Small Oklahoma city is centre of Native American culture and history

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About an hour southwest of Oklahoma City is Anadarko, a city of 6,600, which is home to almost a dozen attractions based on the rich Native history of the Oklahoma Territory. For those with an interest in Plains Indian culture, there can be few places that can offer as many opportunities to experience it or to learn about it.

"Anadarko is the Indian capital of the nation," said the city's mayor Marilyn Shannon. "Anadarko was named after the Nadarko Indians, and is the home of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Indian Agency for the tribes of western Oklahoma. We are also the host city for the annual American Indian Exposition in August."

The exposition is held at the Caddo County Fairgrounds in Anadarko, and includes parades, a pageant, greyhound and horse racing, a champion war dance contest as well as contest traditional dancing. This year's edition - the 66th - will run from Aug. 4 to 9, Shannon said.

Perhaps the most interesting permanent attraction in Anadarko is the National Hall of Fame for Famous American Indians. Founded in 1952, the hall features some 40 bronze busts along the one-kilometre "walk of the Famous American Indians." The hall was conceived as a permanent memorial and celebration of Native American excellence.

The walk begins inside a visitor centre containing busts of Ousamequin, Sitting Bull, Opothle Yahola and Black Hawk, then continues outside. Each bust is accompanied by a brief history of the famous Native American and an introduction to his or her tribe.

Qualified Native Americans can be nominated by any person, organization or group, and this has resulted in a representative gathering of Native historical role models from across the United States. The hall contains busts of Native Americans made famous in various ways and from many periods of history: Pocahontas, Geronimo and Hiawatha are honored alongside such relatively modern inductees as T.C. Cannon, Pascal Poolaw and Mitchell Red Cloud, Jr.

Almost every year, a member is added to the hall and a bust dedicated to him or her. The last Kiowa chief, Apeahtone, also named Wooden Lance and Kills With A Lance, was the most recent honoree; his bust was dedicated in May 1996.

The hall is located on Highway 62 east of the centre of town. Admission is free and the hall is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Call (405) 247-5555 for information.

Indian City U.S.A. is a vast outdoor museum with a series of reconstructions of American Indian villages laid out in a natural setting. These provide an insight into the daily life, religion and social life of the people who would have lived in the seven different villages, six representative of Plains Indian tribes and one of a nomadic hunting tribe from the deserts of the Southwest. Each village also includes artifacts on display in many of the dwellings, and the facility is used for a number of annual ceremonials and traditional ceremonies.

Unfortunately, Indian City U.S.A. also includes a number of side-show-like displays, including the Buffalo Gap Exotic Animal Drive-Thru, a petting zoo, a restaurant featuring "buffalo burgers" and "Indian tacos," the Thunderbird Campground (with swimming pool and picnic grounds) and a craft store.

Indian City U.S.A. is located about four km south of Anadarko. There are guided tours every 45 minutes beginning at 9:30 a.m. by "Indian guides." Admission is charged and there are fees for many of the attractions, which are open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day in the summer. Call (405) 247-5661 or 1-800-433-5661 for information.

In Anadarko, adjacent to the National Hall of Fame for Famous American Indians, is the Southern Plains Indian Museum and Craft Shop, which is administered by the United States Department of the Interior. The museum displays Native art and craft products from the Southern Plains Indians, including past and present traditional material and contemporary Native art.

It is open from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, and is free. In winter, the museum is closed on Mondays. For information, call (405) 247-6221.

Downtown Anadarko is historically interesting - more than 100 of the buildings in the centre of the city are listed on the National Register for Historic Places. Many buildings date from between 1900 and 1930, and represent the decorative territorial and early statehood forms of architecture.

"All of the buildings are old downtown," Shannon said. "We have what we call the main street program, under which many of them have been restored to their original appearance." The sidewalks are decorated with a Native American mosaic design and the street lighting replicates lighting used in Anadarko in 1906.

Downtown is also the site for the Anadarko Philomathic Museum, which contains a repository of items used by the city's early citizens, both Native and non-Native. It is housed in the old Rock Island Railroad station, is open from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. daily, except Mondays, and is free. "Philomathic," by the way, comes from the name of a service club in the city.

Anadarko, though, is not just a museum passing itself off as a city. It is still one of the active centres of Native American activity in Oklahoma. The post office, for example, is decorated with 16 murals by the internationally known "Kiowa Five" artist Stephen Mopope. There are a dozen or so arts and crafts shops in Anadarko, and about half as many antique shops.

The Riverside Indian School is just northwest of Anadarko, and is the oldest U.S. Indian Service boarding school still in operation. The school began in 1871 when a Quaker Indian agent started the school with eight children.

In and around the city are six tribal complexes, including the Apache Tribal Complex in Anadarko; the Caddo Tribal Complex south of Binger, Oklahoma; the Delaware Tribal Complex Library and Museum north of Anadarko; the Kiowa Tribal omplex and Museum located just west of Carnegie, Oklahoma; the Fort Sill Apache Complex north of Apache, Oklahoma; and the Wichita Complex north of Anadarko.

Anadarko has plenty to offer the traveler interested in historical or contemporary Native American culture. For information on the city and area, contact the Anadarko Chamber of Commerce by mail at P.O. Box 366, Anadarko, OK 73005, U.S.A., or by phone at (405) 247-6652. For visitors, the chamber office is located at Mission and Kentucky in Anadarko.