Library’s American Indian Center Presents Festival
Families are invited to Tulsa City-County Library’s 2007 Festival of Words to learn the history, pageantry and triumphs of American Indians Saturday, Mar. 3 from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Central Library, Fourth Street and Denver Avenue.
The day starts with TCCL inducting Carter Revard into the Circle of Honor. The ceremony recognizes an American Indian for his/her achievements and contributions that have enriched others’ lives.
Revard, of Osage, Ponca, Irish and Scotch-Irish heritage, was born in Pawhuska in 1931. He graduated from Bartlesville College High School and earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Tulsa after winning a scholarship on a radio quiz show. After graduating from TU, his grandmother, Mrs. Josephine Jump, gave him his Indian name, Nompehwahthe (Fear-Inspiring), in a traditional Osage naming ceremony. As one of the first American Indian Rhodes Scholars, Revard earned his master’s at Oxford in 1954 and a Ph.D. from Yale in 1959.
Since 1961, he has taught at Washington University, St. Louis, as a scholar and teacher of medieval English literature, specializing in Middle English, history of the English language and linguistics. During his time in Missouri, he organized the St. Louis Indian community, helped found the American Indian Center of Mid-America and joined a Gourd Dancers group.
As he recalls in the preface to his essay collection “Family Matters, Tribal Affairs,” it was not until 1973, amidst growing national awareness of American Indian peoples awakened by the political events of the early 1970s such as the Trail of Broken Treaties and the takeover of the Bureau of Indian Affairs building in 1972 and the Wounded Knee occupation of 1973 that he began to teach courses on American Indian literature and culture.
TCCL established the American Indian Resource Center to provide a support system for this often overlooked segment of the community and to highlight its history and culture. The library has an extensive collection of books and media by and about American Indians.
Sponsored by The Maxine & Jack Zarrow Family Foundation, Robin Ballenger, Cherokee Builders Inc., Bank of Oklahoma, Dr. Frank and Mary Shaw, Southwood Landscape and Nursery, Tulsa World, Tulsa Library Trust, and the Tulsa City-County Library’s American Indian Resource Center.
From 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., families can participate in different craft, storytelling and dancing demonstrations. All programs are free and open to the public. Examples are Children’s Crafts – 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. – Third floor – Beaded turtle, turtle stick magnets and Osage color words booklet, and a History of the Perryman Family, 11:45 – 12:45 p.m. in the Lecture Room, first floor. Join Robert Trepp and learn about the fascinating history of the Perryman Family.
For more information on TCCL’s American-Indian programming and resources call (918)596-7977, or visit the library’s Web page, www.tulsalibrary.org.
Updated 02-28-2007
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