`MOVING THE FIRE': UNIVERSITY MUSEUM EXHIBIT RELATES THE AFTERMATH OF MOVING THE INDIAN NATIONS

Though many people living in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois know about the Cherokee tragedy called the Trail of Tears, the story of what happened after the many Indian nations were forcibly removed to Oklahoma during the 19th century is less seldom told.

"Moving the Fire: The Removing of the Indian Nations to Oklahoma," attempts to fill that gap. The exhibit organized by the State Arts Council of Oklahoma opens with a reception from 4 to 6 p.m. Tuesday at the University Museum.

"Moving the Fire" tells the story both through 37 mostly photographic images and through text explaining that the Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw and Seminole tribes that ended up in Oklahoma each had their own trails and reasons for tears.

"We thought, How can we best portray both the trauma and the humanity of those Indians?" said Dr. C. Blue Clark, one of three Indian scholars who curated the exhibit. He is the executive vice president of Oklahoma City University.

The title refers to the sacred council fires whose cinders and embers literally were carried from one encampment to the next. Fire itself is a sacred source of strength to Native Americans, and these fires were the connection to their homelands. Others from different cultures do something similar, Clark said.

"If you were a member of a cathedral and it had a vessel in it, you would carry the holy water in the vessel," Clark said. "This represents the spiritual, religious, theological and political link you have to your homeland. This is the symbol of your religion."

The pictures in the exhibit were taken by a variety of frontier photographers, including the well-known William S. Prettyman. They were gleaned from museums and individual collections.

The trauma of the move continued when the tribes arrived in Oklahoma. Some of the Indians already there -- the Quapaw, Osage, Caddo, Kiowa, Comanche, Cheyenne and Arapaho -- greeted them and others killed them.

"They died like flies," said Clark, a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. "From malnutrition, exposure, psychological stress, the trauma of being forcibly uprooted.

But at least Oklahoma was an Indian territory. Until after the Civil War, that is, when land speculators, former slaves and homesteaders poured into Indian Territory.

"Almost all their lands were taken away," Clark said. "The second tragedy and irony in "Moving the Fire" was that after being promised they would have this forever, after the Civil War they were robbed again."

To survive, many adopted American ways. But the curators maintain it is only a "veneer of white civilization... The cultural heritage remains."

The scholars' best guess is that 67 tribes lived in Oklahoma at one time. Many have vanished or have been assimilated into other tribes. The federal government now recognizes 36 tribes in the state.

"No matter how oppressive it was, the Indians are still here," Clark said.

The exhibit is being underwritten by Commerce Bank of Cape Girardeau.