Sojourn 2021: Bearing Witness or seeking truth to power at Indian Territory: Part 3, on the road to Fairfax, Oklahoma (July 2022)

 Fairfax

After we took the left turn onto Highway 18, the topography changed. Still had rolling hills, but now more vegetation and trees.

This small community came to be called Fairfax in 1903 when a railroad was built that passed right through the Osage Reservation. The RR bypassed the Osage village of Grey Horse (more on that at a future blog).  

The Osage had/have many bands and their numbers and ancestral lands have diminished. They were displaced, evicted, and infected (smallpox epidemic) in their tumultuous history since European contact. Long before their arrival in the "Indian Territory," they had been trading and intermarrying with French traders. Other white immigrants soon arrived and set up trading posts amongst the Osage on their "new" reservation land in Oklahoma. Marriage "alliances" had been going on for some time, and as such their were many "mixed bloods" around the region. A white merchant who was among the Osage in Grey Horse, Lew A. Wisemeyer, was the person who finagled a deal to start the town of Fairfax on 40 acres. He also was instrumental in getting the newly formed railroad to bypass Grey Horse and stop in Fairfax. Oh those ambitious capitalist white men!  

This looked like an old well that was once upon a time used as advertisement as well.
We were unsuccessful at guessing at any of the old, faded lettering.

I'm sure the sign likely was an advertisement to entice the driver to come to town for some sort of service. As the intermingling of peoples happened more and more at the turn of the 20th century, you find European cultural dominance in many ways. Education was largely "missionary" run with an unspoken tenet to inculcate the Indians to European ways (in language, dress, etc.), land ownership was shifted from tribal to individual allotments, and more and more marriage alliances were happening. However, the Osage are resilient people. They had/have traditions they have passed on through the generations and have blended new traditions for modern times. We came to see what was out in the rural Osage land. 

This property is right before the "Welcome to Fairfax" sign. No  way to make out what it is/was. A ranch? Is it Osage owned? The nuanced history of the area and lack of people to ask made it hard to figure out much of what we were seeing. 

On the road to Kah-Wah-Z Country Club

Kah-Wah-Z is a public, 9-hole golf course designed by Chief Yellowhorse in 1922. By this time, the oil boom, marriage alliances, "adoption of" or acculturation to Anglo practices led to many changes in the way indigenous communities lived. Many of the Osage adopted some of the trappings of our USA classist practices such as elite golf courses with country clubs. 

We were astounded, amazed, and amused to see a working derek on the course. An indication to us the importance that oil has in certain areas of our country. Such a huge construct to wrap my New England brain around. 

Definitely gawkers, with car idling and iphone at the ready, but these youthful golfers didn't seem to mind.

surprise on the golf course

The clubhouse, like the course, was not your average Country Club. It seemed pretty chill.

Sporting the parked older truck which we saw a great deal of in many yards and businesses.

Older truck

Unique mailbox up in the golf course area as well. I began to replace the historical adage for the South of "Cotton is King" with "Oil is King."