I've already mentioned the fact that we were “recycling” materials used the previous year for the Cathedral's VBS. The theme was “Under the Same Sky”, and was intended as a celebration of humanity's diversity (specifically, racial diversity). Each day was supposed to focus on a different ethnic group: Thursday was focused on Hispanics, and several parts of the day were bilingual (Spanish/English). Friday was focused on Native Americans, and parts of our presentation were offered in Choctaw, if memory serves.
The speaker was Blu Clark, a historian. Blu is an impressive individual on his own, but for me part of his fame derives from his mother, who was instrumental in the movement to include David Pendleton Oakerhater on the Episcopal calendar of saints. The day partially revolved around the communion service, and in place of a scripture, Blu related a story from David Pendleton's life:
David was a brave warrior, but he was eventually captured and sent to prison in Florida with other Enemy Combatants. Capt. Parker, the military warden, believed it was possible to educate these men, and arranged for teachers. Among these teachers was Mary D. Burnham, and the better-known Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Now, David was fascinated by the white man's inventions, and was anxious to learn more about them. However, he was not prepared for what he learned this particular day. In the process of discussing medical advances, the teacher took out her false teeth. Well, this started quite a stir in the class. The class had never seen a person remove parts of themselves before. Why, who knew if the teacher might not remove her leg or arm next!?
The class started talking among themselves, in their native tongue, trying to understand what had happened. Finally, one of the teachers was able to break through the growing din to ask what the class was talking about. One of the students pointed at the main teacher and said, "She's bad", meaning she was not whole.
Well, when the teachers figured out what this meant, they were quite amused. Doubled up in laughter, in fact. By this point, Capt. Parker could hear the noise and came to the classroom to find 2-3 women doubled over. His first thought was that the Indians had attacked their teachers, and he drew his revolver. Happily, one of the teachers regained her composure sufficiently to tell him all was well.
My history lesson continued that afternoon. A group of about nine people went with Indian Missioner Jim Knowles to visit sites associated with the original Whirlwind Mission and St. David.
Now, I have a lousy sense of direction, and I couldn't begin to tell you where the original Whirlwind Mission was in relation to Watonga. We drove east of Watonga for between 45 minutes to an hour before we reached what is now mostly cattle ranches. Though we saw the Whirlwind Cemetery first, I'll show you the mission first:
The reason this is known as Whirlwind is because Chief Whirlwind donated the land to the Episcopal Church. Later, when it became important to have a Biblically-associated name, it became Whirlwind Mission of the Holy Family. The mission also served as a day school. The day school was intended for Indian children who were too sick to attend boarding school. At the boarding school, the children were not allowed to speak any language other than English, and were not allowed to practice their native ways.
At the Whirlwind Mission day school, where David Pendleton served as headmaster, the families camped around the mission or along the ridge. The children simply walked back “home” at the end of each day. They still spoke their native language while they learned English, and still practiced their traditions even as David taught them about the new chief, Jesus, whom he had chosen to follow.
It was amazing how many children in the area were too sick to attend the boarding school.
Here, you see the sign for the cemetery, which is south of, and across a creek from, the Mission. There are only three stones in this plot, one of which is a stele listing the names of all the people known to have been buried here. The Plains Indians did not mark their resting place. Many tribes set corpses on stilts and burned them; others left them exposed to be consumed by birds of prey.
Somewhere near Fay, OK is a sort of "free" cemetery, which is where David Pendleton, and many members of his family are buried. The cemetery was originally owned by a Baptist church, but the church let the deed run out. There is no record of ownership at this time.
The cemetery is amazingly historical. Furthest from the road are the oldest graves, dating from the early 1800s. David's stone is, perhaps, a quarter of the way from the back. Some may think a saint of the church should have a more impressive stone; but I think this stone is just fine. Even better is the near-by tree.
Diagonal from David's plot is the stone for Standing Twenty, a powerful medicine woman who lived around the same time. There are few women's names recorded in this cemetery, so the fact that her name is indicates how special she was.
Jim related two stories that illustrated her power as a medicine woman:
The Sun Dance is a sacred ceremony which takes place during July. It's very bad for it to rain during the Sundance (logically enough), and this particular year storm clouds were threatening.The other story is a bit more incredible:
The tribe called on Standing Twenty, and she came out with her herbs, which she tossed to the eight directions as she chanted. After she had chanted for some time, the clouds parted. Jim said he believed that if Moses could part the Red Sea, Standing Twenty could part the storm clouds.
A woman's friend was suffering a stomach ailment, probably cancer. The woman brought her friend to a sweat lead by Standing Twenty. Sometime after Standing Twenty had closed the door to the lodge, a beaver worked its way in. The beaver walked across the hot rocks, straight for the one with stomach cancer. The beaver clawed her stomach open, reached his head in, and pulled out a foul mass. He took the mass, walked back to the stones, and beat the mass on the glowing stones for some time. The afflicted person somehow survived all this, and lived for several years to come.
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