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Hello and welcome to the road here on Cheyenne and Arapaho TV
We are bringing you this show from the Washita Battlefield National Historic Site
in far western Oklahoma
a sight of great significance to the Cheyenne and Arapaho people
we'll learn more about this site and the black kettle
National Grassland later on in the show if you're thinking about making a road trip
in western Oklahoma you might want to stop on old route 66 right outside of
Clinton Oklahoma
It's a tiny little place that's easy to miss but once you stop in once
You'll want to stick around
well this store started at Colony Oklahoma
in 18 and 92 it was started by
the Dutch Reformed Church out of New York
Mohawk Lodge was moved to clinton oklahoma in nineteen forty
to where it now sits on old route 66 it's only had four owners in its 100
plus year history
the Dutch Reformed Church. N.B. Moore
Miley Stevens and its current owner Pat Henry
who is Stephen's daughter. The lodge was originally created to promote trade
between the tribes
and buyers from the East Coast. These days mohawk's clientele
is very much local.
Well we sell baskets and blankets and beads
and needles... we sell
all kinds of fringe we sell the material for the shawls.
but it's more than a store... take one look around and you'll realize
these shelves hold over 100 years of oklahoma history
Pat can tell you a little something about almost every treasure here
this is a cradle board and it's a Cheyenne cradle board made made in 18 and 92
"That is beautiful!" ...and this one here is
Kiowa. ..... there's one of your Peace Medals for
they gave to the Chief on that Breastplate there.
I've added her.... and have added this
it's a little change purse "strike a like" or what you want to call it
right here
that's it that's it all the rest this stuff my mother hey
this cradle board was made for me
and is made of my 39 catalogs.... it was Napoleon Bonaparte more
who began to really develop the lodge's collection
around 1950 but when he sold the lodge he also sold
that collection to another collector from California
Mr. Moore would not take a check
he had to have cash, and he brought cash with him
and they had a U Haul truck
and they loaded up all his Indian stuff
and it went to California but over the years a lot of that stuff has come back
that I have bought.
This is pretty color...... Pat Henry mainly sells supplies these days
and many of her customers grew up coming to Mohawk Lodge.
My Grandma used to come over here and buy beads... and all her stuff
and when I got old enough, she started teaching me how to
bead and all that, so ever since then I've been coming here.
Has this picture been here as long as you remember?..... um it wasn't always here
and then her her mother had put it up one day and we had came in here
and she told us that a she had our grandfathers
picture haning up there..so she said it was been there and she said that
there was a couple people that come in and tried to buy it, but she said it was priceless.
she wasn't gonna sell it........ it's just good
to see my grandfather's picture hanging up there.
Victor Orange remembers coming to the lodge as a kid
with his mother but he didn't always come inside
Oh..she wouldn't hardly let us come in here, 'cause we'd touch stuff...
Afraid your gonna break something, huh? Yeah, so we'd play around outside on the porch
I like it I like all this stuff this
like a little museum really I like all the pictures I've never seen that many
moccasins before in my life
they're all for sale... they're for sale
yeah...they're nice! even for first-time visitors the lodge holds an immediate
connection
Ann Shadlow , I used to play with her granddaughter in oklahoma City
granddaughter's name Dell Pratt yeah
and Woogey and Eva Watchataker I remember them
they were friends my parents and grand parents and I thought I saw myself in a picture but
it wasn't down here
I've always loved history. History is my passion.
I always wanted to be a History
teacher and I would have been one but I got married
and I didn't go off to college like I'd intended.
there are no books required, no pencils
and no paper...still a trip to Mohawk Lodge
is a history lesson all its own
Mohawk Lodge is a great place to visit
ANY season and since this is football season
let me tell you about a great magazine that deals with OU football
perhaps you've heard a Sooner Spectator magazine.. but did you know that Sooner
Spectator
puts out a great issue every year about the Native American tradition
in OU football? Oh! You didn't? Well take a look at this!
oklahomans love their football and the ones who where crimson and cream
just can't get enough it seems..
sooner Spectator magazine feeds those
frenzied fans with a steady diet of info about the
OU sporting world.... Yeah, It doesn't get much more fanatical than OU football
I mean there's a
a large fan base there and for the most part they're very loyal and passionate
about the Sooners.
but the OU football program has a history
that not every Sooner fan may know. Well everybody everybody looks back at the
fifties as being like the color barrier
when when Pres Ga came in and was the first african-american player
and I don't think they realize that Oklahoma with its history of native
americans and
the heritage that's there... I don't think they
they didn't give a thought to how there were so many Native Americans that
actually were
admitted in the University and actually became a part of the fabric of the athletic department
especially OU football, going all the way back to
1905
that was when a young Chickasaw named Key Wolf
became the very first native football player at OU
born in 1886 he was actually named Grover Cleveland Wolf
after the 22nd president up the United States
he was a pioneer not for the fact just because he was playing athletics at OU
but because he was a student there. I mean, they weren't like you know...
necessarily uh. welcoming Natives with open arms
at the University Oklahoma 1905. I mean it was just it was because that was the times
despite never having played football before he enrolled
Wolf started all but one of his games during his OU career
he played on both sides of the ball and had many scoring opportunities
the university president even wrote a poem about him
titled "When Key Wolf Gets The Ball".. While in school, he was president of his junior class
manager of the college annual, President of the Athletic Council
and secretary at the senior literacy society. Wolf went on to become a beloved
high school football coach
a principal and superintendent.
Tuskahoma Brown Miller
better known as "Mutt" joined coach Lou you harder just what in 1932
Miller helped build the OU program literally
he actually help build this Memorial Stadium he was
in the summers when he was trying to pay for school yeah
he worked on the construction crews that that help renovate
and further build Memorial Stadium. A knee injury during his junior season
ended his playing career
Miller helped his team compile and 8-6 and 1 record against
big six opponents of OU
Miller became an institution as a coach principal and Boy Scout leader
in his hometown of Wewoka.
The 1970's for OU brought two national championships and Sammy Jack Claphan
Sammy Jack played his high school ball in Stilwell
and was recruited by legendary coach Barry Switzer. He blocked for Billy Sims
later on
for quarterback Dan Fouts as a member of the San Diego Chargers
Sammy Jack was very was very much an advocate for
Native American causes young
education of young people and
did a lot of work outside the his what the time he was playing and came back and
that was an educator
a near Stillwater still well which is his hometown
like Wolf and Miller, Claphan dedicated his post football life to education
serving as a teacher and a coach.
I call people I talk to teammates the other natives that we knew of...
Yeah... I think... uh such and such
also was part you know and it would name whatever tribe he might have been and then I would
look him up in
it was kinda connect the dots after that... once you kinda got goin'...
it's there it's its its it is kind of at your fingertips It's there, but it's not
it's not screaming out at I mean basically you have to... if you're going to
do a story like
like we've done our due an issue like like we've done the last two Native
American issues
you have to do some digging, you have to get in there and root around and have to go through some archives.
through maybe some yearbooks and you look at faces... you look for names
It's part of OU history that might be hard to find
But one that Upchurch is doing his best to keep on the front page
it's it's important to tell because it hasn't been told before
necessarily and if it has it's gotten kinda swept under you know a layer
of dust or two and I just think that
it's important not only not only for natives to know it
but I think for Oklahoma and Oklahoma football fans as part of our state is
part of
who we are as as a as a whole. It's part of our heritage
I am a member of Tsistsistas-Hinonoei
the creator has granted me the spirit of freedom to explore!
the soul to believe that any dream is possible
and the ability successfully achieved
whatever I choose to do what yeah I will hold the Pride
the honor coaxing and traditions
my ancestors I was impressed education
for my people for myself I will do it
I will graduate why did I okay
me life isn't always easy
it can be a rash tackle there's so many roadblocks
so many bad situations sometimes it doesn't seem fair
temptations got me the directions peer pressure
be like everyone else substance abuse and workers
but I'll be strong why
lot me ISP
the class PSEB our national mind my body and my song
with all that is good I'll respect all that surrounds me
I'm proud to be shy and I'm proud to be a rapper both
by
pie in
by
ho
both
in
there was a lot of history to be learned and shared
here wash it all summer the current history displayed right here
the triads and the subject of our next piece is right here on the wall behind
me
doctor henry et amenity nationally famous educator and lecturer
and president of the shine and Arapaho tribal college but
it all started for her in a tiny town not far from here
when I seeing love where I have ban
and where I work together I cannot
team am put who I am as a shy in person on the shelf
it's always with me in
my name and shy and was at birth
me so I L which he stand in 20 woman
and when I graduated from college self question Oklahoma State University
in 1954 my name was changed
to hoist or not which translates
into the woman who comes to offer prayer
or prayer woman a name the doctor henry et a man carries proudly
whether she speaking to an audience to make an international scholars or
a group of the giant revel you Worrell
uses will doctor man or
hilary is she was known spent her early days around ham in oklahoma
the word for generation so bus I am told
that lived in this one 3
ru dwelling I can remember
bits and pieces I love living in that
home which was just as much filled with love
as it was with people and I remember the bed in the
in the teacher and
a belief that must've been per my great-grandmother
White Buffalo woman whose name
is so home %uh worst star
shortened form almost always stuck lived
so she was a survivor arts and creeks
in 1864 and a survivor
I love he battle along the watchtower
River /url on the large poll River
four years later almost among those taking captive
eventually to Fort Supply into Fort things
she was the family matriarch we spoke primarily shelly-ann
and of course that was the only language in which my great grandmother could
converse
the only language that my grandfather used
and once in awhile he with lots into English but not very often
and I would think that in many ways
he was someone that made sure that I
really learned call to
use our language I love
my my parents have them gone to a Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school
on their reservation then it can't show
spoke English the Foundation was set early on for Henry
to pursue a career in education school with something she loves
she learned quickly though that being a native child
in a mostly white school system would be a challenge
with someone does someone know how to count to 100 for me
course I knew never called upon was a little England children in my classroom
that were called upon
what about the Toeplitz is the tallest
especially the primary colors was I ever call them
would you go well Dustin pressure for me
I don't think in the indian child was ever call to
up to dust the racers was just
so have the privilege in those classrooms and we Indian children were
just relegated to the back to the room
and it seemed as if we were just to sit there and say nothing
Road home on the bus problem
not quite two miles to talk sup dirty
Indian lazy in the end and other such
and complimentary remarks but I set the right because
by virtue of having the last a month mania
it seemed like everything that I did my father it's a remember your man
you can't cry not in public anyway
Henrietta's family moved the number of times which forced her to change schools
often
but she finally convinced them to let her stay with her aunt in hamman
I graduated from high school and when I graduated I was given a scholarship to
Southwestern Oklahoma State University
my yet an organization and they gave the scholarship
for those individuals who helped promus little
to become future teachers I completed my master's degree in 1917
already have a job teaching in Native American Studies at the University of
California Berkeley
Cal Berkeley and it was a he be of activism
that was when the Indians
from the bay aerial were all up to press Island the rock
it was a time a black panthers said it was the time a black power red power
time a poor people's march is he was really an exciting time to be at UC
berkeley
and I really liked it there but I had to stop the superior by that time stopped
at
think Asus really for like what by children to grow
up she eventually found a second home in montana spending almost
thirty years at the University of Montana and now
a special assistant to the president Montana State
in 2008 you took a one year leave of absence to help
established the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribal college
that one year had stretched into five
um I'm still expect back us to cure the title special assistant to the president
a Montana State University in Bozeman
and sell now when facing the biggest challenge in my life
and trying to build the tribal college for the people
with limited funding
well recognizing my commitment to their
in the fact that that their children then it may be those that have not even
come to live on this earth
have a place for the King go be educated
about who they are where we have been in history
that will help them to become more self sufficient
an to just be the kinda good-hearted
people good-hearted cheyennes good-hearted Iraq but those
that we have a lovely spare she knows it's an uphill climb but doctor man
approaches this
latest task with the same determination she had in the classroom at hamman
I have a certain try but it's a drive not for me to achieve
but to
I Q School 8 eighty per
Road that others behind me can follow
growing up the way I T a pic want this I I
roots can't look at my education without looking at my family
i cant talk about education without looking at my culture
%uh a culture that old place has put a great deal of value upon
education it always has always will
within the 31,000 acres of the
like cattle National Grassland sits washed our battlefield national historic
site
I think that one other things that
visitors appreciate is the fact that arm
they can come and learn about jobs all multicultural groups because it was
what was referred to as a clash of cultures saw and
there's the Cheyenne and Arapaho history here along with the
7th US Cavalry that was led by colonel custer
and it was a epic event that occurred in 1868
I think that the vast majority of visitors I do come out here
generally have our an appreciation for the fact that we protect the site
nine the resource and offer this to the public this is one of those sensitive
sites
as many other national parks are particularly where you're dealing with
events where there was encounters wetherbee a
Civil War battlefield wetherbee and Indian War sites
wetherbee an area where are
you know cultures were impacted one way or another
you know both groups did lose lives here
it's a it's referred to as a hollow ground and
many many folks to believe that this it was in fact
a massacre as opposed to a battle and unique and
talk to many people about that and folks at different different pots and pans
at the turn of the last century
native people who lived off the land first time
changed our way of life with growing gathering and print them for different
foods checked ***
many of us became less physically active our communities had to rely on less
healthy process through a serious disease type 2 diabetes
emerge today native people
are on the move to bring back traditional healthy food
with physical activity to help prevent had
who don't think be tagged
from health make wise choices I know
we have the power our people and cultures
home we will return
life bounds
this
growing up in a state deeply rooted in Native American culture and traditions
I know we have a long and rich history to live up to the history of leaders
euros innovators doctors athletes
what will the books are children say about us
what police will they hold we have to tell them the truth
that everything as possible through hard work and determination
today childhood obesity affects American Indian and Alaska Native
you more than any other race the change this
together you must eat healthy be active and empower are you
to transform their lives in there that's why I joined the first lady to launch
let's move in the income
let's write a story together we're all about to do everything possible to
improve the health and lives and Native American
visit let's move in Indian country to find out
there are many pow-wows in great native events that happen all across Indian
country
here in oklahoma one of the largest is redder maybe you've been to the parade
or the dance competition itself
but there's another facet a writer that's been around just as long and it
just got a facelift
in downtown oklahoma city
%uh right there red earth museum in downtown oklahoma City
and we're located right next door to the historic Skirvin Hilton Hotel
at the corner Park Avenue and Broadway ever %uh
yeah for
most oklahomans are familiar with the radar festival it's one of the state's
most visible
and widely attended Native American events you know the thirty nine tribes
that call oklahoma home
northern no other states and claim their so they can't claim the rich cultural
history that we have here
but just a couple blocks away from the *** Convention Center sets
the red earth gallery and museum a little quieter perhaps but
just as colorful for small
that we have a great permanent collection and we're constantly changing
their
in showcasing different artists so every time you came here we have to see
something
the rhetoric museum grew out of a merger between the rare-earth
organization and a sitter for the American Indian the center ran the
museum at the or the omniplex in oklahoma City
rhetoric had better name recognition so the two combined in 1993
to become one entity with the goal %uh promoting Native American arts and
culture
the museum moved to downtown Oklahoma City
in 2010 when we've been relocated downtown re
week on it were able to do a lot of things that we never there before so now
we work with local artists in this day lot of genre for artists to
to provide them an outlet to sell their artwork in our museum gallery
a lot of people from both the east coast in the west coast a lot of Boston in New
York City and Philadelphia
are we get a lot of people from foreign countries even we give our europeans
we have Australians to come in here we've even had people come from as far
away as mainland China
but its at its it amazes *** because we were never
that aware have their the people from other places that are
Oklahoma City on a daily basis the red earth gallery and museum also houses
that the pre cradled what collection what are the largest in the country
Harry Dupri a long time oklahoma city civic leader
and obstetrician acquired over forty Creek awards in his career
and donated his collection to rate her in 1987
things are happening on the outside at the museum as well
these construction materials will soon help transform
the entire front of the bill for other exterior our building is receiving over
multi-million-dollar renovation I'm located in the Santa Fe parking garage
so worth retail level office on the ground floor next to
I everything downtown and their making our building beautiful was built in the
seventies
I it had hasn't had a major facelift since then so
we're really excited about
we have a long-term lease we plan on being downtown up from a sitting for a
long time
and you know we want to just be a stable organization
that provides a and outlet for Indian artists and
also over shares the cultures of the people come to visit us
up we hope you've enjoyed this episode of Indian Road
hear from the washer top battlefield national historic site if you have any
story ideas or suggestions please feel free
the contact us at the address below as always ha hope
thanks for joining us we'll see you next time and in a row