Okemah

Interesting fact: Okemah was named after a Kickapoo Indian Chief and means "things up high." Kickapoo Indians were a transplant from expulsion from the Republic of Texas. A series of governmental actions (Dawes + Curtis Acts) further disrupted the cultural and tribal ways of the Kickapoo. They had settled in "Indian Country" on land that was originally occupied by Osage and Quapaw, then Creek Nation after Indian Removal. Shortly before statehood, Shawnee folks platted land from Creek Indians in this area. Today about 23% of Okemah population is Native American, mostly Muscogee Creek that has its own federally recognized space in Okemah named "Thlopthlocco Tribal Town." This band also was displaced from Alabama and Georgia and forced to move to Indian Territory.

Creek Stick Ball Players at Thlopthlocco Tribal Town near Okemah, Oklahoma - 1924

Interesting fact: Okemah was opened up to white settlers in 1902. Once cattle grazing lands, when the white folk came, the first building was built by Indians, and during the early days of the town, the whole town was enclosed by barbed wire fence to protect folks from the longhorn steers.

Interesting fact: Or horrifying truth: Shortly after the town was "organized" by white folk, vigilantes (40 white men- critical race theory be damned!) lynched a 35 year old black woman and her teenage son (1911). There are 4 extant photographs of this event. In keeping with the gross and inhumane times, the owner of the Okemah photography studio took the pictures and they became "lynching postcards" a common practice of the times.

The best fact about Okemah, at least according to my husband, is that it is where Woody Guthrie hails from, so we just had to stop by and say, "hi" to whatever Woodie spirits were left swirling around (hopefully good, b/c we had also visited his 5 year "home" at Greystone Park State Hospital in N.J., and let me tell you there was really bad juju there). Speaking of institutionalization, Woody Guthrie's mom was also institutionalized when Woody was a teenager (and subsequently died at the Oklahoma Hospital for the Insane in 1930). Little was known at the time of the hereditary Huntington's Disease that Woody also died from.

We pulled into town around dusk and the town looked worn and abandoned (Covid Pandemic made many small places seen on this trip appear to be almost-Ghost Towns).

It looks like this once almost important building/block is empty. Of course I admired the brick.

Our first sign of habitation was a few folks at... you guessed it- a cannabis dispensary. We saw them all over the place in our travels around the South Central Midwestern states of the US. You can also notice another common sight to the right of the dispensary= signs of oil production, also a common sight.

The Crystal looks now like a rough diamond vs. a diamond in the rough. Opened in 1920, remodeled in 1930 and sadly closed in 2020.

Signs of hideous urban renewal in downtown Okemah.

The back side of town wasn't too pretty.

In fact it was very rundown in many places.

Sadly we thought someone(s) were living in this place despite the boarded up windows.

The more "modern" backside of the main drag had these corrugated metal buildings.

We were thrilled to finally stumble upon humans out recreating! And they even appeared to be of a mixed hue of melatonin.

Then we had to drive around the block a few times to find Woody's childhood home. We were looking for vestiges of this:

Or see below: A sad little story in a sad little town.

The residence most identified with Guthrie was known as the London house, London having been the name of a previous owner. Woody left Okemah when he was around 17 and never returned. The house just stood there while Woody traveled the country and became famous. In the early 1960s, a man named Earl Walker bought the London property, hoping to preserve its connection to Woody Guthrie. Walker couldn’t raise the money to repair the house. Hell, the town wouldn’t even tolerate a “Woody Guthrie Corner” in the public library, for folks who wanted to read his published work. A dirty commie is a dirty commie, and to true believers in Okemah it didn’t matter that there was no proof Guthrie even belonged to the Communist Party — or any other party, for that matter. Civic leaders announced that the abandoned London place was becoming a hangout for winos and teenagers, and as such, was a public nuisance. Eventually, in the late 1970s, the town forced Walker to tear the place down.

Alas, this is what we found:

No idea who put up the homemade marker, but we sure were glad for it.

Woody's neighbor, I'm sure, has seen quite a few of us pesky out-of-towners riding around the neighborhood.

FINALLY WOODY!!!

and a side note from "The Denver Post" (2013):

Oklahoma town rebuilding Woody Guthrie’s boyhood home

Although many in the town were slow to embrace the famous folk singer and activist, there is now a whole "square" of downtown spaced devoted to Woody.

Including this statue, which actually got my hubby to smile! Built in 1998, The Woody Guthrie statue is now a pilgrimage destination. We certainly, unabashedly veered our travel path to include this stop.

Not one, but 2 plaques!

And a slightly faded mural too!

And a sort of little billboard announcing the annual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival, which began in 1998.

That is one happy tourist in this picture!

and with that we drove off into the sunset and onto the next stop in our Sojourn 2021 journey.

I knew a great deal about the Indian Removal Act before I went on my Summer 2021 Sojourn. I can also say I maybe knew a little about Indigenous folk being slave owners in the South. Just as I knew about Indian "Praying Towns" up North.

These were all a part of the "civilizing" of the "savages" (borrowed terms, not mine); Native folk acquiring the customs and ways of the white folk. Religious conversion I can maybe understand (and in fact really admire some of the blended spiritual practices that modern Indigenous Christian churches have), but I will never be okay with and/or understand the whole slave-owning thing, no matter who was enslaving whom.

So this new learning was something I wanted to poke around in for a bit. Much has been said, uncovered, and exposed about the tragedy-atrocity of what happened in Tulsa's vibrant black community (Greenwood District) in 1921, but I did not know that there were other small little all black or all red or even black and red mixed communities. I sought these spaces out.

TAFT OKLAHOMA

The Land Rush of 1889 in Oklahoma is trippy history. People literally lined up (about 50,000 of them) to get a piece of "unoccupied public land" (debating this is for another day) also known as "non-Indian settlement in sections of Indian Territory." There were "Black Boomers" or "Pioneers" were among the crowd of grabbers. They staked claims, created communities and called the soon-to-be state of Oklahoma (1907) home.

Taft started as an all-black town allotted to the freedmen of the Creek Nation. Yup, you read correctly. You know that long trail of tears that Indigenous folks took from the East to the West? Well apparently some of those folks were not only trailing tears, but were trailing slaves as well! Learning this really blew my mind. The complexities of our country are vast and extremely difficult to deconstruct. What did these "freed" people think of their enslavers? What did these Indigenous people think of outsiders coming to grab the very land they were forced onto?

I think for most blacks they saw this time as and event as opportunity to strike out on their own. And they did!

Between 1856 and 1920 more than 50 all-black towns were founded. Today, there are only 13 of these towns left in Oklahoma. We decided to visit Taft.

Taft mayor speaks

On our list (because I have a curious mind for how we treat folks with mental health issues) was the State Hospital for Negroes.

In 1932, Taft State Hospital was 1 of 7 psychiatric hospitals in the US exclusively for "insane and idiotic negroes."

From the: STATE OF OKLAHOMA ANNUAL REPORT 1956

TAFT STATE HOSPITAL Population: 812 Male 410 Female 402

LOCATION: This institution is located at Taft, Muskogee County, Oklahoma, on Highway 62 and 64. Taft has an exclusive population of 700 colored people.

TYPE OF INSTITUTION: Taft State Hospital is an institution for the treatment and care of mentally ill and mentally retarded Negroes. Because all types of mental disorders are treated here, the patient population is made up of all age groups. This is the only mental hospital for colored patients in Oklahoma.

HISTORY: The hospital building was begun in the year 1932, during the administration of Governor William H. Murray. The original hospital consisted of one building approximately one-fourth mile in length, divided into 10 wards and 4 infirmaries, with the center portion of the building being used for administrative offices and dormitories for the employees. The building was completed in the year 1933 and was formally opened March 15, 1934. The patients were admitted by transfer from Central State Hospital, Norman, Oklahoma April 1, 1934. During the year 1951 new buildings were added, the money for the building was obtained from former Governor Roy J. Turner's Bond Issue Program. These buildings are as follows: Nurses Home, Henry Hall, Mental Retarded School and classrooms. Occupational Therapy Building and Medical Center. The medical center consists of five wards which are sub-divided into cubicles-doctor's offices, examination rooms, drug room, x-ray, dental offices, operating room and accessory rooms.

DEAF, BLIND AND ORPHAN INSTITUTION Taft, Oklahoma Population: 212

TYPE OF INSTITUTION: This institution is a home for dependent, neglected deaf, blind and orphan Negro children, under the age of eighteen years. The school for the deaf and blind Negro children is a section of this institution. The age distribution is from infancy to eighteen years.

As we drove into town this is what we saw:

We were a bit confused because it was close to the address we were looking for. So the rest of the story goes:

It was built in 1932 as a mental hospital for African-American patients. Since then, it has been a tuberculosis sanitarium, a juvenile girls facility, and a co-ed home. ODOC took over the facility in 1980 from the Oklahoma Department of Human Services. The minimum-security facility houses more than 1,100 male inmates.

Then we espied the buildings; Some in front new, but also the original buildings in back. With a fence all around and I knew there was no convincing my husband to let me talk our way in.

So we did the next best thing, which was to make a right turn on the only side street around. It was a tiny piece of street named Grant that was an un-named dead ender and at the end this is what we saw (hubby became very anxious when a black woman stepped out on her doorstep and just stared at us.

What on earth was this??? Is it still something or vacant?

2010 population: 250

Once upon a time Taft had two newspapers, the Enterprise and the Tribune. The first mayor, Charlie Ford, owned Ford’s Cotton Gin, and W. R. Grimmett operated a sawmill northwest of town. Before 1910 the community supported three general stores, one drugstore, a brickyard, a soda pop factory, a livery stable, a gristmill, a lumberyard, two hotels, a restaurant, a bank, and a funeral home.

The sign must be dated a bit, as the population figure is incorrect. Also, although Ms. Davis is still alive, she is not currently mayor. Also her election and "first" status predated another black female "Davis" mayor (Doris Davis of Compton, CA later in the same year, 1973).