I. Hunter Pickens Cemetery is located south of the community of McMillan in Marshall County, Oklahoma. It is in Section 13, Township 6 South, Range 3 East. In 1875, I. Hunter Pickens (also sometimes spelled I. Hunta Pickens) founded the cemetery in his yard near the family home. The earliest burials included immediate members of the I. Hunter Pickens family. I. Hunter Pickens’s name meant “lover of home” or “one who didn’t want to leave home” in the Chickasaw language. However, to the white man’s ear, his name sounded like “Iyahunta” and he adopted that approximate spelling. He was the son of Edmund Pickens, the last elected chief of the Chickasaw Nation. Following Edmund’s leadership, the Chickasaws revised their Constitution and their executive thereafter was known as “Governor.”

In 1937, Jennie Selfridge visited the I. Hunter Pickens Cemetery as part of the Works Progress Administration Indian-Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma. At that time she stated Clayburn Pickens owned the property. Also, the cemetery contained approximately twelve graves, five of which were marked. Today, the cemetery is still in use and serves as the family burial ground for Pickens descendants. It contains at least forty graves, most of which are marked with granite headstones. However, fourteen graves are unidentified and marked with bricks and wooden stakes.

I. Hunter Pickens Cemetery is located south of the community of McMillan in Marshall County, Oklahoma. It is in Section 13, Township 6 South, Range 3 East. In 1875, I. Hunter Pickens (also sometimes spelled I. Hunta Pickens) founded the cemetery in his yard near the family home. The earliest burials included immediate members of the I. Hunter Pickens family. I. Hunter Pickens’s name meant “lover of home” or “one who didn’t want to leave home” in the Chickasaw language. However, to the white man’s ear, his name sounded like “Iyahunta” and he adopted that approximate spelling. He was the son of Edmund Pickens, the last elected chief of the Chickasaw Nation. Following Edmund’s leadership, the Chickasaws revised their Constitution and their executive thereafter was known as “Governor.”

In 1937, Jennie Selfridge visited the I. Hunter Pickens Cemetery as part of the Works Progress Administration Indian-Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma. At that time she stated Clayburn Pickens owned the property. Also, the cemetery contained approximately twelve graves, five of which were marked. Today, the cemetery is still in use and serves as the family burial ground for Pickens descendants. It contains at least forty graves, most of which are marked with granite headstones. However, fourteen graves are unidentified and marked with bricks and wooden stakes.