Southern Plains Indian Museum is a Native American museum located in

Anadarko, Oklahoma Anadarko is a city in Caddo County, Oklahoma, United States. The city is fifty miles southwest of Oklahoma City. The population was 5,745 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Caddo County. History Anadarko got its name when its post of ...

. It was opened in 1948 under a cooperative governing effort by the

United States Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the ma ...

and the Oklahoma state government. The museum features cultural and artistic works from Oklahoma tribal peoples of the

Southern Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, and ...

region, including the Caddo,

Chiricahua Apache Chiricahua ( ) is a band of Apache Native Americans. Based in the Southern Plains and Southwestern United States, the Chiricahua (Tsokanende ) are related to other Apache groups: Ndendahe (Mogollon, Carrizaleño), Tchihende (Mimbreño), Sehend ...

, Comanche,

Delaware Nation Delaware Nation ( del, Èhëliwsikakw Lënapeyok), also known as the Delaware Tribe of Western Oklahoma and sometimes called the Absentee or Western Delaware, based in Anadarko, Oklahoma Kiowa Kiowa () people are a Native American tribe and an indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in the 17th and 18th centuries,Pritzker 326 and e ...

, Plains Apache, Southern Arapaho,

Southern Cheyenne The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes are a united, federally recognized tribe of Southern Arapaho and Southern Cheyenne people in western Oklahoma. History The Cheyennes and Arapahos are two distinct tribes with distinct histories. The Cheyenne (Ts ...

, and Wichita.

History

Under a federal cooperative program begun in 1947 between the Government of Oklahoma and the

, plans were made to create a museum in Anadarko, Oklahoma, to present works by the tribal members of the Southern Plains who lived in Oklahoma. Costing $50,000, the museum officially opened on December 2, 1948. The museum houses a large permanent collection of both contemporary and historic cultural works of the Southern Plains tribes of Western Oklahoma including clothing, dance regalia, cultural items, jewelry, household objects, and weaponry. Also featured are artworks from Indigenous artists affiliated with the Great Plains region, including tribal people of the Caddo,

, Comanche,

, Plains Apache, Southern Arapaho,

, and Wichita. The museum notably showcases dioramas painted by

Allan Houser Allan Capron Houser or Haozous (June 30, 1914 – August 22, 1994) was a Chiricahua Apache sculptor, painter and book illustrator born in Oklahoma.T. C. Cannon (Kiowa/Caddo, 1946–1978) in its permanent collection. In 1977, the Indian Arts and Crafts Board completed an extensive renovation of the museum, allowing more space for the permanent collection and traveling exhibits from other tribal people from throughout the United States. That same year, the museum launched a partnership with Oklahoma schools to offer free educational tours for groups of students wishing to study Plains cultures. Another major renovation was completed in 2001, to add the Rosemary Ellison Gallery to the museum space at a cost of $1 million. Featured in the permanent collection of the museum are works by Blackbear Bosin (Comanche/Kiowa),

T.C. Cannon Tommy Wayne Cannon (September 27, 1946 – May 8, 1978) (Kiowa) was an important Native American artist of the 20th century. He was popularly known as T. C. Cannon. He was an enrolled member of the Kiowa Tribe and also had Caddo and French ...

(Kiowa/Caddo), Mildred Cleghorn (Fort Sill Apache), Amanda Crowe (Eastern Cherokee),

Sharron Ahtone Harjo Marcelle Sharron Ahtone Harjo (born 1945) is a Kiowa painter from Oklahoma. Her Kiowa name, Sain-Tah-Oodie, translates to "Killed With a Blunted Arrow." In the 1960s and 1970s, she and sister Virginia Stroud were instrumental in the revival of le ...

(Kiowa),

Jack Hokeah Jack Hokeah (December 4, 1901 - December 14, 1969) was a Kiowa painter, one of the Kiowa Six, from Oklahoma. Early life Jack Hokeah was born in 1901 in western Oklahoma.Lester, 239 He was orphaned at a very young age and raised by his grandmother ...

(Kiowa),

Allan Houser Allan Capron Houser or Haozous (June 30, 1914 – August 22, 1994) was a Chiricahua Apache sculptor, painter and book illustrator born in Oklahoma.Solomon McCombs Solomon McCombs (Muscogee Creek, 1913–1980) was a Native American artist from Oklahoma known for his paintings, murals, and illustrations. McCombs worked as a muralist for the U.S. Treasury Section of Fine Arts in 1942 and as an illustrator a ...

(

Muscogee (Creek) The Muscogee, also known as the Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek, and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy ( in the Muscogee language), are a group of related indigenous (Native American) peoples of the Southeastern WoodlandsStephen Mopope (Kiowa),

Georgeann Robinson Georgeann Robinson ( Osage: Wah-kah-sah, October 13, 1917 – September 4, 1985) was an Osage teacher and businesswoman, who used her skill with ribbonwork to preserve the cultural heritage of her people. She was honored as a 1982 National Heri ...

( Osage), Mary Tiger (

Seminole The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, ...

Dick West Walter Richard West Sr. (1912–1996, Southern Cheyenne), was a painter, sculptor, and educator. He led the Art Department at Bacone College from 1947 to 1970. He later taught at Haskell Institute for several years. Jones, Ruthe BlalockWest, Walte ...

(Southern Cheyenne), and David E. Williams (Kiowa/

Tonkawa The Tonkawa are a Native American tribe indigenous to present-day Oklahoma. Their Tonkawa language, now extinct, is a linguistic isolate. Today, Tonkawa people are enrolled in the federally recognized Tonkawa Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma. ...

/Plains Apache), among others. In 2006, the US federal government slated the museum, along with the Museum of the Plains Indian in

Browning, Montana Browning is a town in Glacier County, Montana, United States. It is the headquarters for the Blackfeet Indian Reservation and the only incorporated town on the Reservation. The population was 1,018 at the 2020 census. The town was named in 188 ...

and the

Sioux Indian Museum The Journey Museum and Learning Center is a museum in Rapid City, South Dakota, United States with of gardens. It is set up as a journey through the history of the Black Hills, starting with the Native American creation stories, moving into the ...

Rapid City, South Dakota Rapid City ( lkt, link=no, Mni Lúzahaŋ Otȟúŋwahe; "Swift Water City") is the second most populous city in South Dakota and the county seat of Pennington County. Named after Rapid Creek, where the settlement developed, it is in western So ...

for closure. Concerned with fighting counterfeiting and misappropriation of Native heritage, the government planned to divert funding for the museums toward fraud prevention, under the American Indian Arts and Crafts Act. The Bush Administration eventually scrapped the plan to close the museums and instead increased the funding to continue operating the museums. Adjacent to the museum is a ten-acre park which houses the National Hall of Fame for Famous American Indians, depicting sculptural busts of noted Native American figures.

Hours

The museum is open from Tuesdays through Fridays, 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

References

Citations

Bibliography

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