Red Earth Festival’s 25th anniversary celebration begins
Andrew Whiteshirt, 19, dances Friday during the Red Earth Festival outside the Cox Convention Center. (Photo by Ashley R. West, The Oklahoman)
From Saturday’s The Oklahoman.
Red Earth celebrates silver anniversary
Since 1987 Oklahoma City festival has been bringing together American Indian artists, dancers and tribes to share and honor their culture.
In a dazzling display of feathered, beaded and belled finery, hundreds of dancers wound into the Cox Convention Center Friday afternoon as the 25th Annual Red Earth Native American Cultural Festival commenced in downtown Oklahoma City.
Clad in their traditional regalia, they created a broad spectrum of vibrant hues, from reds, oranges and yellows to purples, blues and greens.
Brothers and fellow artists Charles and Harvey Pratt exhibit their work in adjacent booths Friday at the 25th Annual Red Earth Festival. They have both participated in every Red Earth since the event started in 1987. (BAM photo)
When artist Harvey Pratt reminisces about the first Red Earth Festival, his memories are equally colorful, just in a different way.
“It was in downtown and we had all our show outside in tents. And the Seminoles brought their alligators and put ‘em in a swimming pool, and a guy would jump in there and wrestle them around. And people would just gather,” the Southern Cheyenne traditional chief said.
While the city put a stop to the alligator wrestling, Pratt also vividly recalls the second Red Earth.
“They had a big storm and everybody had the leave, so then the following year they moved ‘em inside,” he said. “That second year I had a bunch of sculptures — my first year of spending money for bronzes — and the storm came and put ‘em in a box and grabbed all my paintings and ran to the car and left that box there. … Someone came and got ‘em and carried ‘em — and the last day they brought ‘em back to me.”
Pratt and his brother Charles have exhibited their artwork in the Red Earth Art Market every year since the festival began in 1987. In 2000, Charles was named Red Earth Honored One, a designation given yearly to a master visual artist. Harvey received the title in 2005.
“I enjoy it. I love seeing the people that come through here that I get to visit with every year. We sell a little art, and it’s home,” said Harvey Pratt, who lives in rural Guthrie and works as the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation’s forensic artist. “People get to come from a lot of different places, different tribes come and get to participate … and it shares culture and it shares creativity.
For Charles Pratt, who lives in Gallup, N.M., the event offers a chance to show his work in his native state and reunite with friends and family, including his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He and his brother typically exhibit in adjacent booths in the Red Earth Art Market.
“It brings a lot of money and tourism,” he said. “I hope it goes on longer than I do.”
Leroy Bridges, one of the festival’s founders, said Red Earth has an annual economic impact of nearly $9 million. Last year’s event drew more than 12,000 participants and 27,000 attendees, and the festival recently was named one of the country’s top 10 powwows by USA Today.
“The artists are able to make money and sell their product. People don’t have to go to Santa Fe to buy their art; they can get art here,” said Bridges, who serves on the Red Earth board of directors. “It’s very important not only to Native American people but to the community and the state.”
He added, “I’ve never missed a Red Earth event in 25 years, and this is probably the best one. It’s got that 25-year spirit.”
As the grand entry dancers filed into the arena with great pomp and pageantry, Floyd
Floyd Moses of Anadarko,enters the arena during a grand entry at the 2010 Red Earth Native American Cultural Festival at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma CIty. Moses, 88, has participated in every Red Earth Festival since the event started in 1987. (Photo by Sarah Phipps, The Oklahoman Archives)
Moses, 88, of Anadarko, watched the tiny tots turned out in their elaborate regalia with a nostalgic smile. A full-blood Pawnee Southern Straight dancer, he remembered his grandmother teaching him to dance when he was 4 or 5 years old. She would sit in a corner and sing for him, cautioning him to never let his dance cane touch the ground and watching his steps with an eagle eye.
“She’d sit me down and warn me to do it right,” he said. “She’d tell me that the Straight Dance is a gentleman’s dance, and the Pawnee are the original Straight dancers.”
Not only has he been dancing most of his life, Moses has participated in every Red Earth Festival.
“I don’t think I’ve missed a year,” he said. “I meet old friends and make new friends and just have a good time. … There’s a lot of good dancers. A lot of good ones. I like to watch the little ones, too. They sure are cute, and they’re gonna take over.”
“I’m glad it’s still going,” he added. “I imagine it’ll be going for a long time.”
Going on
The 25th Annual Red Earth Native American Cultural Festival
When: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.
Where: Cox Convention Center.
One-day admission: $10 for adults, $7.50 for ages 60 and older and for children ages 6-17, and free for children 5 and younger.
Red Earth Run: Registration begins at 7 a.m. Saturday at Regatta Park, 725 S Lincoln Blvd. The 10K and 5K races begin at 8 a.m.
Information: 427-5228 or www.redearth.org.
-BAM
Nationally known artist-educator Ruthe Blalock Jones named 2011 Red Earth Honored One
Ruthe Blalock Jones
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman. For more on the Red Earth Festival, click here.
BAM column: Nationally known artist-educator named 2011 Red Earth Honored One
Oklahoma native Ruthe Blalock Jones considers the festival’s master visual artist designation “a lifetime achievement award.”
Ruthe Blalock Jones doesn’t recall ever aspiring to become an artist: That’s just what she always was.
"Lily" by Ruthe Blalock Jones
“I remember as a child, I never said ‘I’m going to be an artist’ or ‘When I grow up I will be,’ I always said, ‘I am.’ I never thought that was unusual, but I guess it was,” Jones said in a phone interview from her Muskogee home.
If she wasn’t painting from the time she was old enough to grasp a brush, she came pretty close. Jones was first recognized for her work at the age of 15, when she received an honorable mention at an annual juried painting competition at Tulsa’s Philbrook Museum. She sold her award-winning painting for $25 to acclaimed Creek-Pawnee artist and teacher Acee Blue Eagle.
From that impressive first professional sale, Jones, who will turn 72 on Wednesday, has crafted a storied career as a nationally known American Indian artist, sought-after authority on the traditional painting style she favors and a respected arts educator.
This weekend, the Claremore-born artist, who is of Delaware, Shawnee and Peoria heritage, will be lauded as the 2011 Red Earth Honored One during the 25th Annual Red Earth Native American Cultural Festival. The popular event will bring its famed dance competition, art market, youth activities, parade, Red Earth Run and special anniversary festivities Friday-Sunday to the Cox Convention Center and the surrounding downtown area.
The Honored One designation is given annually to a master visual artist who has made significant contributions to American Indian art. In nominating Jones, Mary Jo Watson, director of the University of Oklahoma’s School of Art and Art History, praised this year’s Honored One for dedicating her life to educating artists and creating art.
“Ruthe’s art speaks volumes about the pride of her tribal relationships. … She pays
"Waiting for the Grand Entry" by Ruthe Blalock Jones
acute attention to authenticity in detail of dress and the ceremonial aspects of traditional tribal life, and some of her paintings could easily be her childhood recollections,” Watson wrote. “She truly is a positive role model and ambassador of arts. Ruthe has many talents maybe others are not aware. She is a champion hoop dancer, war dancer and excellent cook.”
Growing up along the Spring River in the Quapaw area and raised with the Shawnee traditions, Jones was 10 when she began her formal art training as a student of renowned Oklahoma painter Charles Banks Wilson. She attended local schools until her fateful sale to Blue Eagle. On his recommendation, she was able to attend high school at Bacone College in Muskogee on an art scholarship.
She earned her associate’s degree from Bacone in 1970, her Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Tulsa in 1972 and her master’s in arts education in 1989 from Northeastern State University in Tahlequah. In 1979, she began teaching art at Bacone; she retired a year ago as director of art at her alma mater.
"Shawnee Women" by Ruthe Blalock Jones
Throughout her long tenure as an educator, Jones continued to create her own artwork in a variety of media, including oil, ink, acrylic, crayon and watercolor. She competed in the first Red Earth in 1987 and entered the festival most years, winning the Grand Award for Best of Show and serving as a judge in the dance and art contests along the way.
“I always tried to keep something going because when I was coming up, I was fortunate to have professors who were working artists. And I wanted that for my students. I wanted them to see that I was working all the time,” Jones said.
She continues to make art in what is known as the traditional style, creating flat paintings that depict American Indians in customary dress and activities.
“Most of the young people no longer paint in that style, and most of them have kind of considered it cliché … but it’s part of the history. It’s how Oklahoma Indian artists came to be established. All of the Indian artists are on the shoulders of those early people who practiced this style which comes out of the ledge style, then (was popularized) with the Kiowa Five at the University of Oklahoma and Dr. (Oscar) Jacobson,” she said.
“I have great respect for those people who pioneered it, like Dick West and Blackbear Bosin and Blue Eagle.”
The painting she sold to Blue Eagle as a teen now is part of his collection at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History; her work also is included in the nearby Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.
She also has become respected as a pioneering American Indian artist, winning an Oklahoma Governor’s Arts and Education Award in 1993, earning a spot in the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame in 1995 and receiving the Dick West Award in 2000 from Bacone College. She garnered the Spirit of the Heard Award in 2008 at the Heard Museum, Phoenix, Ariz., and in January, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar appointed her to the Indian Arts and Crafts Board.
As the Red Earth Honored One, she joins the ranks of other acclaimed Oklahomans such as Jereldine Redcorn, Archie Blackowl and Enoch Kelly Haney.
“Oklahoma Indian artists consider it like a lifetime achievement award,” she said. “That’s certainly what I look at it as … and I’m just blown away to be in that line of all of those illustrious people who have preceded me.”
For more information, call 427-5228 or go to www.redearth.org.
-BAM
2011 Red Earth Festival schedule
A participant dances during a grand entry at the 2010 Red Earth Festival at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City. (Photo by Sarah Phipps, The Oklahoman Archives)
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
2011 Red Earth Festival schedule
The 25th Annual Red Earth Native American Cultural Festival is Friday-Sunday at the Cox Convention Center and surrounding downtown Oklahoma City area.
One-day admission is $10 for adults, $7.50 for senior citizens 60 and older and for children ages 6-17, and free for children 5 and younger.
Three-day weekend passes are $20 for Adults, $15 for senior citizens 60 and older and for children ages 6-17, and free for children 5 and younger.
For more information, call 427-5228 or go to www.redearth.org.
Today
8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.: Dancer registration – South Lobby, Cox Convention Center.
8 a.m. to 5 p.m.: 10K and 5K Red Earth Run pre-registration – South Lobby.
10 a.m.: Parade – Sheridan and E.K. Gaylord, Downtown Oklahoma City.
11 a.m. to 7 p.m.: Art Market, Native Exchange Market, Youth Art Gallery, Children’s Activities, Cultural Performance Stage open – Exhibit Halls, Cox Convention Center.
Noon: Grand Entry and Ambassador of the Year Presentation – Cox Convention Center Arena.
1 to 6 p.m.: Dance Competition – Arena.
Saturday
7 a.m.: Registration for 10K and 5K Red Earth Run – Regatta Park, 725 S Lincoln Blvd.
8 a.m.: Start of 10K and 5K Red Earth Run – Regatta Park.
10 a.m. to noon: Dancer registration – South Lobby, Cox Convention Center.
10 a.m. to 7 p.m.: Art Market, Native Exchange Market, Youth Art Gallery, Children’s Activities, Cultural Performance Stage open – Exhibit Halls, Cox Convention Center.
10 to 11 a.m.: Stickball Exhibition (Choctaw Nation) – Cox Convention Center.
Noon: Grand Entry – Arena.
1 to 5 p.m.: Dance Competition – Arena.
7 p.m.: Grand Entry – Arena.
8 to 10 p.m. Dance Competition and Veterans Honor Dance – Arena.
Sunday
11 a.m. to 5 p.m.: Art Market, Native Exchange Market, Children’s Activities, Cultural Performance Stage open – Exhibit Halls, Cox Convention Center.
Noon: Grand Entry and Honored One recognition – Cox Convention Center Arena.
11 a.m. to 2 p.m.: Youth Art Gallery open – Cox Convention Center.
1 to 5 p.m.: Dance Competition, Spotlight Dance – Men’s War Dance, Special Tiny Tot Grand Entry and Competition – Arena.
2 to 3 p.m.: Youth Art Awards Ceremony – Cultural Performance Stage, Exhibit Hall 3, Cox Convention Center.
5 to 6 p.m.: Dance Competition Awards – Arena.
-BAM
Red Earth Festival celebrates 25th anniversary this weekend in downtown OKC
Isaac Fire, 6, of Yukon, a member of the Arapaho Tribe, waits for the start of the day's activities at the 2010 Red Earth Native American Cultural Festival at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma CIty. (Photo by Bryan Terry, The Oklahoman Archives)
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman. To see the Red Earth Festival schedule, click here.
Red Earth goes silver
The Red Earth Native American Cultural Festival is celebrating its 25th anniversary Friday-Sunday at Cox Convention Center in downtown OKC.
The Red Earth Native American Cultural Festival is going silver as it celebrates 25 years of showcasing American Indian dance, arts and culture in Oklahoma City.
“We have some of our elders that have come to this dance since they were youngsters; they were not quite our tiny tots but they … have grown up with us literally. We’ve got beautiful stories of people that have met each other at the festival at the dance and have developed relationships and have gone on to marry,” said longtime volunteer Teri Stanek. “We’ve got children that have been born …
“… Well, we had one we thought was gonna deliver right there. She did wait ‘til after the festival and then she came back the next year with the baby,” she added with a laugh. “We just have wonderful stories like that out there to be shared.”
The 25th Annual Red Earth Festival will again enliven the Cox Convention Center and downtown Oklahoma City Friday-Saturday with its famed dance competition, art market, youth activities and an improved Red Earth Run that will add a 10K course along with the 5K event. This year’s festival also will mark a quarter-century of celebrating American Indian culture with special activities such as a birthday party, spotlight war dance and added star power in the parade.
“We’ve kind of envisioned it to be a homecoming for a quarter-century of Red Earth,” said Red Earth Inc. Deputy Director Eric Oesch. “We’re recognizing all our previous award winners … and we’ve invited back all our past ambassadors.”
Organizers are anticipating the silver-anniversary parade to shine extra brightly as it marches through downtown at 10 a.m. Friday to officially launch the festival. Several former Red Earth Ambassadors are expected to appear in the parade, including actor Wes Studi, astronaut John Herrington and Olympic track star Billy Mills.
The parade also will feature hundreds of American Indian dancers dressed in full regalia, drum groups, floats, tribal princesses and leaders. About 100 volunteers will carry an enormous American flag that will blanket the entire street, Oesch said.
From the time the parade starts until the final dance awards are handed out, organizers expect nearly 600 dancers, close to 200 artists and vendors and about 30,000 festival-goers to take part in Red Earth.
“We’re seeing artists that haven’t been able to come to Red Earth for the past couple of years are returning,” Oesch said. “It’s so uniquely Oklahoma, with the native dance and art. We have more tribal headquarters than any other state, so we have such a wealth of talent … and that talent pool is so varied.”
Muskogee painter Ruthe Blalock Jones, a master visual artist named the 2011 Red Earth Honored One, has competed at the festival since its inception. Oklahoma City artist Benjamin Harjo Jr., who crafted the Red Earth logo 25 years ago, designed this year’s festival T-shirt.
For the artists, dancers, volunteers and their families who have faithfully brought their creativity to the event, a private birthday party — complete with cake and ice cream, of course — is planned for Friday evening after the dance competition.
“It’s to honor them. Without them, we wouldn’t be who we are,” Oesch said.
Past champions in the men’s fancy dance competition have been invited to contend in a special men’s war dance contest that will literally put them in the spotlight in the darkened arena.
“We’ve never done that before. The men’s fancy war dance is probably the most popular dance; it’s definitely the most athletic dance,” Oesch said. “It’s very colorful with lots of spinning and jumping … so that will be a real crowd pleaser.”
Dance coordinator Randy Frazier said the 2011 festival also will introduce the Ladies Eastern Cloth category, a grand entry and competition just for tiny tots younger than 6 and a comical clown contest.
Known as “the Mother of Red Earth,” Yvonne Kauger, an Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice and co-founder the festival, is the 2011 Red Earth Ambassador. She is pleased to see the event marking its 25th year.
“You get to see your legacy do well and watch my grandchildren enjoy it,” said Kauger, whose daughter Jonna Kauger Kirschner is past president of the Red Earth board of directors. “They’re great shoppers. They have favorites that they go back and see every year.”
Those are the kinds of stories Stanek likes to hear. For the second year, the festival’s 25th anniversary chairwoman will be operating a booth where people can share their favorite Red Earth memories for the festival archives.
“We’ve got youth art kids that won awards and then have grown up to be some of our favorite artists,” she said. “It’s been a labor of love for a lot of people … and it’s been a good 25 years.”
For more information, call 427-5228 or go to www.redearth.org.
-BAM
Red Earth Festival readies for silver anniversary celebration in June
American Indian dancer Robert Selumber performs with other dancers during the Red Earth Festival media day Tuesday at the state Capitol. (Photo by Chris Landsberger, The Oklahoman)
A version of this story appears in Wednesday’s The Oklahoman.
Red Earth readies for silver anniversary celebration
The 25th annual festival is set for June 3-5 at the Cox Convention Center in downtown Oklahoma City.
While Oklahoma’s five American Indian ballerinas struck their perpetually graceful poses overhead, a new generation of dancers stomped, spun and strutted, sending fringed shawls flapping, jingle bells chiming and feathered bustles bouncing to a pounding drumbeat.
Dressed in their vibrant regalia, the Soaring Eagles dance troupe, representing Shawnee Public Schools, performed Tuesday at the annual Red Earth media day in the fourth-floor rotunda of the state Capitol. Fittingly, they heralded the 25th anniversary of the Red Earth Native American Cultural Festival under “Flight of Spirit,” Mike Larsen’s mural of the world-renowned ballet dancers.
“Mike Larsen got his start at Red Earth in 1987, 25 years ago,” said Red Earth Inc. Deputy Director Eric Oesch. “He’s grown so much as an artist … and we’ve had so many artists that have gotten their start with us.”
The silver anniversary edition of Red Earth is set for June 3-5 at the Cox Convention Center in downtown Oklahoma City. The event will feature the famed dance competition, art market, youth activities and a 10K run in addition to the 5K event. This year’s festival also will mark a quarter-century of celebrating American Indian culture with an array of special activities, including a June 2 gala, a birthday party and spotlight war dance.
“Everything we’re doing is centered around being a homecoming, inviting people from the past 25 years to come back,” Oesch said. “We’ve invited all our past ambassadors, Honored Ones, Spirit Award (for volunteer service) winners, all our previous board members, our fancy dance champions.”
Known as “the Mother of Red Earth,” Yvonne Kauger, an Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice and co-founder the festival, has been named the 2011 Red Earth Ambassador of the Year. She is excited but not surprised to see the event marking its 25th year.
“It was meant to be, and the support of the tribes has been critical,” she said. “I hope that we have shown the legacy, the history and the tradition, provided some education for the community and inspired young Native Americans to be very proud of their heritage.”
She noted that many dancers, artists and volunteers have participated in the event year after year. Muskogee painter Ruthe Blalock Jones, a master visual artist named the 2011 Red Earth Honored One, has competed at the festival since its inception. Oklahoma City artist Benjamin Harjo Jr., who crafted the Red Earth logo 25 years ago, designed this year’s festival T-shirt.
Actor Wes Studi, astronaut John Herrington, and Olympic track star Billy Mills are among the VIPs planning to attend the June 2 silver anniversary gala that will precede the festival. For the dancers, artists and their families who have faithfully brought their creativity to the event, a birthday party is planned for June 3 after the dance competition.
“For 25 years, the artists and the dancers have been the center of what we do,” Oesch said. “It will be like a big family reunion.”
Past champions in the men’s fancy dance competition have been invited to contend in a special men’s war dance contest that will literally put them in the spotlight in the darkened arena. Dance coordinator Randy Frazier said the 2011 festival also will introduce the Ladies Eastern Cloth competition, a clown contest and a grand entry and competition just for tiny tots younger than 6.
G. Calvin Sharpe, Red Earth board president, said the festival has an annual economic impact of nearly $9 million, while Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb noted that last year’s event drew more than 12,000 participants and 27,000 attendees. The festival was recently named one of the country’s top 10 powwows by USA Today.
“It’s the largest event of its kind in the entire world,” Lamb said. “What a wonderful thing for Oklahoma to brag about and showcase in our great state.”
Coming up
25th Annual Red Earth Festival
When: June 3-5.
Where: Cox Convention Center, downtown Oklahoma City.
Information: 427-5228 or www.redearth.org.
-BAM
Red Earth Museum staying open late Thursdays in December, opens “Indian Pony” exhibit
"Winds of War," acrylic on canvass by Gary Montgomery (Seminole), is part of the Red Earth Museum's "The Indian Pony" exhibit.
As part of Downtown Thursdays in December, the Red Earth Museum and Gallery is staying open until 7 tonight and every Thursday this month.
The event will give art lovers added time to see the newest exhibit at the museum, 6 Santa Fe Plaza.
Twenty original paintings and select historical artifacts from the permanent Red Earth Museum collection are currently on display in the exhibit “The Indian Pony.”
The North American Plains Indians acquired their first horses, and the knowledge of how to handle them, through trade with the Indians of the Southwest who interacted with Spanish explorers in the 17th Century.
The lives of Plains Indians were transformed as horses gave them an advantage when hunting; especially buffalo, the main staple of life in the area bounded by the Rockies and the Mississippi River. For generations Indian ponies have captured the imagination of artists, authors and screenwriters.
“The Indian Pony” at the Red Earth Museum showcases American Indian artists from Oklahoma, and their visions of the horse in Indian culture.
Nine American Indian fine artists, including 2010 Red Earth Festival Grand Award winner Gary Montgomery (Seminole), are featured in the exhibition. Other artists showcased include Frank Sheridan (Cheyenne), Johnny Tiger, Jr (Creek/Seminole), Ron Geionety (Comanche), Whitebuffalo (Kiowa), Tartsah (Kiowa), Jerome Tiger (Creek/Seminole), Doc Tate Nevequaya (Comanche) and Virginia Stroud (Cherokee).
“The Indian Pony” is on view, free to the public, through Feb. 28 at the Red Earth Museum and Gallery at 6 Santa Fe Plaza located next to the Skirvin Hilton Hotel in Oklahoma City.
The Red Earth Museum hosts a diverse and changing schedule of art and historical exhibitions and is custodian of a permanent collection of more than 1,400 items of fine art, pottery, basketry, textiles and beadwork. For information visit www.redearth.org.
During Downtown Thursdays in December, the museum will offer refreshments, special drawings and holiday gift ideas. Evening visitors also will get the chance to meet Red Earth artists and OKC’s Indian princesses.
Other businesses participating in Downtown Thursdays in December include the Nonna’s and the Painted Door, BC Clark Jewelers, Floral and Hardy and many more. For more information, go to www.downtownokc.com.
- BAM
Red Earth accepting applications for Silver Anniversary art market
"Eagle Dog" by Seminole artist Gary Montgomery of Shawnee was recipient of the Grand Award for Best of Show during the 2010 Red Earth Festival art market in Oklahoma City.
Red Earth, Inc is currently accepting applications from American Indian artists for the Silver Anniversary Red Earth Native American Cultural Festival scheduled for June 3-5, 2011, at the Cox Convention Center in downtown Oklahoma City.
The Red Earth Festival is considered the world’s largest event of its kind, drawing thousands of art enthusiasts to a three-day weekend celebrating Native American visual art and dance. The Red Earth juried art market annually showcases more than 200 artists representing American Indian tribes and nations from throughout North America.
The event has been named a Top 100 Event in North America and is recipient of numerous awards and honors including “Outstanding Event” from the Oklahoma Tourism & Recreation Department and “Outstanding Cultural Tourism Event” from Central Oklahoma’s Frontier Country Marketing Association.
The juried art competition features works in five categories including Cultural Items, Clothing and Textiles; Painting, Drawings, Graphics and Photography; Sculpture; Jewelry; and Pottery. Each category is divided into subdivisions.
Seminole painter Gary Montgomery from Shawnee received the 2010 Red Earth Grand Award for Best of Show with his oil on canvas painting entitled “Eagle Dog.” Gordon Tonips, a Comanche sculptor from Forth Worth, Texas, was recipient of the 2010 Red Earth President’s Award for a piece he called “Square Tower House,” and Anita Caldwell Jackson, an Echota Cherokee painter from McAlester, received the 2010 Red Earth Kathleen Everett Upshaw Award for her mixed media painting entitled “Peyote Pony.”
Applicants must be able to provide documents of proof of membership in a federally or state-recognized tribal entity or documents of proof of certification as Indian Artisans by an Indian tribe. Applications can be downloaded from www.redearth.org or obtained by calling (405) 427-5228.
For more than 30 years, the nonprofit Red Earth, Inc has been dedicated to its mission to promote the rich traditions of American Indian arts and cultures through education, a premier festival, museum and fine art markets.
The organization is recognized as the region’s premier organization for advancing the understanding and continuation of Native American traditional and contemporary culture and arts. The Red Earth Museum & Gallery, located in downtown Oklahoma City, presents a diverse and changing exhibition schedule and is custodian of a permanent collection of more than 1,400 items of fine art, pottery, basketry, textiles and beadwork – including the Deupree Cradleboard Collection, one of the finest individual collections of its kind in North America.
- BAM
Red Earth Festival featured in the 2011 Rand McNally Road Atlas and Festival Guide
Participants march in Friday's Red Earth Festival parade. (Photo by Mitchell Alcala/The Oklahoman)
The Red Earth Native American Cultural Festival has been selected to be featured in the 2011 Rand McNally Road Atlas and Festival Guide, representing the best of Oklahoma events.
Other events included in the 2011 guide include the 89er’s Celebration in Guthrie, the Azalea Festival in Muskogee, Fried Onion Burger Day Festival in El Reno, Ponca City Herb Festival and Festival of the Arts in Oklahoma City.
In 2011, the Red Earth Festival will celebrate its 25th anniversary. Organizers are preparing this year by inviting festival-goers to stop at a special booth and share their stories about Red Earth.
The 2010 Red Earth Festival closes today with American Indian dancing, a juried art market, children’s activities and more from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Cox Convention Center in downtown Oklahoma City. For more information, go to www.redearth.org.
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What to do in Oklahoma on June 20, 2010
A participant in Friday's Red Earth Festival parade gives a thumbs-up sign. (Photo by Mitchell Alcala/The Oklahoman)
Today’s featured event:
Take in American Indian dancing, a juried art market, children’s activities and more during the final day of the Red Earth Native American Cultural Festival from 11 a.m to 6 p.m. today at the Cox Convention Center in downtown Oklahoma City.
For more information, go to www.redearth.org.
For more events, go to www.wimgo.com.
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Red Earth Festival honors military servicemen and women
Staff Sgt. Jay Tiger leads the Oklahoma National Guard's 145th Army Band at the front of Friday's Red Earth Festival parade. (BAM photo)
From Saturday’s The Oklahoman.
Red Earth Festival honoring veterans, reservists and active duty military
Face suitably solemn, shiny mace gripped firmly in his gloved hand, Staff Sgt. Jay Tiger smartly marched the Oklahoma National Guard’s 145th Army Band down E.K. Gaylord Avenue Friday morning.
Behind the band, feathers, beads and bells fluttered in the wind as American Indian dancers showed off their elaborate regalia and tribal princesses waved from top-down convertibles.
Despite the oppressive heat, hundreds of spectators crowded outside the Cox Convention Center to watch the 24th annual Red Earth Native American Cultural Festival open with its annual parade. Viewers clapped, cheered and bobbed to the patriotic music as the National Guard band made its first Red Earth parade appearance.
The band’s position at the front of the parade was no accident: Along with celebrating American Indian culture, this year’s festival is honoring military veterans, reservists and active servicemen and women.
“Those two kind of go hand in hand because a lot of American Indians are veterans,” said Tiger, an Oklahoma City resident who is half
A participant uses an umbrella to shield herself from the heat during the 2010 Red Earth Festival parade. (Photo by Mitchell Alcala/The Oklahoman)
Kiowa and half Muscogee (Creek). “American Indians always do (honor veterans); there’s never a time when they don’t do that.”
Since military service is so widespread and veterans revered among American Indians, Festival organizers are doing more to recognize American Indians who have fought and sacrificed to protect the United States, said Red Earth Deputy Director Eric Oesch.
“We want to expand the military presence in the festival since it’s so appropriate,” he said. “Military service has always been very important in Indian culture. They have one of the highest percentages of any race as far as military service.”
Throughout the weekend, veterans, reservists and active service members will receive discounted admission to Red Earth with military identification. Discounted tickets will cost $7.50 for general admission and $5 for seniors.
In addition, all U.S. military members — Indian and non-Indian — are invited to participate at 7 tonight in the grand entry leading into the evening dance competition.
The festival’s first grand entry Friday ended with veterans among the dancers and from the audience taking the Cox arena floor to accompany the three color guards in a special victory dance.
“I’m glad they’ve done that this year. … I think it’s the greatest thing they could do,” said Darrell Moore, a Pawnee native who now lives in Dallas. “If it wasn’t for the veterans, they wouldn’t be able to have this.”
American Indians’ love of liberty often prompts them to join the military, said Moore, who served four years in the Army.
“They fought for something they believed in,” he said. “This was our land, and what we got of it, we wanted to keep it.”
People of various ages participated in Friday's Red Earth Festival parade. (Photo by Mitchell Alcala/The Oklahoman)
Moore, who is of Pawnee and Otoe-Missouria descent, wears a red, white and blue ribbon on his black and green regalia when he competes in the golden age men division of the Southern Straight Dance.
“They have so much pride in America,” Oesch said of the dance competitors with military experience. “On their regalia … many times you’ll see people beadwork on American flags. That’s just amazing to me because just think how that flag treated them 100 years ago, yet they’re so loyal to it today.”
The Oklahoma Intertribal Veterans Association Buddy Bond Chapter Color Guard has been loyally marching in Red Earth grand entries and parades for many years.
“We come every year because it’s tradition,” said Stewart Cady, a retired Marine of Chippewa and Sioux descent. “We like to do it because … it’s for the veterans and so many of the dancers and singers are veterans.”
“In the Native tradition, it’s one important thing to honor our veterans and to remember those who have gone on before us,” said fellow color guard member Blas Flores Jr., an Air Force veteran of Navajo heritage.
For Tiger, who served three years in the Army and has been in the National Guard for 17 years, leading the Red Earth parade in front of so many flag-saluting veterans was a privilege.
“I’ve done this for awhile, and it never gets old,” he said of serving as the band’s drum major. “It’s always been a great thing to be a part of.”
GOING ON
Red Earth Native American Cultural Festival
When: Through Sunday.
Where: Cox Convention Center.
One-day passes: Adults, $10; 60 and older, $7.50; children ages 6-17, $7.50; children 5 and younger admitted free. Group rates available.
Information: 427-5228 or www.redearth.org.
-BAM
