Finley is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

and

Census designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

Pushmataha County, Oklahoma Pushmataha County is a county in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2020 census, the population was 10,812. Its county seat is Antlers. The county was created at statehood from part of the former territory of the ...

, 10 miles northeast of

Antlers Antlers are extensions of an animal's skull found in members of the Cervidae (deer) Family (biology), family. Antlers are a single structure composed of bone, cartilage, fibrous tissue, skin, nerves, and blood vessels. They are generally fo ...

. As of the 2020 census, the population was 38. A

United States Post Office The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal serv ...

was established at Finley, Indian Territory on April 30, 1903, and was named for Sidney W. Finley (1869–1914), local merchant and first postmaster. Finley was originally called Cedar Church, then Old Cedar Church, the name of a longstanding Choctaw Indian Methodist congregation established there during

Indian Territory Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United States, ...

days. The

congregation Congregation may refer to: Religion *Church (congregation), a religious organization that meets in a particular location *Congregation (Roman Curia), an administrative body of the Catholic Church *Religious congregation, a type of religious instit ...

took its name from nearby Big Cedar Creek—then known as Cedar Creek. The

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

appears to have waned during the latter days of the

Choctaw Nation The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma (Choctaw: ''Chahta Okla'') is a Native American reservation occupying portions of southeastern Oklahoma in the United States. At roughly , it is the second-largest reservation in area after the Navajo, exceeding t ...

, probably giving rise to the opportunity to rename the settlement after its first postmaster. At the time of its founding, Finley was located in

Jack's Fork County {{More footnotes, date=July 2022 Jack's Fork County, also known as Jack Fork County, was a political subdivision of the Choctaw Nation of Indian Territory. The county formed part of the nation's Pushmataha District, or Third District, one of three ...

, a part of the

Pushmataha District Pushmataha District was one of three provinces, or districts, comprising the former Choctaw Nation in the Indian Territory. Also called the Third District, it encompassed the southwestern one-third of the nation. The Pushmataha District was named ...

of the Choctaw Nation. Finley successfully retains its status as a cohesive community, long after losing its school. It hosts cemetery clean-up days and community dinners in its community center. It continues to have a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

and store.Weekly Finley column, ''Antlers American''.

References

Unincorporated communities in Oklahoma Unincorporated communities in Pushmataha County, Oklahoma Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma {{Oklahoma-geo-stub