Oklahoma Indian Country Guide 2018

OKLAHOMA INDIAN COUNTRY GUIDE table of co nt e nt s 2 | Oklahoma Indian Country Etiquette A guide to visiting Native American places, lands and events

3 | Original People Tribal origins map

4 | Distinct Nations

A brief overview of Oklahoma Indian history

6 | Oklahoma’s Indian Artists Featured work from Oklahoma’s fine artists

6 | Shop Authentic 8 | Things to do and see

A list of featured attractions organized by country. Numbers correspond to the Indian Country map at the beginning of the guide.

20 | the 39 Tribes of Oklahoma Tribal profiles and history

65 | Festivals, Powwows & Events 66 | Luck of the Draw Tribal casinos

69 | Gratitude

Acknowledgments and recognitions Nocona Burgess [Comanche] Cotudle Series (detail)

Ben Harjo [Seminole, Shawnee] Horsing Around

Shan Goshorn [Cherokee] Pawnee Woman in Field (detail)

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The Indian Nations of Oklahoma

Chickasaw Country Chickasaw Nation

p. 27

Frontier Country Absentee Shawnee Tribe Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes Citizen Potawatomi Nation Iowa Tribe

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p. 21 p. 22 p. 26 p. 30 p. 38

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Kialegee Tribal Town Kickapoo Tribe of Indians Sac & Fox Nation Seminole Nation Thlopthlocco Tribal Nation

Great Plains Country Apache Tribe Caddo Nation Comanche Nation Delaware Nation

p. 22 p. 23 p. 31 p. 32

Green Country Cherokee Nation Delaware Tribe of Indians Eastern Shawnee Tribe Euchee (Yuchi) Tribe of Indians Miami Nation Modoc Nation Muscogee (Creek) Nation Osage Nation Ottawa Tribe

Fort Sill Apache Tribe Kiowa Tribe Wichita and Affiliated Tribes

p. 24 p. 33 p. 34 p. 35 p. 43 p. 44 p. 45 p. 46 p. 48

Pawnee Nation Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma Shawnee Tribe United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians Wyandotte Nation

p. 36 p. 41 p. 62

p. 49 p. 51 p. 53 p. 57 p. 58 p. 61 p. 64

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Red Carpet Country Kaw Nation Otoe-Missouria Tribe

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Choctaw Country Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma

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p. 39 p. 47

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Ponca Nation Tonkawa Nation

p. 52 p. 60

Welcome to Oklahoma Indian Country!

Indian Country communities. Designed to make your travel planning easy, the correlate with the numbered attractions listed on pages 8-19 of this guide.

ABOUT THE COVER ARTIST Brent Greenwood is an artist, native Oklahoman, enrolled member of the Ponca Nation and is also part Chickasaw. To create the cover, Greenwood took a thoughtful approach. The silhouettes in the guide’s cover image represent the rich diversity of Oklahoma’s Native peoples. Using a color palette and intense earth tones that are as dynamic as the state where he lives, Greenwood chose to highlight elements that make Oklahoma special: rose rock, a scissor-tailed flycatcher, a southeastern-styled motif design and the breakdown of the state’s six travel regions. His work explores historical and current cultural events with artistic influences that include pop art and abstract expressionism. About his art Greenwood says, “The plight of our people is well-documented. Sometimes my art reflects that; sometimes it’s witty in its representation of current icons or stereotypes. I embrace my rich and diverse culture and I am proud to share it with you.”

THE MEANING OF OKLA-HUMMA The state of Oklahoma is deeply rooted in American Indian history, culture and heritage. The state’s name in the Choctaw language is comprised of two words, okla meaning “people,” and homma or humma meaning “red,” which translates to “Red People.”

Please consider this regional map your invitation to explore Oklahoma’s state is divided into six travel regions. The numbered locations below

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Oklahoma Indian Country Etiquette Indian tribal nations may have many similar characteristics, but each nation has a distinctive culture and society. Respect for the unique character of each tribal nation is greatly appreciated.

Each tribal nation in Oklahoma makes the decision on how best to balance community and tradition, while providing visitors with enjoyable experiences.

Traditionally American Indian people are hospitable and generous in nature. There may be cultural limitations regarding the sharing of certain information pertaining to spiritual teachings; sacred ceremonies and burial grounds are typically private.

Each tribal nation is proud of their teachings and heritage which have been passed to them by their ancestors and represent thousands of years of individual histories.

Hollywood films have a long history of romanticizing, denigrating or otherwise distorting Indian societies.

We invite you to set aside any preconceived notions and experience Oklahoma Indian Country in all its authenticity.

Your respect, patience and understanding of each distinctive tribal nation’s traditions and cultures are appreciated. Please take a moment to read about etiquette when visiting Oklahoma’s Indian Country and to avoid misunderstandings or infringements of each nation’s customs. We ask that visitors be courteous, respectful and follow these guidelines.

Thank you!

• Today’s tribal nation leaders are known by a variety of titles including chairman, president and principal chief, so please ask before addressing any tribal nation leader.

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Remember you are a guest.

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Please be attentive to signage and obey individual tribal nation rules and regulations.

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Alcohol, weapons, and drugs are not appropriate.

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Please respect the privacy of residential communities.

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Ask before photographing or recording an individual, regalia, event, or activity.

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Do not pick up or remove artifacts or objects.

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Burial grounds and religious ceremonies are sacred and are not to be entered.

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Practice polite, attentive listening, particularly when an elder is speaking.

This is considered a traditional virtue in many communities.

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When attending an event, please stand and remove hats at emcee’s direction.

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Original People “History books traditionally depict the pre-Columbus Americas as a pristine wilderness where small native villages lived in harmony with nature. But scientific evidence tells a very different story: When Columbus stepped ashore in 1492, millions of people were already living there. America wasn’t exactly a ‘New World,’ but a very old one whose inhabitants had built a vast infrastructure of cities, orchards, canals and causeways.”

– “America Before Columbus,” National Geographic Today, 39 tribes call Oklahoma home, but it wasn’t always that way. Although several tribes are described as indigenous to Oklahoma at the time of European contact, most of the 39 tribes here today were forced to migrate to Oklahoma from their ancestral homelands.

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oklahoma indian tribes

Distinct Nations “Indian Nations have always been considered as distinct, independent political communities, retaining their original natural rights, as the undisputed possessor of the soil…The very term ‘nation’ so generally applied to them, means ‘a people distinct from others.’”

– Chief Justice John Marshall, United States Supreme Court, 1832

While Chief Justice Marshall’s comments note the inherent rights of America’s indigenous people to their land and independence, history tells a far different story. A brief overview of Oklahoma Indian history provides a glimpse into some of the captivating cultural and historical moments and relevant destinations.

P R E - 1 4 9 2 | P R E H I S T O RY The history of Oklahoma Indian Country is an ancient one, dating back thousands of years to the Paleo-Indian Period, about 8,000 – 12,000 years ago, and several archaeological sites throughout Oklahoma reveal fascinating details about these early human inhabitants during these early time periods. [ go see ] Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center, near Spiro, one the most important archaeological discoveries in North America and Oklahoma’s only prehistoric, Native American archaeological site open to the public. SEE PAGE 18 FOR MORE INFORMATION. Deer Mask Oklahoma, Le Flore County, Spiro, Craig Mound, A.D. 1200-1400.Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C., Photographer John Bigelow Taylor

1492-1828 | COLONIAL PERIOD For the most part, European-American expansion had little impact on the area we now know as Oklahoma during this period. However, in 1824 the U.S. government established Oklahoma’s oldest frontier fort, Fort Gibson, signaling change was on the way. [ go see ] Fort Gibson Historic Site and Interpretative Center in Fort Gibson, is a National Historic Landmark, Official National Trail of Tears Site and a designated American Treasure, featuring 80 acres of grounds, 29 historic buildings, numerous archaeological ruins and living history programs relating to the settlement of Indian Territory.

SEE PAGE 15 FOR MORE INFORMATION.

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1 8 2 8 - 1 8 8 7 | R E M O VA L , R E S E R VAT I O N A N D T R E AT Y P E R I O D The U.S. government forced eastern tribes to move west, resulting in the removal of tens of thousands from their homelands onto reservations and leading to many tragic conflicts on the western frontier. Sixty-seven tribes ended up in Indian Territory, which later became Oklahoma. [ go see ] One of two sites administered by the National Park Service in Oklahoma, the Washita Battlefield National Historic Site near Cheyenne marks the location of Lt. Col. George A. Custer’s 1868 surprise dawn attack on the southern Cheyenne village of Peace Chief Black Kettle. SEE PAGE 13 FOR MORE INFORMATION.

1 8 8 7 - 1 9 3 4 | A S S I M I L AT I O N P E R I O D The General Allotment Act of 1887, a.k.a. the Dawes Act, seized more than 90 million acres (nearly two-thirds of reservation lands) from Indian nations and gave it to white settlers as “surplus,” most often without compensation to the tribes. In Oklahoma, a series of Land Runs were set up to give the so-called “surplus” Indian lands to settlers. [ go see ] Many of the 39 tribal nations headquartered in Oklahoma today offer cultural centers and museums that convey the intense personal stories from the often tragic and very difficult periods in Indian history – from Removal to Assimilation. SEE THE ATTRACTIONS SECTION, PAGE 8, FOR MORE INFORMATION.

1 9 3 4 - 1 9 4 5 | I N D I A N R E O R G A N I Z AT I O N P E R I O D The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 allotment gave many Oklahoma Indian tribes a foothold to begin recovery. Yet too often European/Anglo values and government structures forced upon the tribes further damaged traditional tribal values and governance.

1 9 4 5 - 1 9 6 8 | T E R M I N AT I O N P E R I O D Congress decided federal recognition and assistance to more than 100 tribal governments should be terminated, including several Oklahoma tribes. Millions of acres of valuable land rich in natural resources were lost through tax forfeiture sales and federal policy emphasizing the physical relocation of Indians from reservations to urban areas.

[ go see ] The Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City uses the 20th century Indian experience as a bridge between the past and the present, offering artifacts, tribal music, photographic images, Indian art and oral histories from the Indian tribes of Oklahoma to provide an overview of Oklahoma Indian history.

SEE PAGE 10 FOR MORE INFORMATION.

1 9 6 8 - P R E S E N T | S E L F - D E T E R M I N AT I O N P E R I O D From the Removal Period through today, some 28 tribes left Oklahoma and returned to their homelands, while others joined fragmented segments of their tribes in other parts of the country. A policy of self-governance emerged that favored restoring tribal sovereignty.

With control over their lands and resources, many tribes are making great economic strides and reviving their unique cultures and tribal life. Welcome to the renaissance of Oklahoma Indian Country!

Y O U ’ L L D I S C O V E R E N G A G I N G D E S T I N AT I O N S W I T H I N F O R M AT I O N O N O K L A H O M A I N D I A N T R I B E S A N D P E O P L E T H R O U G H O U T O K L A H O M A O N T R AV E L O K . C O M .

Source: Indian Nations in the United States, National Congress of American Indians

Brent Learned [Arapaho] Oklahoma (detail)

Oklahoma’s Indian Artists American Indians have long been recognized for their rich contributions to the fine arts. Featured throughout this guide is a diverse collection of works generously offered by contemporary Oklahoma Indian artists. When in a gallery featuring their work, please support them and their communities by purchasing their art.

Tom Fields [Muscogee Creek] Ribbon Dancers (detail)

Shop Authentic Native American arts and crafts are infused with the artistic perspective of native artists and craftsmen. By purchasing authentic Native American works, you support the artists and their community and help preserve the wisdom, heritage and culture of those who bring so much joy and beauty to our state and nation. Below are some places to shop authentic. Find more native shopping destinations at TravelOK.com.

• Exhibit C, Oklahoma City (Pg. 10)

Heidi Bigknife [Shawnee]

• Mohawk Lodge Indian Store, Clinton (Pg. 12) • Cha Tullis Gallery, Hominy (Pg. 14) Kennetha Greenwood [Otoe, Missouria] Little Pipe Bracelet

14k Japonica Earring with Chrysoprase

• Choctaw Nation Museum Gift Shop, Tuskahoma (Pg. 17)

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Quanah Burgess [Comanche] Sacred Monument

(detail)

Acee Chibitty [Comanche, Shawnee, Delaware, Thlopthlocco Tribal Town, Muscogee Creek] Charles Chibitty (detail)

T r a v(detail) elOK .com Harvey Pratt [Cheyenne] — 7We|Danced

Shan Goshorn [Cherokee] — Caress

(detail)

Things to Do & See You’re about to embark on one of the most unique and exciting excursions in all of North America. In Oklahoma Indian Country the ancient meets the present at more than 85 American Indian attractions, museums and shopping destinations. Today 39 tribal nations call Oklahoma home – one state comprised of many nations. You’ll find more diverse cultures and different languages spoken in Oklahoma than in all of Europe. This land has always been an ancient network for cultural exchange, international trade and innovation, and the continuum of cultures continues.

The numbers marking the attractions in this section correlate with the numbered locations on the fold-out map at the beginning of this guide.

Brent Learned [Arapaho] — War Party

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Chickasaw Country 1

Chickasaw Council House Museum

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From their Trail of Tears removal in the Deep South to Oklahoma settlement, view one of the largest collections of Chickasaw artifacts and learn why the Chickasaw Nation is known as the “Unconquered and Unconquerable.”

Daily tours provide an educational experience, and a genealogy research center is located on the complex.

Former seat of Chickasaw Government from 1898-1907.

Added to the National Registry of Historic Buildings in 1971, the Chickasaw Nation repurchased the capitol from Johnston County. Exhibits showcase tribal government history, a re-creation of the governor’s office, portraits of past governors and rotating photographic exhibits. Gift shop on site, tours by request.

Tishomingo | 209 N. Fisher Ave. 580-371-3351 | chickasaw.net

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Chickasaw National Capitol Building

Tishomingo | 411 W. Ninth St 580-371-9835 | chickasaw.net

Chickasaw Cultural Center This world-class museum complex celebrates the history & culture of the Chickasaw Nation. Using modern technology & interactive theatrical environments, visitors are immersed in a vibrant, ongoing story. On the grounds are an amphitheater, sky terrace, large-format theater and café, along with demonstration gardens and an educational village with a number of traditional Chickasaw dwellings.

Sulphur | 867 Cooper Memorial Dr. 580-622-7130 | chickasawculturalcenter.com

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Chickasaw Nation White House Former home of Chickasaw Governor Douglas Hancock Johnston from 1898 to 1971. Restored to full grandeur, the home contains unusual features for its era including 14-foot ceilings, cherry mahogany fireplace mantels, crystal chandeliers and a dance floor.

CHICKASAW CULTURAL CENTER

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Milburn | 6379 E. Mansion Rd. | 580-436-2603 chickasaw.net/whitehouse

Mary E Parker Memorial Library The Mary E Parker Memorial Library houses more than 13,000 catalogued items including the Dawes Rolls for the Five Civilized Tribes.

Sulphur | 500 W. Broadway Ave. | 580-622-5807

Joanna Underwood [Chickasaw]

EXPLORE TRAVELOK.COM FOR MORE CHICKASAW COUNTRY ATTRACTIONS.

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Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center & FireLake Gift Shop Museum preserves & interprets artifacts relevant to indigenous Great Lakes cultures, with an emphasis on the Anishinabe Potawatomi and facilitates an understanding of the tribe’s history and heritage, philosophy, crafts, medicines and language. Also features a research library, Veteran’s Wall of Honor, & FireLake Gifts.

Shawnee | 1899 N. Gordon Cooper Dr. 405-878-5830 | 405-275-3119 | potawatomi.org

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Historic Fort Reno Established in 1874 to protect the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, this historic fort has more than 25 historic structures listed on the National Register of Historic Places, along with several exhibits and displays, including a parade ground and a cemetery where Indian scouts, Buffalo soldiers and German POWs from World War II are buried.

El Reno | 7107 W. Cheyenne St. 405-262-3987 | fortreno.org

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Exhibit C This Chickasaw Nation-owned gallery and retail space in the Bricktown Entertainment District features artwork and artisan pieces like jewelry, pottery, paintings and clothing — all handcrafted by members of the Chickasaw Nation and other American Indian Tribes. Bedré Fine Chocolate, books and Pendleton items are also available.

Oklahoma City | 1 E. Sheridan Ave. Ste. 100 405-767-8900 | exhibitcgallery.com

SAM NOBLE OKLAHOMA MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

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Oklahoma History Center

Oklahoma’s state museum of history houses four permanent galleries & a special exhibits hall, offering more than 200 hands-on interactive experiences & 50 subjects that tell the stories of Oklahoma & its people. Winnie Mae Café & gift shop also on site.

Oklahoma City | 800 Nazih Zuhdi Dr. 405-522-0765 | okhistory.org

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Red Earth Art Center

Features traditional & contemporary Indian paintings, carvings, pottery & artifacts, & offers an outstanding schedule of exhibitions, special events & educational programs, as well as a research library for teachers and the general public interested in Native American arts & crafts.

Oklahoma City | 6 Santa Fe Plaza 405-427-5228 | redearth.org

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Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History

Hard-to-find Native American food items, kachinas, jewelry, beadwork, clothing, pottery and beading & craft supplies.

Museum features four billion years of Oklahoma history including the world’s largest Apatosaurus, excavated in the Oklahoma panhandle & other dinosaur skeletons. Hall of the People, one of several large-scale exhibit rooms, covers the 30,000-year history of the Native people of Oklahoma. Museum also holds the Fred and Enid Brown Collection, one of the nation’s best public groupings of 20th century American Indian fine art, along with other Native American artifacts, and is building a collection of oral and written native languages of Oklahoma.

Also on-site, a discovery room for kids, museum store & café.

Oklahoma City | 1520 N. Portland Ave. 405-943-7935 | okitd.com

Norman | 2401 Chautauqua Ave. 405-325-4712 | snomnh.ou.edu

Inter-Tribal Designs

Jacobson House Native Art Center Located in the former residence of Swedish-born Oscar Jacobson (1882-1966), first director of the School of Art at the University of Oklahoma.

In 1926, Jacobson mentored the Kiowa Five American Indian artists ushering in the beginning of the Native American Art Movement. Group tours can include an American Indian meal with performances by dancers, storytellers, flute players & history presentations.

Norman | 609 Chautauqua Ave. 405-366-1667 | jacobsonhouse.org

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Jim Thorpe House Former home of 1912 Olympian Jim Thorpe, displaying artifacts, track & field awards, & family items. A direct descendent of Sac & Fox Chief Blackhawk, Thorpe is recognized as one of the 20th century’s greatest athletes.

Yale | 706 E. Boston Ave. | 918-387-2815

NATIVE AMERICAN CEREMONIAL DANCER

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Seminole Nation Museum

Sue Fish [Chickasaw, Choctaw] Choctaw Elbow Basket

Through the use of select artifacts, historic photographs and interpretive exhibits, visitors will learn about the events and stories that shaped the home of the Seminoles for more than a century. The museum’s Seminole Exhibition recognizes the life of Alice Brown Davis, the first woman to serve as Chief of any of the Five Civilized Tribes. Named after the museum’s co-founder and first curator, the Margaret Jane Norman Gallery exhibits selections from a permanent collection of over 600 works of art, including pieces by notable artists such Enoch Kelly Haney and Benjamin Harjo, Jr. Wewoka | 524 S. Mekusukey Ave. 405-257-5580 | theseminolenationmuseum.org

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Tribes 131 Indian Art Gallery Specializing in Native American and Southwestern-inspired fine arts, this gallery offers a full line of jewelry, pottery, baskets, kachinas, textiles, originals, prints, bronzes, clay & alabaster sculptures, & large selection of Made in Oklahoma gift items. Historical works vary and often sell quickly. Tribes 131 also has works by artists on consignment.

Norman | 131 24th Ave. N.W. 405-329-4442 | tribes131ok.com

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Buck’s Native American Pawn Shop This shop has been a go-to for Native American goods for more than 60 years. It offers beadwork, leatherwork, regalia, drums, blankets and original art, along with turquoise and other native jewelry in a wide range of prices.

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Museum houses a variety of collections including fine art, the Egli and Chibitty Collections, Fort Sill Indian School & military items, as well as an on-site library & photo archives. Also hosts traveling exhibits focused on Native American art and culture.

Lawton | 1413 S.W. Lee Blvd. | 580-355-7363

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Lawton | 701 N.W. Ferris Ave. 580-353-0404 | comanchemuseum.com

Caddo Heritage Museum Museum, archives & resource center located on the Caddo Nation Complex. Also features Caddo artifacts, contemporary art and other arts & crafts.

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Binger | Caddo Nation Complex 405-656-2344 | caddonation-nsn.gov

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Cherokee Trading Post & Boot Outlet Family-owned gift shop located on historic Rt. 66 offers hand-beaded jewelry, moccasins, artifacts, pottery, art, rattlesnake products, leather jackets, Western items, and other Oklahoma & Rt. 66 souvenirs.

Clinton | 23107 N. Frontage Rd. 888-572-0001 | 580-323-0001 | cherokeegifts.com

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Comanche National Museum and Cultural Center

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Comanche Shirt Company Located at the foothills of the Wichita Mountains, this shop sells hand-printed T-shirts and other clothing that celebrates the history of southwestern Oklahoma and its American Indian tribes. The owners are descendants of legendary Comanche war leader Quanah Parker, and the shirts feature the art of another of Parker’s descendants, Quanah Parker Burgess.

Medicine Park | 19857 St. Hwy 49 405-535-0557 | comancheshirtcompany.com

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Delaware Tribal Museum Displays include traditional clothing, beadwork & artifacts of the Delaware tribe. Gift shop on site.

Anadarko | 31064 U.S. Hwy. 281 | 405-247-2448 delawarenation.com

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Fort Sill National Historic Landmark & Museum

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Mohawk Lodge Indian Store

Iconic store on old Rt. 66 was first the trading post in Indian Territory, opening in 1892. Still buys, sells & trades authentic Indian crafts & artifacts across the same counter used in 1892. While visiting, be sure to view the original antique photos of Cheyennes & other museum-worthy treasures.

Clinton | 22702 St. Hwy. 66 N. | 580-323-2360

Nineteenth-century frontier Army post consists of 50 buildings, most still in use & in mint condition. Fort Sill is perhaps best known as home of Apache warrior, Geronimo, & other Native American notables including Quanah Parker, are buried at Chief’s Knoll in the Post Cemetery. Post Quadrangle features historic homes, museum buildings, Post Chapel & visitors center. Tours available.

Fort Sill | B437 Quanah Rd. 580-442-5123 | sill-www.army.mil

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Kiowa Tribal Museum

FORT SILL HISTORIC LANDMARK & MUSEUM

View 10 murals by Kiowa artists interpreting the heritage of the Kiowa people from pre-history to present day. Native crafts, chains, earrings, beaded hair combs & brooches, 26 Museum of the Great Plains all made by local Kiowa crafts people are on display, Features special collections with exhibits highlighting along with a large Kiowa Sundance Teepee. cultural & natural history of the Great Plains of North Carnegie | 100 Kiowa Way America. Don’t miss the Tingley Collection of Native 580-654-2300 | kiowatribe.org American artifacts, including more than 3,200 pieces of 20th century Plains Indian artifacts. Outdoor grounds feature Red River Trading Post, a replica of trading posts which existed in the region in 1830s & ’40s.

Lawton | 601 N.W. Ferris Ave. 580-581-3460 | discovermpg.org

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National Hall of Fame for Famous American Indians

More than 40 bronze busts of famous American Indians, including Sequoyah, Captain Black Beaver, Sitting Bull, Geronimo & Pocahontas & visitor center with large selection of Native American books.

Anadarko | 901 E. Central Blvd. | 405-247-5555

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Oklahoma Indian Arts & Crafts Cooperative

Founded in 1955, the Cooperative is an independent arts & crafts business owned & operated by Native American artists & crafts people; sales shop located in the Southern Plains Indian Museum.

Anadarko | 214 N.W. Second St. | 405-247-3486 MUSEUM OF THE GREAT PLAINS

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Southern Plains Indian Museum Features authentic American Indian arts & crafts in three galleries & a permanent display of varied arts from western Oklahoma American Indian Nations including the Kiowa, Comanche, Kiowa-Apache, Southern Cheyenne, Southern Arapaho, Wichita, Caddo, Delaware & Fort Sill Apache.

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National historic site marks the location of Lt. Col. George A. Custer’s 1868 surprise dawn attack on the Southern Cheyenne village of Peace Chief Black Kettle. The site & visitor center, a unit of the National Park Service, features exhibits, a bookstore & 27-minute film, “Destiny at Dawn.” Ranger talks are available at the site overlook. Guided tours available by reservation.

Anadarko | 801 E. Central Blvd. | 405-247-6221

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Washita Battlefield National Historic Site

Cheyenne | 18555 St. Hwy. 47A Ste. A 580-497-2742 | nps.gov/waba

Statue of Chief Lone Wolf Carving of Chief Lone Wolf created from remaining trunk of a large elm tree by chainsaw carver Clayton Coss.

EXPLORE TRAVELOK.COM FOR MORE GREAT PLAINS COUNTRY ATTRACTIONS.

Hobart | Kiowa County Courthouse Square 580-726-2553 | hobartok.com

WASHITA BATTLEFIELD

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Ataloa Lodge Museum

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Bigheart Museum

Features one of the largest privately owned collections of Native American history & culture in the U.S. Built in 1932 on the Bacone College campus, the museum is Native American-operated & houses more than 20,000 pieces of traditional & contemporary Native American art, including an impressive kachina doll collection, items of daily & ceremonial use, as well as Civil War memorabilia.

Named after prominent Osage Chief James Bigheart, museum includes Cherokee & Osage Nation artifacts & area history, including the story of how the town name changed from Bigheart to Barnsdall. Exhibits include a Friendship Memorial Wall of Honor, an Oklahoma Centennial Project with 500 bricks honoring civic leaders, and life-size bronze statue of Osage Chief James Bigheart and T.N. Barnsdall.

Open by appointment only.

Muskogee | 2299 Old Bacone Rd. ataloa.bacone.edu

Barnsdall | 616 W Main St. | 918-847-2397

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Cha Tullis Gallery

Artwork, crafts, jewelry, literature & music, located in the heart of the Osage Indian Nation Reservation. Murals and sculptures by Tullis also appear around town.

Hominy | 108 W. Main St. 918-885-4717 | chatullis.com

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Cherokee Heritage Center

Located on 44 acres in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains, the center is home to the Ancient Village, Adams Corner Rural Village, the Trail of Tears exhibit, the Cherokee National Museum & the Cherokee Family Research Center. The Ancient Village is a replica Cherokee village as it would have existed before European contact, with live demonstrations offered in ancient cultural practices such as flint knapping, basketry, blowguns, stickball and Cherokee marble games. Guided tours held every hour on the half hour.

CHEROKEE HERITAGE CENTER

Items include Cherokee baskets, musical & beaded items, prints, pottery originals, books & tapes.

Tahlequah | 17725 S. Muskogee Ave. 800-256-2123 | 918-456-2793 cherokeegiftshop.com

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Tahlequah | 21192 S. Keeler Dr. 888-999-6007 | 918-456-6007 | cherokeeheritage.org

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Catoosa | 777 W. Cherokee St. 877-779-6977 | 918-384-5915 visitcherokeenation.com

Chief Lookout Memorial & Lookout Mountain

Burial site of Chief Fred Lookout and his wife, Julia, located on top of Lookout Mountain and marked with a 10-foot-tall granite stone. The scenic overlook has a 360-degree panoramic view of Pawhuska, Bird Creek Valley and Osage County.

Cherokee Nation Cultural Tourism

The Cherokee Nation celebrates its unique heritage through its cultural tourism program that features three historically authentic tours in Tahlequah that can be booked online. The foundation of the program rests in the cultural, historical, natural and recreational resources of the Cherokee Nation, which include the 14-county area located in northeastern Oklahoma that spans 7,000 square miles.

Cherokee Nation Gift Shop

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Pawhuska | 5 mi. E. on Okesa Rd. 918-287-1208 | pawhuskachamber.com

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Coo-Y-Yah Museum Housed in the Katy Railroad Depot, artifacts & exhibits feature the Cherokee & Osage Indians, art & local history items, a rare salt-glazed pottery collection, 1800s printing press, 1942 tornado exhibit, the Whitaker Home & a Native American Art Gallery.

Pryor | 847 U.S. Hwy. 69 | 918-825-2575

CREEK COUNCIL OAK PARK

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Creek Council House Museum

Recipient of a national preservation award & listed as an historic site, this beautiful two-story museum provides extensive exhibits on the culture & history of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. Also once served as headquarters for the black (African/Creek Indian) Lighthorsemen.

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Museum contains one of the world’s most comprehensive collections of American Indian & Western art; permanent collections of more than 10,000 works of art include priceless pieces by renowned Western artists. The Kravis Discovery Center brings state-of-the-art technology and artifacts together for a new look at the anthropology collection & grounds featuring 11 themed garden areas.

Okmulgee | 106 W. Sixth St. 918-549-2435 | creekcouncilhouse.com

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Gilcrease Museum

Tulsa | 1400 N. Gilcrease Museum Rd. 888-655-2278 | 918-596-2700 | gilcrease.org

Creek Council Oak Park

On the National Register of Historic Places, this park overlooks the Arkansas River. The Creek Council tree, a mature post oak, marks the traditional “ceremonial ground” by the Lochapoka clan of the Creek Indians after their 1836 involuntary migration from what is now Alabama.

The Tulsa-Lochapoka gathered here as late as 1896. Park features an ethno-botanical garden displaying plants used by the Creek Indians for food, fiber, ceremonial & medicinal purposes.

Tulsa | 1750 S. Cheyenne Ave. | 918-596-7275 | mcn-nsn.gov

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Five Civilized Tribes Museum

Housed in historic 1875 Union Agency building, museum preserves the culture & history of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee Creek and Seminole tribes through art & artifacts. Handmade items in Trading Post Gift Shop.

Muskogee | 1101 Honor Heights Dr. 877-587-4237 | 918-683-1701 | fivetribes.org

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Fort Gibson Historic Site & Interpretive Center

GILCREASE MUSEUM

In operation from 1824-1890 as the first Army post in Indian Territory, the site is a National Historic Landmark, Official National Trail of Tears Site, & designated “American Treasure.” Site encompasses 80 acres with 29 historic buildings & numerous archaeological ruins. Exhibits & living history programs relate to the settlement of Indian Territory & the development of the fort. Museum, visitor center, book shop & numerous period rooms, along with living history events throughout the year.

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Skiatook | 14004 Lake Rd. 918-396-3170 | www.swt.usace.army.mil

Fort Gibson | 907 N. Garrison Ave. 918-478-4088 | okhistory.org

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General Stand Watie Grave Site

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General Stand Watie, the only full-blooded Native American to receive the rank of Brigadier General, was the last Confederate General to surrender during the Civil War. He was a Joint Commander at the Battle of Cabin Creek on September 18, 1864, when Confederates captured 300 wagons loaded with supplies, thus enabling the destitute Indian Confederates to continue in the war.

Grove | Polson Cemetery | 918-854-3467

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Healing Rock

Natural monument once called Teepee Rock & considered to have mystical healing powers by Osage & Quapaw Indians in late 19th century. When plans for Skiatook Lake were finalized, it became clear the rock would be covered by water.

Locals campaigned to save the rock & in 1985 the Corps of Engineers moved it to its present location. An access trail leads from the project office to this unique natural feature.

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La Harpe’s Council Marker Historic marker commemorates meeting between Bernard de la Harpe & the great Chief of the Tonacara in company with the chiefs of six tribes in 1719 to begin trading furs & hides for export to Europe in exchange for guns & sundries.

Haskell | U.S. Hwy. 64 | 918-482-1245

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Native American Art (by appointment only)

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Art gallery specializing in paintings, sculptures, pottery, prints & more.

Research library consists of resource books, microfilm & computer access for the public, including genealogy records for northeast Oklahoma, northwest Arkansas & the Cherokee Nation. Bookstore, gift shop and museum attractions including blacksmith shop, post office and other artifacts.

Tulsa | Call for directions | 918-584-5792

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New Territory Sculptures

Designed by local artist Cha’ Tullis, sculptures stand atop a hill. They are made of sheet iron with moving parts and depict Indians & their horses are illuminated at night.

Hominy | W. of town | 918-885-4939

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Colcord | 500 S. Colcord Ave. 918-326-4532 | talbotlibrary.org

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Osage Nation Museum

Sequoyah’s Cabin

A National Historic Landmark, site consists of Sequoyah’s 1829 log cabin enclosed in protective native stone covered building & a 10-acre park. Sequoyah developed a working syllabary that enabled the entire Cherokee Nation to become literate within a very short period of time.

Twin Arrows Buffalo Market Wide range of quality buffalo, elk & venison meat for sale, including steaks, roasts, burgers, jerky & many other cuts, along with array of gifts & Native American products.

Adair | 308 S. Mayes St. 918-785-5695

Displays & artifacts relating to Osage culture from 1600s to present, along with archives & photo collections. Fall & spring craft classes offered.

Pawhuska | 819 Grandview Ave. 918-287-5441 | osagenation-nsn.gov/museum

Talbot Research Library & Museum

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Webbers Falls Historical Museum Complete history of Oklahoma’s early-day Cherokee settlers with special emphasis on Confederate General Stand Watie & Cherokee Mounted Riflemen. Named for Chief Walter Webber and the falls on the Arkansas River. Chief Webber settled in Webbers Falls in 1828 and established a trading post, making Webbers Falls the second oldest town in Oklahoma.

Webbers Falls | 103 Commercial St. | 918-464-2728

Sallisaw | 47028 St. Hwy. 101 918-775-2413 | visitcherokeenation.com

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Green Country WOOLAROC MUSEUM & WILDLIFE PRESERVE

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Woody Crumbo Mural

Native American mural painted by Potawatomi Indian, Woody Crumbo, is housed in the lobby of the post office built in 1939.

Nowata | 109 N Pine St. | 918-273-1681

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Woolaroc Museum & Wildlife Preserve

Established in 1925 as the country home of oilman Frank Phillips, founder of Phillips Petroleum Company, Woolaroc is a working ranch, museum & wildlife preserve. Museum is a world-class facility with more than 52,000 square feet of American Southwest history, featuring paintings by Russell & Remington, bronze collection by Joe Beeler, & fine collection of Colt handguns. Surrounding 3,600 acres are home to herds of buffalo, elk, deer, longhorn steers & Scottish highland cattle. Woolaroc derives its name from the woods, lakes and rocks of the beautiful Osage Hills.

White Hair Memorial Circa 1920s home of Osage Lillie Morrell Burkhart. Today, the home serves as a resource learning center for Osage tribal culture & heritage.

Bartlesville | 1925 Woolaroc Ranch Rd. 888-966-5276 | 918-336-0307 | woolaroc.org

Hominy | 4986 County Rd. 5715 918-538-2417 | okhistory.org

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Choctaw Nation Museum

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1884 capitol building of the Choctaw Nation houses vintage clothing, tribal documents, Choctaw pottery, an art gallery and gift shop. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Tuskahoma | 163665 N. 4335 Rd. 918-569-4465 | choctawnation.com

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District Choctaw Chief’s House Renovated 1837 home of District Choctaw Chief Thomas Le Flore & David Randall, town founder in 1902. Built by the U.S. government as prescribed by 1830 Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek & listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is the oldest house in the state of Oklahoma still on its original site.

Fort Towson Historic Site Established to protect the Choctaw Indians in 1824, the fort gave the U.S. government a military presence on the frontier, protected the southern border of the United States & was the ending point for the Choctaws’ removal in 18321834. In 1865 General Stand Watie, a Cherokee leader and commander of the Confederate Indian cavalry, surrendered his command near the fort to become the last Confederate general to lay down arms. Now on the National Register of Historic Places.

Fort Towson | 580-873-2634 | okhistory.org

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Swink | 1832 Country Rd. E. 2060 | 580-873-2301

Fort Washita Historic Site & Museum A unique glimpse of military life in the pre-Civil War West, the fort was built in 1842 and operated through 1865. The fort’s purpose was to protect the Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes from marauding plains tribes. Log structures were built at first, then permanent native sandstone and refined wooden structures were constructed.

Durant | 3348 State Rd. 199 | 580-924-6502

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Gardner Mansion & Museum

the museum’s permanent collection of more than 18,000 objects. Museum also displays the reconstructed skeleton of a dinosaur, Acrocanthosaurus atokensis, discovered in McCurtain County 12 miles from the museum.

Built in 1884, this was the official home of the Choctaw chief & today features a large collection of Indian artifacts & fossils. Near the home is a 2,000-year-old Cypress tree known as a landmark to early Choctaws traveling the Trail of Tears.

Idabel | 812 E. Lincoln Rd. 580-286-3616 | museumoftheredriver.org

Broken Bow | 6745 E. U.S. Hwy 70 | 580-584-6588

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Pittsburg County Genealogical & Historical Society Museum Research & genealogical library with records dating back to pre-statehood, including the Dawes Rolls. Museum displays mining & Indian artifacts, and local history.

McAlester | 113 E. Carl Albert Pkwy.

918-426-0388 | pittsburgcogenealogical.org

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Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center The only prehistoric Native American archaeological site in Oklahoma open to the public. Created and used by Caddoan-speaking Indians between 850 and 1450 A.D., the 12 earthen burial & ceremonial mounds excavated here have yielded thousands of unique religious & ornamental artifacts. The site offers an exceptional guided tour.

Spiro | 18154 First St. | 918-962-2062 | okhistory.org

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Three Valley Museum Located in the heart of the Red, Blue & Washita river valleys, museum focuses on southeastern Oklahoma history.

Special attractions include a small town exhibit area on the second floor depicting scenes from the early 1900s, transportation exhibits & a Native American Gallery.

Durant | 401 W. Main St. 580-920-1907 | durantmainstreet.org

MUSEUM OF THE RED RIVER

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Museum of the Red River

Established in 1974 to share the cultural heritage of the Americas, this fascinating gem in southeastern Oklahoma features ethnographic art from North, Central and South America, with comparative materials from Africa, East Asia and the South Pacific. Collections are particularly strong in regional archaeological materials, Plains Indian garments, Southwestern Pueblo ceramics, & pre-Columbian Middle & South American artifacts. Rotating exhibits are drawn from

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Wheelock Academy This once flourishing Native American girls boarding school founded in 1832 is a symbol of almost two centuries of the Choctaw Nation’s commitment to education. Since 2000, the historic campus has been listed as one of America’s “ 11 most endangered historic places” by the National Trust for Historic Preservation & is included in the “Save America’s Treasures” federal program. Call for tour information.

Millerton | 1377 Wheelock Rd .Unit C 580-746-2139 | choctawnation.com

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Plains Indians and Pioneers Museum Frontier town vignettes, artifacts from lawyer & gunfighter Temple Houston, son of Sam Houston. American Indian exhibits feature prehistory information, Cheyenne and Arapaho Nations, as well as the Battle of the Washita of 1868. Colorful murals in museum’s rotunda depict lifestyle of northwest Oklahoma American Indians in the 1800s.

Woodward | 2009 Williams Ave. 580-256-6136 | pipm1.org

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Standing Bear Park, Museum & Education Center This outdoor interpretive center & museum features artifacts, artwork, and educational material honoring six Native American tribes around the Ponca City area. A 22foot bronze sculpture of Ponca Chief Standing Bear is the focal point of the park and two miles of walking trails are on site. Annual powwow held on grounds in September.

Ponca City | 601 Standing Bear Pkwy.

580-762-1514 | standingbearpark.com

PLAINS INDIANS & PIONEERS MUSEUM

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Cherokee Strip Museum Housed in a vintage 1932 hospital building, museum boasts one of the best collections of pioneer exhibits, Indian art & artifacts in the state. Features 40 rooms displaying history of Alva & the Cherokee Strip.

Alva | 901 14th St. 580-327-2030 | cherokeestripmuseumalva.org

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Fort Supply Historic Site Established as Camp Supply in 1868 in the western part of the state, supply base served General Philip Sheridan’s winter campaign against Indian tribes of the southern Great Plains. From this post, Lt. Col. George A. Custer led the Seventh U.S. Cavalry south to the Washita River in a surprise dawn attack and destroyed the village of Cheyenne peace Chief Black Kettle. After becoming a fort in 1878, the fort’s mission was to protect the Cheyenne and Arapaho Reservations from incursions by whites. The fort is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

STANDING BEAR PARK

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Tonkawa | 1 Rush Buffalo Rd. 580-628-5301 | tonkawatribe.com

Fort Supply | 1 William Key Blvd.

580-766-3767 | okhistory.org

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Tonkawa Tribal Museum Artifacts and photographic histories of the Tonkawa tribe, including items from the Southwestern & Northern tribes.

Kanza Museum Museum of the Kaw Nation featuring a variety of Native American exhibits, artifacts, photography & a permanent paleontology exhibit. Gift shop also on site.

Kaw City | Kaw Tribal Complex 866-404-5297 | 580-269-2552 | kawnation.com

Top of Oklahoma Historical Society Museum Top of Oklahoma Historical Society Museum, housed in the 1912 Electric Park Pavilion museum, contains items from 1893 Cherokee Strip Land Run to present day. Collections include farm tools, cameras, saddles, Indian paintings, artifacts & much more. Gift shop on site.

Blackwell | 303 S. Main St. | 580-363-0209

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The 39 Tribes of Oklahoma As you tour Oklahoma Indian Country, you’ll discover the distinctive culture, heritage and stories of each of the 39 tribal nations. In this section, you’ll find a very brief overview of each nation’s history, along with the tribe’s traditional name and language family. A language family is a way of showing the linguistic relationships among the many American Indian languages.

Profiles were researched and created with the input, guidance and advice of tribal nations, the American Indian Cultural Center and Museum, and the following sources: • Tribal nation websites • “Indian Tribes of Oklahoma: A Guide,” by Blue Clark • Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, a project of Oklahoma Historical Society and the Oklahoma State University Library Electronic Publishing Center • Other online university libraries

Nocona Burgess [Comanche] Toshaway

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ba sed on tr aditional comanche or na mental patter n

Shaawanwa

[ tr a di tiona l na me ] [ e ng li s h na m e ]

Absentee Shawnee Tribe

Language family: Central Algonquian

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Total tribal enrollment: 4,325

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Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 3,206

Government: The current form of government for the Absentee Shawnee evolved over the first half of the 20th century. The tribe is governed by a constitution ratified in 1938, amended in 1988. The tribal government is comprised of two separate branches, the judicial and the legislative/executive.

Tribal headquarters: 2025 S Gordon Cooper Dr., Shawnee, 405-275-4030. astribe.com

Although the Absentee Shawnee are known to have lived in the eastern United States, it has been documented that they traveled from Canada to Florida, from the Mississippi River to the East Coast before being removed to the area they now occupy.

Originally the Shawnee Indians lived in the northeastern part of the United States in areas now known as the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and neighboring states. Treaties in the late 1700s and throughout the 1800s reveal the Shawnee had a large population and land holdings in what is now the state of Ohio. Encroaching colonial settlement persuaded the Shawnees living in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, to negotiate the 1825 treaty with the U.S. government, which ceded their lands in Missouri for a reservation in Kansas. However, several years before this treaty was introduced, a group of Shawnees left Ben Harjo, Jr . [Seminole, Shawnee] Missouri to begin a journey south that would lead them toward Without Reservation territory now known as the state of Texas, then under the control of Spain. This group of Shawnees became known as the Absentee Shawnees. The term “Absentee Shawnees” stems from a provisional clause in an 1854 treaty regarding surplus lands in the Kansas Reservation which were set aside for the “absent” Shawnees. The outcome of the Texas-Mexico War (1846-1848) compelled many Absentee Shawnees to leave Texas and move into Indian Territory, although it is estimated that the Absentee Shawnees began to settle in Oklahoma around 1839. In the late 1800s, an Indian agent from the U.S. government brought soldiers from Fort Reno in western Oklahoma and forced the traditional band of Absentee Shawnees located along the Deep Fork River to leave. This band was taken south to the area known as Hog Creek and Little River where they were to remain. The group settling there is known as the Big Jim Band. Another band stayed in Pottawatomie County near the town of Shawnee, Oklahoma, and is known as the White Turkey Band.

Did you Know? The Absentee Shawnee Tribe was one of the first seven tribes in the U.S. to become a self-governing nation during the 1990s.

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Albamo Koasati

[ tr a ditiona l na m e ]

Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town Language family: Muskoghean

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Total tribal enrollment: 421

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[ eng lish na m e ]

Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 375

Government: Tribal government was established under the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act (OIWA) in 1936 and members adopted a constitution and bylaws in 1939. This tribal town is led by a chief elected to four-year terms.

Tribal headquarters: 101 E. Broadway Ave., Wetumka, 405-452-3987. alabama-quassarte.org

The Alabama and Quassarte people each had a distinct identity as a tribal town in their ancestral homelands in the southeastern U.S. and are closely related culturally to other Muskoghean-speaking peoples such as the Creeks, Choctaws and Chickasaws. With the encroachment of Europeans into the region, many members of these two groups, in an attempt to avoid contact with the Europeans, migrated southwest into Louisiana and Texas in the 1790s and early 1800s where they remain today (Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana & Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas). The members who did not leave formed an alliance, participating in the old Muscogee Nation Confederacy government, and hence were subsequently included in the Removal Act of 1830. The Alabama and Quassarte people settled into Indian Territory in what is now Hughes, Okfuskee, McIntosh and a portion of Seminole Counties. During the 1930s the Alabamas and Quassarte merged and organized as a tribal town separate from the Creek Nation and maintained a traditional tribal town political structure.

Did you Know? The Hernando de Soto expedition first encountered the Alabamas in northern Mississippi in 1540 and the Koasati in their island town on the Tennessee River.

Na-I-Sha

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Apache Tribe Language family: Southern Athapaskan

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[ eng lish na m e ]

Total tribal enrollment: 2,634 | Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 2,092

Government: Constitution and bylaws were adopted in 1972 and amended in 1976 and 1987. The Tribal Council is comprised of all tribal members over the age of 18 with a chair, vice chair and a secretary-treasurer. The tribe is governed by a business committee of five members.

Tribal headquarters: 511 E. Colorado Dr., Anadarko, 405-247-9493

There is some disagreement among historians about the prehistory of the Apache Tribe and ancestral lands. Some historians believe ancestral Apache split from their larger linguistic family in the

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Canadian Northwest Territory around 2,000 years ago and gradually moved into the plains of Canada and then later, into what is now the southwest U.S. Oral tradition from the Plains Apaches and from the Kiowas says the Plains Apaches merged with the Kiowas in the Black Hills region of South Dakota.

Suggested dates for the entry of Apacheans onto the southern plains and southwest U.S. range between A.D. 1300 and 1500. By the 1800s, pioneer pressure, diminished game and diseases such as smallpox and cholera ravaged tribal families. After a series of treaties, the Apache accepted confinement to a small reservation under the terms of the 1867 Medicine Lodge treaty. Because Plains Apache life depended upon communal hunting, individual farming proved disastrous to their social cohesion.

Land division and leasing plunged them into poverty. Boarding school education and missions took a further cultural toll with a resulting loss of language, ability and culture. Recovery of culture began with a revival of the Blackfeet Dancing Society in the late 1950s and continues to this day with other dances and powwow activities.

Did you Know? Walking Bear, One Who Is Surrendered, and Iron Show signed the first treaty of Fort Gibson in 1837 for the Plains Apaches.

Kadohadacho

[ tr a di tiona l na me ]

Caddo Nation

[ e ng li s h na m e ]

Language family: Caddoan

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Total tribal enrollment: 6,374

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Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 3,927

Government: The Caddo Nation adopted a charter, constitution and bylaws in 1938. A new constitution ratified in 1976 mandates a tribal council with a chair, vice-chair, secretary, treasurer and representatives from Anadarko, Fort Cobb, Binger and Oklahoma City districts.

Tribal headquarters: 5 miles E of Binger at the intersection of Hwys 281 and 152, 405-656-2344. caddonation-nsn.gov

Ancestors of the Caddo people began settling farmstead communities in the present states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma as early as A.D. 800.

Long before first contact with Europeans in the 16th and 17th centuries, a strong, well-governed, populous and prosperous Caddo Nation grew from its ancestral root (kee oh no wah, the old ones). In this region, they gradually developed earthen mound culture along major rivers, and some of the mound sites in these areas can be seen and toured today. Much of the Caddos’ Jereldine Redcorn [Caddo] Panther Rattlesnake 23 |

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food resulted from cultivation of corn, beans, and squash. They also ventured into the plains to hunt buffalo. Contact with European settlers resulted in the spread of diseases and exacted a heavy toll.

In 1835, the Caddos in Louisiana were forced to cede their lands and roam the hostile northern Texas area In 1855, they were moved to a reserve on the Brazos River in Texas shared with the Delawares and affiliated Wichita tribes. Then in 1859, after whites slaughtered seven sleeping Caddos, the government led the Brazos Reserve Indians to refuge in Indian Territory. It’s estimated 500 Caddos walked from Texas to what is now Oklahoma — nearly 200 miles. The Brazos Caddos were joined in 1859 by a separate group of Caddos that had settled in southeast Oklahoma. Today the Caddo Nation preserves, celebrates and shares their culture and heritage via a large repertoire of songs and dances and the Caddo Heritage Museum. The museum’s exhibits rely on its extensive collection of prehistoric, historic and archival artifacts, regalia, photographs, books, manuscripts, video and audio recordings, as well as contemporary art work and Caddo pottery.

Did you Know? The earthenware pottery made by the ancient Caddo was crafted by hand using locally available materials and fired in an open fire (as opposed to a kiln) at relatively low temperatures (perhaps 600-700 degrees centigrade).

Aniyunwiya

[ tr a ditiona l na m e ]

Cherokee Nation Language family: Iroquoian

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Total tribal enrollment: 362,362

[ eng lish na m e ]

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Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 238,860

Government: In 1975-76 members wrote and approved a constitution, setting up a principal chief, deputy chief, and 15-member council. The constitution was amended in 2003, creating the position of council speaker, increasing council membership and making other legal and court changes.

Tribal headquarters: 22361 S. Bald Hill Rd., Tahlequah, 918-453-5000. cherokee.org.

For information regarding cultural tours, visit CherokeeTourismOK.com or call toll-free 877-779-6977.

Some archaeologists differ regarding prehistory origins of the Cherokees, but most believe the Nation emerged out of South Appalachian Mississippian chiefdoms. Although originally a mound culture, by the time Europeans arrived extended families lived in dwellings arranged around a central council house. With the discovery of gold in Georgia in 1829, white intruders began to covet Cherokee homelands. Despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in favor of Cherokee authority, the Indian Removal Act passed in Congress by one vote, over the objection of Daniel Boone and others. It was signed into law by Andrew Jackson. In 1838 more than 15,000 Cherokee men, women and children were rounded up and marched more than a thousand miles to Indian Territory on a pathway that became known as dig e tsi lv sv i, “The Trail Where They Cried.” About one quarter of the Cherokee people died in Tr avelOK .com

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The Cherokee Female Seminary, established by the Cherokee Nation in 1851, burned to the ground on Easter Sunday 1887. By 1889 the Nation completed a second seminary which is still in use today as Seminary Hall on the campus of Northeastern State University in Tahlequah. Today, the site of the first seminary is home to the Cherokee Heritage Center, where several support columns that survived the fire are memorialized with a reflecting pond.

America Meredith [Cherokee] unega kamama ale ssiquoyah (detail)

Western History/Genealogy Dept., Denver Public Library, Denver, Colorado

internment camps, on the trail and after arrival in what is now the state of Oklahoma. The Cherokee people rebuilt a progressive lifestyle from remnants of the society and the culture they were forced to leave behind. The years between the removal and the 1860s were called the “Cherokee Golden Age,” a period of prosperity that ended with division over the Civil War. After the Civil War, more Cherokee lands and rights were confiscated by the government due to the Cherokee being persuaded to side with the Confederacy. What remained of Cherokee tribal land was divided into individual allotments, which were given to Cherokees listed in the census compiled by the Dawes Commission in the late 1890s. Over the last 120 years the Cherokee people have again prospered. Their leaders promote the ancient practice of ga du gi, working together for a common cause. They encourage citizens to adopt self-reliance and create a happy, healthy Nation. The Cherokee language is being preserved and revitalized, and the Cherokee Heritage Center in Tahlequah is home to the permanent Trail of Tears exhibit, two major art shows each year and a genealogy center. The Cherokee National Supreme Court Museum, located in Tahlequah, offers visitors a look at the two passions of the Cherokee people – law and education. Open to the public Tuesday-Saturday, the museum details the evolution of Cherokee law from clan to court and the evolution of Cherokee journalism and the written Cherokee language.

Did you Know? The Cherokee Female Seminary in Tahlequah, established in 1851, was the first institute of higher learning for women west of the Mississippi.

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Tsistsistas & Hiinonon ‘ei

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Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes Language family: Algonquian

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Total tribal enrollment: 12,917

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[ eng lish na m e ]

Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 9,480

(Approximately one-third of the combined Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes consider themselves to be Arapaho.)

Government: The Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes officially organized a business committee in 1937, rewrote their constitution in 1975, and reorganized their government in 2006, putting in place a system of checks and balances. The tribal government has four branches: executive, legislative, judicial and “The People� with the power of petition as the fourth branch. A tribal courts system was established in 1988.

Tribal headquarters: 100 Red Moon Cir., Concho, 405-262-0345. c-a-tribes.org

The Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes have a long history as allies and friends, so when branches of these two distinct tribes were placed together on a reservation in Oklahoma, in order to survive and thrive, an even closer collaboration began. Most historians place prehistory Arapaho homelands in parts of the Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario provinces of Canada and in the upper parts of the U.S. in what is now Minnesota and Michigan. Over time they migrated west into Colorado and Wyoming, eventually occupying lands ranging from northern New Mexico, Oklahoma and Kansas north into Wyoming and South Dakota. The Cheyenne were originally a woodland people living in the eastern portion of the U.S. and later migrated into the plains. Although they are identified as Plains Indians who followed the buffalo, they retain ties to their woodland heritage. For both tribes, encroachment by settlers from the mid-1800s onward caused ongoing struggles, including broken

Brent Learned [Arapaho] Oklahoma Fall (detail)

Nathan Hart [Cheyenne-Arapaho] — Redwood Burl

treaties and broken promises and the vagaries of the reservation system. Later, the chicanery surrounding the disastrous Dawes Act, also known as the allotment system, often resulted in societal and cultural devastation and tragedy. Over the last 80 years both tribes have worked hard to recover their culture and heritage and continue to do so in a number of ways. The Arapahos engage in powwows and continue to be involved with their Northern Arapaho brethren through ceremonies in Wyoming such as the Sun Dance and other age-old rituals held in such high esteem that they are not publicized. The Cheyenne continue traditions such as the Sun Dance as well, and many take part in frequent powwows.

Did you Know? Henrietta Whiteman Mann led the national lobbying effort on behalf of Indian religious freedom in the late 1970s, which resulted in the enactment of the American Indian Religious Freedom Amendment.

Chikasha

[ tr a di tiona l na me ]

Chickasaw Nation

[ eng li s h na m e ]

Language family: Western Muskoghean

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Total tribal enrollment: 66,000

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Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 35,000

Government: The Chickasaw Nation government operates under a constitution adopted in 1979 and revised and approved by tribal voters and the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1983 and again in 1988. A governor, lieutenant governor, 13-member tribal legislature and a judiciary represent and lead the tribe.

Tribal headquarters: 520 Arlington St., Ada, 580-436-2603. chickasaw.net

From their migration to what is now Mississippi, Kentucky, Alabama and Tennessee in prehistoric times, to the purchase of a new homeland in south-central Oklahoma in the mid-1800s, the Chickasaw culture and heritage is rooted in nature and the elements. The Chickasaw Nation’s first contact with Europeans came with Hernando de Soto’s 1540 expedition. Living in sophisticated town sites, the Chickasaws possessed a highly developed society, conducted a successful trade business with other tribes and with the French and English and lived a largely agrarian lifestyle. Like other tribes, the Chickasaw people were forced to move from their homelands by the U.S. government. The 1837 Treaty of Doaksville called for the resettlement of the Chickasaws among the Choctaw Tribe in

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Indian Territory. After their resettlement, the Chickasaws, in order to restore direct authority over their governmental affairs, separated from the Choctaws and formed their own government in 1856.

Tribal leaders established the capital at Tishomingo, adopted a constitution and organized executive, legislative and judicial departments of government with the offices filled by popular election. At the outbreak of the Civil War, the Chickasaws signed an alliance with the South and raised troops to fight with the Confederacy. The Choctaw/Chickasaw Mounted Regiment, headquartered at Fort Washita, fought some of the last battles of the Civil War. Although suffering hardships after the defeat of the Confederacy, the tribe regained prosperity. Many Chickasaws became successful farmers and ranchers. Chickasaws built some of the first schools, banks and businesses in Indian Territory. Today the Chickasaws celebrate, preserve and share their vibrant culture and heritage by organizing a host of events, fostering traditional songs and stomp dancing, and with the world-class Chickasaw Cultural Center in Sulphur.

Did you Know? World-famous Chickasaw performer and storyteller, Te Ata, which means “bearer of the morning,” was described as “breathtaking,” “majestic,” and “full of grace” by reviewers in The New York Times, The Oklahoman and dozens of other media in her original one-woman show interpreting legends, songs and the history of Indian tribes.

Chahta

[ tr a ditiona l na m e ]

Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma Language family: Western Muskoghean

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[ eng lish na m e ]

Total tribal enrollment: 191,357

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Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 107,451

Government: Public Law 91-495 authorized the Choctaws in 1970 to select their own officers through popular election, and the Choctaw constitution was adopted in 1983, reviving their 1860 constitution with updated modifications.

The tribal nation is guided by an elected 12-member council with a chief.

Tribal headquarters: 529 N. 16th St., Durant, 580-924-8280. choctawnation.com

Choctaw origin stories describe Nanih Waiya, located in what is now Winston County, Mississippi, as the birthplace of Choctaw society. The Choctaw Homeland itself includes most of Mississippi, as well as part of Louisiana and Alabama. For thousands of years the ancestors of today’s Choctaw people supported their families by farming and hunting. The communities they formed constantly changed and adapted through time. Moundville, built in part by the ancestors of today’s

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Choctaws, grew into the second largest pre-contact settlement north of Mexico a few centuries before European arrival. Spanish conquistadors landed on the Gulf Coast in the early 1500s. For the next several decades ancestral Choctaw people and their neighbors intermittently faced waves of European diseases and Spanish military invasions. In part because of Choctaw military resistance, the Spanish left, and the Choctaw Homeland was not entered by large groups of Europeans again until the French came in the late 1600s.

During the interim the Choctaws adopted many survivors from other local tribes. Formal relations with the United States began in 1786. The Choctaw served as military allies of the U.S. in the War of 1812 and the Marcus Amerman Creek War. Soon after, Choctaws [Choctaw] requested missionaries and western Engraved Whelk Shell (based on an original from spiro mounds) schools to come to Choctaw land.

By the 1820s many Choctaws had become wealthy in Western terms.

White society coveted their land.

The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830 set up the removal of most Choctaw Indians to Oklahoma territory, a 500-mile journey through frozen forests and disease-stricken swamps. It is estimated that perhaps one-quarter of the people died on the trip. The years of resettlement in Oklahoma were trying ones, but the Oklahoma Choctaw were determined to rise again and began laying the foundations for governance, adopting a new constitution in 1834 and building a council house at Nvnih Waiya, Oklahoma. It was here the first tribal council meeting was held in 1838. In 1897 the Dawes Commission negotiated the extinction of tribal governments, and most tribally owned lands were distributed among tribal members. Remaining lands were opened to white settlement. Like many other tribes, Choctaws served in both World Wars with distinction, and Choctaw code talkers used the Choctaw language as a code to transmit vital battlefield information. Over the years, the Oklahoma Choctaw recovered their governance and economic footing, and are preserving their heritage and culture with events such as the annual Choctaw festival and sites such as the Choctaw Nation Museum housed in their capitol building built in 1884 in Tuskahoma.

Did you Know? In 1836 the Choctaws established the first national free public school system in the U.S. which included higher education.

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Matt Bearden [Citizen Band Potawatomi, Lakota, Kickapoo, Blackfoot] Over the Hills and Far Away (detail)

Bodewadmi/Nishnabé

[ tr a ditiona l na m e ]

Citizen Potawatomi Nation Language family: Algonquian

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Total tribal enrollment: 33,720

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[ eng lish na m e ]

Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 12,860

Government: A 1938 constitution, amended in 1985 and again in 2007, forms the basis of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation government.

Government leadership consists of a three-person Executive Committee and a 16-person Legislature.

Tribal headquarters: 1601 S. Gordon Cooper Dr., Shawnee, 405-275-3121. potawatomi.org

Culturally and linguistically, the Potawatomi are connected to the Ojibwe and the Odawa forming the Nishnabé (the Original People). Traditionally, they form an alliance known as the Three Fires in which each group functions to serve the Nishnabé as a whole. The Bodewadmi are the “Keepers of the Fire,” and the word Potawatomi means “People of the Place of the Fire.” Historically, the Potawatomi were a powerful Great Lakes nation that controlled millions of acres in what are now Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio. They were one of the initial tribes to forge both a business and kindred bond with the French, controlling much of the northern fur trade during the 1700s. The Potawatomi fiercely resisted Anglo encroachment and proved to be formidable opponents to both the English and Americans. By the end of the 18th century, tribal villages were being displaced by white settlements, creating tension that ultimately ushered in the treaty era. Through a series of treaties, beginning in 1789, their land was dramatically reduced in size, and with the passage of the 1830 Indian Removal Act the Potawatomi were forcibly removed west of the Mississippi to a reservation in eastern Kansas. In 1861 the Potawatomi signed a treaty with the United States officially dividing the tribe. The signers wanted to sell portions of the reservation and have their land allotted, while the other group (Prairie Band) desired to hold the land in common. Stipulations of the treaty required its signers to surrender their tribal membership and take U.S. citizenship. Doing this, these Potawatomi became the first American Indians granted citizenship, and it became the foundation for

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the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. In 1867, the Citizen Potawatomi signed another treaty allowing tribal members to sell their allotments and use the proceeds to purchase lands in Indian Territory, resettle in the area surrounding Shawnee. Today, the Citizen Potawatomi Nation is preserving and perpetuating its heritage with a Cultural Heritage Center that houses the Nation’s museum, archives, research and community events facilities.

Did you Know? The Citizen Potawatomi Nation owns the First National Bank and Trust Co. in Shawnee. It is the largest tribally owned bank in the U.S.

Numunah

[ tr a di tiona l na me ]

Comanche Nation

[ e ng li s h na m e ]

Language family: Uto-Aztecan

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Total tribal enrollment: 16,888

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Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 10,634

Government: The Comanche Nation established a constitution and bylaws in 1966 and the tribe incorporated in 1972.

Tribal members 21 and older elect a seven-member business committee with a chair, vice chair, secretary-treasurer and four council members.

Tribal headquarters: 584 N.W. Bingo Rd., Lawton. 580-492-4988, comanchenation.com

Archaeologists trace Comanche origins to the western Great Basin in what is now the far northwest U.S. The nomadic Comanche migrated and eventually arrived on the Great Plains where, in their heyday, they were known as the “Lords of the Plains,� renowned for their horsemanship and shrewd trading prowess. Eventually the Comanche dominated trade on the southern plains and participated in a trade network that connected the Mississippi River Valley with the Rockies and Texas with the Missouri River. Their close relationship with the Kiowas is thought to have begun sometime around 1800. Pressure from white settlement of the plains increased after the end of the Civil War. Treaty councils, ongoing reduction of the lands they controlled and increased military pressure eventually brought economic collapse and forced the Comanche onto a reservation, and by then their population had fallen to about 1,600. The reservation system led to drastic changes in their culture, and the ensuing 1901 allotment devastated the tribe. By the time of the Indian New Deal, also known as the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, half of the Comanche were landless. Over the next few decades, the Comanche worked to recover, sharing a joint constitution and business committee with the Plains Apaches and Kiowa from 1936-1963. The Plains soldier tradition runs strong in the Comanche. Some worked as scouts at Fort Sill and others served in American military. In World War II, Comanche Code Talkers were renowned for using their native language to relay military orders and information, a code the Germans were unable to break. Numerous events honor veterans, and the Comanche have a variety 31 |

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of dance associations that today preserve their heritage and identity along with the Comanche Language and Cultural Preservation Committee, Comanche Nation Historic Preservation Office, and the Comanche National Museum and Cultural Center.

Did you Know? In 2002, the Comanche Nation became the first tribe in Oklahoma to open a tribal college, Comanche Nation College in Lawton. In addition, the Comanche Nation was the 94th tribe in the United States to receive federal recognition as a government sanctioned Historic Preservation Office, funded by the National Park Service.

Quanah Parker, (c.1852-1911). Comanche Chief. Widely recognized as a progressive statesmen and advocate for preserving the Comanche culture.

Prints and Photographs Collection, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.

Lena’pe

[

tr a ditiona l

Delaware Nation Language family: Eastern Algonquian

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Total tribal enrollment: 1,464

na m e

]

[ eng lish na m e ]

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Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 875

Government: The Delaware Nation government operates according to a tribal resolution adopted in 1958, with a constitution and bylaws approved in 1973. Leadership is provided via an executive committee comprised of a president and five other elected members.

Tribal headquarters: 2 miles N of Anadarko on U.S. Hwy 281, 405-247-2448. delawarenation.com

The Delaware people have a long and ancient history and are the descendants of the Lenape people originally located in New Jersey, New York, Delaware and Pennsylvania. They were among the first Indians to come into contact with Europeans. In 1682, William Penn purchased Pennsylvania from the Delaware. Pushed westward by colonists to the Midwest, they signed 12 treaties between 1795 and 1830, surrendering their land in Indiana, Ohio and Missouri. The Delaware moved again, with one group settling on a reservation in Kansas and the other being removed to southwest Missouri. In 1820, the Missouri group, known as Absentee Delaware, entered Spanish Texas and received a land grant from Spanish authorities. In 1839, land was set aside for them on the Brazos, but that was short-lived as well when Texas settlers demanded the Indians be removed to Indian Territory. In 1859, the Delawares settled near present-day Fort Cobb, Oklahoma, sharing a reserve with the Caddos and Wichitas, but after

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allotment, many pieces of the land passed out of their hands due to pressures from assimilation. Much of the Delaware’s history and culture have disappeared due to the successive removals endured by the tribe. Regardless, tribal members are proud of their heritage and are working to preserve as much of their culture as possible via a museum and archive at the Delaware headquarters. They also participate with the Caddo and Wichita in dances and play Indian football to open their spring ceremonial season.

Did you Know? The Delaware were one of the first nations to have contact with Europeans, and the first treaty between the U.S. and an Indian nation was signed with the Delaware at Fort Pitt, Penn., in 1778. The Delaware symbol is a turtle emblazoned with a yellow sun in the center of its back, and their clan is TAA KOX which means turtle in the Delaware language.

Lenape

[ tr a di tiona l na m e ]

Delaware Tribe of Indians

[ e ng l i s h na m e ]

Language family: Eastern Algonquian

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Total tribal enrollment: 11,164

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Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 4,125

Government: The Delaware Tribe is governed by a tribal council led by a chief and operates under a constitution approved in 1982, amended in 2008 and ratified in 2009.

Tribal headquarters: 5100 Tuxedo Blvd., Bartlesville, 918-336-5272. delawaretribe.org

Historically Delaware territory extended along the Delaware and Hudson river valleys in what are today the states of New Jersey, Delaware, eastern Pennsylvania and southeastern New York.

The name Delaware was given to the people who lived along the Delaware River, and the river in turn was named after Lord de la Warr, the governor of the Jamestown colony in what was to become Virginia.

In the Delaware language, the tribe calls themselves Lenape (len-NAH-pay), which roughly means “The Original People.” The tribe’s ancestors were among the first Indians to come in contact with the Europeans (Dutch, English and Swedish) in the early 1600s. The Delaware Tribe was respected by other tribes as peacemakers, and today the Delaware are still remembered as the “Grandfathers” by other tribes. Despite this peaceful reputation, they were also known for their fierceness and tenacity as warriors when fighting became necessary. Many of the early battles and subsequent treaties between Europeans and Native Americans were carried out by the Delaware with Dutch, and later, English settlers, who slowly encroached on Delaware lands. By the time of the American Revolution, most Delaware had been removed from their homelands and had established new settlements in what would

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later become Ohio and western Pennsylvania. The Delaware later signed the first Indian treaty with the newly formed United States government on September 17, 1778, and the last Delaware resistance to U.S. expansion ended in 1795. Throughout the 19th century, the main body of the Delaware were continually forced to give up their lands and move westward — first to lands in Ohio, then to Indiana, Missouri, Kansas and, finally, northeastern portions of what was then the Cherokee Nation, now eastern Oklahoma. One small band of Delawares left the larger group in the late 1700s and through different migrations are today located at Anadarko, Oklahoma. Another small group was later relocated to join the Stockbridge Munsee Band near Bowler, Wisconsin. Small contingents of Delawares also fled to Canada during a time of extreme persecution in the Ohio settlements and today occupy three reserves in Ontario (The Delaware Nation at Moraviantown, The Munsee-Delaware Nation, and the Six Nations Reserve). Today the Delaware Tribe maintains ties to their heritage through cultural activities and language preservation. Pahsaheman, a Lenape football game that differs greatly from the non-Indian version, is still played on Saturday morning of the Delaware Powwow during Memorial Day weekend.

Did you Know? Probably the most famous encounter of the Delaware Tribe with Europeans was the Dutch “purchase” of Manhattan (a Delaware word) from Delaware-speaking Indians in 1626.

Saawanwaki

[

tr a ditiona l

Eastern Shawnee Tribe Language family: Central Algonquian

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Total tribal enrollment: 3,429

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na m e

]

[ eng lish na m e ]

Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 1,198

Government: Tribal government is based on a constitution originally written in 1939 and revised in 1994. The governing body is made up of a business committee of six elected members, plus the chief.

Tribal headquarters: 12755 S. 705 Rd., Wyandotte, 918-666-2435. estoo-nsn.gov

The Eastern Shawnee Tribe is one of three federally recognized Shawnee Tribes. Originally a nomadic Eastern Woodland tribe centered in Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, western Maryland, Kentucky, Indiana, Georgia and Pennsylvania, the Eastern band known as the Mixed Band of Seneca/Shawnee was eventually removed from Ohio in 1832 and relocated to what was Indian Territory and today is Ottawa County, Oklahoma. In 1867, the Mixed Band split with the federal government. The Seneca were designated as Seneca Cayuga, and the Shawnee received the name “the Eastern Shawnee.” Tribal headquarters in far northeastern Oklahoma straddle the Oklahoma-Missouri border, and entry into the tribal complex is

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actually from Seneca, Mo. Tribal members take part in powwow and stomp dance culture. The Eastern Band of Shawnees, known as the Spring River People, lost their ceremonies but actively participate in Shawnee ceremonies with the other two Shawnee Tribes at White Oak or Little Axe ceremonial grounds.

Two summer powwows are held at the Eastern Shawnee Tribal powwow grounds.

Did you Know? One of the most famous and influential Eastern Shawnee war chiefs and diplomats was Bluejacket. In 1791, he led a group of Shawnee, Miami and Delaware in a defeat of U.S. forces commanded by General Arthur St. Clair in presentday Ohio. Known as “St. Clair’s Defeat,” it is considered the largest victory ever won by American Indians.

Tsoyaha Euchee (Yuchi) Tribe of Indians

[ tr a di tiona l na me ] [ e ng li s h na m e ]

Language family: Yuchi is a language isolate, unrelated to any other known language.

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Total tribal enrollment: Yuchi population

estimates are difficult to calculate because members are not enrolled separately within the Creek Nation. However, community leaders estimated an active Yuchi population of approximately 1,500 in 2001. Approximately 240 are formally enrolled to date.

Government: The Yuchis are not yet federally recognized and rely on ceremonial ground leadership for political and governmental guidance. The Yuchi Tribal Council is made up of the three ceremonial ground chiefs, another member of each ground, and three representatives selected at large.

Tribal headquarters: Sapulpa

The Yuchi (often also spelled Euchee) are an American Indian people of Oklahoma whose original homelands were in the present southeastern United States. At first contact with Europeans they resided in autonomous communities found in what is now eastern Tennessee, but during the colonial period they established settlements throughout the southeastern United States.

In the 1700s, the Yuchi became geographically and militarily associated with Creek-speaking towns settled in present Georgia and Alabama, and subsequently they were forced by the United States to move west to Indian

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Richard Ray Whitman [Euchee, Muscogee Creek] Genetic Memory

Territory along with their Creek neighbors. After relocation in the 1830s, the Yuchi established their present settlements in the northern and northwestern portions of the Creek Nation. The Yuchi are currently organized around ceremonial grounds known as Polecat, Duck Creek and Sand Creek.

Each Yuchi settlement is led by a traditional town chief known as the P’athl’ and continues to hold an annual series of ceremonies at its square-ground site. The Yuchi have strongly asserted their identity as a distinct people separate from the Creek or any other people. They have long sought to have this identity acknowledged by the United States government and by fellow Oklahomans. Yuchi culture is preserved in distinctive funeral rituals, foodways, storytelling, clothing, customs and in the use of the Yuchi language. Few fluent elder speakers of Yuchi language remain, but through ongoing language classes, several adults are developing Yuchi language skills, and a number of children are learning to use the language. The Yuchi celebrate a series of rituals throughout the year that include Indian football games in the spring followed by a series of stomp dances, summer’s Arbor Dance, the Green Corn ceremony, and finally the Soup Dance at the end of each ground’s regular season.

Did you Know? The name “Yuchi” has been translated by some historians to mean “situated yonder or over there” and it’s thought perhaps it was the response to the question “Who are you?” or “Where do you come from?” as it is not a Yuchi word. The Yuchi refer to themselves as “Tsoyaha” or “children of the sun.”

Ndé

[ tr a ditiona l na m e ]

Fort Sill Apache Tribe Language family: Southern Athapaskan

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Total tribal enrollment: 770

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[ eng lish na m e ]

Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: NA

Government: A constitution set in place in 1976 serves as the basis of tribal government with a chairman as tribal leader.

Tribal headquarters: 43187 U.S. Hwy. 281 Apache, 580-588-2298. fortsillapache-nsn.gov

Today’s Fort Sill Apache are actually the survivors and descendants of the Chiricahua Apache tribe, whose original territory covered much of what is now the American Southwest in eastern Arizona and western New Mexico along the United States border with Mexico. The American Indian tribe known today as the Fort Sill Apache was moved to Oklahoma in 1894 after continuing nearly a decade of imprisonment and exile at U.S. Army installations in Florida and Alabama. They were the last American Indian group to be relocated to Indian Territory. Upon their arrival at Fort Sill the Apache prisoners of war were told that the fort would become their permanent home, and the military reservation was enlarged for that purpose.

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Following the allotment of surrounding Indian lands, local non-Indian politicians, business leaders and U.S. Army officials agitated for the continued presence of the military near Lawton. By 1910 these individuals began the final orchestration to remove the prisoners of war from the military reservation.

The Chiricahua were pressured to leave Fort Sill as a condition for their freedom, but many held out for return to their homeland or allotment at Fort Sill. A compromise solution between the Indian Bureau and the War Department led to the settling of those Fort Sill Apache who declined joining the Mescalero Apache Reservation (in New Mexico), on unused (dead) allotments from the old Kiowa-Comanche-Apache Reservation lands near Fort Sill. On April 2, 1913, in an event recalled by the Fort Sill Apache as “The Parting,” 180 Apache prisoners of war were relocated from Fort Sill to Mescalero, N.M. The remaining prisoners of war, numbering about 81 individuals in about 20 families, were eventually released and resettled on small allotments scattered around Apache and Fletcher, Okla., by the end of 1914. Now known as the “Fort Sill Apaches,” the tribe was dumped into the impoverished rural economy of southwestern Oklahoma and struggled to survive alongside their Indian and Euro-American neighbors. The history of the Fort Sill Apache Tribe in the 19th and 20th centuries is marked by a high level of accommodation with the larger non-Apache as well as non-Indian cultural situation of southwestern Oklahoma.

This resulted in significant loss of cultural identity due to the loss of a viable land base, a native spoken language, and other aspects of Chiricahua Apache culture. The Oklahoma Fort Sill Apache continue to maintain family and kinship connections to their relatives and friends who moved to the Mescalero Apache Reservation. The Apache Fire Dancers and Ceremonial Dance weekend are among efforts to preserve traditional ceremonies.

Allan C. Houser [Fort Sill Apache] As Long as the Waters Flow

Did you Know? Allan C. Houser (19141994), world-renowned sculptor, is one of the most important American artists of the 20th century and was the first baby born to a Fort Sill Apache family after the end of captivity. Houser’s personal favorite sculpture, “As Long as the Waters Flow” can be seen on the south side of the Capitol in Oklahoma City.

Bah-Kho-Je

[ tr a ditiona l na m e ]

Iowa Tribe Language family: Chiwere Siouan

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[ eng lish na m e ]

Total tribal enrollment: 688

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Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 505

Government: Tribal government was established in 1936 with a tribal business committee of five members, a constitution, bylaws and a charter and chairperson as a leader.

Tribal headquarters: 335588 E. 750 Rd., 405-547-2402. bankhoje.com

The native lands of the Iowas once encompassed an area of the Missouri and Mississippi River Valleys in what is presently Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska. However, the Iowa lived for the majority of their recorded history in what is now the state of Iowa. Originally a woodland culture due to their migration to the south and west, the Iowa also adopted elements of the Plains culture, resulting in a mixture of the two. The Iowa Tribe relocated many times during its history and for many years maintained a village near Council Bluffs, Iowa, abandoning it because of aggression by the Sioux and a desire to locate closer to French traders. Thereafter the Iowa lived primarily near the Des Moines River on the Chariton/Grand River Basin. With encroachment of Euro-Americans into western lands, the Iowa Tribe ceded their lands in 1824 and were given two years in which to vacate. Additional lands were ceded in 1836 and 1838, and the tribe was removed to an area near the Kansas-Nebraska border.

This proud tribe who had once roamed over a six-state area, now found themselves confined to a strip of land only 10 miles wide and 20 miles long. Subsequent treaties would reduce their lands even further.

Dissatisfaction with their conditions and treatment resulted in a number of Iowa tribal members leaving the Kansas-Nebraska reserve in 1878 and moving to Indian Territory in Oklahoma. An 1883 executive order created an Iowa reservation in Indian Territory, but Iowas who wished to remain on the land near the Kansas-Nebraska border were allowed to do so. Today, the two are recognized as separate entities.

The Northern Iowa are headquartered in White Cloud, Kansas, while the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma offices in Perkins, Oklahoma. The Iowas hold an annual powwow in the summer and adhere to other selected practices of their Indian culture such as the Gourd Dance.

Did you Know? Phoebe O’Dell was the first woman elected as chairman of the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma. She held office from 2003-2005. This position has been held by women since that time. And, in January 2006 the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma opened an eagle sanctuary, Bah Kho Je Xla Chi (Grey Snow Eagle House), to protect eagles as they are sacred to the tribe. The Iowa people believe the eagle is the only creature that has seen the face of the Creator and has the ability to carry prayers to Him. The Grey Snow Eagle House is the only tribal aviary permitted to rehabilitate eagles for release back into the wild. The Grey Snow Eagle House also provides sanctuary for 19 non-releasable eagles. Visitors to the facility are able to see the bald and golden eagles housed at the sanctuary.

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Kanza

[ tr a di tiona l na me ]

Kaw Nation

[ e ng li s h na m e ]

Language family: Dhegiha Siouan

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Total tribal enrollment: 3,510

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Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 1,596

Government: The Kaw adopted a constitution in 1990 and are governed via a seven-member tribal executive council that includes a chairperson.

Tribal headquarters: 698 Grandview Dr., Kaw City, 580-269-2552. kawnation.com

Kaw Nation oral history suggests original homelands around the Great Lakes, but by the mid-1800s the Kanza were the predominant tribe in what was to become the state of Kansas, Jim Pepper named after the Kanza Nation. Their territory (1941-1992) extended over most of present-day northern and Influential jazz eastern Kansas with hunting grounds extending saxophonist, singer, and composer. into the West. Euro-American intruders coveted With both Kaw and the tribe’s desirable lands along the Missouri Creek ancestry, and Kansas Rivers, and a succession of treaties Jim’s music was deeply influenced undermined the Kaw Tribe and their culture. The

by Oklahoma Indian results were devastating and over time the tribe’s culture. original 20-million-acre domain was reduced The Pepper Family to only 80,000 of the poorest acres, sub-divided into 40-acre plots for each family at present-day Council Grove, Kansas. Promised annuities were seldom delivered or were obligated to unscrupulous traders, while disease decimated the tribal population. Finally in 1872 over the strong protests of Chief Allegawaho and his people, a federal act moved the Kanza to a 100,137-acre site in northern Kay County, Oklahoma. From a population of several thousand, the Kaw declined through disease and starvation to 1,500 by 1800 and to 194 by 1887. Yet even in Indian Territory, their land claim was not safe. The Kaw Allotment Act of 1902 legally obliterated the tribe until federal reorganization in 1959. The Kaw Nation survived adversity and today is growing stronger as a federally recognized, self-governing tribe recovering its cultural heritage and working to preserve and revive its language. The site of the last Kaw village in Kansas, Little John Creek Reserve, located 31/2 miles south of Council Grove, Kansas, has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is being restored as Allegawaho Memorial Heritage Park to tell the story of the Kanza. The tribe built the Kanza Museum to preserve their culture and heritage and host an annual Oklahoma Powwow at Washunga Bay Powwow grounds.

Did you Know? The last full-blood Kanza Indian, William Mehojah, served as tribal chairman from 1987 to 1990, during which time the tribe wrote a new constitution to engage in economic development activity. Mehojah died in 2000.

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Kialegee

[ tr a ditiona l na m e ]

Kialegee Tribal Town Language family: Muskoghean

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Total tribal enrollment: 439

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[ eng lish na m e ]

Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 429

Government: Kialegee Tribal Town government consists of a council as the legislature and a king or chief as the executive officer.

Tribal headquarters: 100 Kialegee Dr., Wetumka, 405-752-3262.

Culturally Kialegee Tribal Town is part of the Muscogee people but politically they constitute separate legal entities. Muscogee people were mound-builders and sun-worshipers and the Kialegee shared these traits, and were one of about 50 towns of the Muscogee (Creek) Confederacy, with homelands in what are now the states of Alabama and Georgia. After a series of treaties with the U.S. and increasing pressure to leave their homelands, 166 Kialegee families trekked to Indian Territory in the 1830s. After removal members of Kialegee Town lived south of present day Henryetta, but with the allotment of individual lands after 1899, many citizens could be found farther west near Wetumka, where the present administration building and tribal court building are located. Assimilation and allotment took its toll on the tribal town’s culture and over the years led to a transfer of land ownership from Indians to whites. When offered separate federal recognition in 1936, the Kialegee accepted along with two of the other Creek towns, Thlopthlocco and Alabama-Quassarte. Today members of the Kialegee Town celebrate an annual Kialegge Nettv Day in recognition of their history and heritage and the elders of the town strive to instill the language, culture and traditions in younger generations.

Did you Know? Membership in Kialegee Tribal Town is matrilineal, meaning people become members automatically if their mother is a member. Children do not become members automatically through their fathers.

Ki Ka Pua

[ tr a ditiona l na m e ]

Kickapoo Tribe of Indians Language family: Central Algonquian

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Total tribal enrollment: 2,686

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Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 1,915

Government: The Kickapoo are organized under a 1940 federal charter and the basis of their government is a 1937 constitution amended in 1977. An elected chair and five-member business committee govern the tribe.

Tribal headquarters: 401 N. Hwy. 102, McLoud, 405-964-4227. kickapootribeofoklahoma.com

Originally Kickapoo homelands were in the Great Lakes region but a slow and general migration of the population out of the region came sometime after 1400. The tribe split into different bands

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sometime after the mid-1700s, and each band signed a separate cessation of Illinois lands in a treaty with the U.S. in 1819, although not all adhered and eventually some were removed forcibly. Another treaty in 1832 moved the Kickapoo to Kansas, putting them on a Baby Lone, Kickapoo man. 1917.

12-square-mile reservation where railroad promoters Library on Congress after the Civil War secretly used political connections to swindle the Kickapoo out of their lands. In disgust, some Kickapoo went to Mexico, where some had lived since 1849, others accepted allotments and lost them and still others stayed on their diminished reservation lands. Beginning in 1873 about half the tribe moved to a 100,000-acre reservation in Indian Territory. In 1891 an attorney committed outright fraud, producing an allotment document that sold “surplus” tribal lands which led to tribal division and more Kickapoo migrating to Mexico.

Only gradually did some begin to return in the 1920s. In 1997 representatives from three Kickapoo groups – Kansas, Oklahoma and Mexico – met in Kansas for a summit, the first time the three were together since their division in the 1800s. The Kickapoo aggressively preserve their culture with many practicing traditional rituals and ways of life. Today, many members of the tribe speak both English and Kickapoo.

Did you Know? The Kickapoo were the first Indians to greet the Lewis and Clark expedition as it departed St. Louis in 1804.

Caiugu ( Principal People )

[ tr a di tiona l na m e ]

Kiowa Tribe

[ eng li s h na m e ]

Language family: Tanoan

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Total tribal enrollment: 12,000

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Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 8,860

Government: The Kiowa Tribe is governed by an elected eight-member committee and chair and the provisions of a 1970 constitution. Tribal headquarters: 100 Kiowa Way, Hwy. 9, Carnegie, 580-654-2300. kiowatribe.net

Kiowa oral tradition says their origins were in the far north, in the Yellowstone area or possibly even Canada. They were classic, nomadic Plains Indians, following the buffalo, and as excellent horsemen their livelihood depended on hunting buffalo. Gradually the tribe migrated east and south

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Ah-Keah-Boat (Two Hatchet), Kiowa warrior.

1898.

through the Black Hills and later to Colorado and Nebraska. In 1790 the Kiowa made a peace treaty with the Comanche with whom they remained allies in the coming years. The Kiowa first encountered Euro-American encroachment in 1820 and signed their first treaty with the U.S. at Fort Gibson in 1837. As the U.S. sought to connect the two coasts with railroads, treaties increasingly confined the Kiowa farther south to Kansas and eventually to Oklahoma in 1868, where they were put on lands jointly with the Comanche and Apache. Tribal members resisted confinement on their assigned reservation, and it took strong military action to enforce peace. The U.S. established Fort Sill, making it one of the largest military posts in the nation, and after an attack on a wagon train in 1881, the U.S. sent Kiowa leaders Satank, Satanta and Big Tree to prison. Eventually the U.S. military prevailed and forced the Indians into reservation life. In 1892 the Jerome Commission dictated the terms of allotment to the Kiowa, opening the Kiowa’s remaining two million acres of land to settlement. Commission members forged Indian signatures on the final agreement. NonIndian invaders flooded the Kiowa lands, and the boarding school and other assimilation policies continued to wreak havoc on their culture. Beginning in the 1930s following the Indian New Deal, the Kiowa began recovering, creating a tribal government in 1940. Despite the radical and disruptive changes in their past, the Kiowa keep their culture and heritage alive with a variety of clubs, fairs and festivals, and the resurgence of the Kiowa Black Leggings Warrior Society and Kiowa Gourd Clan further the preservation and restoration.

Did you Know? The Kiowa Five – Spencer Asah, Monroe Tsatoke, Stephen Mopope, Jack Hokeah and James Auchiah – and a lone woman, Lois Smoky, became internationally renowned artists in the 1920s under the guidance of Oscar B. Jacobson at the University of Oklahoma. You can see many of their works today at The Jacobson House Native Art Center in Norman.

Satank (c.1800-1871). Kiowa war chief and medicine man.

Member of the Koitsenko warrior society.

W.S. Soule. National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

Ledger art

Myaamia

[ tr a di tiona l na me ]

Miami Nation

[ e ng li s h na m e ]

Language family: Central Algonquian

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Total tribal enrollment: 5,272

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Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 1,032

Government: Constitutional, with three branches: legislative (General Council), executive (Business Committee) and judicial (Tribal Court).

Tribal headquarters: 202 S. Eight Tribes Trl., Miami, 918-542-1445. miamination.com

The Miami first emerged as a distinct and different people at saakiiweeyonki (near South Bend, Indiana). Their traditional homelands include what are today the states of Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, lower Michigan and lower Wisconsin. This was a shared landscape with many other indigenous peoples including, but not limited to, Wyandot, Delaware, Shawnee, Potawatomi, Ojibwa and Kickapoo peoples. In the 1600s, the Miami, who numbered in the tens of thousands, began having frequent contact with Europeans. Over the next two centuries, Euro-American encroachment, war and disease took a high toll on the Miami.

Eventually a series of treaties with the United States required the Miami to cede their traditional homelands. In 1840 the tribe signed a treaty calling for their removal beyond the Mississippi.

In 1846, after many attempts to avoid the devastating move, the Miami, by then numbering in the hundreds, were herded at gunpoint into canal boats to begin the long journey to a reservation in the Unorganized Territory near what later became La Cygne, Kansas. The Miami remained in Myaamionki Katrina Mitten [Miami] Waapankiaakamionki (Miami lands by the La Cygne River) until Indigenous (detail) 1873, when the tribe was once again forcibly relocated. This relocation forced the tribe into Indian Territory, which 34 years later became the state of Oklahoma. By the time the tribe reached Indian Territory, there were fewer than 100 adults remaining. As with many tribes, allotment policy dealt yet another blow to the Miami and eventually they were landless. Today, however, the Miami are growing their land base and revitalizing their heritage, language and cultural identity. The Miami run their own elders food program, library, historical archive, cultural and natural resources offices, environmental programs, housing program, social services programs and childcare program. Once a year the tribe hosts its National Gathering, which includes Family Day, the annual Miami Nation Powwow and the Annual Meeting of the General Council.

Did you Know? The word “Miami,” used all over Oklahoma, Kansas, and the Midwest, comes from “Myaamia,” which means the “downstream people.”

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Maklaks

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tr a ditiona l

Modoc Tribe Language family: Penutian

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na m e

]

[ eng lish na m e ]

Total tribal enrollment: 297

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Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 101

Government: The Modocs are governed by four council members and a chief.

Tribal headquarters: 22 N. Eight Tribes Trl., Miami, 918-542-1190. modoctribe.net

The ancestral home of the Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma consisted of some 5,000 square miles along what is now the California-Oregon border. While their tribal territory encompassed only a small area, it was one of panoramic eco-diversity with the perennially snow-capped peaks of the majestic Cascade Mountains in the distance. The arrival of fur traders, prospectors and finally farmers and settlers created enormous pressure on the tribe and they signed a reservation treaty in 1864. Life on the reservation was less than ideal and in 1865, Captain Jack (Kientpoos or Kintpuash) led his band of Modoc off the reservation and returned to the Lost River area of Northern California, refusing to return to the reservation, and requesting a separate Modoc reservation on Lost River. Angered by Captain Jack’s refusal, the U.S. Army was determined to capture Jack and his followers and return them to the Klamath reservation in Oregon. The clash between the two fueled the explosive Modoc War. The Modoc retreated to the nearby Lava Beds and with no more than 57 braves for almost six months, Captain Jack and his braves held off an army that came to number more than 1,000 men. After the war ended in 1873, Captain Jack and five of his warriors became the Captain Jack (c.1837-1873). only Indians in American history to be tried by a military commission for war Chief of the Modoc and crimes, and Captain Jack was executed. In October 1873, 155 Modoc – 42 leader during the Modoc War. men, 59 women and 54 children – were loaded into four boxcars that were designed to transport cattle. These boxcars were coupled between two railroad cars filled with soldiers.

Men and boys who were capable of bearing arms were shackled. After a 2,000-mile winter trip, they arrived at the Quapaw Agency in the northeastern corner of Oklahoma. The first years following removal to Indian Territory were difficult ones for the Modoc, with a great deal of sickness, death and many hardships due to the corruption of the Indian agent assigned to the tribe. By the time allotment arrived in 1891 there were only 68 Modoc left to receive allotments, with many of those born after removal. In spite of the odds, the Modoc persevered, survived and were granted federal recognition in 1978. Today the tribe is preserving and restoring its heritage and culture in tribal archives and a library.

Did you Know? The Modoc War of 1872-1873 cost the U.S. government, at its lowest estimate, half a million dollars. In comparison, the reservation requested by the Modoc on Lost River, which the U.S. government refused to grant them, would have cost at most $10,000.

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Mvskoke

[ tr a di tiona l na m e ]

Muscogee (Creek) Nation

[ e ng l i s h na m e ]

Language family: Mvskoke

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Total tribal enrollment: 85,003

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Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 63,515

Government: Operates under a tribal constitution adopted in 1979 and three separate branches of government – executive (chief & second chief), legislative (National Council), judicial (tribal court system).

Tribal headquarters: U.S. Hwy. 75 & S. 56 Loop, Okmulgee, 918-732-7600. muscogeenation-nsn.com

The Muscogee (Creek) people are descendants of a remarkable culture that before 1500 spanned much of what is now the Southeast U.S. Early ancestors of the Muscogee constructed magnificent earthen pyramids along the rivers and later built expansive towns within these same broad river valleys, and this union of several tribes evolved into a confederacy. The Muscogee were once one of the most sophisticated political organizations north of Mexico. Member tribes were called tribal towns, and each maintained political autonomy and distinct land holdings. The coming of Europeans dramatically changed the Muscogee Confederacy. In the early 19th century, U.S. Indian policy focused on the removal of the Muscogee and the other Southeastern tribes to areas west of the Mississippi River. In the removal treaty of 1832, Muscogee leadership exchanged the last of cherished Muscogee ancestral homelands for new lands in Indian Territory, in what is now Oklahoma. While a portion of Muscogee (Creeks) settled in the new homeland after the treaty of Washington in 1827, for the majority of Muscogee people the process of severing ties to a land they felt so much a part of proved impossible, and in 1836 and 1837, the U.S. Army forced the removal of more than 20,000 Muscogee (Creeks) to Indian Territory. Â In the new nation, tribal towns were reestablished and the nation as a whole began to experience a new prosperity until the American Civil War. While the majority of Muscogee people desired neutrality, it proved impossible and eventually Muscogee citizens fought on both Union and Confederate sides. In the late 1800s, the Dawes Commission began negotiating with the Muscogee Nation for the allotment of the national domain. In 1898, the U.S. Congress passed the Curtis Act dismantling the national governments of the Five Civilized Tribes, and allotment of Muscogee lands became inevitable. In the 197os, the Muscogee people began pursuing their sovereign rights to maintain a national court system and levy taxes. Today

Richard Ray Whitman [Euchee, Muscogee Creek] Crazy Snake Patriots

the Muscogee (Creek) people are actively engaged in the process of accepting and asserting the rights and responsibilities of a sovereign nation as well as knowing and preserving their distinct cultural heritage.

Did you Know? In 1890, noted statesman Chitto Harjo helped lead organized opposition to the dissolution of the Muscogee national government and allotment of collectively held Muscogee lands. In his efforts, he epitomized the view of all Muscogee people that they possessed an inherent right to govern themselves.

Wah-Za-Zhi

[ tr a ditiona l na m e ]

Osage Nation Language family: Dhegiha Siouan

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[ eng lish na m e ]

Total tribal enrollment: 20,943

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Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 5,682

Government: The Osage Nation operates under a constitutional government approved in 2006 with three branches, executive (principal chief), legislative (congress), and judicial.

Tribal headquarters: 627 Grandview Ave., Pawhuska, 918-287-5555. osagetribe.org

The culture of the Osage Nation reaches back far into the Mississippian culture of the midcontinent region, centered at Cahokia, Illinois. A written record of the Osage began in 1673. At that time, traders and explorers began to document their encounters with tribes of the Midwest in what was later to become the United States. The Osage were considered a Siouan people, semi-nomadic in nature and recorded mainly throughout the Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas and Arkansas area. They were a nation of people with a familial culture of the Woodland tribes.

All nations east of the Mississippi traveled the Trail of Tears, and the Osage were no different. They were removed and settled in Kansas, but by the time they negotiated the treaty of 1865 to purchase land in Oklahoma, the Osage population had decreased by 95 percent.

As a result, only 3,000 Osage People walked across the Kansas border into their new land. The Osage of today uphold and sustain their culture of long-standing traditions by embracing the lessons and culture of their Anita Fields [osage] — Plate and Redmound ancestors, participating in dances, feasting and

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naming ceremonies. Each June on three consecutive weekends, the Osage hold E-lon-shka dances in each of three districts — Hominy, Gray Horse and Pawhuska — and the Osage are working to preserve their language and heritage. The Osage Nation also maintains the Osage Tribal Museum, Library & Archives, with exhibits and artifacts relating to Osage culture from the 1600s to the present, as well as archives, photo collections and a gift shop.

Did you Know?

The Osage Nation asserts that it occupies the only federally recognized reservation in the state of Oklahoma.

Jiwere Nutache

[ tr a di tiona l na me ]

Otoe-Missouria Tribe

[ e ng li s h na m e ]

Language family: Siouan

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Total tribal enrollment: 3,241

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Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 1,666

Government: The Otoe-Missouria Tribe operates under a constitution and by-laws initiated in 1984.

Tribal headquarters: 8151 U.S. Hwy 177, Red Rock, 405-723-4466 or 877-692-6863. omtribe.org

The story of the confederated tribes of Otoe and Missouria, once two separate peoples, began centuries ago when a mass of people located near the Great Lakes withdrew from their parent stock and departed on a quest of their own. By the turn of the 18th century, the Otoe and Missouria had left evidence of their separate and independent villages along the way, as affirmation of their pilgrimage. The Otoe resided near the Platte River in Nebraska; the Missouria were on the Grand River in what is now the state of Hilda Moore Harris, Laura Moore, Madge Pettit Dent and Rhoda Dent Compton.

Missouri. In 1804, Lewis and Clark visited the Otoe, Descendants of the Dent Family paving the way for the flood of white Europeans seeking Indian lands. With them came a peculiar and lasting relationship between the Otoe-Missouria and the United States government. A treaty period began with the treaty of 1817, negotiated to promote peace and friendship between the tribe and its neighbors. In the interest of peace and survival, the Otoes and Missourias reunited about this time as the Missouria population was in decline due to ongoing warfare with neighboring tribes. Numbering a little more than 100 members, the majority of the remaining Missouria were united with the Otoe. Since that union, the Otoe-Missouria Tribe has been

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Hoke Dent (BlueHair) and Miriam Dent Descendants of the Dent Family

recognized by other tribes and by the federal government as one people. Under the terms of an 1881 act, northern Otoe-Missouria were removed to a 129,000-acre reservation north of what is today Stillwater, Oklahoma, near Red Rock Creek. The reservation officially ended in 1904 with the implementation of the Dawes Act wherein the OtoeMissouria were individually allotted small parcels of land rather than owning a large swath of land communally. Today tribal members perpetuate tribal traditions with feasts, dances and an annual encampment held the third weekend in July. The Otoe-Missouria Tribe maintains a tribal library, and the tribe also owns several casinos in the towns of Newkirk, Perry and Red Rock.

Did you Know? The Ot0e-Missourias fought in court to receive just settlement of their land claims and in the mid-1940s became the first tribe west of the Mississippi River to win their claims. After years of wrangling, in 1964-67 the Indian Claims Commission awarded a judgment of $1.2 million to the Otoe-Missouria.

Adawe

[ tr a ditiona l na m e ]

Ottawa Tribe Language family: Algonquian

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[ eng lish na m e ]

Total tribal enrollment: 2,943

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Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 792

Government: The Ottawa Tribe operates under a 1979 constitution with a business committee composed of five members, including a chief in the leadership role.

Tribal headquarters: 13 St. Hwy. 69A, Miami, 918-540-1536. ottawatribe.org

The original homelands of the Ottawa contain one of the oldest prehistory sites on the North American continent – the Shaguiandah site on Manitoulin Island, Ontario – estimated to be 30,000 years old. The Ottawa ranged over parts of Ontario and the Great Lakes region, and as prolific traders traveled over vast distances which led to early contact with Europeans. They met Samuel de Champlain in 1615 near the French River in Canada. The arrival of French traders transformed the tribe, engaging them more deeply in European-Indian politics, and the tribe became integral to fur trade. Traditionally the Ottawa lived in wigwams or wikis, wore buckskin clothing, and cultivated corn, beans and pumpkins.

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One of the greatest Indian chiefs and skilled leaders during this time was Chief Pontiac, a member of the Otter Clan of the Ottawa, who became the head of a loose confederacy consisting of the Ottawa, Ojibwa and Potawatomi Tribes, formed in response to offensive English policies in their territories. The ensuing conflict became known as Pontiac’s Rebellion. After the passage of President Jackson’s Indian Removal Act of 1830, and due to increasing encroachment by Euro-Americans, the tribe signed over their lands in Ohio, Michigan and Illinois. They were very hesitant to leave their lands, and it wasn’t until April 1837 that the Ottawa of Blanchard’s Fork, Roche de Boeuf and Oquanoxies’s Village agreed to migrate to Kansas where they were allotted 74,000 acres of land. Within five years of the move, nearly half of the Ottawa had died. Realizing their children would need to be educated to survive, in 1862 the tribe gave the Baptists acreage for a school, as well as another 20,000 acres to be sold to raise money to build a university for the education of whites and Indians, named after the Ottawa, and the tribe negotiated an arrangement with the university for Ottawa children to be educated free of charge.

Under increasing pressure to cede remaining lands, in 1867 the Ottawa sold their land in Kansas and moved to northeastern Indian Territory. By this time there were only about 200 Ottawa. In 1956 the U.S. government decided the tribal government served no purpose and terminated its existence.

This was a dark period in the tribe’s history, but they didn’t give up, and in May 1978, Ottawa Tribal governance was restored, followed by establishment as a federally recognized government in 1979.

Did you Know? A major focus of Ottawa cultural activities is the annual Ottawa Powwow held on Labor Day weekend. Among the foods the Ottawa enjoy at their annual powwow is traditional succotash, made from beans and dried corn.

Chaticks-Si-Chaticks

[ tr a di tiona l na m e ]

Pawnee Nation

[ e ng l i s h na m e ]

Language family: Caddoan

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Total tribal enrollment: 3,518

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Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 1,725

Government: The Pawnee are governed by the Pawnee Business Council, the tribal constitution and by-laws and the Corporate Charter.

Tribal headquarters: 881 Little Dee Rd., Pawnee, 918-762-3621. pawneenation.org

The Pawnee lived for centuries on the Central Plains, centered in what is now northern and central Nebraska. Historically one of the largest and most prominent Plains tribes, they numbered 10,ooo or more during early contact with Europeans. Pawnee life was characterized by alternating patterns of cultivation and High Plains bison hunting. They lived in permanent villages of

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Bunky Echo-Hawk [Pawnee, Yakama] Home Movies

dome-shaped earthlodges that housed extended families.

During the 1800s, the Pawnee people were subjected to an incessant interplay of destructive forces that radically changed their lives, largely the result of an expansionist U.S. encroachment by white immigrants. Through a series of treaties with the United States, the Pawnee Nation exchanged most of Nebraska and northern Kansas for a reservation, a school for their children, agricultural assistance and a perpetual monetary annuity. A series of epidemics and constant attacks by the Sioux and Cheyenne took a steady toll on the Pawnee population. Finally in 1875, the tribe moved to Indian Territory where the Pawnee settled on former Cherokee land between the forks of the Arkansas and Cimarron rivers, south of the Osage Reservation. In 1878 as a result of the Allotment Act, individual families were encouraged to move to individual farms and agency officials relentlessly attacked many Pawnee social customs. The Pawnee people experienced poor health, coupled with inadequate sanitation and health care. As a result, the population reached a record low of 629 individuals in 1901 and did not begin to recover until the 1930s. Chiefs, or Resaru, continued to act for the tribe in dealing with U.S. government officials, and after reorganization in 1937 Pawnee leaders began a long effort to regain Pawnee lands. Ownership was returned to the tribe in 1968, and in 1980, the current tribal roundhouse — modeled on the traditional Pawnee earthlodge — was built to serve as a social center for dances and other events. Today the Pawnee Nation is making strides in teaching their language to younger generations, preserving tribal knowledge with a library, and celebrating history and heritage with dances, ceremonies and the Pawnee Homecoming Powwow, an annual, four-day event held in early July.

Did you Know? Pawnee dancers’ regalia are covered with images such as star motifs, celestial designs and bird imagery symbolizing Pawnee beliefs about the origin and nature of the universe, and images of lightning bolts, stars and crosses with circles recall night skies and creation stories.

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Kaskaskia | Peoria Piankeshaw | Wea

[ tr a di tiona l na me s ]

Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma

[ e ng li s h na m e ]

Language family: Algonquian

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Total tribal enrollment: 3,399

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Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 760

Government: The Peoria Tribe of Indians adopted a constitution in 1939 and a federal charter in 1940. A new constitution was ratified in 1981 and revised and approved in 1997. Leadership is comprised of an elected, sevenmember business committee led by a chief.

Tribal headquarters: 118 S. Eight Tribes Trl., Miami, 918-540-2535. peoriatribe.com

The Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma is a confederation of Kaskaskia, Peoria, Piankeshaw and Wea Indians united into a single tribe in 1854. The tribes which constitute The Confederated Peorias, as they then were called, originated in the lands bordering the Great Lakes and drained by the mighty Mississippi. They are Illinois or Illini Indians, descendants of those who created the great mound civilizations in the central United States 2,000 to 3,000 years ago. Forced from their ancestral lands in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Missouri, the Peorias were relocated first in Missouri, then to Kansas, and finally to Indian Territory. While in Kansas, increasing encroachment from Euro-Americans in the 1840s and 1850s brought about cooperation among the Peoria, Kaskaskia, Piankeshaw and Wea Tribes to protect their holdings. With the Treaty of May 30, 1854, the United States recognized their cooperation and consented to their formal union as the Confederated Peoria. In addition to this recognition, the treaty also provided for the disposition of constituent tribal lands set aside by the treaties of the 1830s. Ten sections were to be held in common by the new Confederation with each tribal member to receive an allotment of 160 acres and the remaining or “surplus” land to be sold to settlers with proceeds to be used by the tribes. The Civil War caused considerable turmoil among all the people of Kansas, especially the Indians. After the war, most members of the Confederation agreed to remove to Indian Territory under the provisions of the so-called Omnibus Treaty of February 23, 1867. Some tribal members elected at this time to remain in Kansas, separate from the Confederated Tribes, and become U.S. citizens. The lands of the Confederation members in the Indian Territory were subject to the provisions of the General Allotment Act of 1887. The allotment of all the tribal land was made by 1893 and by 1915, the tribe had no tribal lands or any lands in restricted status.

Although the U.S. government’s “Termination Policy” terminated supervision of the Peoria Tribe and its property in 1956, federal recognition was restored to the Peoria Tribe in 1978. Peorias today are maintaining old traditions within a modern context, participating in powwows with neighboring tribes, hosting stomp dances, and holding their own powwow celebration each June.

Did you Know? The Peoria Ridge Golf Course located in Miami is owned by the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma and is an 18-hole championship course featuring five sets of tee boxes to accommodate any skill level. Rolling hills and large bodies of water offer beautiful scenic vistas and a challenging round of golf.

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Ponka

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tr a ditiona l

Ponca Nation Language family: Dhegiha Siouan

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na m e

]

[ eng lish na m e ]

Total tribal enrollment: 3,548

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Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 2,949

Government: The Ponca Nation approved a constitution in 1950 which provides for several business committee members.

Tribal headquarters: 20 White Eagle Dr., Ponca City, 580-762-8104, ponca.com

Traditionally the Ponca share common social and cultural characteristics with the Omaha, Osage, Kaw and Quapaw peoples. They once lived in the area of northern Kentucky and southern Indiana along the Ohio River, then migrated west into what is today known as Nebraska. The Ponca first encountered Europeans in 1789 when they lived in villages along Ponca Creek near the Niobrara River in northeastern Nebraska. Despite several treaties with the U.S., in 1868 due to an “administrative blunder” by federal agents, the entire Ponca Reservation was given to the Sioux. When the error was discovered, the U.S. government chose to remove the less powerful Poncas south to Indian Territory rather than admit the mistake. The tribe protested for nearly a decade, but under military escort, the Ponca’s forced removal to Indian Territory began in the spring of 1877. Their trek was beset by great hardship and upon their arrival to northeastern Oklahoma, they found no shelter and little food. After the first two years almost one-third of the tribe had perished and many others were ill and disabled. It was at this time one of the most famous Ponca sagas began. When his eldest son died in 1878, the Ponca Chief Standing Bear and 65 followers began a journey back to Nebraska to bury his son in traditional Ponca territory.

Standing Bear was arrested in Nebraska for leaving the reservation without permission. The ensuing trial in federal court resulted in the landmark decision which declared Indians to be considered “persons” with individual rights under the law. Allotment and the Land Rush of 1889 dramatically undermined tribal lifestyle, yet in spite of the allotments, the Ponca continued to gather together as a tribe for the winter months and take part in traditional tribal life. Late in the 19th century non-Indian homesteaders began moving into areas surrounding the Ponca Reservation. In 1899 Ponca City was incorporated north of the Reservation, and then a large percentage of the Ponca land was leased to the Miller Brothers and became the basis for the famous 101 Ranch. As original allottees died, the Miller Brothers purchased their allotments as they became available for sale. In 1911 oilman E.W. Marland struck oil on land leased from a Ponca tribal member named Willie Cries. It proved to be a major strike ushering in an era of unprecedented oil production in central Oklahoma. By the early 1920s local oil refineries began to dump oil waste into the Arkansas Brent Greenwood [Ponca, Chickasaw] Sings His Song (detail)

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River, and Ponca City used the river for disposal of raw sewage. Quickly the river water became unfit to drink, life in the river died off and the animals which had lived adjacent to the river all but disappeared, making already trying circumstances for the Ponca even more difficult. Boarding schools and missions further undermined tribal culture. Despite these difficulties, over the years the Ponca persevered and today the Ponca’s resolve and sense of community sustain them as both a vibrant and vital part of Indian Country and the nation.

Did you Know? Standing Bear Park, Museum & Education Center features artifacts, artwork and educational material, along with the park’s focal point, a magnificent 22-foot bronze sculpture of Chief Standing Bear. You’ll also find audio centers honoring the six American Indian tribes around Ponca City and two miles of walking trails surrounded by native grasses and graceful trees.

Okaxpa

[ tr a di tiona l na me s ]

Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma

[ e ng li s h na m e ]

Language family: Dhegiha Siouan

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Total tribal enrollment: 5,100

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Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 1,651

Government: The Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma has no constitution. An elected seven-member business committee, which includes a chair, operates under the authority of a Governing Resolution adopted in August 1956.

Tribal headquarters: 5681 S. 630 Rd., Quapaw, 918-542-1853. quapawtribe.com

The name “Quapaw” is a derivative of the tribal term Ugakhpa, meaning “downstream people.” It is believed the Quapaw were part of a larger group known as the Dhegiha Sioux that split into the tribes known today as the Quapaw, Osage, Ponca, Kanza and Omaha. Originally they all resided in the Ohio River Valley and then separated and migrated to different areas, with the Quapaw following the Ohio River downstream to the Mississippi River eventually reaching what is now Arkansas. In the mid 1600s the French explorers Marquette and Joliet were traveling down the Mississippi using Illini Indians as their guides. The guides referred to the Quapaw tribe as “Akansea,” which later became the word Arkansas. The downstream people settled where the Arkansas River met the Mississippi, organizing into four villages, and this is where the Quapaw stayed until they were pushed out by Euro-Americans several hundred years later. Like many other American Indian tribes, the Quapaw experienced a severe population decline due to European diseases. In the late 1600s, it is estimated there were more than 5,000 Quapaw, but over a period of 80 years their population dropped to 1,600. The tribe allied itself with

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the French in exchange for weapons. The Quapaw were faithful to their French allies in the tumultuous century that followed when major European powers vied for control of the continent. In 1803, Napoleon sold the Louisiana Territory to the U.S. In ensuing years, like other tribes, the Quapaw were coerced into signing multiple treaties with the U.S. government only to see the U.S. continue demanding more Quapaw land. In 1833, the Quapaw signed a treaty that established a reservation in Indian Territory, in what would become the far northeastern corner of Oklahoma. Due to astute work by Quapaw Tribal Secretary Abner W. Abrams, the tribe managed allotment in such a way that no Quapaw lands were opened to white settlers. The discovery of lead and zinc on Quapaw lands led to a period of upheaval and eventual pollution, resulting in the area receiving Superfund designation in 1983. Today, the Quapaw celebrate and preserve their heritage with traditional games, ceremonies and dances. The Quapaw also work to preserve their history and heritage with the Quapaw Tribal Museum and the Quapaw Tribal Library and through work to preserve historical important sites in their homeland of Arkansas.

Did you Know? The Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma holds an annual powwow each Fourth of July. It’s the oldest continually held powwow in Oklahoma and attracts the participation of many people from far and wide.

Thakiwaki & Meskwaki

[ tr a ditiona l na m e ]

Sac & Fox Nation Language family: Algonquian

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Total tribal enrollment: 4,069

[ eng lish na m e ]

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Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 2,730

Government: A 1937 constitution replaced by a new document in 1987 forms the basis of the Sac & Fox Nation’s government.

Government leaders consist of an elected five-member business committee that includes a principal chief and other members.

Tribal headquarters: 218 S. Eighth Ave., Stroud, 918-968-3526. sacandfoxnation-nsn.gov

The indigenous homelands of the Sac and Fox Nation were in the western Great Lakes region. “Sac and Fox” is actually a historical accident, a merging of “Sac” (Sauk), or Thâkîwaki, and “Fox,” or Meskwâki misapplied by the U.S. government during treaty negotiations in 1804. Although historically associated and closely related by language and culture, the two peoples have always remained geographically and politically distinct. The Meskwaki have resided on the Meskwaki Settlement in central Iowa since 1856, and the Thakiwaki have been in central Oklahoma since the 1870s. The contemporary Sac and Fox population in Oklahoma claim to be predominantly of Thakiwaki decent and typically refer to themselves as both “Sac and Fox” and Sauk, and to their heritage language as Sauk. At the time of European contact, the Thakiwaki resided in the Saginaw Valley near Saginaw Bay of Lake Huron and Green Bay of Lake Michigan on the east-central peninsula Tr avelOK .com

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Jim Thorpe (Wa-Tho-Huk, Sac & Fox) (1888-1953).

Born near Prague, Okla., Thorpe’s natural athletic abilities were quickly recognized as he lead his Carlisle Indian School football team to upset victories over numerous nationally recognized college teams. He would go on to win Gold Medals for both the Pentathlon and Decathlon in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, where Sweden’s King Gustav V proclaimed him “the world’s greatest athlete.” He is still regarded by many to be one of the most versatile and graceful athletes of the modern sports era.

of what is now the state of Michigan.

They were moved from their indigenous lands through a series of armed conflicts and treaties, residing for a time in Illinois (1764 to 1830), briefly in Iowa (1831 to 1846) and in Kansas (1847 to 1867), prior to being removed to the Indian Territory in the 1870s.

During their time in Illinois, the principal Thakiwaki settlement was situated a short distance above the confluence of the Mississippi and Rock rivers. The most notable armed conflict involving the Thakiwaki is perhaps the three-month Black Hawk Conflict of 1832. It entailed an extended series of skirmishes between U.S. infantrymen and Black Hawk, a Sauk warrior. Leading a band of 1,000 Indians — includeing 500 warriors — Black Hawk utilized diversionary tactics to protect the women, children and elders with him. Although Black Hawk survived, the skirmishes ended tragically with the slaughter of unarmed Thakiwaki crossing the Mississippi River. Afterward only 150-200 of the original 1,000 warriors rejoined their companions on the Iowa side of the river. Some Thakiwaki call the Black Hawk Conflict a historical example of an enduring spirit of resistance, and Black Hawk’s name is symbolically represented at the center of the contemporary Sac & Fox Nation seal and flag.

The conflict is also viewed as an historic watershed; it was the last armed resistance to Euro-American encroachment and resettlement east of the Mississippi River. The Sac and Fox Nation hold numerous social events celebrating their culture and heritage including an annual powwow held in July on tribal grounds, numerous benefit and honor dances, veterans’ events, banquets, holiday celebrations and the occasional rodeo.

Did you Know? Olympian Jim Thorpe (1888-1953) is perhaps the best known Sac and Fox tribal member and is symbolically represented on the Sac & Fox Nation seal and flag by five Olympic rings.

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Seminole

[ tr a ditiona l na m e ]

Seminole Nation Language family: Mvskoke

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Total tribal enrollment: 18.597

[ eng lish na m e ]

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Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 14,142

Government: The Seminole Nation operates under a federally recognized 1969 constitution. The tribe is led by a 28-member council with a principal chief and an assistant chief. Each of the 14 bands selects a council representative.

Tribal headquarters: 36645 U.S. Hwy 270, Wewoka, 405-257-7200. seminolenation.com

The Seminole, one of the Five Civilized Tribes, were originally part of the Creek, a loose confederacy of ethnic groups and tribes in southern Georgia, northern Florida and Alabama. During the late 18th century some Lower Creek villages cut ties with their neighbors and moved south into northern Florida where they became known as Seminole, thought to perhaps derive from cimarron, the Spanish term for runaway. By the 19th century encroachment on Seminole lands and continuous harassment

by Euro-Americans led to the tribe being designated for removal. The Seminole resisted removal during the Seminole Wars (1817-18, 1835-42, and 1855-58) and although they were not conquered, thousands moved west in their aftermaths. The first group of Seminole arrived in Oklahoma in 1836, and by 1839 most had been relocated west. A minority of the Seminole (between 350 and 500) remained in Florida and eventually formed the separate Seminole Nation of Florida in 1957.

After their relocation to Indian Territory the Seminole were initially confined to the Creek Nation where the U.S. allowed them to have some self-governance only if they adhered to the general laws of the Creek.

Frustrations with these terms and general conditions in the region led two bands of Seminole under Wild Cat and John Horse to migrate to Mexico in 1849. In 1856, led by Chief John Jumper, the Seminole signed a treaty with the Creek and the U.S. government and established the Seminole Nation. During the American Civil War of 1861-65, most Seminole sided with the Confederacy and many dissident refugees fled to Kansas.

Under the Curtis Act of 1898 the Dawes Commission dissolved the Seminole government and divided its territory among approximately 3,000 enrolled tribe members. The restrictions accompanying allotment did little to protect the Seminole’s interests in the land. Through sale, often by fraudulent means, many Seminole families and individuals lost their land holdings. By 1920 only about 20 percent of the Seminole lands remained in Seminole hands. Of those who retained their property, a few became wealthy following the discovery of the Greater Seminole Oil Field in 1923. The policy of allotment was repealed by Congress in 1934.

Enoch Kelly Haney [Seminole] The Guardian LSB, Photo Division

By the following year the Seminole had reestablished their government, and in 1970 the tribal council was reorganized to adhere to its traditional structure. Many Seminole frequently participate in the stomp dance, green corn ceremonies, traditional fasts and other ancient rituals. The tribe’s Seminole Nation Museum documents and interprets the history and culture of its people.

Did you Know? Internationally recognized sculptor Enoch Kelly Haney, a Seminole Nation citizen, created “The Guardian,” an inspiring 22-foot-tall bronze sculpture that sits atop the Oklahoma capitol dome.

Hodinohso:ni: (Onondowa’ ga’ ne Gayogoho:no’)

[ tr a di tiona l na m e s ]

Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma

[ e ng l i s h na m e ]

Language family: Northern Iroquoian

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Total tribal enrollment: 5,548

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Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 2,544

Government: The Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma is governed by a constitution approved in 1937, and an elected seven-member business council with a chief.

Tribal headquarters: 23701 S. 655 Rd., Grove, 918-787-5452. sctribe.com

The homeland of both the Seneca and Cayugas originated in what is today the upstate Finger Lakes Region of the state of New York. The Seneca are the western-most members of the League of the Iroquois (Six Nations) known as the “Keepers of the West Door” while the Cayuga located to the east of the Seneca and are referred to as “Younger Brothers” within the League of Six Nations. During the 17th and 18th centuries Iroquoian bands and tribal remnants occupied areas in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Also known collectively as “Mingo” or as “Seneca,” they are the ancestors of today’s Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma. In 1817 the United States established two reservations for the Ohio Iroquois “Senecas.”

One was for the Seneca of Sandusky, a mingling of Cayuga, Seneca, Onondaga, Mohawk, Erie, Conestoga and others, along the Sandusky River. The second was for a consolidated band of Seneca and Shawnee at Lewistown. Both groups exchanged their Ohio reserves for adjoining land in the Indian Territory in 1831.

Approximately 358 Seneca of Sandusky arrived in Oklahoma in the summer of 1832. About 258 members of the Mixed Band of Seneca and Shawnee arrived later that year. Following negotiations with the Stokes Commission in December 1832, the Tribes readjusted their reservation boundaries and joined together as “the United Nation of Senecas and Shawnees.” Most Seneca and Shawnee spent the Civil War years as refugees in Kansas. The U.S. government separated the Seneca from the Shawnee in 1867. The Sandusky

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and Mixed Band Seneca were organized as a single Seneca tribe and the Shawnee became the Eastern Shawnee. Both surrendered land that was later occupied by Peoria, Piankashaw and other Indians. During the 1840s, 1870s and early 1880s the Seneca received newcomers, including Cayuga, Mohawk and Seneca proper, from Canada and New York and had a population of roughly 255 in 1890. The Seneca Reservation was first allotted to 130 individuals in 1888; by 1902 a total of 372 allotments had been issued. Today the Seneca-Cayugas continue their rituals as well as ceremonial calendar and dances such as the Green Corn Ceremony and during this annual ceremony, the Peach Seed game and a ritual football game continue to be played. Oklahoma tribal members continue to interact with their New York and Canadian kinfolk as well as with neighboring northeastern Oklahoma Tribes for ceremonies, athletic contests and powwows. The primary language of the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe is Cayuga of which the Seneca language is closely related.

Did you Know? The Seneca-Cayugas were the first tribe in Oklahoma to organize after the enactment of the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act of 1936.

Shaawanwa

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tr a ditiona l

Shawnee Tribe Language family: Central Algonquian

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na m e

]

[ eng lish na m e ]

Total tribal enrollment: 2,761

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Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 1,129

Government: The tribe operates under a business committee with 11 members led by a chairperson.

Tribal headquarters: 29 St. Hwy. 69A, Miami, 918-542-2441. shawnee-tribe.com

The Shawnees are an Eastern Woodlands tribe pushed west by white encroachment. They share a linguistic and historic background with the Absentee Shawnee. In 1793 some of the Shawnee Tribe’s ancestors received a Spanish land grant at Cape Girardeau, Missouri. After the 1803 Louisiana Purchase brought this area under American control, some Cape Girardeau Shawnees went west to Texas and Old Mexico and later moved to the Canadian River in southern Oklahoma, becoming the Absentee Shawnee Tribe. The 1817 Treaty of Fort Meigs granted the Shawnees still in northwestern Ohio three reservations. By 1824 about 800 Shawnees lived in Ohio and 1,383 lived in Missouri. In 1825 Congress ratified a treaty with the Cape Girardeau Shawnees ceding their Missouri lands for a 1.6-million-acre reservation in eastern Kansas. After the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the Ohio Shawnees on the Wapakoneta and Hog Creek reservations signed a treaty with the U.S. giving them lands on the Kansas Reservation. The Lewistown Reservation Shawnees, together with their Seneca allies and neighbors, signed a separate treaty with the federal government in 1831 and moved directly to Indian Territory. The Lewistown Shawnees became the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma. In 1854 the U.S. government decimated the Kansas Reservation to 160,000 acres. This, coupled with Tr avelOK .com

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the brutal abuses perpetrated against them by white settlers during and after the Civil War, forced the Kansas Shawnees to relocate to the Cherokee Nation in northeastern Oklahoma. The 1854 Shawnee Reservation in Kansas was never formally extinguished, and some Shawnee families retain their Kansas allotments today. The federal government caused the former Kansas Shawnees and Cherokees to enter into a formal agreement in 1869, whereby the Shawnees received allotments and citizenship in the Cherokee Nation. The Shawnees settled in and around White Oak, Bird Creek (Sperry) and Hudson Creek (Fairland), in Oklahoma, maintaining separate communities and separate cultural identities. Known as the Cherokee Shawnees, they would also later be called the Loyal Shawnees.

Initial efforts began in the 1980s to separate the Shawnee Tribe from Cherokee Nation culminated when Congress enacted Public Law 106-568, the Shawnee Tribe Status Act of 2000, which restored the Shawnee Tribe to its position as a sovereign Indian nation. Today the Shawnee continue their traditional ceremonies such as the Bread Dance, Green Corn Dance and Buffalo Dance on an annual basis.

Did you Know? The Loyal Shawnees filed an Indian Claims Commission suit for lands seized in contravention of treaties in 1825, 1831 and 1854. They finally won a judgment in 1959, and formed the Loyal Shawnee tribal business committee in December 1960.

Rvp-Rakko Etulwv

[ tr a di tiona l na me ] [ e ng li s h na m e ]

Thlopthlocco Tribal Town

Language family: Mvskoke

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Total tribal enrollment: 809

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Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 641

Government: Governed by a constitution, the tribe has a business committee that consists of an elected town king, two warriors, a treasurer, a secretary and five advisors.

Tribal headquarters: P.O. Box 188, Okemah, 918-560-6198. tttown.org

Thlopthlocco Tribal Town was formed toward the end of the 18th century and was an upper Creek town of the old Creek Confederacy situated in Alabama and Georgia in historical times. Thlopthlocco (Rvp-Rakko), an upper Creek town, was established near Wetumka, Alabama. Rvp-Rakko (Thlopthlocco) meant “Tall Cane” or “Big Reed”, so named for the town’s location in the vicinity of a stream where there was an abundance of cane or reed. Thlopthlocco was known as a Red Town, and in

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Chebon Dacon [Muscogee Creek, Thlopthlocco] Thlopthlocco Church

Creek culture Red Towns carried red beads and administered war functions. Thlopthlocco Tribal Town was one of the 44 or more Creek tribal towns immigrating to Indian Territory due to the Indian Removal Act of 1830. During removal members of the Thlopthlocco Tribal Town settled along the north fork of the North Canadian River in what is now central Oklahoma. The Town was one of the most western settlements of the Creeks, establishing its square grounds and rekindling its fire between Wetumka and Okemah. In 1938 Thlopthlocco Tribal Town ratified its constitution and bylaws under the provisions of the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act of June 26, 1936, and ratified its federal charter of incorporation in 1939. In 1941 the Secretary of the Interior placed 1,900 acres of land in trust for the Thlopthlocco Tribal Town for its exclusive use and benefit. On a tract of those lands near the North Canadian River the Town members constructed a council house made of hand-hewn stone using Works Progress Administration labor. Thlopthlocco Tribal Town members participate in activities at nearby ceremonial grounds.

Did you Know? The title of Thlopthlocco Tribal Town’s leader in the Muscogee language is “Mekko” and when translated in English means king. The designation reflects an ancient tradition.

Tic kan wa•tic

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tr a ditiona l

Tonkawa Tribe Language family: Tonkawan

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na m e

]

[ eng lish na m e ]

Total tribal enrollment: 821

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Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 670

Government: The Tonkawa are governed by a constitution ratified in 1938 and amended in 1977, 1994, 2009, 2013 and 2014. An elected Tribal Committee oversees their government, led by a president.

Tribal headquarters: 1 Rush Buffalo Rd., Tonkawa, 405-628-2561. tonkawatribe.com

The Tonkawa belong to the Tonkawan linguistic family that once comprised a number of small tribes indigenous to south central Texas. They were one of the most warlike tribes during nearly two centuries of conflict with their enemy tribes on the Western plains and with the Spanish and later, American settlers in the Southwest. The Tonkawa people had a distinct language unique to them, and were nomadic in their early historic period, moving their tipi villages according to the wishes of the chiefs of the different bands. They planted a few crops, but were well-known as great hunters of buffalo and deer, using bows and arrows and spears for weapons, as well as some firearms secured from early Spanish traders. They became skilled riders and owned many good horses in the 18th century.

From about 1800, the Tonkawa were allied with the Lipan Apache and were friendly to the Texans and other southern divisions. By 1837, they had for the most part drifted toward the southwestern frontier of Texas and were among the tribes identified in Mexican territory. Due to their loyalty to the Confederacy during the Civil War, the tribe was nearly exterminated by pro-Union Indians in

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Grant Richards, Tonkawa Chief Photographs of American Indians. / F.A. Rinehart.

the Tonkawa Massacre of October 1862. The Tonkawa were removed from the Brazos River Reservation in Texas in 1884 and transported by rail beginning in Cisco, Texas, to a temporary stop at the Sac-Fox Agency near Stroud, Oklahoma. The entire tribe wintered at the SacFox Agency until spring and then traveled the last 100 miles by wagon fording many rivers swollen with rain and slogging through axle-deep mud caused by severe spring rains. They reached the Ponca Agency on June 29 and finally reached the Fort Oakland Reserve near what is now the city of Tonkawa on June 30, 1885. The journey is known as the Tonkawa “Trail of Tears,” a time the tribe commemorates with their annual powwow that takes place the last weekend in June. Today the Tonkawa celebrate and preserve their distinctive heritage with ceremonies, dances and music. The Tonkawa Tribal Museum displays artifacts and photographic histories.

Did you Know? The origin of the Tonkawa name is from the Waco term “Tonkaweya” meaning “they all stay together.”

Kituwah

[ tr a di tiona l na me ]

United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians

[ e ng li s h na m e ]

Language family: Iroquoian

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Total tribal enrollment: 14,300

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Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 13,300

Government: The tribe is governed by a 13-member tribal council led by a chief. A constitution, bylaws, and corporate charter were ratified in 1950.

Tribal headquarters: W. Willis Rd., Tahlequah, 918-431-1818. keetoowahcherokee.org

Keetoowah Cherokee people believe that “Kituwah” or “Keetoowah” is the true name of the Cherokee people given to them by the Creator atop a mountain peak known as Kuwahi. This site today is referred to as Clingman’s Dome and straddles the borders of North Carolina and Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. The Keetoowah Cherokees also received their laws and sacred fire in their ancestral homelands (present day North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama) and still see themselves as the guardians of traditional Cherokee ways today. This does not mean that the tribe of the 21st century stands back as the world passes it by. The tribe administers millions of dollars in state, federal, and casino-generated funds; issues its own license plates; adjudicates legal matters in its own court system; and provides a variety of services to tribal members of all ages, functioning as a sovereign nation. Keetoowah Cherokees trace their governmental lineage to the Old Settler Cherokees who settled in Arkansas by treaty in 1817 and moved to present-day northeastern

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Oklahoma, also by treaty, in 1828. The arrival of the main body of Cherokees over the Trail of Tears in 1838 and 1839 led to a power struggle with the Old Settlers over the structure of the government. The contest ultimately ended in a bloody civil war. During the American Civil War, Keetoowah Cherokees fought on the side of the Union, but the bulk of the Cherokee Nation sided with the Confederacy.

Once the war ended, Keetoowah Cherokees censured the Cherokee National Council for negotiating the postwar treaty with the United States. The Keetoowah Cherokees strongly opposed allotment and single statehood. Before the national government of the Cherokee Nation was dissolved in 1906, the Keetoowah Cherokees became the only ‘body politic’ representing the Cherokee people, received through federal court. The Keetoowah Cherokees continued to operate as such until receiving federal tribal recognition under the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act with a ratified constitution in 1950, making the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma the first federally recognized Cherokee tribal government in the state of Oklahoma.

Did you Know? The Keetoowah Cherokees authored their first written constitution in 1859.

Kirikir i:s

( also spelled kitikiti’sh )

[ tr a ditiona l na m e ]

Wichita and Affiliated Tribes

( Wichita, Keechi, waco and tawakoni ) Language family: Caddoan

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Total tribal enrollment: 3,247

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Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 2,352

Government: The tribe operates under a tribal governing resolution adopted in 1961, with amendments made throughout the years. Daily business is conducted by an elected seven-member executive committee led by a president.

Tribal headquarters: 1¼ miles N on U.S. Hwy 281, Anadarko, 405-247-2425. wichitatribe.com

Indigenous to Oklahoma, the ancestors of the historic Wichita and Affiliated Tribes were probably the first people to settle upon the Southern Plains, ranging from south central Kansas to northern Texas, living in villages of grass lodges, raising bountiful crops of corn, squash and beans, conducting fall and winter buffalo hunts and carrying on extensive trade with the Pueblos of the Southwest. First contact with Europeans came with Coronado’s 1541 quest to find the fabled Quivira, thought to be in present Kansas. Early historic accounts describe the Wichita and their allies as numbering from 15,000 to 33,000 and as occupying villages of 2,000 or more, with large grass-lodge villages, a dual bison-hunting and horticulture economy and ample fields of maize, beans and gourds. More recently, the population of Wichita groups in the 16th century has been estimated at 160,000. Due to the United States’ removal policy and in order to establish peace among the tribes, the U.S. moved the Eastern tribes onto the plains

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Wichita Grass House c. 1927.

Photograph by Edward S. Curtis, “The North American Indian,” Volume 19.

amongst the indigenous tribes, and in 1835 the U.S. entered into a treaty with “the Comanche and the Wichetaw Indians and their associated Bands.” The Wichita remained north of the Red River throughout much of the 19th century, despite frequent forays south to the Mexican border and visitations to Tawakoni and Waco, who were assigned in 1855 to the Brazos River Reservation in Texas.

With the objective of settling southern plains tribes in Indian Territory, the federal government leased lands, between the 98th and 100th Meridians and the Canadian River and Red River, from the Choctaw and the Chickasaw. When the Wichita were assigned to a reservation in 1859 in the Leased District, they were joined by some of the Delaware, Caddo, Tawakoni, Waco and two Comanche bands that had been exiled from Texas reserves. The Civil War, inhumane U.S. policy and governance, the disappearance of the buffalo, and epidemic European diseases brought the tribe to near extinction with only about 300 members surviving at the beginning of the 20th century. Although the agency discouraged it, the Wichita had maintained highly valued pony herds and after 1880 families began to acquire cattle and hogs, and the Wichita adapted older cultural patterns to their changing world. What later became known as Riverside Indian School opened at the Wichita agency in 1871, and by the turn of the century missions and missionary schools were well established on the reservation. During the reservation years, the Wichita Proper, Tawakoni, Waco, and Kichai came to be designated as the Wichita and Affiliated Bands. One of the objectives of the 1887 General Allotment Act (Dawes Act) was the dissolution of the tribal land base and of tribal organization. The legislation included provisions for the allotment of 160 acres to individual Indians and the opening of unallotted or so-called “surplus” reservation land to white settlement. The Wichita resisted allotment and argued the need for continuing to hold a portion of the reservation in common because their land was more suited to grazing than to farming, hence 160 acres was not sufficient for self-support, but were overruled. On July 4, 1901, President William McKinley issued a proclamation opening the Wichita and the Kiowa-Comanche-Apache reservations by lottery. Anglo-Americans claimed homesteads or settled as tenants on Wichita allotments, and the former Wichita Reservation was annexed to Oklahoma Territory. In response, the Wichita pursued land claims in the U.S. Court of Claims. At the end of the 1930s they were paid $675,000 for “surplus” lands on their reservation, and in 1985 the tribe settled its land claim suit for land taken in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, receiving $14 million. Today, the tribe preserves their language and heritage through dances, powwows, songs and the new Wichita Tribal History Center.

Did you Know? The Wichitas are the sole Indian nation of the Southern Plains who remain in their place of origin.

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Wendat

[ tr a ditiona l na m e ]

Wyandotte Nation Language family: Northern Iroquoian

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Total tribal enrollment: 6,292

[ eng lish na m e ]

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Tribal enrollment in Oklahoma: 1,710

Government: The Wyandotte Nation operates according to a 1999 constitution and bylaws, governed by a business committee comprised of a chief, second chief and four councilpersons.

Tribal headquarters: 64700 E US Hwy 60, Wyandotte, 918-678-2297. wyandotte-nation.org

More than a dozen tribes of the Great Lakes Region collectively called themselves Wendat, much like saying, “I am an American.� Five of these tribes comprised a confederacy known as the Huron Confederacy. The founder of the Huron Confederacy was the Attignawantan. Another tribe, the Tionontati, lived adjacent to the Attignawantan; however, they were not part of the Huron Confederacy.

They also referred to themselves as being Wendat. The Wyandotte are in fact, descendants of the Tionontati and the Attignawantan. They were two tribes; however, culturally they were almost identical. After a series of wars with the Iroquois Confederacy known as the Beaver Wars, in 1649-50, they set aside their individual tribal names, united as one people and called themselves Wendat, and this was their collective name. In 1701, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, invited the Wendat to settle near Fort Detroit. Within a few years a portion of the tribe ventured south. They settled around Upper Sandusky, Ohio, where they held a position of honor among other tribes of the Ohio Valley. In Ohio, after sustained contact with the British, their traditional name Wendat became corrupted and spelled as Wyandot. Pressure from settlers forced the Treaty of 1843 and their removal to land west of the Mississippi River. Upon arriving in the West, no land or provisions were available. Arrangements were made, and land was purchased from the Delaware.

Their new reservation was located on highly sought and fought over land in Kansas, which led to the Treaty of 1855 and the Wyandot being terminated [disbanded]. Their land was quickly allotted and sold to white interests. In 1857, some Wyandot who were unwilling to accept citizenship relocated to Indian Territory. After the Civil War concluded, in 1867, approximately 200 successfully sought reinstatement as a tribe. The name Wyandotte was officially used after the 1867 Treaty and reflects an influence from the French language. Although they came to Indian Territory to remain Indian, their small population, external influences and the decisions they made, compromised their traditional way of life. In the early 1900s, many did not teach their children their native language, and soon those capable of continuing the traditional ceremonies were gone. Their tribal interests focused on the care of orphans, land disputes and ongoing issues with the government. In 1983, Leaford Bearskin was elected chief. He had a vision and determined purpose for his people. Under his leadership the Wyandotte have grown to almost 5,000 members, secured their right of self-governance, initiated cultural renewal and achieved economic growth unlike any other time in their history. In September the Wyandotte Nation hosts an annual Culture Days, a celebration that includes language, history and special-interest classes, a powwow and other activities.

Did you Know? The Wyandotte were instrumental in the founding of Detroit, Mich., and Kansas City, Kan. At one time Kansas City was named Wyandotte City. Counties named Wyandotte exist in Michigan, Ohio and Kansas.

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ba sed on tr aditional cr eek or na mental patter n

Festivals, Powwows & Events All across Oklahoma, in towns, cities and universities, hundreds of colorful, compelling festivals and majestic powwows celebrate American Indian culture, dances, songs, communities, and veterans. The list shown here is merely a small sampling of a richly diverse schedule of cultural events that take place throughout the year. Details and dates shown are approximate, so before going, please consult these resources for more information: TravelOK.com and nativetimes.com.

[ f r o n t i e r c o u n t r y ]

[ c h o c t aw c o u n t r y ]

R ED E A R T H F E S T I VA L F IR S T W E E K IN JUNE

CHOC TAW N AT ION L A BOR DAY F E S T I VA L L A BOR DAY W E E K & W E E K E ND

Presented by Oklahoma City’s Red Earth Museum, the annual Red Earth Festival represents more than 100 Indian nations, tribes and bands from across the country. The festival features a juried fine art competition and market, youth art competition, dance competition and parade during the three-day event.

Oklahoma City, Cox Convention Center | 405-427-5228 redearth.org

Celebration of Choctaw culture with inter-tribal powwows, exhibits, stickball games, fast-pitch tournaments, arts and crafts, carnival rides, food vendors, free concerts of local & national acts and loads of family fun.

Tuskahoma, Choctaw Nation Capital Grounds | 580-924-8280 choctawnation.com [ r e d c a r p e t c o u n t r y ]

[ g r e e n c o u n t r y ]

M USC OGE E (C R E E K ) N AT ION F E S T I VA L MID - JUNE Annual celebration includes cultural exhibitions, an awardwinning rodeo, concerts featuring local and national acts, sports tournaments, arts and crafts, food, a parade through historic downtown Okmulgee, an art market on the Creek Council House Museum lawn, senior citizens’ activities, children's activities and many more festivities for the entire family.

Okmulgee, 555 Tank Farm Rd | 800-482-1979 | 918-732-7992 muscogeenation-nsn.gov [ frontier country ]

O K L A HOM A INDI A N N AT ION P O W W O W E ND O F JU LY, F IR S T O F A U GU S T Annual powwow featuring dances, contests, arts & crafts, handgame tournament, buffalo chili cook-off, 5k buffalo run & fun walk, food and more.

Concho, 7 miles north of El Reno, Hwy 81 | 405-476-1134 c-a-tribes.org

S TA NDING BE A R P O W W O W L A S T F R IDAY A ND S AT U R DAY O F S E P T E MBE R The Standing Bear Powwow is hosted by the six north-central tribes of Oklahoma and features inter-tribal dancing, exhibition dancing, contest dancing, tiny tot contests and the crowning of the Standing Bear Princess. Visitors will also find a variety of arts and crafts vendors, along with a wide variety of food vendors.

Ponca City, Hwy 60 & Standing Bear Parkway | 580-762-1514 standingbearpark.com [ c h i c k a s aw c o u n t r y ]

CHIC K A S AW A NNUA L M E E T ING & F E S T I VA L L AT E SEP T E MBE R , E A R LY OC T OBE R Cultural event and festival celebrates the Chickasaw Nation and its unique heritage. Demonstrations on cultural significance, traditional food tasting, children's activities, arts & crafts and food vendors are featured.

Tishomingo, Sulphur | 408 W 8th Street 800-593-3356 | 580-371-2040 | chickasaw.net [ g r e e n c o u n t r y ]

[ r e d c a r p e t c o u n t r y ]

P ONC A P O W W O W L A S T W E E K IN A U GU S T One of the oldest annual powwows in Oklahoma is also home of the fancy war dance championships.

Ponca City, 7 miles south of Ponca City, White Eagle Park 580-762-8104

CHEROK EE A R T M A RK E T SECOND W E E K E ND IN OC T OBE R Annual Cherokee Art Market brings together an elite group of Native American artists to display and sell their work. More than 150 influential Native American artists from across the nation are featured at this event. Browse traditional and contemporary works in pottery, painting, sculpture, basketry and other media.

Catoosa, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, 777 W. Cherokee Street 918-439-4364 | cherokeeartmarket.com

Luck of the Draw WITH MORE THAN 80 TRIBAL CASINOS in Oklahoma you’ve just hit the jackpot. Spin the wheel for a weekend of fun and a nightlife bonanza at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Catoosa, a short drive up Interstate 44 from Tulsa. This savvy Hard Rock-branded property is the first in the Midwest and includes restaurants, shows, outstanding collections of authentic Cherokee art, Oklahoma music memorabilia, a hotel, motel, golf course and casino.

Take in dinner at McGill’s, the casino’s premier dining spot, where a quiet atmosphere reigns and efficient service sets the tone for fine dining. Menu items range from spinach-artichoke dip to baby greens with grilled chicken and raspberry vinaigrette to Norwegian salmon or Alaskan king crab drizzled in drawn butter. For more casual fare, the casino offers an additional four restaurants.

CHOCTAW CASINO, DURANT

With more than 2,300 games, headline entertainment and a tantalizing collection of dining options, Riverwind Casino, just off I-35 near Norman and operated by the Chickasaw Nation, is another premier choice in Oklahoma’s pantheon of casinos.

WinStar World Casino in Thackerville sets a high standard for nightlife, OSAGE CASINO, BARTLESVILLE dining and gaming action. Colorful fountains, hand-painted frescoes and towering arches invite you to play your way through themed gaming rooms such as the opulent Palace, cosmopolitan Madrid and grand Rome.

Catch game fever at Grand Casino Hotel & Resort in Shawnee with plenty of dining and entertainment and more than 1,800 popular slot machines. If you’re traveling through Osage country, be sure to visit any one of seven welcoming casinos.

Get your lucky night on at Downstream Casino Resort in Quapaw, with more than 2,000 of the latest and most popular slot machines, a variety of game tables and live poker room. Then keep the streak of fun going at Choctaw Casino Resort in Durant, which boasts plenty of game tables, 3,000 electronic games and an Oasis Water Park with slides, Jacuzzis, flowing streams and cabanas.

Oklahoma is jam-packed with ways to find your own royal flush – bet you didn’t know we’re first in the nation for the number of tribal casinos – so wherever you’re headed in our grand state, be sure to stop in and light up your luck.

RIVERWIND CASINO, NORMAN

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NAME 7 Clans Casino Perry 7 Clans First Council Casino 7 Clans Gasino Chilocco 7 Clans Gasino Red Rock 7 Clans Paradise Casino Ada Gaming Center Apache Casino Hotel & Event Center The Artesian Hotel, Casino & Sole’renity Spa Black Gold Casino The Black Hawk Casino Buffalo Run Casino & Resort Casino Oklahoma Cherokee Casino Fort Gibson Cherokee Casino Grove Cherokee Casino Ramona Cherokee Casino Roland Cherokee Casino Sallisaw Cherokee Casino South Coffeyville Cherokee Casino Tahlequah Cherokee Casino West Siloam Springs Cherokee Casino Will Rogers Downs Chisholm Trail Casino Choctaw Casino – Broken Bow Choctaw Casino – Idabel Choctaw Casino – McAlester Choctaw Casino – Stigler Choctaw Casino – Stringtown Choctaw Casino Hotel – Pocola Choctaw Casino Resort – Durant Choctaw Casino Resort – Grant Cimarron Casino Comanche Nation Casino Comanche Red River Hotel Casino Comanche Spur Casino Comanche Star Casino Creek Nation Casino Bristow Creek Nation Casino Checotah Creek Nation Casino Eufaula Creek Nation Casino Holdenville Creek Nation Casino Muscogee Creek Nation Casino Okemah Downstream Casino Resort Duck Creek Casino Fair Meadows Racetrack FireLake Casino Gold Mountain Casino Gold River Casino Golden Pony Casino Goldsby Gaming Center Grand Casino Hotel & Resort Grand Lake Casino Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa n CHICKASAW COUNTRY

CITY, ADDRESS Perry 511 Kaw St Newkirk 12875 N Hwy 77 Newkirk 12901 N Hwy 77 Red Rock 8401 Hwy 177 Red Rock 7500 Hwy 177 Ada 1500 N Country Club Rd Lawton 2315 E Gore Blvd Sulphur 1001 W 1st St Wilson 288 Mulberry Ln Shawnee 42008 Westech Rd Miami 1000 Buffalo Run Blvd Hinton 220 E Cummins Rd Fort Gibson 103 N Georgetown Rd & US Hwy 62 Grove US Hwy 59 & E 250 Rd Ramona 31501 US Hwy 75 Roland 109 Cherokee Blvd Sallisaw 1621 W Ruth Ave South Coffeyville 1506 US Hwy 169 Tahlequah 16489 Hwy 62 West Siloam Springs 2416 US Hwy 412 Claremore 20900 S 4200 Rd Duncan 7807 N US Hwy 81 Broken Bow 1790 S Park Dr Idabel 1425 SE Washington St McAlester 1638 S George Nigh Expy Stigler 1801 E Main St Stringtown 893 N US Hwy 69 Pocola 3400 Choctaw Rd Durant 4216 S US Hwy 69/75 Grant 1516 US Hwy 271 S Perkins 821 W Freeman Ave Lawton 402 SE Interstate Dr Devol 196747 St Hwy 36 Elgin 9047 US Hwy 62 Walters 263171 St Hwy 53 Bristow 121 W Lincoln Ave Checotah 830 N Broadway St Eufaula 806 Forest W Ave Holdenville 211 E Willow St Muskogee 3420 W Peak Blvd Okemah 1100 S Woody Guthrie Blvd Quapaw 69300 E Nee Rd Beggs 10085 Ferguson Rd Tulsa 4145 E 21st Shawnee 41207 Hardesty Rd Ardmore 1410 Sam Noble Pkwy Anadarko 31064 S US Hwy 281 Okemah 109095 N 3830 Rd Norman 1038 W Sycamore Rd Shawnee 777 Grand Casino Blvd Grove 24701 S 655 Rd Catoosa 777 W Cherokee St

n FRONTIER COUNTRY

CHOCTAW CASINO, DURANT

n GREAT PLAINS COUNTRY

PHONE NUMBER 580-336-7260 877-725-2670 | 580-448-3015 580-448-3210 580-723-1020 866-723-4005 | 580-723-4005 580-436-3740 855-248-5905 | 580-248-5905 855-455-5255 | 580-622-8128 580-668-4415 405-275-4700 918-542-7140 405-542-4200 918-684-5507 918-786-1300 918-535-3800 800-256-2338 | 918-427-7491 800-256-2338 918-255-4200 918-207-3600 800-754-4111 | 918-422-6301 918-283-8800 580-225-1668 580-584-5450 800-634-2582 | 580-286-5710 877-904-8444 | 918-423-8161 918-967-8364 580-346-7862 800-590-5825 888-652-4628 | 580-920-0160 580-326-8397 405-547-5352 877-900-7594 | 580-250-3030 877-849-3992 | 580-250-3060 877-806-1177 | 580-250-3090 877-844-0228 | 580-250-3100 918-367-9168 918-473-5200 918-689-9191 405-379-3321 918-683-1825 918-623-0051 888-396-7876 | 918-919-6000 918-267-3468 918-743-7223 405-878-4862 580-223-3301 405-247-4700 918-582- 4653 | 877-623-0072 405-329-5447 405-964-7777 H | 405-964-7263 C 800-426-4640 | 918-786-8528 800-760-6700 | 918-384-7800

n GREEN COUNTRY

HARD ROCK HOTEL & CASINO TULSA, CATOOSA

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n CHOCTAW COUNTRY

WEBSITE sevenclans.com firstcouncilcasinohotel.com sevenclans.com sevenclans.com okparadisecasino.com adagaming.com apachecasinohotel.com artesianhotel.com myblackgoldcasino.com theblackhawkcasino.com buffalorun.com casinooklahoma.com cherokeecasino.com cherokeecasino.com cherokeecasino.com cherokeecasino.com cherokeecasino.com cherokeecasino.com cherokeecasino.com cherokeecasino.com cherokeecasino.com chisholmtrailcasino.com choctawcasinos.com choctawcasinos.com choctawcasinos.com choctawcasinos.com choctawcasinos.com choctawcasinos.com choctawcasinos.com choctawcasinos.com cimarroncasino.com comanchenationcasino.com comancheredrivercasino.com comanchespurcasino.com comanchestarcasino.com creeknationbristow.com riverspirittulsa.com creektourism.com creektourism.com creeknationcasino.net creektourism.com downstreamcasino.com duckcreekcasino.com exposquare.com firelakecasino.com chickasawcountry.com goldriverok.com goldenponycasino.com goldsbycasino.com grandresortok.com grandlakecasino.com hardrockcasinotulsa.com n RED CARPET COUNTRY

OSAGE CASINO, TULSA

NAME High Winds Casino Indigo Sky Casino Ioway Casino Jet Stream Casino Kickapoo Casino – Harrah Kickapoo Casino – Shawnee Kiowa Casino Red River Kiowa Casino Verden Lucky Star Casino Canton Lucky Star Casino Clinton Lucky Star Casino Concho Lucky Star Casino Hammon Lucky Star Casino Watonga Lucky Turtle Casino Madill Gaming Center Margaritaville at River Spirit Casino Native Lights Casino Newcastle Casino One Fire Casino Osage Casino – Bartlesville Osage Casino – Hominy Osage Casino – Pawhuska Osage Casino – Sand Springs Osage Casino – Tulsa Osage Casino Hotel – Ponca City Osage Casino Hotel – Skiatook Prairie Moon Casino Prairie Sun Casino Quapaw Casino Remington Park Racetrack & Casino River Bend Casino & Hotel River Spirit Casino Resort Rivermist Casino Riverwind Casino Sac & Fox Casino SaltCreek Casino Seminole Nation Casino SouthWind Casino Braman SouthWind Casino Kanza SouthWind Casino Newkirk Stone Wolf Casino Sugar Creek Casino Texoma Casino The Stables Casino Thunderbird Casino Norman Thunderbird Casino Shawnee Tonkawa Casino Tonkawa Hotel & Casino Treasure Valley Casino & Hotel Washita Casino Wewoka Trading Post Casino WinStar World Casino & Resort n CHICKASAW COUNTRY

CITY, ADDRESS Miami 61475 E 100 Rd Wyandotte 70220 E US Hwy 60 Chandler 338445 E Hwy 66 Pauls Valley 2001 W Airline Rd Harrah 25230 E US Hwy 62 Shawnee 38900 W MacArthur Dr Devol 198131 St Hwy 36 Anadarko 33165 CS 2740 Canton 301 NW Lake Rd Clinton 102347 N 2274 Rd Concho 7777 N US Hwy 81 Hammon Travel Center-20413 Hwy 33 Watonga 1407 S Clarence Nash Blvd Wyandotte 64499 US Hwy 60 Madill 902 S 1st St Tulsa 8330 Riverside Pkwy Newkirk 12375 N US Hwy 77 Newcastle 2457 Hwy 62 Service Rd Okmulgee 1901 N Wood Dr Bartlesville 222 Allen Rd Hominy 39 Deer Ave Pawhuska 2017 E 15th St & Hwy 99 Sand Springs 301 Blackjack Dr Tulsa 951 W 36th St N Ponca City 64464 St Hwy 60 Skiatook 5591 W Rogers Blvd Miami 202 S Eight Tribes Trl Miami 3411 P Street NW Miami 58100 E 64th Rd Oklahoma City 1 Remington Pl Wyandotte 100 Jackpot Pl Tulsa 8330 Riverside Pkwy Konawa 14313 St Hwy 99 Norman 1544 W St Hwy 9 Stroud 356120 E 926 Rd Pocasset 1600 US Hwy 81 Seminole 11277 St Hwy 99 Braman 9525 N US Hwy 177 Braman Travel Plaza-9695 US Hwy 177 Newkirk 5640 N LA Cann Dr Pawnee 54251 S 349 Rd Hinton 5304 N Broadway Ave Kingston 1795 US Hwy 70 E Miami 530 H St SE Norman 15700 E St Hwy 9 Shawnee 2051 S Gordon Cooper Dr Tonkawa 10700 Allen Dr Tonkawa 16601 W South Ave Davis 12252 Ruppe Rd Paoli 30639 St Hwy 145 Wewoka 36625 US Hwy 270 Thackerville 777 Casino Ave

n FRONTIER COUNTRY

HARD ROCK HOTEL & CASINO TULSA, CATOOSA

n GREAT PLAINS COUNTRY

PHONE NUMBER 918-541-9463 888-992-7591 | 918-666-9200 405-547-5352 405-331-2500 405-964-4444 405-395-0900 866-370-4077 | 580-299-3333 580-299-3611 580-886-2490 580-323-6599 405-262-7612 580-473-2010 580-623-7333 918-678-3768 580-795-7301 800-299-2738 | 918-299-8518 877-468-3100 | 580-448-3100 405-387-6013 918-756-8400 918-335-7519 | 877-246-8777 918-885-2990 | 877-246-8777 918-699-7777 | 877-246-8777 918-699-7723 | 877-246-8777 918-699-7667 | 877-246-8777 877-246-8777 918-699-7873 | 877-246-8777 918-542-8670 918-541-2150 918-540-9100 800-456-4244 | 405-424-1000 866-447-4946 | 918-678-4946 800-299-2738 | 918-299-8518 580-925-3994 877-787-9637 | 405-322-6000 918-968-2540 405-459-4000 405-217-0176 866-529-2464 | 580-385-2440 580-385-2181 866-529-2464 | 580-362-2578 918-454-7777 405-542-2946 580-564-6000 877-774-7884 | 918-542-7884 800-259-5825 | 405-360-9270 405-273-2679 877-648-2624 | 580-628-2624 877-648-2624 | 580-628-2624 580-369-2895 C | 580-369-3223 H 405-484-7778 405-257-3737 800-622-6317 | 580-276-4229

n GREEN COUNTRY

n CHOCTAW COUNTRY

WEBSITE highwindscasino.com indigoskycasino.com iowaycasino.com jetstreamcasino.com kickapoo-casino.com kickapoo-casino.com kiowacasino.com kiowacasino.com luckystarcasino.org luckystarcasino.org luckystarcasino.org luckystarcasino.org luckystarcasino.org luckyturtle.wyandottecasinos.com madillgaming.com riverspirittulsa.com tonkawacasinos.com newcastlecasino.com onefirecasino.com osagecasinos.com osagecasinos.com osagecasinos.com osagecasinos.com osagecasinos.com osagecasinos.com osagecasino.com miaminationcasinos.com miaminationcasinos.com quapawcasino.com remingtonpark.com riverbendcasino.com riverspirittulsa.com seminolenationcasinos.com riverwind.com snfcasino.com saltcreekcasino.com seminolenationcasinos.com southwindcasino.com southwindcasino.com southwindcasino.com stonewolfcasino.com sugarcreekcasino.net mytexomacasino.com the-stables.com playthunderbird.com playthunderbird.com tonkawacasinos.com tonkawacasinos.com treasurevalleycasino.com washitacasino.com seminolenationcasinos.com winstarworldcasino.com n RED CARPET COUNTRY

CHOCTAW CASINO, DURANT

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Gratitude Marcus Amerman [Choctaw] Quanah Parker (detail)

With heartfelt gratitude we honor and thank the artists who gave permission for their beautiful works to grace the pages of this guide. When in a gallery featuring their work, please support them and their communities by purchasing their art.

Acee Roman Chibitty (Comanche, Shawnee, Delaware, Thlopthlocco Tribal Town, Muscogee Creek) Bunky Echo-Hawk (Pawnee, Yakama) bunkyechohawk.com America Meredith (Cherokee) ahalenia.com Anita Fields (Osage) Ben Harjo, Jr. (Seminole, Shawnee) benjaminharjojr.com

Jereldine Redcorn (Caddo) Joanna Underwood (Chickasaw) Katrina Mitten (Miami) Marcus Amerman (Choctaw) marcusamerman.com Matt Bearden (Citizen Band Potawatomi, Lakota, Kickapoo, Blackfoot) Nathan Hart (Cheyenne–Arapaho) nathanhartstudio.com Nocona Burgess (Comanche) eagleserpentstudios.com

Brent Greenwood (Ponca, Chickasaw) brentgreenwood.com

Quanah Burgess (Comanche) eagleserpentstudios.com

Chebon Dacon (Muscogee Creek, Thlopthlocco)

Richard Ray Whitman (Euchee, Muscogee Creek)

Brent Learned (Arapaho) buffalobullhowling.com

Shan Goshorn (Cherokee) shangoshorn.com

Harvey Pratt (Cheyenne) harveypratt.com

Sue Fish (Chickasaw, Choctaw)

Heidi Bigknife (Shawnee)

Tom Fields (Muscogee Creek)

Acknowledgements & Resources We thank the following for their gracious input, guidance and advice: • The 39 tribal nations of Oklahoma

• Oklahoma Indian Tourism Association

And acknowledge the following sources for providing much of the detailed background that informs this guide: • Tribal nation websites • “Indian Tribes of Oklahoma: A Guide,” by Blue Clark • Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, a project of Oklahoma Historical Society and the Oklahoma State University Library Electronic Publishing Center

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Tr avelOK .com Produced by the Oklahoma Tourism & Recreation Department