The highlight of this blog was The Chickasaw Nation home at Sulphur, OK. We were not fully aware of how the native American Indians were herded to Oklahoma and how the different tribes acted and reacted to these displacements. From what we were about to learn the Chickasaw seems to be a story of making a success from a bad situation.
After departing from OKC we headed further south seeking warmth. We partially succeeded but it still wasn’t enough but we’re still heading south as I type this. Just south of OKC we passed the Winstar Casino. In the first 3 photos ALL of those buildings you can see are part of the casino. It is reported as the largest casino in the world. We turned off Highway 35 at Davis and stopped for a look at the Chickasaw Information Centre which has a huge statue of a Chickasaw Warrior out front. There is also the Bedre’ Chocolate factory there, both of these are owned by the Chickasaw Nation (CN). After gathering bucket loads of tourist info we carried on the short trip to Sulphur, OK, and our stay at Arbuckle RV Resort.
The next 30 pics are all taken at the Chickasaw Nation Cultural Centre. They start with some exterior shots we noticed before we ventured inside the theatre building to watch a CN ‘Stomp’ (dance). I will post a video here of just one dance ( https://youtu.be/xKIUOAInF18 ) for you to watch. The ‘rattling’ sound you hear on this is made by ‘musical instruments’ strapped to the legs of the ladies. In this case these are cans and (in native custom style) turtle shells with river rocks inside. You can see these in the photos. The food tray was our lunch. Shane’s was the Soup of the Day & Half Sandwich (we never did find out who had the other half) while I had the Chickasaw Special. If you’d like to see what mine is made up of or peek at a Native American menu then click here.
After lunch we headed into the Museum building which was loaded with heaps of information and items many of which you could actually hold. Back outside again and there was much more to see (if only it was warm enough to stay outside). On a flat area below the Centre there is a mock up Chickasaw village with 3 main buildings (the square summer house, the spiral Winter house and the big Council House). We also watched several native guides there playing a version of “Stick Ball”.
The next day we drove over to Tishomingo to view the Chickasaw Nation Capitol. I won’t go into the ‘politics’ of how it is located. Again we were confronted by a large statue of another Warrior. We ventured inside but didn’t get to see much as we got cornered by the museum manager. This lady is a wealth of knowledge and proudly likes to share it. Sadly no matter what hints we dropped she wouldn’t leave us to enjoy the artefacts to the point it became annoying. With the manager still rabbiting on making us dizzy with facts and figures we hightailed it out to find a feed and head back to Sulphur.
In a snap decision we detoured to a place on the map I noticed called the Gene Autry Museum. Unfortunately of all days it was closed. Bugger!
Back in Sulphur it was still light and reasonably warm, well not below freezing for a change so we took a short drive to the State Wildlife Park which turned out to be a beautiful place even in this cold winter. As Aussies we’re used to deciduous trees so to see acres of trees without any trace of green is strange to us. The Park HQ had a series of good displays including some snakes (pictured) and the birdlife amongst the trees was magnificent. Meandering creeks finished off the almost fairy tale scene.
Well that’s it for this late blog. We’re currently in Dallas/Fort Worth and we’ve experienced a rodeo and visited the location from which JFK was assassinated. Tomorrow we leave for Waco then Austin. Just watch for the next entries as we attended a terrific day at a Civil War re-enactment and I had deep fried ‘gator for lunch.
Cheers for now and watch this blog.
Garry & Shane.