The area in which Tahlonteeskee was located was part of the 1816
Lovely's Purchase. The town itself was founded in 1828, near the mouth of the Illinois River, Chief
John Jolly, brother of Tahlonteeskee, posthumously named the town in his honor. The Christian
Dwight Mission was re-located there with the early nineteenth century migration west of the Cherokee people. Tahlonteeskee continued as the western
Cherokee peoples' capital from 1828 through 1839, when new arrivals from the
Trail of Tears flooded the area. At that time, Takatoka briefly became capital before the transition of the council seat to
Tahlequah, Oklahoma was finished—upon completion of the construction of the new capitol building—and the seat of the government permanently moved away. Tahlonteeskee continued for years as a council meeting place for Old Settlers in order to settle differences between differing tribal factions. Tahlonteeskee was the oldest governmental capital in Oklahoma, but is today a
barren site on private land near
Gore, Oklahoma. ==See also==