Former state senator honored with Oklahoma's Spirit Award

(Oklahoma City-AP) -- Former state Senator Enoch Kelly Haney is the recipient of the 2003 Oklahoma Spirit Award. <br><br>Haney received the honor Monday at the state's 6th-annual Native American Heritage

Tuesday, November 18th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

(Oklahoma City-AP) -- Former state Senator Enoch Kelly Haney is the recipient of the 2003 Oklahoma Spirit Award.

Haney received the honor Monday at the state's 6th-annual Native American Heritage Celebration in the state Capitol rotunda.

He won the award for sculpting the towering bronze American Indian statue that tops the Capitol dome.

Haney beat out a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, twin medical students, a world champion arm wrestler and seven others.

Haney's statue, named The Guardian, stands 17 feet from head to toe and holds a staff that is more than 22 feet tall. It took ten months to make and required four-thousand pounds of bronze.

Haney, of Seminole, served 22 years in the Legislature while building an international reputation as an artist. He won the commission for the Capitol statue in a blind competition.

The Guardian was hoisted to the top of the new Capitol dome June 7th, 2002.