Portrait Gallery

Vinita Oklahoma


Photo by The White Pelican


Vinita Daily Chieftain, August 5, 1912.

Naming Towns in Oklahoma

Indian legends and romances are the basis for the names of many of the towns in Oklahoma.

The town of Vinita was named in 1871 by the Elder E. C. Boudinot, the noted Cherokee orator and statesman in honor of Vinnie Ream Hoxie of Washington, D. C. Vinnie Ream was born in old Wyandotte, Kans., and grew to young womanhood in that town. When she afterwards became famous as a sculptress in Washington, Boudinot, then an exile from the Cherokee tribe knew and admired her and named the town “Vinita” in her honor.

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