The Oklahoma Land Steal?

Native Americans marched past the Capitol in Oklahoma City protesting "100 years of theft" during statehood centennial observances last November.AP Photo/The Oklahoman, Michael McNutt, file photo

The Oklahoma Land Steal?

By Mark Francis

OKLAHOMA CITY—A group of Oklahoma Indians are on a quest to right history by conducting a parade to counter the state's celebration of the Oklahoma Land Run.

Organizers say they hope the April 12 parade here will raise awareness that Oklahoma history books are incorrect, along with history books in general, when it comes to Native Americans and the Great Land Rush of 1889.

The parade is sponsored by the Society to Preserve the Indigenous Rights and Indigenous Traditions (S.P.I.R.I.T.), made up of members of Native American tribes who support Native issues, families, personal education and human rights.

"We are looking for something to give our people to have pride in," said Brenda Golden, a Muscogee tribal member from Tulsa, Okla. "Some don't know who they are themselves, and the kids don't have anything to hold onto."

The parade, whose theme is "Honoring Our Past — Capturing Our Future," will take place the weekend before area land run re-enactments.

More than 2 million acres of land in Indian Territory were opened on April 22, 1889, for settlement during the first of five Oklahoma land runs. Up to 75,000 people surrounded the area to stake their claim for fewer than 12,000 homesteads between 1889 and 1895.

A S.P.I.R.I.T press release states that after the Civil War, tribes were forced to sell their land to the federal government for 60 cents to $1.25 an acre; the government said it would relocate other groups onto the land but never did. Many U.S. citizens regarded the lands as unassigned and, thus, public domain that should be opened for settlement.

Golden said S.P.I.R.I.T. formed in Shawnee, Okla., and members began brainstorming ideas to show the truth behind the land runs. "We want things to be different," Golden said. "We want as many non-Natives as Natives to see our parade so we can educate, and maybe get their attention."

Golden said the parade will be the first of its kind in the state, and the response from state tribal members has been good. Several tribes and individuals will be participating, she said.

Kathryn Hatcher, Chickasaw, said the event will be a positive way to educate the public. "It's a public event to show the traditional, cultural and historical aspects of the American Indian and their feelings of the land run," Hatcher said.

Marilyn Grammer, a non-Native, said she got involved in S.P.I.R.I.T. because of its educational value. She said she has children in the school system and knows the curriculum doesn't tell the story truthfully—and it has haunted her for some time. "It's offensive to me as a human being," Grammer said.

Grammer said textbooks will be coming up for re-adoption in 2012, and she would like to see changes in the books as another way to show the truth about the land runs. She said the parade is a reflection of that change.

"It's not just for Indian kids, but for all of them," Grammer said. "It's to help them understand, which will benefit us later on."

The two-hour parade is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. at the Oklahoma Land Run Memorial in Oklahoma City. For more information, contact Golden at (405) 570-7752, or visit the S.P.I.R.I.T Web pages at groups.yahoo.com/group/okspirit and www.myspace.com/oklaspirit.

Mark Francis, Muskogee, is a graduate student studying English at East Central University in Ada, Okla. He is a graduate of the Freedom Forum's American Indian Journalism Institute and a former reporter at The Daily Ardmoreite in Ardmore, Okla.

Ignorance

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 2008-04-30 19:15.

"Haven't these people got better things to do than whine and moan about the land run? They still get free checks, free college educations, free medical care, free food, and free money (from the casinos) and still b***ch about how they were mistreated. Get a life!"

This is one of the comments from the Oklahoman. (http://newsok.com/article/3233688/1208918971)
It was an article titled "Group denounces school land-run re-enactments".

I am all the way in Montana and to read what these people wrote is very hurtful and i feel sorry for them because they have lack of knowledge and are very ethnocentric. How would the "non Indian" people feel if we wanted to re-enact what happened at pearl harbor or something?

Than again they always say it is history get over it. Well so was the Holocaust, Jewish people should just get over that too than right?

Oklahoma( The truth)

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 2008-04-11 09:35.

I live here in tulsa oklahoma Im from the east coast a place called logan I would like to say what they say here is the truth there land was stolen and they did suffer.
My great Grandmother told me the stories of her great grandfather and how our Native american familie Lived.
I will never forget the day she was brushing my hair and just looking at me she began to tell me the story of her great grandfather.She said the white men came into his tribe
and began killing and tieing ropes around there necks as if they was dogs.the white men rape there women and killed there children even rapeing 9 year old girls. stealing takeing and burning everything.she told me that her greatgrand father was the son of the tribel cheif
that he watched them beat him in the head with gun handels
then set him on fire.then he watched them agine and agine
rape his mother. he then ran like the wolf and jumped into a creek and went under to hide himself from the white man. then he ran deep into the West virgina mountains.thats where he raised our familie great grandmother told me. she said he did a dance around a fire and spoke to the high spirts and begged for a way to hide his familie from the white man So that there would never be any more hearts on the ground.Thats when she looked at me and said the spirts did hear him and they sent the spirt of the white buffalo and I ask my grandmother how she knew this She told me because I was born.She said just look at you! hair of corn
eyes of sky. skin of white buffalo she said you are the one
that will bring back our land for you are hidden from the white man. protected by high spirts.she told me to notice that everything I plant grows and when I get angery Storms come in .yet never come close to me.to harm me in any way
Native Americans blood is all over this land .May i ask you this Why is it ok for white man to keep stealing our land as if they have the right. there goverment still thinks it ok.ITS NOT OK.they are still pushing us out.look around white men. black men,mexican. men there all here killng our water .our air and sucking the life out of land with each oil well that goes up.there killing us still.Its a real shame that we have a goverment that gives white men our land and sold it as if it was theres to sell.In todays courts you just can't take a white mans home and make him leave.BECAUSE HE OWNS IT.ITS HIS HOME.They sure was not thinking that away when they burnt my famile and rape them and took them from there homes and stole there land. .The white men are untrue and unjust.they will destory everything and take all they can.
We must stop them Why (BECAUSE WE WAS HERE FIRST)

to anonymous: an apology

Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 2008-04-12 07:54.

Please know that some whites are truly sorry for what members of our race did in this country and so many others. I am personally doing what I can as an author of children's literature to make sure that kids know the truth. My own children are outraged, and I pray that somehow my family can give back to Native Americans some of the dignity, if not the land, that is their due.

M. Brown

Great work, I hope all attend the Parade

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 2008-04-09 13:17.

Mark,

Thanks for writing the article on the animal kingdom It's sad how our local newspapers will hardly give us the time of day and the media here needs to come to the terms that Indian people are not just an object or an inconveniences. They are people who are educated and who are not going to sit still and be told what they can and can not do when in concerns the welfare of their own people.

When it comes to the Land Run, people who truly don't understand why Indain people may have a negative attitude about this celebration could be what was taught in the school, or they may have not lost people of the family linage over the land, and for those that purchased the land in was done so in an unethical way, or with the intention of mis perception.

We don't celebrate the Holocaust, Dalfur, Rwanda, and the extinctions of animals or others creatures because of the population taking over their habitat.

If we look at what the United nations explains are acts of genocide we will see that these measures have been and still are taking place among Indians in many ways

Genocide any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group; "

How many Tribes are in a serious trouble over the population of their members because of the CDIB program, economic factors, and other programs like the

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

I see Mental harm is something that many disuse as a problem for the drop out rate for Indians in the educations systems, or by stereotyping which can being overlooked for better paying jobs that can lead to not having the medical care that a good paying job would offing in turn again being denied services to continue decline in health. You don't have to do physical damage to kill a population. we understand that this can be done slowly over time we see it everyday in our communities.

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

Well do we need to add anything here. I see it a s something we all can connect to as natives.

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

We have already seen this in the past with the in1970s showed that the public health system, primarily the IHS, was sterilizing American Indian women without their knowledge or informed consent.

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Oh well here we going again with those great boarding schools and adopting out Indian children to non Indian families.

– Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Article II

There is so much that I still see as a problem for the native Indians and I hope this parade will be a day of celebration of still being here to speak for those who no longer can as well as to educate people about what is really happening and to challenge their minds to step outside of the box and think for themselves.

Thank you again

Kathryn Hatcher Oklahoma city

Reznet

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