David Pendleton Oakerhater

David Pendleton Oakerhater (c. 1847 – August 31, 1931), also known as O-kuh-ha-tuh and Making Medicine, was a Cheyenne warrior and spiritual leader. He later became an artist and Episcopal deacon. In 1985, Oakerhater was the first Native American Anglican to be designated by the Episcopal Church as a saint.

Captured in the Indian Wars and imprisoned in 1875 at Fort Marion (now Castillo de San Marcos), Florida, Oakerhater became one of the founding figures of modern Native American art. Later he attended college in New York State and was ordained as a deacon in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. He returned to the West where he served as a missionary in Oklahoma, serving Native Americans.

Since 1985 he has been recognized in the book of Lesser Feasts and Fasts of the Episcopal Church. Grace Episcopal Church in Syracuse, New York is a national shrine to Saint O-kuh-ha-tah, and he was celebrated there in 2005 with a major event including descendants.

Early life Born in the 1840s in Indian Territory (later the U.S. state of Oklahoma) to Cheyenne parents Sleeping Wolf (father), and Wah Nach (mother), Oakerhater was the second of three boys. His childhood name was Noksowist ("Bear Going Straight"), and he was raised as a traditional Cheyenne. His older brother was Little Medicine, and his younger brother was Wolf Tongue.

Oakerhater is believed by some to have been the youngest man to complete the sun dance ritual (his Cheyenne name, Okuh hatuh, means "sun dancer"). He participated in his first war party (military raid) at age 14 against the Otoe and Missouri tribes,

Captain Pratt supported assimilation of American Indians into European-American mainstream society. He thought they needed to abandon their cultures and religions and learn the various practices of America's dominant white culture to survive: English, wage work, Christianity, literacy, mainstream education, and so on. The practice of forced assimilation, now criticized as cultural genocide, was considered progressive by its practitioners of the time. Many European Americans still considered Native Americans to be enemies and murderers who should be killed, imprisoned, or defeated through force. Pratt's superior, General Philip Sheridan, dismissed Pratt's beliefs as "Indian twaddle".

In return, the prisoners educated townspeople and tourists in archery, and made handicrafts and drawings to sell. Aware for their part of the nature of Pratt's experiment, the prisoners took pride in their work and martial discipline, eager to demonstrate that they could master white Americans' cultural and military practices. They took longer to overcome other cultural barriers, such as discomfort with being taught by women. The first summer Pratt arranged for their families to visit them from the Indian Territory. Within two years of arrival at Fort Marion, Oakerhater was proficient in English, and was regularly writing letters to townspeople he had befriended. That year nineteen of the prisoners were released, in exchange for accepting scholarships for higher education on the East Coast. The Smithsonian Institution has a collection of the Fort Marion artists online.

His ledger art was exhibited in a solo show with a catalog at the Center of the American Indian in 1984.

Episcopal affiliation In 1877 an Episcopal deaconess, Mary Douglass Burnham, began to make arrangements to sponsor the remaining prisoners, including Oakerhater, to serve as church sextons and continue education. In April 1878 all of the prisoners were released. Burnham arranged funding from Alice Key Pendleton and her husband, Senator George H. Pendleton, to bring Oakerhater, as well as his wife Nomee, to St. Paul's Church in Paris Hill, New York, along with three other ex-prisoners who each had separate sponsors. As at other Indian schools being established in the United States, many of Whirlwind's students suffered from poverty and diseases from poor living conditions. Many suffered from trachoma and conjunctivitis.

Their parents, whose lives had been disrupted by colonialism, warfare, forcible relocation, and the breaking up of tribal lands for allotment, were exploited by local non-Indians who wanted to profit from their newly assigned land grants. Uprooted, the families would often camp out near the schools to be with their children and provide a safer environment. Oakerhater's school and mission were under pressure both from locals, who saw the mission as a threat to their attempts to exploit the Native American population, and from others at the local and national level, who deplored the poor conditions there. He moved briefly to Clinton, Oklahoma and then to Watonga, where he lived until his death in 1931. On September 1, 1986, the first feast was held in his honor at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.; his descendants and delegations from Oklahoma were invited to the celebration. In 2000 the Saint George Church of Dayton, Ohio dedicated a large stained glass window in its chapel depicting Oakerhater, and a smaller window bearing his glyph signature.

In 2003 the Whirlwind Church obtained a new permanent site in Watonga, where it dedicated the Oakerhater Episcopal Center in September 2007. The site is used for powwows, a sweat lodge, classes, and an annual Cherokee Dance in Oakerhater's honor.

Saint O-kuh-ha-tah memorial stained glass windows at Grace Episcopal Church, Syracuse, NY. Photo by Marjory Wilkins. Grace Episcopal Church in Syracuse, New York is a national shrine to Saint O-kuh-ha-tah. On April 16, 2005, a Native American celebration was held there to honor Saint David Pendleton Oakerhater (O-kuh-ha-tah/Making Medicine) (Cheyenne), the first Native American saint of the Episcopal Church, and Marcia Pierce Steele (Oneida), who teaches both Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) cultural traditions and Christian beliefs. Grace Church's celebration included a day-long cultural festival, followed by Holy Eucharist and a blessing of new memorial stained-glass windows.

Roberta Whiteshield-Butler, great-granddaughter of O-kuh-ha-tah, created the drawings for the windows. Rose Viviano of Rose Colored Glass fabricated the windows, which were installed in September 2004 and blessed by Bishop Adams at the April 2005 celebration. Saint O-kuh-ha-tah's descendants travelled from Oklahoma and Texas to attend the celebration at Grace Episcopal Church. Prior to this, O-kuh-ha-tah descendants (great-great-grandson, Jack Southmeth; granddaughter Elizabeth Whiteshield; great-granddaughter Kim Whiteshield; and great-great-granddaughter Star Whiteshield) traveled to St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Paris Hill (near Utica, New York) to visit O-kuh-ha-tah's home church and the graves of their ancestors.

The April 16, 2005 O-kuh-ha-tah service at Grace Episcopal Church began in the Welsh Garden and was led by the Rev. Deacon Jim Knowles, rector of the Whirlwind Mission of Oklahoma. This had been founded in the 1880s by Saint Oakerhater. From left to right: The Rev. Deacon Jim Knowles (now deceased); acolytes Alexis Pride, Samantha Coleman, and Jaquell Adams; The Rev. Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows, then-pastor of Grace Church; The Rev. Deacon Jane Luck; The Rt. Rev. Gladstone B. Adams III, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York; Mrs. Kathlyn Schofield, Bishop's chaplain; and Brother Donald Hughes, SSF, assisting clergy and preacher. Photo by Marjory Wilkins.