Oklahoma: A Story Through Her People

Left: George Catlin’s 1836 painting Cler-Mont, Chief of the Osages.
Clermont was a friend of the early American explorers in Oklahoma
and welcomed First Lieutenant James B. Wilkinson, the first official
American representative to enter Oklahoma, to his village in the fall of
1806. Like most Osage, Clermont’s ears had been pierced to support
huge earrings that distended his ear lobes with their weight.
COURTESY OF THE GILCREASE MUSEUM.
Below: Traditional Seminole artist Fred Beaver’s painting
Seminoles Making Sofkey. Sofkey is a traditional Seminole and
Creek food staple made by pounding corn into corn meal and then
boiling it. After cooling, the meal was dripped through wood ashes
and then ground nuts, such as hickory, and bone marrow, were
added to form the finished food product. The Seminoles were the
last of the Five Tribes to be removed to Oklahoma, with the final
band making the journey in 1858. The war fought over their
removal was the longest and most costly Indian war in American
history. Spread over seven years, the Great Seminole War involved
40,000 American troops and cost between $30 million and
$40 million.
COURTESY OF THE GILCREASE MUSEUM.
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