Cancel

    Open app

    Search

    14 Flags Museum

    5.0 (1 review)
    Closed 9:00 am - 5:00 pm

    14 Flags Museum Photos

    Recommended Reviews - 14 Flags Museum

    Your trust is our priority, so businesses can't pay to alter or remove their reviews. Learn more about reviews.
    Yelp app icon
    Browse more easily on the app
    Review Feed Illustration
    Photo of PJ M.
    91
    874
    8288

    9 months ago

    Helpful 2
    Thanks 0
    Love this 3
    Oh no 0

    Verify this business for free

    Get access to customer & competitor insights.

    Verify this business

    Cherokee Heritage Center - Female Seminary

    Cherokee Heritage Center

    (8 reviews)

    Great place to visit. They do a really great job presenting a very emotional and evocative portion…read moreof the history of the Cherokee people and the monumental injustices inflicted on them by the American government. Really enjoyed the visit.

    A former classmate from high school, who happenes to be in the military, got so upset when I…read more"liked" a paper that stated US soldiers have and could again put US citizens in internment camps and we should be on guard. This classmate said the US has never locked up its own citizens and would never do such things; to say different would make me a conspiracy theorist. Errrrrr. WRONG. There's a forgotton Holocaust - an American tale. We all know about the Jewish internment camps in Germany and Poland, and the Japanese internment camps here in the USA during WWII, but how many people know of the internment camps for the people of the Five Civilizied Tribes during the 1830-40's right here in America? Unless you grew up in the south, or are part Native American, chances are, you don't know about the Trail of Tears and the death camps. Back in early April, my grandparents, now ex-husband and I drove down to Tahlequah to visit Tsa-La-Gi. It was so nice to go through the living history tour which has a replica village and then another replica town (post ancient Cherokee village) with a schoolhouse, church, etc. Because it wasn't summer and still really cold out, there weren't people cooking and playing games. Our tour guide demonstrated games, archery and a bunch of other cool stuff during the tour. He was really personable and funny. Inside there is both ancient and modern (1500's-1800's) Cherokee clothing, pottery, weapons, etc. I liked the pottery stamps that you could color in the museum (sorta like when you put a leaf under paper and color over it to get the impression.) Past the previously mentioned things in the back of the museum, I learned things I never knew. I always wondered why my Cherokee ancestors didn't put themselves on the 1900's Dawes Rolls - you have to be on it to be apart of the modern day tribes. My grandpa told me that if you were put on the rolls, you were basically a ward of the government. You had no property anymore or rights. You were basically no better off than a slave. You can't buy your freedom when the government has you by the neck. I learned more here as to why my ancestors hid out in the Ozarks rather than lose all the had to the Government. On the wall are the accounts of eye-witness accounts of people watching a soldier bayonette a pregnant lady who fell on the trail, of the diseases and starvation that were rampant both on the trail and in the camps. It was absolutely stomach turning. I took a picture of every single wall board with information on it. Horrific. This is definitely a place, just like the Holocaust museum in D.C., that people NEED to see. We must never get too careless or too delusional to think that this stuff doesn't or can't happen again by our very capable government. We can forgive but we won't foolishly forget or ignore what our own government has done to its own people. If you want an eye-opening history lesson, COME HERE.

    Fort Smith Museum of History - Front Entrance

    Fort Smith Museum of History

    (3 reviews)

    Very nicely done! We had a flight cancellation on a very rainy Saturday which led us to the…read moremuseum. Glad we went. The staff was very nice and the displays were great. Keep up the good work! Thank you!

    Since I'm not from this area, I wouldn't know what to expect. Obviously, the early U.S. Army had a…read morefort here. They say something about defending against an Indian uprising. I could write for days about such a thing, but that takes away from the museum. The museum has a few exhibits for free in the lobby. If you want to see the rest of the first, and the second floor, it's $5.00 for adults, which isn't bad, considering the amount of information and the orderly way in which it's presented. Of course, flash photography is not wanted, as it can cause older items to deteriorate more quickly. They had early maps of the area, including a French map of the Native American Indians, which was quite informative. A handy guide to French would have made it accessible to everyone. They presented many items from the 1800s and early 1900s throughout the building, including vehicles, tools, and clothing. There were newspaper articles explaining events. I was surprised to see the creative use of typography, given the difficulty of manually assembling a page of metallic type. Along with this, they showed a couple of printing presses. On the second floor, they went into later years, up through the 1960s, and touched on subjects more likely to still be on the minds of older generations in the area. I suspect that school kids will go to the museum no matter what, but those who don't know about the history of the area should take the trip. Besides, feeding a museum in order to help preserve your history isn't a bad thing at all.

    Fort Smith National Historic Site - This room has been used as a jail as well as barracks

    Fort Smith National Historic Site

    (24 reviews)

    Well, it's a hot day, we ended up spending a bit of time here learning about the history of Fort…read moreSmith, how integral it was into the colonization of the west, as well as their turbulent times trying to manage both the tribal communities and the white settlers who were moving into the area rapidly. It's a fascinating history And one that you have to spend a little bit of time going to the museum and understanding the different angles. I guess that's a purpose of a museum, right? We learned a little bit about Judge Isaac, Parker, as one of the first influences that had to deal with the wild West murderers and people committing heinous crimes that until he arrived, didn't face many consequences as there was no federal government system that was in control of the area and the tribunal process did not cover non-native Americans. Fascinating history. You can even see a replica of the courthouse as well as the gallows as they were over 160 people hang here. Take a rock across the railroad tracks and read a bit about the trail of tears. There are plenty of areas to contemplate the history. Bring a picnic, there are many places to relax and spread out. The museum is actually free, is air-conditioned and had clean restrooms

    Really interesting historical site. We've been to a ton of National Parks and National Monuments /…read moreHistorical Sites. This is top 10 for sure! The information is presented in a fun way that really grabs your interest. There's a nice out door area to walk and explore more. The rangers were all very friendly and informative. Worth a stop for sure!

    Cherokee National Prison Museum - That bucket was their "toilet"

    Cherokee National Prison Museum

    (2 reviews)

    As a corrections officer this peaked my interest, so I decided to go with the whole family. Loved…read moreeverything about this old prison now museum, it was interesting, informative, kept the kids entertained and best of all it was all free. I definitely recommend checking it out.

    I wish I could give this like a 3.5... It's not quite a 4 but not so much a 3 either…read more The entry fee is $5 and you walk in to a small little "gift shop" of shelves filled with books and local, handmade, and Cherokee gifts including marbles, pins that say "Osiyo" and books from Cherokee writers. The main exhibit is really about 2 rooms that are all open to each other. There are life size scale mannequins with "outlaw" and "prisoner" regalia, as it is a prison museum. There are a few interesting stories as well as a few interactive activities such as pulling the weight of a dumbell that would have been attached to a prisoner's leg. Outside there is a replica of the "gallows" and the space that the prisoners might have lived and worked. The museum doesn't take long at all to get through so if you were bringing a large group, consider doing a tour of multiple historic places in the area (and there are a few within walking distance). The museum is interesting but not exactly enough to keep you entertained for long, although, it's very specific. If I were in Tahlequah again, I would recommend touring but I would likely not drive a far distance to visit. Original Tip: $5 entry, takes about 30-40 minutes to go through at most

    14 Flags Museum - museums - Updated May 2026

    Loading...
    Loading...
    Loading...