Some American Indians Won't Be Celebrating State's 100th Birthday Next Year

Tuesday, December 19th 2006, 3:17 pm

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) As the state prepares to mark its 100th birthday next year with parades, fireworks and festivals, the grand celebration is also opening decades-old wounds for some American Indians.

Tribal leaders and scholars say the centennial isn't a time for celebration because Oklahoma became the 46th state in 1907 through the dismantling of tribal territories, once guaranteed to American Indian nations by the U.S. government, but brushed aside as western expansion caught fire in the late 1800s.

Years earlier, tribes had been removed from ancestral lands in the Southeast and relocated to what is now Oklahoma. The most egregious of these relocations occurred with the 1,000-mile Cherokee Trail of Tears.

Children re-enact land runs on school playgrounds without learning about what happened to make those events possible, as if the tribes disappeared in some sort of vacuum at the time of statehood, scholars say.

``(It's) part of the triumphal narrative of American history, that Western progress and the Manifest Destiny doctrine was alive and well,'' says Clara Sue Kidwell, professor and director of the Native American Studies Program at the University of Oklahoma. ``It's the triumph of human beings over the land ... so little is taught about the native peoples of the land and the opening of Indian territory to white settlement.''

Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chad Smith, who recently wrote an editorial in two local newspapers reminding Oklahomans to remember all the state's history, said reflecting on the past 100 years isn't necessarily a time to celebrate. Instead, it gives the state and the tribes an opportunity to build a stronger Oklahoma for the next 100, Smith says.

``We should remind the general public that there were 39 governments here in place before the state of Oklahoma was established,'' he says.

The Cherokee Nation, which occupies 14 counties in northeastern Oklahoma, is the largest tribe in Oklahoma, and the second largest in the U.S.

But even Oklahoma's smaller Indian governments say the centennial should not be something to celebrate.

``The birth of Oklahoma was the destruction of my tribe,'' said Ponca Nation Tribal Chairman Dan Jones. ``I think the celebration has to include some kind of acknowledgment by the state that it wasn't all great for everyone that lived in the region called 'Oklahoma,â€™_ it was Indian Territory.''

Teaching that full account might be difficult in a state that was created amid a pioneering, ``Go West'' spirit during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt.

Bill Corbett, history professor at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, the tribal capital for the Cherokee Nation, said explaining how Oklahoma became a state at the expense of American Indian governments and land holdings is complicated to teach to kids.

``If these ideas of the Indian perspective were to be imparted to elementary school children, it has to be done in a very basic way,'' said Corbett, who teaches a course on the history of the Five Civilized Tribes, among others.

Kidwell, who is affiliated with the Choctaw and Chippewa tribes, said Oklahomans have a kind of ``built-in inferiority complex'' because of the Dust Bowl and the perception of ``Okies,'' so it becomes important through the centennial to show off how far their state has come.

``It's something that Oklahomans seem to feel like they have to make up for, this great celebration becomes part of that, a chance to glorify our state and our accomplishments,'' she says.

J. Blake Wade, executive director of the Oklahoma Centennial Commission, said organizers hope American Indians understand next year's event is ``not trying to change history.''

``We understand why they feel the way they feel,'' Wade said.

He agreed with the scholars that more needs to be done to present a fuller picture chronicling Oklahoma statehood.

``(The curriculum) should be looked at and changed to read the way it historically was,'' he said.

Meanwhile, at least one tribal leader said the centennial should be celebrated.

``The Chickasaw Nation is excited about the Oklahoma Centennial celebration,'' said Chickasaw Nation Gov. Bill Anoatubby.

``Oklahoma has experienced an incredible first century. We have seen remarkable progress, and it is important that we embrace the success of our past as we look forward to the opportunities in our future.''

The Chickasaw Nation is one of the sponsors of Oklahoma's centennial, and Anoatubby says the tribe chose to do so because all Oklahomans should contribute something to the state.