Oklahoma Indians to protest on Statehood Day
Some Oklahoma Indians won't be celebrating November 16, the 100th anniversary of Oklahoma's Statehood.
A group is organizing the Survival Walk and Protest on the Oklahoma Centennial. "We don't want people to forget how our ancestors were treated and brought here, that this was our land first," Brenda Golden told KOCO News.
The walk will start at 9am on Friday, November 16, at the State Capitol in Oklahoma City.
For more information, visit: http://www.koco.com/news/14524129/detail.html
Native American Group To Protest On Okla. Statehood Day
POSTED: 12:49 pm CST November 6, 2007
OKLAHOMA CITY -- A group representing some Native Americans across Oklahoma plans to protest the state's centennial on Nov. 16.
Events are planned all day and all across the state that day. Oklahoma became a state on Nov. 16, 1907.
However, Brenda Golden said Native Americans have been absent from Oklahoma Centennial Commission promotions.
"Everything that I had seen in the press was cowboys, astronauts, land runs (and) oil wells. Where is the history of our people?" she asked.
Oklahoma Centennial Commission Deputy Director Jeanie McCain Edney said her group was careful to include everybody.
"Oklahoma history is certainly Native American history," Edney said.
She said Statehood Day will begin with the first Oklahomans on Nov. 15.
"A very special ceremony, a sunset ceremony in which all 39 tribes and nations in Oklahoma will come together," Edney said.
Golden said her group still plans to protest, and with no objection from the centennial commission.
"In fact, I think it might strengthen and add to that event because, again, we're hearing from another vantage point or viewpoint about Oklahoma history," Edney said.
"We don't want people to forget how our ancestors were treated and brought here, that this was our land first," Golden said.
The protestors said they plan to walk to the state Capitol next Friday morning, although they haven't decided from where that walk will begin.
Copyright 2007 by koco.com
http://newsok.com/article/3164749/1194286563
Indians plan centennial protest walkThe Oklahoman
Nov. 5, 2007
Not everyone plans to celebrate Oklahoma statehood day Nov. 16.
A group of American Indians is planning to protest the celebration with a "survival walk” to the Capitol, to remind everyone what happened to their ancestors and the "real history of Oklahoma Indians and Indian Territory.”
Brenda Golden, member of the Muscogee Creek nation and protest organizer, said she could not sit quietly while the only mention or acknowledgement of the victimization of her people was a re-enacted land run and mock wedding ceremony, between Mr. Oklahoman Territory and Miss Indian Territory.
She started organizing members to try to bring awareness to what American Indians lost, with the settlement and statehood of Oklahoma.
Marching under the banner of "Why Celebrate 100 Years of Theft” the protestors will gather at 9 a.m. Nov. 16 at NW 16 and Lincoln, and then walk to the Capitol, she said.
One of the more outspoken members of the protest is Gerald D. Tieya, of the Comanche Nation. He compares asking an American Indian to celebrate the Oklahoma Centennial with asking a Jew to celebrate Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass in 1938 when Jewish homes were ransacked in numerous German and Austrian cities.
"Our part of the story, the part where our lands are invaded and stripped away from us, and the part where our cultures are attacked, the part where our peoples' lives are trampled and forever altered by this encroachment of land hungry invaders is always conveniently neglected or overshadowed,” Tieyah said.
For information on the protest, visit www.myspace.com/mvskoke_lady or contact Brenda Golden by e-mail at
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or by phone at (405) 570-7752
©2007 Produced by NewsOK.com
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