Our Native Traditions 2017!

Spring

2017

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iences � �e Hori r e p x E e l b a � e g r z� Unfo Visit Shawnee and tour the Citizen Potawatomi Nation’s (CPN) Eagle Aviary*, meet the only ancient Egyptian mummies in Oklahoma, or head downtown for the perfect photo-op at the Pottawatomie County Museum. Visit our website for details on what to see and do while you’re here! *Tours by appointment only - see website for details

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OUR NATIVE TRADITIONS

Table of contents Citizen Potawatomi Nation ....................................................... 4, 6 Absentee Shawnee Tribe............................................................. 8-9 Choctaw Nation.......................................................................10-11 Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes .................................................. 12-13 Dr. Henrietta Mann, a living legend among the Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes

Sac and Fox Nation .............................................................. 14-15 Chickasaw Nation ................................................................. 16, 18 Playground of the Native Son

The untold story of the Hominy Indians ........................................ 20

Oklahoma Native Artist - Traci Rabbit ...................................... 21

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Moving to Indian Territory The provisions for the Citizen Potawatomi’s move to Indian Territory were stipulated in a treaty signed on February 27, 1867. Signatories and the OIA agreed that a delegation of Citizen Potawatomi would accompany the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to Indian Territory and select a tract of land, not exceeding thirty miles square. The treaty stipulated that they would buy the reservation with the proceeds from selling their “surplus” lands in Kansas at one dollar per acre to the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad.

In the winter 1868 a group of Citizen Potawatomi made a failed attempt to travel to Indian Territory to select a new reservation. The water was too high and roads were impassable. The following winter, in 1869, another party of Citizen Potawatomi traveled to Indian Territory and selected a tract of land that became the site of the Citizen Potawatomi reservation. They chose a section of land that encompassed thirty square miles from the north fork of the Canadian River to the south fork. The eastward flowing Little River, which was little more than a creek, divided the reservation almost evenly in half.

The land lay just west of the Seminole reservation and had an eastern boundary at the Indian Meridian. Once the Citizen Potawatomi selected land for the new reservation they could begin the process of settling their affairs in Kansas and relocating to the Indian Territory.

The earliest families to make the journey to their new reserve arrived in Indian Territory in 1872. Since they paid for the move themselves, these families were among the more affluent Potawatomi families who were able to move from Kansas and included members of the Anderson, Melot, Clardy, Pettifer, Bergeron, and Toupin families. An Anderson family history notes that the Citizen Potawatomi brothers, John and Pete Anderson, had land holding in Kansas valued at $2,000. Records don’t indicate whether the brothers sold their allotments in Kansas, or lost them through fraud. Yet, the fact that they were able to finance their emigration to Indian Territory suggests that they sold at least a portion of their land and that the sale of land generated enough money that the two men and their families were able to afford the journey from Kansas to Indian Territory.

Fourteen wagons filled with supplies and eager, yet anxious, Citizen Potawatomi set out for their new homes in Indian Territory with little idea about what they would encounter and how they would succeed in supporting their families. The obvious challenges of living in a state that was hostile to its Indian population, like Kansas was, in-

duced some to move. It also motivated them to stick together in their new homes. Most of these earliest arrivals settled together in a small community they called Pleasant Prairie near the center of the reservation. By the end of the year, the population of the budding community was a mere twenty-eight people. It was not immediately obvious to these early emigrants or to the hundreds of Citizen Potawatomi who followed in their wake that they would soon face fierce challenges to their land tenure, their individual rights, and even their identity as Native Americans. Though given their past experiences, many could have guessed that the transition to a new land would not be an easy one.

Their first major challenge would be a fight to determine their rights as members of two separate populations: the US and their tribal nation.

1891 Land Run In 1890, the Citizen Potawatomi unwillingly participated again in the allotment process implemented through the Dawes Act of 1887. With this Act, the Citizen Potawatomi were forced to accept individual allotments. In the Land Run of 1891, the remainder of the Potawatomi reservation in Oklahoma was opened up to ‘white’ settlement. It is estimated that over half of the 900

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square mile reservation was simply given away by the government.

On the morning of Tuesday, September 22, 1891, more than twenty thousand anxious settlers, all “armed like a walking arsenal,” gathered on foot, horseback, and with wagons at a predetermined starting line, awaiting the sound of the bugle that would change their lives. Each one of these individuals hoped to be lucky enough to claim one of the seven thousand available one hundred and sixty acre plots, carved out of the “surplus” lands of the recently allotted Citizen Potawatomi, Iowa, and Sac and Fox reservations.

The Citizen Potawatomi, some of whom travelled to the starting line to watch the action, saw thousands of acres of land that the federal government pledged would be for the “exclusive use and occupancy” of their tribal members pass from the tribe to the hands of non-Indian settlers in one day. This contest for recently relinquished Indian lands was one of seven land runs that occurred in Indian and Oklahoma Territories between 1889 and 1895.

More than three hundred thousand acres of “surplus” land on what used to be the Citizen Potawatomi reservation was opened to the land run.

Towns in Pottawatomie County Several towns in Pottawatomie County started out as settlements that built up around early Citizen Potawatomi allotments. A few of these towns include: • Pleasant Prairie – est. in 1871 by seven of the first Potawatomi families to move to Indian Territory. The town was known as Pleasant Prairie from 1871 to 1881, in that year the town of Wagoza was established on the site. They are near the present-day town of Wanette.

• Isabella – a short-lived town that was named for the wife of Joshua Clardy, a Citizen Potawatomi tribal member who owned the trading post in the town, which was established on his allotment.

The name was quickly changed to Clardyville to better represent Joshua Clardy.

in the State of Oklahoma. This includes $68 million in wages and benefits which directly supports more than 2,000 jobs and purchases contributing to a $377 million impact on the local economy.

In recent years, careful planning and prudent use of revenues generated through Indian gaming and various business enterprises have made possible resurgence in the Citizen Potawatomi Nation’s prospects. Economic development which benefits the entire community is in the best interest of both tribal members and non-Indians. To this end, the Nation’s business and gaming endeavors produce many positive results, including job creation, the attraction of tourism revenue, and the reduction of poverty and unemployment.

Citizen Potawatomi Nation has several tribal enterprises, including the largest tribally owned grocery store, Community Development Corporation and First National Bank. These enterprises allow Citizen Potawatomi Nation to be the largest employer in Pottawatomie County with more than three times as many employees as the next largest employer.

• Burnett – founded by William Griffenstein who was married to Citizen Potawatomi tribal member Catherine Burnett, she was the daughter of Potawatomi headman Abram Burnett.

• Anderson – the town was on allotment land that belonged to the Anderson family. It ceased to be a town in 1894.

• Young’s Crossing – Established in southern Pottawatomie County

by George Young, who was married to a Citizen Potawatomi woman. It was a well-established town and one of five crossings for the Canadian River. George Young owned a general store and a saloon in the town.

Present Day Citizen Potawatomi Nation

The latter part of the 20th Century and the early years of the 21st Century have been a period of great success for the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. In fact, the Citizen Potawatomi Nation is the largest of the eight federally recognized Potawatomi tribes and the ninth largest tribe in the United States. Under sound leadership and with a tribal membership base of more than 30,000, the Citizen Potawatomi Nation has experienced growth in administration, tribal enterprises and its community outreach programs.

From a beginning in 1970 with only two-and-one-half acres of tribal land held in common and less than $1,000 in cash assets, the Nation has grown to have a $522 million economic impact

6

OUR NATIVE TRADITIONS

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Absentee Shawnee Tribe The Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma currently has 4,131 enrolled tribal members who meet the criteria for enrollment, minimum 1/8 absentee Shawnee Blood, set forth by the tribal Constitution. The tribe currently has 16,551.52 acres that are allotted trust land, 595.79 held in trust by the tribe and 819.53 held in fee status by the tribe. Although we are known to have lived in the Eastern United States and it has been documented that we traveled from Canada to Florida, from the Mississippi River to the East Coast before being removed to the area which we now occupy. Originally, the Shawnee Indians lived in the northeastern parts 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 1700’s and throughout the 1800’s established the Shawnee as having a large population and land holdings in the state of Ohio.

Encroaching colonial settlement persuaded the Shawnees living in Cape Girardeau, Missouri to negotiate the 1825 treaty with the United States government to cede their lands in Missouri for a reservation in Kansas. However, several years before this treaty was introduced, a group of Shawnees left Missouri to begin a journey south that would lead them towards territory now known as the state of Texas which was 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

8

OUR NATIVE TRADITIONS

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 1800’s, the Indian Agent from the US Government brought soldiers from Fort Reno in western Oklahoma and forced the traditional band of Absentee Shawnees located in Deep Fork River to leave. They were brought south to the area known as Hog Creek and Little River where they were to remain. The group settling here 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.

The Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma is a federally recognized independent Indian Tribe reorganized under the Authority of the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act of 1936.

The Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma possesses all the inherent powers of sovereignty they held prior to the Constitution of the United States. The inherent right of self-government precedes the United States Constitution, and the governing body of the Absentee Shawnee has never relinquished any part of this sovereign right. Among the power to adopt and operate a form of government of their choosing, to define the conditions of tribal membership, to regulate domestic relations of members, to levy taxes, to regulate property within the jurisdiction of the Tribe, to control the conduct of membership by legislation and to administer justice.

The Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma is governed by a constitution. The current form of government evolved over the first half of the 20th century. This evolution began in 1938 when the current government was formalized under the constitution written to provide statutory authority. The constitution was ratified December 5, 1938 and was amended on August 13, 1988 and was last amended in November 2010.

The tribal government is composed of two separate branches, the Judicial Branch and the Legislative/Executive Branch. In addition, there is an independent body, the Election Commission, that’s charged with the responsibility of conducting annual election.

The Legislative/Executive Branch consist of five members: Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary, Treasurer, and Representative, all of whom are elected through referendum elections. This committee has both legislative and executive powers. Each Executive Committee Member is elected to serve a two-year term. The Executive Committee meets on a monthly basis. It is the Executive Committee’s responsibility to set policy, administer government programs and execute the will of the overall tribal membership.

Historically, the Absentee Shawnee are considered to be the most traditional of the three groups of Shawnees in Oklahoma. They are: the Absentee Shawnees, the Shawnees of Miami, Oklahoma, and the Eastern Shawnees of Seneca, MO. Tribal Ceremonies and customs are still practiced today. These traditions and rich culture are what give the Absentee Shawnee Tribe its identity.

Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Indians 2025 South Gordon Cooper Drive Shawnee, Oklahoma 74801 405.275.4030 www.astribe.com

Paintings are the work of Ernest Spybuck, an Absentee Shawnee artist who lived and worked in Oklahoma at the turn of this century.

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EMBLEM DESIGNER Leroy White 1926 - 2009

Leroy was born and raised in Little Axe, Oklahoma

on the Indian allotment forced upon his family in 1886. From birth, Shawnee language and

tradition were part of his daily life. He was

selected to succeed his uncle, Webster Little Jim, in 1976 as the traditional chief of the Big Jim

Choctaw Nation

ic that is set to be open by February 2017. The medical campus will include a 143,000 square foot clinic, 17,000 square foot administration building and an 11,000 square foot facilities building. This will be beneficial to tribal members in the area with the only medical facility in Durant being the Choctaw Nation Clinic that was recently taken over from the Chickasaws. There is also an Employee Clinic and Healthy Aging Clinic for members 55 and up. These facilities will also grow due to the new Regional Medical Clinic and will be in the same area as the new facilities. Tribal members living in the Durant area can now visit a health facility without having to make the long drive to the Talihina Hospital. Another building that is part of the new facilities is the Choctaw Nation Wellness Center. With the new facilities brings in more employees to the area which helps out the numbers at the Choctaw Nation Wellness Center.

The facility that will help maintain our culture is the Choctaw Nation Cultural Center. We are nearing the planning phase and awaiting budget approval to move forward. The center will focus on preservation of Choctaw history and culture with exhibits, activities, performances, living village, stickball, and more.

Choctaw Code Talkers’ Congressional Medal of Honor On November 20, 2013, Native American Code Talkers were honored with the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor. Out of the 33 tribes recognized, 10 tribes are from Oklahoma and three are from the Fourth District of Oklahoma. These individuals embraced their cultural heritage and use it to prevent highly-sensitive wartime messages from being intercepted by the enemy. Because of their service and unique contributions, countless lives were saved and victory was claimed more quickly. Upon returning home, the service of the code talkers was kept secret to protect those programs. As a result, many loyal veterans faced the hardship of never being able to tell their families the details of their valiant service. This ceremony inspires great pride in the Native American people and is long overdue. We can now honor those who fought for this country and give them the recognition that they deserve.

Choctaw Nation Expansion As the tribe of the Choctaw Nation grows, so does their facilities.

The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma has 4 new buildings being built in Durant in the near future. These buildings include a new headquarters, Regional Medical Clinic, Wellness Center, and Cultural Center.

Choctaw Nation’s new tribal headquarters will be located close to the Durant Casino and Resort. The new headquarters is set to open by the end of the year 2017. Close to the headquarters is a new clin-

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OUR NATIVE TRADITIONS

Annual Labor Day Festival Tvshka Homma (the words mean “red warrior” in the Choctaw language) was designated as the political capital of the Choctaw Nation on October 20, 1882. The Choctaw Nation then decided to construct an appropriate building to house the government and the Choctaw Capitol Building was the result. According to accounts, a town grew around the Capitol building almost immediately. Today, it stands as the Choctaw Nation Museum, open throughout the year. At the annual festival, it is the centerpiece of the festival. It also houses the works of the Annual Choctaw Nation Art Show that takes place during the festival.

The Choctaw Nation Annual Labor Day festival takes place on the Tvshka Homma grounds. The festival has many activities over a 5

day period. Weekend attendance usually ranges from 50,000 to 100,000 visitors from across the United States and foreign countries. This year’s Labor Day Festival will be the tribe’s 67th Annual Festival.

Keeping with tradition, the festival starts off with a princess pageant Thursday night. Choctaw young ladies from across the ten and a half counties of the Choctaw Nation represent their district and compete for the crown of Little Miss, Junior Miss, and Miss Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. The pageant consists of the contestants wearing traditional dress and some have to do a talent that tie along with Choctaw Nation culture. This can range from singing a traditional Choctaw hymn to signing the Lord’s Prayer. The winners are crowned and announced the weekend of the festival. Open Saturday and Sunday, the authentic Choctaw Village features ancient crafts, traditional foods, dance, music, and storytelling. Stickball demonstrations also are available for view or participation. More viewing of this sport can be seen at the stickball field where fierce competition is always known to be a part of the fun.

Game of Stickball Ishtaboli, also known as the game of “stickball”, is the Choctaw National sport. The game is far more than just a sporting event, it represents a cultural tradition that has a great deal of historical and spiritual significance. According to one Choctaw oral tradition, it was created by a Choctaw man named Mosholeika.

Stickball is described in written accounts of Choctaw communities that date back to the French period. Stickball games were and still are major community events. In the past, games would often be planned between the leaders of two Choctaw communities months in advance. A source states, they were arranged to coincide with the full moon of the summer months. The games often accompanied diplomatic meetings, and their outcome is said to have been used to settle disputs between Choctaw communties rather than go to war.

Since 2010, the Chotaw Nation of Oklahoma has sponsored its own stickball team, Tvshka Homma. The team competes every year at the Tvshka Homma Labor Day Festival, Mississippi Choctaw Fair, Chickasaw Fair, and other venues. Team members also do stickball demonstrations and exhibitions throughout the year.

Keeping this tradition alive, a Choctaw youth stickball league has been formed within the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. These teams span the Choctaw Nation service area including a Chicksaw Nation team.

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11

Cheyenne & Arapaho Dr. Henrietta Mann, a living legend

among the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes

By Rosemary Stephens At 83 years of age, Dr. Henrietta Mann shows no signs of slowing down. Her hair pure white, her voice soft and gentle, with a sparkle in her eyes, she is a strong force to be reckoned with. And when most people her age and years younger are retiring, cutting back, Mann is still crossing the country teaching, speaking and advocating for Native American education and rights.

Her accomplishments and honors are far more than can be listed, founding President of the Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribal College, named one of the top ten professors in the nation by Rolling Stone magazine in 1991, inducted into the Southwestern Oklahoma State University’s Hall of Fame in 1997, top honors from the American Indians in Science and Engineering Society in 2008 and in 1987 was named the National American Indian Woman of the Year, and earned the Lifetime Achievement Award from the national Indian Education Association … just to name a few.

But hers is a simple life, with a deep connection to her Cheyenne roots.

Mann is the great-granddaughter of White Buffalo Woman, a traditional healer who survived the atrocities of Sand Creek and the Washita Massacre. White Buffalo Woman was among those who went into the Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency at Darlington to begin living without the buffalo in a radically altered environment.

“The changes she experienced may have chipped at her hear but they never broke her spirit. Her lifeblood flows through my veins, just as it does for my daughters and granddaughters. I call it brave-hearted blood, tinctured with the will to live. I wish I knew what this matriarch whispered to me as she sat holding me in my cradle and what she willed into my very being in our years together. Our lives span 157 years from 1853 to today. She is the fundamental north direction on my life compass. What did she want me to see? What did she want me to become? I surmise she told me there is much to see on one’s journey and prepared me for that call to service which has characterized my life,” Mann stated in an excerpt from her life story published in the Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribal Tribune.

Even at the age of 5 Mann was determined to be a teacher and fulfilled that dream and beyond by becoming an university professor.

“My ride in education has been extraordinary for a Cheyenne from Hammon, Okla., population then, 469.”

Mann taught Native American studies at the University of Califor-

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OUR NATIVE TRADITIONS

nia, Berkley in the early 1970s, directed the American Indian Program at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education and served at the national coordinator of the American Indian Religious Freedom Coalition, becoming the first person to occupy the Katz Endowed Chair in Native American Studies at Montana State University.

Mann likens Indian education to a cold war stating, “The war may be over for me but the battles are not. I am engaged in the biggest battle of my career. I continue to battle feelings of hopelessness and powerlessness among our youth. I battle economic and political misunderstandings. I battle scarcity of resources and self-fulfilling prophecies ingrained by the stereotypes of the majority of western Oklahoma.

When I find myself wallowing in despair and frustration, my compass point swings to the true north. I think of White Buffalo Woman and the battles she experienced along Sand Creek and the Washita, Lodge Pole River, to us. I think of the cultural and environmental changes she witnessed in her 85-year journey from Wyoming Territory, the expanding doctrine of Manifest Destiny and the assertion of white sovereignty, to the introduction of a foreign from of education and finally to home in Indian Territory.”

Many who have had the honor and privilege of hearing Mann speak never forget her dignity, her grace and the power of her words spoken every so softly.

Montana State University President Waded Cruzado said that Mann’s ability to stand easily in both the Native and

the academic worlds have allowed her an unprecedented impact in promoting respect and understanding across the wold of Native American culture, history and spirituality.

“I once heard her called the ‘Native Maya Angelou,’ and for good reason,” Cruzado said. “To hear Dr. Mann speak is to never forget her grace and power.”

Medicine Pipe, Fool Dog - Arapaho - 1873 White Frog - Cheyenne - 1907 Little Bird - Arapaho - 1898

White Antelope, Man On A Cloud, Little Chief - Cheyenne - 1851

Big Mouth Hawk - Arapaho - 1872

Henry Roman Nose, Yellow Bear and Lame Man - Cheyenne - 1899 OUR NATIVE TRADITIONS

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Descriptions of Ceremonial Dances Friendship Dance: A universal dance, among all tribal nations, welcomes all visitors and guests to the host Tribe. The friendship Dance expresses goodwill and friendship among all humankind.

Meskwaki Dance: Whenever a gathering of tribal groups took place, each group or tribe performed their own special dance. The Meskwaki dance is a unique and performed only by the Meskwaki people. It depicts their characteristics of the times of peace and war.

The Shawnee Dance: Allied Tribes often exchanged elements of cultural value when they came together for council or celebrations. The Shawnee, Mascouten, Kickapoo, Sauk and Fox (Meskwaki) Nations, are closely associated historically in language and traditional ways.

Therefore, the Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma gave the Meskwaki a Shawnee dance as a token of friendship.

Buffalo Head Dance: Unlike the Plains version of milling herds, the Meskwaki Buffalo Head Dance invokes the way the Woodland buffalo marched in long lines as they moved place to place. The dance recalls the fact that the Meskwaki came from the east coast. In the past when Buffalo Head Dance was a ceremony, the dance was held as Meskwaki Buffalo hunters went

off on their annual buffalo hunt. The dancers would first dance inside the village. In a way, the dancers were bringing the buffalo herd closer to the hunters. Today, it is performed as a Thanksgiving to the magnificent animal, the buffalo. The songs and the movements of the dancers, dedicate the enduring spirit of the buffalo.

Harvest or Bean Dance: This harvest dance recognizes the importance of the resource of life, food for the villages, for the coming year. The Bean dance offers praise and gives thanks to the Great Monitors (Spirit) for the abundance of food and the bountiful crops.

Swan Dance: The Swan Dance recalls the stately native swan that migrated through the Great Lake region. The Swan Dance, in the past, was a village ceremony that took place any time in the summer. The one action eliminated from the present –day version is when a warrior runs a strike pole. When this was done, all dancing stopped and this warrior would recount his war story. Following this, there was a “Giveaway” of belongings. The women of the tribe lead this significant dance with their graceful movements. The Swan dance depicts the graceful, beautiful and rhythmical movement of the most majestic of all water birds.

Rabbit Dance: Originally known as the Owl Dance, a similar Meskwaki version, the Rabbit Dance is a social dance borrowed from the Lakota (Sioux), it is a popular couples “two-step” among all Tribes.

Pipe Dance: Combined of songs and rituals, is a means of cementing intertribal truces and transpires to the Meskwaki past. The Pipe Dance or in French terms, “The Calumet” or “Pipe of Peace”, found the Meskwaki introducing the dance to many Tribes, like the Abenaki Tribe, during the Fox Wars (1712-1716 & 1728-1737). Today, imitation pipes are used as opposed to real pipes that were used in the past.

Shield Dance: In pantomime this war dance depicts battle skill in hand-to-hand combat. The Shield dance was adopted from the Southern Plains Indians in the 1940’s as recognition of contact in earlier times with the Kiowa, Cheyenne, Arapaho and Comanche.

War Dance: The War Dance is a fast dance performed by warriors getting ready for battle. Sometimes a religious dance, it has been adapted for public view. Everyone who was involved in combat situations was allowed to interpret their experience by this dance. A Veteran of WWI was the last known person to perform the dance for the general public.

Provided by Cheryl McClellan

Provided by Nina Young Bear

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OUR NATIVE TRADITIONS

Victory of Soldiers Dance: This dance is dedicated to all men of the armed forces and it is a dance to honor each veteran who has returned home to their loved ones.

It originated after WWI and all person are requested to take part in this dance. It is a true victory when all the people can dance together.

The Sac and Fox arrived in Indian Territory in what is now the State of Oklahoma in November of 1869.

Payne, Lincoln, and Pottawatomie counties in Oklahoma are under Sac and Fox jurisdiction.

The Sauk and the Fox were two distinct but related tribes who allied in the 1700s. The Sac and Fox are Algonquin and are a Woodland tribe who originally came from Canada. Former homelands include the states of New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska, with presence in Ohio, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island.

The Sac and Fox are now divided among three individual sovereign nations: the Sac and Fox Nation in Oklahoma (Sauk), the Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa (Fox), and the Sac and Fox Nation of the Missouri in Kansas (Sauk).

Some Sac and Fox protested the validity of the Treaty of 1804, which later was one of the factors of the Black Hawk conflict in 1832. Black Hawk was a war leader who said the signatories of the Treaty of 1804 did not have the authority to sign treaties, and he gave no credence to the terms of that treaty.

He later agreed to move from Rock Island, Illinois, which had been the home of the Sauk for over a century, to what is now Iowa with the agreement from the American government that it would provide food for the tribe since crops and fields had been left behind in Rock Island.

The American government failed to comply, so Black Hawk, followed by women, children, and elders, returned to Rock Island for the food. This was not an act of war although Black Hawk and his warriors had to employ military tactics to divert the attention of the pursuing army and militia away from his people. A captain in the Illinois militia was a man named Abraham Lincoln, serving in what would be his only military experience.

The Sac and Fox of the Mississippi (River) shared a reservation in the southern part of Kansas until 1857 when the Fox sold all their belongings to purchase land in Iowa and established a settlement there. The Sauk of the Mississippi moved to Indian Territory after the Civil War. The Sauk of the Missouri remained on their separate reservation in the northern part of Kansas.

In 1887, only eighteen years after the Sac and Fox came to Indian Territory and were still going on buffalo hunts and war parties, Jim Thorpe was born. Jim Thorpe

won the Pentathlon and Decathlon in the 1912 Olympics, where the King of Sweden called him the Greatest Athlete in the World. Native people did not have citizenship in the United States until 1924, so when Jim Thorpe won his medals in 1912 he was a citizen of the Sac and Fox Nation but was not an American citizen.

Jim Thorpe attended the Sac and Fox Agency’s boarding school, located on the tribal grounds south of what is now Stroud, Oklahoma. The school no longer remains and the land now hosts the Sac and Fox Nation tribal headquarters.

The tribal flag honors Black Hawk and Jim Thorpe and recognizes all the countries with whom the tribe allied: the United States, Britain, Spain, and France.

The Sac and Fox Nation is a nation within a nation. The United States of America, in accordance with the Constitution of the United States and reaffirmed by recent presidents, has a government-to-government relationship with tribes.

The government of the tribe used to be conducted by tribal councils of either peace chiefs or war chiefs, depending on whether the tribe was at war or in peace. Today our government consists of a Business Committee elected by the tribal membership. The Business Committee is comprised of a Principal Chief, Second Chief, Secretary, Treasurer, and Committeeperson.

The Sac and Fox Nation retains its tribal identity through some tribal members’ adherence to traditional beliefs and practices, the protection of its burial and sacred sites and homelands, and the preservation of its language.

Traditional tribal members still follow a clan system governed by hereditary clan chiefs. Clans include and have included the Fish, Thunder, Wolf, Bear, Fox, Deer, Bear Potato, Snow, Elk, Ocean, Peace, Warrior, and Beaver.

Clan membership is patrilineal, and babies generally receive their “Indian names” in the spring after their birth.

Birth order also determines which social group to which the baby belongs, the Oskush or the Kisko. The two societies engaged in friendly rivalries during social activities.

The Sac and Fox Nation now numbers approximately 4000 enrolled tribal members.

More information can be obtained through the Sac and Fox Nation website: www.sacandfoxnation-nsn. gov. Contact information is: Sac and Fox Nation, 920883 S. Hwy 99 Bldg A, Stroud, Oklahoma 74079. Telephone: (918) 968-3526.

Saginaw Grant - 1800s OUR NATIVE TRADITIONS

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The

CHICKASAW NATION

Known as the “Unconquered and Unconquerable,”, Chickasaws are a proud people with a rich heritage.

Chickasaw tradition holds that the earth began when Aba' Binni'li' (the Creator) sent the humble crawfish into the water to bring mud from the bottom to create the first landmass. From that beginning, all good things came to life, including the Chickasaw people.

Another story handed down for generations tells of the Chickasaw migration. Led by two brothers, Chiksa’ and Chahta, our people left our home in the West toward new lands in the East.

Along the way, the people were guarded by Ofi’ Tohbi’ Ishto (a big white dog) and guided by an Iti’ Fabassa’ Holitto’pa’ (sacred pole).

Each night, the people planted the pole in the ground and each morning, they would travel in the direction it leaned.

During a difficult crossing of a great river, the big white dog was lost. They continued to travel for many days until one morning the brothers disagreed about the direction of the pole.

Chahta said the pole was upright and the people had reached their destination, while Chiksa’ said the pole was leaning East. Some of the people stayed with Chahta, while others followed Chiksa’ into our new homeland.

Those who followed Chiksa’ became the Chickasaw Nation, while those who stayed with Chahta became the Choctaw Nation.

For hundreds of years before removal to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) in the 1830s, Chickasaws lived in the North American southeast, where the states of Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky were later established.

Living in sophisticated town sites along vast areas of the Mississippi River, Chickasaws traded extensively with other Southeastern Indians between 1200 and 1500.

Chickasaw government during this time was an extension of the family clan system, with each clan governed by a council of elders and a Clan Minko' (leader). All the clans were organized into two major groups which balanced one another.

Each clan and town was self-governing, but the two larger groups came together as a national council to promote the general welfare and protect common interests.

At the top of the national hierarchy was the High Minko' – the principal leader selected from the highest ranking clan. He was assisted by the Tishu Minko' who served as the leader’s adviser and primary speaker at the National Council.

Chickasaws lived a largely agrarian lifestyle, but were quick to go to battle if necessary.

In 1540, Hernando de Soto was the first European to make contact with the Chickasaws. He waged a conqueror’s campaign against the

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tribe – making extremely unreasonable demands.

Unwilling to accept his demands, Chickasaw warriors fought successfully to defend their people and repel de Soto.

In that single battle that all but wiped out de Soto’s army, the Chickasaws secured their reputation as fierce warriors.

It was more than 100 years before Chickasaws encountered Europeans again. When the French and British arrived, they came not as conquerors, but as traders and missionaries.

While the arrival of these Europeans brought technological and economic change, Chickasaws adapted and persevered. Between 1670 and the American Revolutionary War, Chickasaws were buffeted by European diseases, social upheaval, technological and economic change.

During this time Chickasaws began to consolidate their villages around what is now Tupelo, Mississippi. Chickasaws added to their numbers by adopting bands of survivors and refugees from other tribes in the region.

It was from this area, known as Chokkilissa', where Chickasaws once again had to fight to defend their territory and way of life.

Allied with the British at the time, Chickasaws defeated two direct assaults by the French – the best known of which is the battle of Hikki'ya' (also known as Ackia) in 1736.

These battles helped prevent the French from taking control of a large section of North America. Some historians say if it were not for the Chickasaws, Americans may be speaking French today, rather than English.

Chickasaw leader Piominko was a contemporary and friend of George Washington, and holds a place in Chickasaw tradition similar to that which the first U.S. president holds for most Americans.

President Washington sent Piominko gifts of silver medals and uniform clothes for his help in resisting the Spanish alliance and helping the U.S. during the American Revolutionary War. Piominko and other Chickasaw leaders signed the Treaty of Hopewell in 1786, which formally established official relations between the Chickasaw Nation and United States. In 1792, Piominko received the George Washington Peace Medal due to his trust and support to the United States.

Chickasaws have been entrepreneurs for centuries. They conducted a successful trade business with other tribes over much of what is now the southern and central United States prior to contact with Europeans.

After European contact Chickasaws traded extensively with England, Spain, France and eventually, the United States.

Present day boundaries of the Chickasaw Nation were established in 1855, in a treaty signed by the Chickasaw Nation, the Choctaw Nation and the United States. Those boundaries encompass more than 7,648 square miles in south central Oklahoma, including all or parts of the following counties: Pontotoc, Grady, Carter, Garvin, Johnston, Murray, Love, Marshall, Coal, Bryan, McClain, Stephens and Jefferson.

The Chickasaw Nation was officially reestablished as a tribal government on March 4, 1856, in Tishomingo, Indian Territory.

On August 30, 1856, the Chickasaw

OUR NATIVE TRADITIONS

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people ratified their original constitution, which established a threebranch form of government modeled on that of the United States.

Education has always been a high priority for Chickasaws. Even before the Constitution was ratified, several Chickasaw schools had been established, both in the former Homeland and Indian Territory.

Chickasaw Manual Labor Academy was completed in 1852. By 1857 it provided an education to 140 students annually. Curriculum at the school included reading, writing, arithmetic, English, Latin, logic, biology, geometry and music.

Agricultural, mechanical domestic arts were also included in the curriculum. Bloomfield Academy and Colbert Institute were completed in 1852 and 1854, respectively.

In 1857 the Chickasaw legislative body voted to erect Burney Academy near Lebanon.

One of the first steps taken by the Chickasaw government following the Civil War was to reopen the schools. Eleven neighborhood elementary schools were opened in 1867.

That number was increased to 23 in 1876. In the same year, the legislature also provided for the reopening of four seminaries and academies providing secondary education.

Most of the teachers in those schools were Chickasaw. `Agriculture, ranching, lumber were the primary Chickasaw economic activities from the end of the Civil War until Oklahoma statehood in 1907.

Many Chickasaw citizens worked the land or leased acreage to non-citizen tenants who grew corn, oats, or cotton.

Ranching was also important to the economy, as many Chickasaws ran large cattle ranches or leased land to ranchers. Several cattle trails, including the Chisholm Trail, also crossed the Chickasaw Nation.

Lumber, particularly walnut used for furniture and gun stocks was sold domestically and to industries in Hamburg, Germany.

Historically, the Chickasaw Nation has proven remarkably resilient.

Allotment of Chickasaw land by the Dawes Commission and Oklahoma statehood were intended to bring an end to the Chickasaw Nation as a government.

Regardless of the difficult political circumstances, Chickasaws built a new red granite capitol building in 1898. This structure served as the capitol until Oklahoma statehood in 1907.

Douglas Johnston was appointed Chickasaw Governor by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, just prior to statehood. Johnston served in that position until his death 1939.

One of Johnston’s proposed duties as governor was to oversee the dissolution of the Chickasaw government. However, he never accomplished that task.

Efforts by the federal government to terminate the Chickasaw Nation by way of the Dawes Act and other legislation in the 1890s and early 1900s failed, as did later efforts in the 1950s.

An updated Constitution, which retains the three-branch system of government, was ratified in 1983.

Today, the Chickasaw Nation is among the largest federally-recognized tribes in the United States with more than 60,000 citizens.

An economic impact study conducted by Oklahoma City University in 2011 revealed that the Chickasaw Nation has an economic impact of more than $2.4 billion annually in Oklahoma. The Chickasaw Nation operates more than 60 businesses and employs more than 13,000 workers across the United States and around the world.

Successful economic development efforts have enabled the Chickasaw Nation to offer more than 200 programs and services,

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OUR NATIVE TRADITIONS

including education, health care, housing, aging and family services to name a few. `Economic development efforts have also enabled the tribe to pursue a variety of initiatives to preserve and revitalize their language and culture.

One such initiative is the Chickasaw Cultural Center, which shares the history, culture and traditions of the Chickasaw people. Since it opened in July 2010, the cultural center has welcomed more than 500,000 visitors from around the world.

The Chickasaw Nation is also building an information center in Tishomingo, Oklahoma designed to highlight the historic connection to the area, which dates back to 1856, when Chickasaws gathered at Pennington Creek to daft the tribal Constitution. Other historic attractions in the area include the Chickasaw Historic Capitol, the Chickasaw White House, The Chickasaw Bank and the Chickasaw Council House Museum.

Language revitalization efforts are also a high priority. These efforts include a partnership with Rosetta Stone to develop a series of interactive video lessons which will be made available to Chickasaws worldwide.

These classes will provide another tool in the language program, which also includes an immersion project designed to create new conversational speakers, as well as online content, community classes and other high-quality language enrichment experiences for citizens at home and abroad.

Moving forward, Chickasaw Nation leaders plan to continue economic development efforts and initiatives to provide a variety of services and revitalize Chickasaw language and culture in pursuit of the tribe’s mission to “enhance the overall quality of life of the Chickasaw people.”

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OUR NATIVE TRADITIONS

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Playground of the Native Son The untold story of the Hominy Indians

By Kent Bush

In 2017, the National Football League hosted its 51st Super Bowl in Houston. But 90 years ago, there was another interesting football game played in Pawhuska, Okla. that few people know about.

Everyone knows about the New England Patriots, Dallas Cowboys, Pittsburgh Steelers, Green Bay Packers and New York Giants.

Not many have heard of the Hominy Indians. One filmmaker hopes to change that with her documentary, “Playground of the Native Son.”

The Indians were a professional football team based in Oklahoma and funded by wealthy Osage Tribe members who benefited from oil reserves discovered on their land. This team of Native American men pulled off one of the greatest and least appreciate upsets in the history of the sport – a 13-6 win over the world champion New York Giants on Dec. 26, 1927 in Pawhuska.

Celia Xavier produced a recent documentary about the game after learning about the team’s existence and accomplishments while making another film.

“I learned of the Hominy Indians while I was researching my first documentary, ‘Osage Tribal Murders.’ I was surprised that I had not heard of this game or team before,” Xavier said. “What was more surprising was that some people who grew up in Hominy, OK had never heard of this team or game. The more I researched it, the more incredible the story became.”

There were only about three minutes of actual footage of the team in existence. There weren’t 15 cameras from every angle shooting football games in 1927. They were still using automobiles lined up around the field when more light was needed.

“The challenge was huge,” Xavier said. “When I discussed this with Michael Nash, co-director, he said this project scared him because there was very little original vintage footage available and even fewer documented eye-witnesses.”

But Xavier just couldn’t resist the story once she learned of it. She had to make the film.

“I was in love with the players, the game - everything about this story,” she said. “I still am. I told Michael, not to worry... we’ll shoot re-enactments. Looking back, I would never do that again. But it was the passion that fueled me to finish in a short period of time, as I had very little money to complete it.”

The story is as powerful as it is simple.

A group of young Native American men from Haskell College who were brought together to play football. At one point, they had won more than two dozen straight games.

That was no fluke. Jim Thorpe was a Native American athlete and Olympic Gold Medalist. He was even named the best athlete of the 20th Century.

But Thorpe wasn’t a member of the Hominy Indians, he was a fan.

Thorpe’s good friend John Levi – who Sports Illustrated named one of the Top 50 Athletes in Oklahoma history - was the best player on the team. Thorpe,

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OUR NATIVE TRADITIONS

the man voted best athlete of the 20th Century, often said Levi was better than him. He called Levi “the best athlete in America.” Levi’s brother George was also an important part of the team.

Obviously, the Indians weren’t lacking in talent.

The victory over the News York Giants on the day after Christmas is the stuff of legends and storybooks.

Celia Xavier The Giants agreed to the game because of the acclaim the Indians were receiving. But their acceptance was merely to show the vast superiority of the “real” professional teams.

They never saw the Indians as serious competitors and got off the train expecting the game to be a showcase of their own superior skills in an exhibition.

When the game was tied at six, Levi took over and led his team to one of the biggest upsets in sports history. It is one of the greatest stories that has never been told. Xavier said it was a shame that the story wasn’t more widely known and that inspired her to make the film.

She wants more Native Americans to feel the pride in this team that people familiar with the story enjoy.

“The pride is enormous,” she said. ”Conversely, the hurt and betrayal is enormous as well. When the question comes up as to why isn’t this Native story in the history books, why haven’t they heard this story before? It makes me sad to think about John and George Levi not getting the attention or accolades they deserve. Can you imagine if this team existed today? My opinion is that this story was suppressed - on purpose - and that is not okay.”

Xavier said even white people, some who live in Pawhuska where the game took place, had not heard of the team or its winning streak and huge win over the Giants. She said even they were upset that the story hasn’t been shared.

Even as she tries to keep the audience for “Playground of the Native Son” growing, Xavier is working on several more films.

Her 2017 slate includes: • A feature, narrative, film “Song of the Mourning Dance”, currently in rewrites with an award winning screenwriter.

• A co-production millennial web-series-in the development stage.

• Documentary Paranormal project with Mark Williams, 3-part series. We have shot some footage and a trailer.

• A genre feature, narrative film TDB to be shot in OKLA - Pre-Production • Playground of the Native Son script is in rewrites.

• A comedy series - in development.

The film, narrated by Adam Beach – who has performed in Law & Order SVU and Suicide Squad among other productions - can be seen anytime on Nativeflix along with many more titles.

Traci Rabbit

Traci’s work captures a spirit in the Native American woman that does indeed embody the best in female strength. From the proud loft of her chin to the strands of hair caught by the wind, she appears to weather all storms. Her paintings represent the way it feels to be female; to fly in the face of all that comes, with fierce dignity, energy and strength, but they also capture women’s ability to be gentle, yielding, kind and passionate.

Traci Rabbit, daughter to Cherokee National Treasure & Internationally known artist Bill Rabbit and mother Karen Rabbit, was born at the Claremore Indian Hospital and grew up in the Pryor area. She says quite bluntly, “my family has always been close and i had a wonderful childhood! I grew up attending my Dad’s art shows. When I was in junior high, he began flying me to his important shows like Santa Fe Indian Market and IACA. I never considered the possibility of becoming an artist because in my mind he was the greatest and I knew I couldn’t compare to him in that arena. However, I enjoyed doing art and began winning art awards in the 1st grade in the rest is history.“

Traci attended Northeastern State University, which orignally was the Cherokee Female Seminary, receiving a BA in Business Administration in 1993, the first in her family to attend and graduate college. Her desire was to work for the BIA or for her Cherokee Tribe.

“My Dad started selling my paintings to galleries when I was in high school and college. Upon graduation, I started attending art shows with my Dad.” Somehow, the art business consumed her and she has never looked back. Her degree has been invaluable to their business, which consists of a full gift line.

Traci’s art career is going great; a career that includes her family. The Rabbit family produces the gift line from the conception of the original art all the way down to the production and packaging, so everything is Native American made. This is something the family takes great pride in when attending retail and wholesale markets.

She is blessed to be able to work on her art while sharing time with family. Keeping one foot steeped in tradition and the other exploring the possibilities of applying modern technology to her art and business. After the passing of her father in 2012, she continues to live in the same area her family has been since the removal of the Cherokee people to Oklahoma. She says, “Without God and the support of my family, none of this would be possible.”

Rabbit Studios P.O. Box 34, Pryor, OK 74362 918-825-3716 • buyndnart@sbcglobal.net www.billandtracirabbit.com Young Buffalo Horse is an intertribal group, a group of young men and women that originated from the original group "Buffalo Horse" of Red Wood Falls Minnesota. Originally the group was made up of members from Lower Sioux and Ojibwe tribes. We strive each day to touch people with our songs and hold our traditions of singing so that we can influence young natives to learn and continue their traditions.

We first got together as a group in March of 2010. We are mostly College students, we have mostly young ladies and gents with the exception of our oldest Robert L. While residing in Oklahoma, we like to travel quite extensively. We are always eager to make new friends and family. Singing is our way of life, hope we get to see you all in our travels.

Miigwetch!

OUR NATIVE TRADITIONS

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Comanche The Origins of the Comanches The Comanches were among the classical Plains Indians who have become characterized as the typical American Indian. But the Comanches were not always Plains Indians. In fact, they did not arrive on the plains until shortly after 1700, moving down into the western plains from the northwestern United States. Previous to this move, some believe the Comanches migrated from the southwest.

This belief is held because of a linguistic relationship between Comanche and Nahuati in Central Mexico. When they did move into the plains, they established themselves firmly in the area and soon became the dominating tribe, replacing the Padoucas, or Apaches. Their dominance over the area from southwestern Texas north into Kansas was so thorough that the Comanche language became the lingua franca of the western plains, the language used for all inter-tribal communication when sign language did not do the job.

The reputation of the Comanche as a warrior during the 18th century can be seen in the name itself. The name Comanche is not a Comanche word. It is probably a Ute word Komantcia, which means, ‘anyone who wants to fight me all the time’, or ‘enemy’. The Comanche became the traditional enemy of the Utes and the name was attached to them permanently.

The Comanche word for the Comanche people is Numunu which means ‘The people’.

Some information about the early origins of the Comanches is provided by the language. Comanche is so closely related to Shoshoni, that some speakers claim that the Shoshoni speak like the Comanches used to speak. Both Comanche and Shoshoni belong to a group of languages called the Numic languages. Numic is related to the Comanche name for the Comanche people - Numunu. The Numic languages include many of the languages in the plains and mountain states, including Ute, Bannock and Paiute. The Numic languages are in turn a part of an even larger language family, UteAztecan. This family includes Hopi, several languages from as far west as California and even the Aztecan languages in Mexico. The Uto-Aztecan languages, including Comanche, are a wide-spread and important linguistic family.

“Numunu” - The People Editor’s Note: “Numunu” has often been used in articles related to our friends of the Comanche nation. In this article, Johnny Wauqua enlightens us on the meaning of the word.

To themselves, the Comanche are “The People” from the word Numunu menacing “human being.” It was not because they failed to recognize other people as humans, but in the minds of the Comanches, others were less than Comanches and the Comanches were the People.

The English language had no word for them originally nor did

Eschiti Wildhorse

Whitewolf

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Parker

Moway

the Spanish. The Spaniards of New Mexico enjoyed first contact with the Comanche and gave the tribe the name by which they were later taught us to know the Comanche as the Comanches.

It was found that the Spanish learned the word from the Utes, who became the special enemies of the Comanches. In the Ute language, Comanche means “enemy.” The word is more exactly rendered “Komantcia,” which in a fuller sense means “anyone who Ten Bears wants to fight me all the time.”

Generically the Utes applied this term to the Comanches, whom they fought. The Spaniards applied the name and Americans picked it up.

The Comanches roamed an area of land of what is now known as Eastern Colorado, Southern Kansas, Western Oklahoma and the Northwest Texas, from the headwaters of the Arkansas River on to the north to the Rio Grande on the south, from the foothills of the Rock Mountains on the west to the Cross Timbers on the east, or the 98th meridian, total of more than 600 miles from North to South and 400 miles from the East and West. It was theirs to have and to hold, this was the “Comancheria” land of the Comanche.

In the sign language of the plains, the Comanche are known as the Snakes. The term is still in general use by the older members of the tribe.

There are two known oral traditions purporting to explain the origins of this term. One as reported by Quanah Parker, the last Comanche chief to surrender to the Americans, attributes it to a band

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of Comanches who were migrating across the mountains to the northwest in search of better hunting grounds. After several days journey, a number of people became dissatisfied, principally because of the colder climate. The leader called a council to calm the fear, but a part of the group could not be pursuaded. In a fit of anger, the leader compared the followers to a snake backing up its tracks. From that day, the universal sign for Comanche has been “snake going backward.”

The other version relates that when a wolf howled in front of a band of Comanches traveling south, part of the group considered it a warning to go no further and they turned back. The rest of the grou selected a new leader and continued their southward migration. Afterward, the southern group referred to those who turned back as “snakes.”

“The fierce bands of Comanche Indian were often the terror of whites and other Plains tribes, who on finding a Comanche footprint, customarily would turn and go in the opposite direction. For more than 150 years, the Comanches raided and pillaged and repelled all efforts to encroach on their hunting grounds, before surrendering to American military authorities in 1875. Today, an estimated 9,000 tribal members living near their former reservation in Oklahoma and as far away as Los Angeles, continue the Comanche spirit of Otter Belt adaptability.”

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The College of the

Muscogee Nation

The College of the Muscogee Nation has been awarded Initial Accreditation by the Higher Learning Commission, a major achievement for an institution of higher education that opened its doors a short 12 years ago. Since offering its first classes in 2004 by a partnership with the Oklahoma State University System through OSUIT, CMN has worked to create the foundation for accreditation by being fully involved in the process of self-assessment, evaluating programs and systems, consistent with HLC standards. “This is a historical event for the college and will benefit the tribal nation and younger generations as it continues to develop and grow,” stated CMN President Robert Bible.

The tribe has deep educational roots documented by the Chartering of Indian University (now Bacone) in 1881 by the Creek Council, and the Treaty of 1866 which Creek leaders negotiated to promote the building of educational facilities in Creek Nation. “It was these visionaries who started the legacy of education, and this institution is a monument to our Mvskoke ancestors,” said Dr. James King, Accreditation Liaison for CMN. The Muscogee (Creek) Nation chartered CMN in 2006 as its institution of higher education, furthering the educational legacy.

In the first trimester, twenty-seven students were enrolled in the two classes offered: Mvskoke Language and Native American History.

Since that time, the college has grown to include more than fifty courses taught each trimester, with an average student enrollment of more than 200.

The college established its own campus in 2010, moving from OSUIT into the newly constructed Education/Administration building, which includes classrooms, staff and faculty offices, the Learning Center, and the Student Success Center. Later expanding the campus to 32 acres, CMN

Muscogee Creek Faculty Member, Ronnie Sands, teaches CMN College Algebra class

CMN student presenting science research findings in Microbiology class

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CMN students practice bow shooting for national AIHEC Student Conference and competition

was able to build student housing units and the Student Center building, which features classrooms with retractable walls for conference space, a café, bookstore, fitness center, and expanded library.

Leading up to this point, to be accredited CMN has completed for the Higher Learning Commission: an Eligibility Study (2008), a successful interview for Accreditation Eligibility (2009), and a Preliminary Information Document (2011) to prepare for Candidacy. A Self-Study, site visit, and interview by the HLC Institutional Actions Council were completed as prerequisites for CMN Chronology Candidacy in 2012. In 2016, an Assurance Argument and 2004-2009 Accreditation site visit were completed, as well as the In• First Classes Fall 2004 stitutional Actions Council • Board of Regents held interview, with HLC’s Board first meeting in 2005 awarding accreditation. With • Chartered in 2006 this accreditation the col• First student graduated in 2006 lege has adopted a Strategic • Received HUD Grant for Plan to guide its growth and new building in 2007 development for the primary purpose of providing quality • Purchased 15 acres for education its students. campus in 2008 Achievements with the • MCN Constitution amended accreditation process enabled to include CMN in 2009 the college to receive Land 2010-Present Grant Status that was authorized by Congress in the 2014 • Moved into newly constructed Farm Bill. This designation building on CMN’s own campus provides funds for the colin 2010 lege extension services and • Second phase of construction competitive grants from the began with student residence United States Department of units in 2011 Agriculture Rural Develop• Became member of American ment. Accreditation has been Indian Higher Education a pinnacle in the CMN journey • Consortium and HLC approved to become a quality instituCandidacy in 2012 tion of higher education for • Construction of Student its students and the Muscogee Center and purchase of 10 acres (Creek) Nation. This has been to expand campus in 2013 a team effort with many tribal leaders, tribal communities, • Designated as Land Grant institution in 2014 and the higher education network assisting the college in • Established Cultural Community reaching the numerous mileGarden on campus in 2015 stones.

• Exceeded 200 students For more information enrolled in Fall 2015 about the college, please con• Graduated 34 students in 2016 tact the Office of Institutional • First Oklahoma tribal college to Effectiveness at 918-549receive Accreditation in 2016 2828.

The Shawnee Tribe Continuous warfare, vigilante violence, crippled subsistence economies: these and other factors disruptive to traditional life forced Shawnees from their various homelands east of the Mississippi River in the 18th century. As early as 1793, a group of conservative Shawnees took possession of a 625-square mile land grant from the Spanish government.

The tract lay south of present day St. Louis on the west side of the Mississippi at Cape Girardeau. The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 brought Cape Girardeau under American control. By 1815, some of the Shawnees who had relocated there moved west again, to Arkansas and Oklahoma, trying to stay beyond the negative impacts of white society. Meanwhile, some Shawnees who had stayed in Ohio began joining those at Cape Girardeau.

In 1817, the Treaty of Fort Meigs granted the Shawnees in Ohio three reservations totaling 173 square miles in the northwest part of the state: a tract of land 10 miles square at Wapakoneta, one 25 miles square at Hog Creek, and one 48 miles square for the Shawnees and their Seneca allies at Lewistown. By 1824, about 800 Shawnees still lived in Ohio, while 1,383 Shawnees were recorded living in Missouri; the latter proved too large a number for proponents of manifest destiny.

Thus, in 1824, Congress passed a law providing for the negotiation of treaties with the tribes west of the Mississippi. In 1825, General William Clark concluded, and Congress ratified, a treaty with the Cape Girardeau Shawnees, also known as Black Bob’s Band after their leader. Clark, who had been Meriwether Lewis’ partner in exploration, served as Missouri Territorial Governor from 1813-1820 and as Superintendent of Indian Affairs from 1822-1838. The 1825 Treaty ceded all the Shawnees’ Missouri lands to the United States in exchange for land in Kansas. The federal government had earlier wrested the Kansas Territory from the Kansas (Kaw) and Osage tribes.

The 1,600,000-acre Kansas reserve lay west of Kansas City and south of the Kaw River. The 1825 Treaty also set aside a portion of the Kansas reserve for those Shawnees still in Ohio, in the event they chose to emigrate.

Black Bob’s Band objected to this provision, which was kept secret from the conservative Missouri Shawnees until the treaty was concluded. Some Missouri Shawnees relocated immediately to Kansas; however, Black Bob’s Band headed southwest, living for a time along the White River in Arkansas and then later along the Cowskin River in southwest Missouri. Finally, in 1833, the US government threatened Black Bob’s Band with force if they did not remove to Kansas at once. Reluctantly, they did so.

Once Black Bob and the Missouri Shawnees signed the treaty obtaining the 1.6 million-acre Kansas reserve, scattered communities of Shawnees living east and west of the Mississippi began moving toward Kansas. This re-consolidation of Shawnee population lasted from 1825 until 1833.

During these years, one group of Shawnees relocated to Texas, northern Mexico, and eventually along the Canadian River in southern Oklahoma, forming the foundation of today’s Absentee Shawnee Tribe.

In 1826, about 200 Shawnees left Wapakoneta for Kansas, although the majority of the Ohio Shawnees remained behind. After a difficult, 2-year journey, they arrived in Kansas in May of 1828.

A long line of US presidents, beginning with Thomas Jefferson and including Andrew Jackson, were staunch advocates for the expulsion of all

Indians from the eastern United States. Jackson championed the passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and belligerently ignored Supreme Court rulings that sided with Indian landowners.

The Removal Act authorized the President to negotiate treaties that would replace tribal lands east of the Mississippi with lands west of the Mississippi.

The federal government warned tribes that failure to participate in these negotiations would result in the withdrawal of federal protection, leaving the Indians helpless at the hands of anti-Indian local and state jurisdictions.

In 1831, in this atmosphere of growing animosity, those Shawnees still in Ohio, most of whom were farming and raising stock near Wapakoneta and Hog Creek, signed a treaty giving them 100,000 acres within the Kansas Reserve acquired

by Black Bob in 1825. This acreage was eventually allotted to individuals and held in fee simple; Black Bob’s Band and other conservative Shawnees held their lands communally, in the traditional fashion. Many of the Ohio Shawnees were more assimilated to western ways than those Shawnees who had

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gone to Missouri in the 1790s. Philosophical differences between the progressive and conservative Shawnee groups contributed to an at-times uneasy coexistence for the next 40 years.

The Shawnees and their Seneca allies living at Lewistown, Ohio, also signed a treaty in 1831 whereby they agreed to move directly to Indian Territory (Oklahoma). The Lewistown group of Shawnees formed the foundation of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe, among the first of all the Indian tribes to eventually be relocated to Oklahoma. In 1832, a second group of Shawnees from Wapakoneta agreed to remove to the Kansas reserve. The next year, the Shawnees still at Hog Creek, who were the last Shawnees left in Ohio, also removed to Kansas. 1832 thus marked the year that the removal of the Shawnees to Kansas was essentially complete, as this was the same year that Black Bob’s Band was forced to finally leave Missouri and take up residence on the Kansas Reserve.

Although the federal government had promised the Shawnees that the Kansas Reserve would never be taken away, in 1854, the Maypenny Treaty reduced the size of the reservation to one tenth of its original 1.6 million acres. On February 8th, 1854, the Tribe elected its first civil government, consisting of a tribal Business Committee and a Chairman, having previously exercised traditional forms of governance. This form of civil governance exists to this day. Traditional forms of governance also have been maintained within the traditional community.

During the violent years of the Civil War, many Eastern Shawnee families fled Oklahoma Indian Territory to weather the War with their Kansas

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Shawnee relatives. The racist, sometimes physically brutal abuses perpetrated against the Kansas Shawnees by white Kansas settlers ultimately forced another relocation of the Kansas Shawnees deeper into the Southern Plains, to northeastern Oklahoma.

Indeed, the Civil War years are referred to as “the Reign of Terror against the Shawnees” by historians. Although the 1854 Shawnee Reserve in Kansas was never formally extinguished, nearly all the lands within it were sold off to white settlers and given as compensation to white Civil War veterans by 1870.

Numerous frauds and depredations to steal Shawnee lands were perpetrated in this process, sometimes by high-ranking politicians of the day.

The Shawnee Tribe was forced to enter into an agreement with Cherokee Nation, ratified by the federal government in 1869. The 1869 Agreement required Cherokee Nation to provide individual allotments, which were not given out until the early 1900s, after many of the Kansas Shawnees had already passed away. The 1869 Agreement also gave the former Kansas Shawnees citizenship in Cherokee Nation, although the Shawnees, the majority of whom settled primarily in and around White Oak and Bird Creek (Sperry), maintained separate Shawnee communities and separate Shawnee cultural and political identities.

After their move to Oklahoma, the former Kansas Shawnees became known as the Cherokee Shawnees, distinguishing them from the Eastern and the Absentee Shawnees, and later as the Loyal Shawnees, signifying the loyalty of those Shawnees who had remained longest in Ohio to the United States and later their loyalty to the Union during the Civil War. During the 1980s, initial efforts to separate the Shawnee Tribe from Cherokee Nation were explored. Serious efforts to achieve legal separation began in the 1990s. When Congress enacted the legislation known as Public Law 106-568, or the Shawnee Tribe Status Act of 2000, and President Clinton signed it as one of his final acts in office on December 28th, 2000, the Shawnee Tribe was “restored to its position as a separately recognized Indian tribe.”

Today, the Shawnee Tribe maintains headquarters in Miami, Oklahoma, and Shawnee, Kansas. Tribal enrollment is just under 2,000 members, with another 4,000 or so eligible to enroll who are currently enrolled in other tribes. The Shawnee Tribe is one of only three federally recognized Shawnee tribes; the other two are the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of West Seneca, Oklahoma, and the Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Shawnee, Oklahoma. These three tribes are the only recognized Shawnee Tribes and collectively make up the contemporary divisions of the historic Shawnee Nation.

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Sac and Fox Nation of Oklahoma The Sac and Fox Nation of Oklahoma (the Thakiwa) official emblem, designed by tribal member Delano Franklin in 1976, honors two great Sac and Fox members: warrior and leader Black Hawk and athlete Jim Thorpe.

On the emblem is the graphic representation of a black sparrow hawk. Printed on the black band between the hawk’s wing tips is “Ma Kai Tai Me She Kiakiak” (Black Sparrow Hawk). Black Hawk opposed the forced eviction of his Sauk people from their homelands that included 700 miles in Illinois, Missouri, and Wisconsin from Ouisconsin to Portage des Sioux. The heart of the territory was the village of Saukenuk, now Rock Island, Illinois where we lived beside the Mississippi River for over a century. Black Hawk rallied the Sauk and their allies and took a stand against the Americans in 1832 in what became known as the Black Hawk “war”.

Black Hawk is honored as a man of principle and honest who cared about the sovereign and spiritual rights of his people.

The colors black and white represent the two social classes whose memberships are determined by birth order: the Oskush and the Kisko.

James Francis “Jim” Thorpe is represented by the five Olympic rings above the hawk’s head.

Still remembered as one of the greatest athletes of all time and called “the greatest athlete in the world” by King Gustav V of Sweden, Thorpe overcame adversity to achieve greatness and never forgot his Sac and Fox teachings.

The shield on the hawk’s chest features the emblems of Spain, France, Britain, and the United States, the four nations with whom the Sac and Fox allied.

Native persons were not citizens of the United States until 1924. Therefore, at the time of Jim Thorpe’s 1912 Olympic victories, he was a citizen of the Sac and Fox Nation only.