was appointed by the BIA as the first government supervisor of Creek Indian schools, and she served from 1900 to 1905. She was next appointed the postmaster of Muskogee, Oklahoma from 1905 to 1913. Her canteen service to the troops during World War I was the start of the Muskogee Chapter of the American Red Cross.
Read more about this topic: Alice Mary Robertson
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