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Cherokee National Jail

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Aging · 5mo ago
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Photograph of Cherokee National Jail

Gallery

From Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA where not otherwise stated).

  • Cherokee National Jail.jpg

    Photo by Walter Smalling, Jr. via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • Cherokee National Penitentiary, 124 East Choctaw Street, Tahlequah, Cherokee County, OK HABS OKLA,11-TAHL,4- (sheet 1 of 2).png

    Photo by Related names: Cavanaugh, S Grashof, Bethanie C, field team Higgins, Vicki J, field team Tomlan, Michael A, project manager Smalling, Walter, photographer Hnedak, John D, historian Holmes, Nicholas H, delineator Swayze, Roger D, delineator via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • Cherokee National Penitentiary, 124 East Choctaw Street, Tahlequah, Cherokee County, OK HABS OKLA,11-TAHL,4- (sheet 2 of 2).png

    Photo by Related names: Cavanaugh, S Grashof, Bethanie C, field team Higgins, Vicki J, field team Tomlan, Michael A, project manager Smalling, Walter, photographer Hnedak, John D, historian Holmes, Nicholas H, delineator Swayze, Roger D, delineator via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • The Cherokee National Prison Museum in Tahlequah, Oklahoma (8c0f1be3-64f5-42ec-859e-a0cff204dfaf).JPG

    Photo by National Trails Office (US National Park Service) via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • The Cherokee National Prison Museum informational sign in Tahlequah, Oklahoma (853c5573-bdc9-4f72-838c-441428b571ad).JPG

    Photo by National Trails Office (US National Park Service) via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • The front entrance of the Cherokee National Prison Museum in Tahlequah, Oklahoma (449a8668-6cac-4750-a65f-106c27a0e67c).JPG

    Photo by National Trails Office (US National Park Service) via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • The front entrance of the historic Cherokee National Prison Museum in Tahlequah, Oklahoma (afa18b82-a157-402e-8b10-622a3093eb89).JPG

    Photo by National Trails Office (US National Park Service) via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

Background

The Cherokee National Prison Museum, formerly the Cherokee National Jail or Cherokee National Penitentiary (Cherokee: Ꮳꮃꭹ Ꭼꮎꮥꮎ Ꮧꮣꮝꮪꭹ), was built in 1874 as part of a governmental complex for the Cherokee Nation in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. It served the Cherokee Nation until it was sold to Cherokee County, Oklahoma, which used it as a jail into the 1970s. The prison, as built in 1874 for $6000, was a two-story building with a basement. The sandstone structure measures 48 feet (15 m) by 35 feet (11 m). The second floor has been removed and replaced with a flat roof.

Source: Wikipedia article lead, CC-BY-SA.

Capacity

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Current population

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Occupancy

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Year opened

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Operational

Figures from official sources · verified 29 May 2026 · methodology

Facility profile

Operator

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Population held

Mixed/unknown

Opened

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Region

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Security level

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Death-row facility

No

Conditions

No conditions summary available yet.

Visiting

No visiting information available.

Mailing

No mailing information available.

Practical info

Contact the operator's website for inmate-specific procedures.

Known issues

No major issues documented in our database.

Contact & address

No public contact details available.

Conditions Risk Score

Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated

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Insufficient data
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Data completeness

16%

How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.

Sources

Cite this page

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APA
World Prisons. (2026). Cherokee National Jail. Retrieved October 20, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/prisons/cherokee-national-jail
Chicago
"Cherokee National Jail." World Prisons. Accessed October 20, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/prisons/cherokee-national-jail.
BibTeX
@misc{worldprisons-cherokee-national-jail,
  author = {{World Prisons}},
  title = {Cherokee National Jail},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://worldprisons.com/prisons/cherokee-national-jail},
  urldate = {2026-10-20}
}