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Righting Historical Wrongs
Today marks a century from a wrong that some of us would like to excavate from the memory hole, but the R word often impedes even a frank discussion.
A discussion about whether there was law in Oklahoma after it ceased being Indian Territory in 1907?
Considering the facts on the ground, it might be fruitful to examine whether the white supremacists in our times running with the Adolf Hitler fan club is coincidence or just because the neo-Nazis agree on white supremacy but nothing more?
What will the discussion cost us in reputation? Will it cost us money? What could we tell the kiddies after all these years of lying silence?
R word? Racism?
Even scarier. Reparations.
A hundred years makes a lot of distance but I grew up about 40 miles from Tulsa. Even then, many of my neighbors worked in Tulsa. Now, when I go back to Bristow, it’s hard to see where people work if not Sapulpa (the only substantial town in between and the winner in a rivalry with Bristow about the placement of the County Seat of Creek County) or Tulsa.
Even now, it’s hard to understand blacks as “the” minority where I grew up. Minority meant us — Indians, the landlords until 1907. We…
