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Oklahoma Highway Journey to Tanasi
Oklahoma Highway
a journey to the past and the future
a poetic photo essay by Peter J
Tulsa in the morning
Quickly yields to the patchwork land
Beyond her concrete borders
Over the Grand River
The highway opens up to 75 mph
And the Cherokee Turnpike smiles at my swift passage
Gladly yielding to my blue G6
Midnight blue Chrysler 300 with smoked windows paces me and pulls ahead
Oozing luxury
I see his Cherokee Nation plate
And smile at Native American success
(It's good to see when you can see it)
I cut south, yielding a slim quarter to a turnpike with a noble name
(It was worth so much more
In North Jersey it would have been $3.25)
I drive south into foothill echoes of the Ozarks
Powering up hills and sweeping round curves
Through farmland dotted with Sinclair stations
(Dinosaurs still roam these hills)
I feel the breeze in my face and rejoice in the morning sun
(Do they really call the wind Moriah?)
“Welcome to Tahlequah”
Here in the capital of the Cherokee Nation
The yellow bloom is on the forsythia
The bright green graces the Weeping Willow
Who still keeps the vigil of tears from a Trail that America
Has forgotten
Spring is rejoicing as she did when she welcomed a Nation
Into her midst
I see the Cherokee Courthouse
The center of a Nation
I walk inside
And a smiling Cherokee man reaches out his hand to me
(A white man)
And says with a smile,
“Welcome to the Cherokee Nation”
(“Welcome to the Cherokee Nation”)
So it echoed in my heart
(So it echoed in my heart)
Nations have grand capitals
With golden domes and sneering statues
With armies on parade
And Raptor fighter jets on patrol
The Cherokee remember one square red brick building
Holding the soul of a Nation
And one smiling man stands to greet you
And somehow it means more
Than all the buildings of Rome
On the edge of town is a chapel
Built in remembrance of those who survived
The Trail Where They Cried
There I pray for a Nation
I hear a young Cherokee guide
He paces upon a rugged outdoor bench
Wearing warrior Mohawk hair
And Wrangler jeans
Surrounded by seated and silent high school students
“We had a constitution and representative government
Before the birth of America
Who is the savage?
We bathed daily when Europeans bathed not at all
And gave us the gift of disease
Who is the savage?
We had farms, plantations, and thriving businesses
And the white man drove us west, away from our homes
Who is the savage?”
Who is the savage?
And on the road to Muskogee
The new Cherokee National Center
So much more than a red brick building
Moves the Nation into the 21st century
There in the midst of their land
Lies Fort Gibson
“Oh yes we give you this place
But we still need our space”
And there they lay the honored dead
Soldiers of America
In heart of the National Cemetery is my father's grave
And now my mother lies there too
Twice blessed
To rest upon sacred Tribal ground
Tulsa in the night is full of light
But none is so bright
As the Cherokee Casino
As you fly into town you can't find the noun
That tells the sight and the sound
Of the Cherokee Casino
Like a Vegas fling
Filled with Cherokee bling
See the Jumbotron sing
Of the latest winner
“Why Louise, if you please
Won $7500 with ease
Come in, try your luck
It's only the buck
So play it like you mean it”
You know they could fit
The whole Cherokee Courthouse
In the lobby
Oh Cherokee people, where are you going?
Does so noble a path lead to this?
Oh Cherokee people, by God you were chosen
Would you trade your highest destiny
For this?
I smile at Native American success
It's good to see
When it's right
“Welcome to the Cherokee Nation”
(“Welcome to the Cherokee Nation”)
all images & verse © 2007 Pete Jorgensen
In March of 2007 I traveled to Oklahoma to close up my late Mom's apartment and begin to settle her estate. As happened ten years ago when my Father died and Terri, Rachel, and I all went out there, I was hit in the face with the Cherokee culture. Before the visit ten years ago, the Trail of Tears was just a historical curiosity of which I knew little or nothing. That first trip seared the tragedy and triumph of this people into my consciousness.
I have studied the Cherokee ever since. Their angst ridden story is one of the most profound in American history. The injustice visited upon them is unconscionable, yet they have not only survived, but prospered. Their story is epic with truths that shake the very foundations of America. Ignore the signposts of the Cherokee at your peril!
That my father's life in death would juxtapose with this noble people allows me to see some of God's purpose in moving Dad and Mom out there to Tahlequah so long ago. That he and Elsie Ruth would lay in that land in death is honor upon honor for him and his wife.
Visit the Cherokee Nation.
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