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Allen Wright () (born November 1826 – December 2, 1885) was Principal Chief of the Choctaw Nation from late 1866 to 1870. He had been ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1852 after graduating from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He was very active in the Choctaw government, holding several elected positions. He has been credited with the name Oklahoma (Choctaw word meaning "Home of the Red Man" in English) for the land that would become the state.Meserve, John Bartlett. Chronicles of Oklahoma vol. 19, no. 4, December,1941. Retrieved December 17, 2012. Chronicles of Oklahoma
After serving in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, Wright was elected as Principal Chief, serving from 1866 to 1870. He was among the signatories of the Reconstruction Treaty of 1866 to re-establish peace with the United States. Wright served as superintendent of schools for the Choctaw Nation from 1880 to 1884.
According to a biography published by the Chronicles of Oklahoma, Kiliahote's father died in 1839. The youth was taken in by Reverend Cyrus Kingsbury near Doaksville, and attended a mission school at Pine Ridge. He was given his English name, Allen Wright, by the Presbyterian missionaries. The surname honored Reverend Alfred Wright, a noted Presbyterian missionary to the Choctaw.May, John D. "Wright, Allen," Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, Oklahoma Historical Society, Accessed July 1, 2015.
After four years, Wright entered Spencer Academy, the main Choctaw tribal school, where he studied from 1844 to 1848.
Kiliahote was raised in Choctaw traditions. He had begun to learn about Christianity from missionary teachers, especially Presbyterians. In April 1846, at the age of 20, he joined the Presbyterian Church. He began later to consider a career in the ministry and ultimately went to seminary.
Wright was one of four students chosen by the Choctaw Council to attend college in an eastern state of the United States. Wright attended Delaware College in Newark, Delaware, from 1848 to 1850; that year the school closed. He enrolled at Union College in Schenectady, New York, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in July 1852 and joined a fraternity.
In September 1852 Wright entered Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He earned a Master of Arts degree in Theology in May 1855. He was the first Native American student from Indian Territory to earn this degree. After graduation from the seminary, he was ordained as a minister by the Presbyterian Church.
He returned to the Choctaw Nation and became the principal instructor at Armstrong Academy during the 1855–1856 school term. This was a school for Choctaw boys in Chahta Tamaha, operated by Presbyterian missionaries.
One of their sons, Eliphalet Nott Wright (1858–1932), became a medical doctor and later also served as president of the Choctaw Oil Company. Wright, Muriel H. "A Brief Review of the Life of Doctor Eliphalet Nott Wright (1858–1932)." Chronicles of Oklahoma. Vol. 10, No. 2, June 1932. Accessed August 19, 2016. One of their granddaughters was Muriel Hazel Wright, who became a noted Oklahoma author and historian and another was Harriet Wright O'Leary, who was the first woman elected to serve on the Choctaw Tribal Council.
Wright was among the signatories to the 1861 treaty that allied the Choctaw Nation with the Confederate States of America. The Choctaw and some of the other Southeast tribes believed the Confederacy's promise of establishing a Native American state if they won the war. Subsequently, Wright he joined the Confederate Army.
Wright joined Captain Wilkin's Company of Choctaw infantry on July 25, 1862. He was transferred to Company F of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Mounted Rifles on June 13, 1863. When the war ended, Choctaw Chief Peter Pitchlynn sent him as a delegate to the Fort Smith conference, where an armistice was signed with the United States.
Wright was a polyglot, speaking in addition to his native Choctaw, English language, Greek language, Latin language, and Hebrew language.
Wright represented the Choctaw Nation at the Fort Smith Council and signed the Reconstruction Treaty of 1866. When the Federal commissioners proposed to consolidate all of the Indian Territories tribes under an intertribal council, he suggested the term Oklahoma as the name for the Territory.
In 1885, Wright served as editor and translator of the Indian Champion. He was a charter member of the first Freemasonry in Indian Territory, present-day Oklahoma. He was also a member of the Royal Arch Masons in Maryland, which he had joined in 1866.
Wright served as superintendent of schools for the Choctaw Nation from 1880 to 1884.
Wright died in Boggy Depot, Indian Territory on December 2, 1885. He had been riding a circuit to evangelize the Gospel. After having to swim a river to continue his journey, he contracted pneumonia. He was buried in the Boggy Depot cemetery. His widow Harriet died December 25, 1894, in the town of Atoka. She was buried next to him in Boggy Depot.
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