Map Five: Landforms of Oklahoma

Map Five:

Landforms of Oklahoma

Map 5 is a diagrammatic drawing showing the generalized variations in the local natural landscape of the geographic regions of Oklahoma as identified on Map 3. The principal rivers are also shown on the drawing, but none of the large man-made lakes are located.

The Ouachita Mountains are formed by a series of curving ridges known as the Kiamichi Mountains, Winding Stair Mountains, and other local names. The mountains form the most rugged topography in the state and the development of transportation systems within the area is therefore extremely difficult. The Kiamichi River, flowing westward in the valley north of the Kiamichi Mountains, eventually flows south and southeast across the Coastal Plain into the Red River. Other streams, such as the Glover and Little rivers, also follow mountain valleys, but Mountain Fork River has cut a deep valley through some of the southern ridges. The San Bois Mountains, between the Fourche Maline and Arkansas rivers, form the northern part of the Ouachitas.

The Cookson Hills and the Boston Mountains form the rugged southern part of the Ozark Plateau, but the northern part of the Plateau has several large areas often referred to as prairies. The Illinois is the principal river flowing southwestward from the Ozarks. The Grand and Arkansas rivers delimit the western and southern boundary of the region.

West of the Ouachitas and Ozarks most of the remainder of Oklahoma is a vast plains area. Some local variations are: (1) the rounded hills in south-central Oklahoma known as the Arbuckle Mountains; (2) the large granite peaks of southwestern Oklahoma called the Wichita Mountains and their outlier, the Quartz Mountains; (3) the Shawnee Hills, a sandstone cuesta area located near the Canadian River in the east-central part of the state; (4) the Antelope Hills in the most western of the large meanders of the Canadian River in Roger Mills County; (5) gypsum-capped hills known as the Glass Mountains, located somewhat on the divide between the North Canadian and Cimarron rivers; and (6) Black Mesa, located in northwestern Cimarron County. The Osage Hills, located largely in Osage County, are a southern extension of the Flint Hills of Kansas. The elevations of the plains areas across the state increase gradually from the Coastal Plains south of the Ouachitas to the eastern edge of the Panhandle. Once the Great Plains are reached, however, elevation increases rapidly westward across the High Plains to Black Mesa. In several places large sand dunes have formed on the left bank of the Cimarron and North Canadian rivers as well as along Beaver Creek. Much of this material is blow-sand from the rivers. Unless vegetation is able to tie the sand in place it continues to move generally eastward because of wind direction. Large salt plains are located on the Salt Fork of the Arkansas and the upper Cimarron River in Woods County.

Fort Gibson, constructed in 1824, gave an impetus to trade and road building in the Three Forks region. Fort Davis had a brief existence as a Confederate stronghold during the Civil War. The Texas Road [Eastern Shawnee cattle trail] crossed the Arkansas below the mouth of the Verdigris, and an early cattle trail, prominent in the northern drive, made use of the same ford. Important agencies were established from time to time in the area.

Great mission schools flourished and declined in the vicinity of Three Forks. Most famous, perhaps, was the academy at Tullahassee, where Alice Robertson attended classes and began the career which was to add fame to a great family. As the daughter of Ann Eliza Robertson and the granddaughter of Samuel Austin Worcester, Alice Robertson was expected to render effective public service. Her membership in Congress was only a small part of her useful career.

Bacone Indian College, founded by Almon C. Bacone as Indian University at Tahleguah in 1880, was moved near Muskogee and continued as a junior college. It has achieved a secure position in the field of Indian education. Among its famous alumni are Alexander Posey, the Creek poet, and Patrick Hurley, formerly United States Secretary of War.

The Negro settlement at Marshall Town on the “Point” between the Arkansas and Verdigris rivers was a turbulent spot for many years, especially between 1878 and 1885. Cattle theft was common in the region, and occasionally some of the Cherokee cattlemen attempted to take the law into their own hands to recover their cattle and punish the thieves. Generally, light-horse police in the Muskogee District were black, and racial antipathy was added to the bad relations between the young Cherokee cattlemen and the Creek law officers. The clashes were frequent and sometimes fatal. In August, 1879, for example, a fight between the Cherokees and the black police resulted in the death of John Vann, a prominent member of the Indian tribe. The battle was a continuation of another clash, on the previous Christmas, in which a policeman was killed and three of his men wounded. An Indian police force established for the Five Civilized Tribes by an act of Congress was instrumental in finally bringing an end to the worst of the disorders.
Map Sixty-Nine:

Agricultural Regions of Oklahoma

Oklahoma can be divided into five agricultural land-use areas, chiefly on the bases of climate, soils, and topography. In each area the farmers grow about the same groups of crops in about the same way. Boundaries between the areas are not clearly defined lines but rather are zones in which a somewhat gradual transition takes place. Livestock is the common denominator for all the agricultural regions since the most common land use in all parts of Oklahoma is for pasture.

Six areas of Oklahoma—the western Panhandle, the western Canadian River valley, the Osage Hills, the Wichita Mountains, the Arbuckle Mountain area, and the Ouachita Mountains—grow very few crops other than hay. All these area are too rugged or too dry for intensive or even extensive cultivation. Wheat is the dominant crop in the northwestern quarter of the state and is Oklahoma’s primary export. Farms are large, and much of the work is mechanized. Winter wheat makes good pasture during the winter season; thus the grazing of feeder stock is common throughout the area. Grain sorghums are the second most important crop of the northwest. In southwestern Oklahoma cotton competes with wheat for land use, especially in those sections where water is available for irrigation; grain sorghums to be used for feed are the third crop of the southwest. In the region south of the Ouachita Mountains more acres are planted in soybeans than in cotton, but the crop having the greatest acreage is hay. Peanuts are also a common product of this region. In the northeastern part of Oklahoma grain sorghum, corn, wheat, and soybeans are important crops. The northeastern region is also an area of specialty crops, such as vegetables, fruits, and berries. Again, however, more land is planted in hay than in any other crop. Like the northwestern part of the state, livestock grazing is common in all the other regions.

Map Seventy:

Since 1933 detailed data has been developed on oil and gas exploration in Oklahoma, but the data prior to that time, especially for the boom years, are incomplete. It has been estimated that the total number of wells drilled in the state in search of oil and gas is probably greater than half a million. In 1981 there were 82,639 wells producing crude oil and 16,994 wells producing natural gas. Daily average production of oil was six barrels per well, and the value of crude oil and natural gas produced in 1981 was $9.2 billion. Total cumulative production during 1901 through 1981 was 12.2 billion barrels of oil, 49.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and 1.46 billion barrels of natural gas liquids. The total value of these products was $68.5 billion.

Due in considerable part to the oil embargo by the Organization of petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 1973, the price of oil increased tremendously. In 1973, Oklahoma produced 191.2 million barrels of oil worth $723 million or approximately $3.78 a barrel. In 1981, 152.2 million barrels of oil were produced in the state worth $5.35 billion or $35.18 a barrel. The great increase in the price of oil during the seventies led to a burgeoning oil and gas drilling industry that produced an all-time high value of $9.2 billion in 1981. In that year Oklahoma ranked fifth in oil-production among the nation’s oil producing states by providing 5 percent of the total national output, and third among the states in production of natural gas with 10 percent of the nation’s output.

In 1979 a well in Beckham County was producing gas from a depth of 23,920 to 24,924 feet. This well established a new depth record for production in Oklahoma and flowed 9 million cubic feet of gas per day. Beckham and Washita counties are in the deep part of the Anadarko basin and continue to be the area of deepest drilling in Oklahoma. The deepest borehole in the United States is located in Beckham County. In 1974 the Lone Star No. 1 Bertha Rodgers was drilled to a total depth of 31,441 feet and captured the depth record from a well in Washita County, the Lone Star No. 1 Baden, which had been drilled to a depth of 30,050 feet in 1972. These wells were drilled as part of the intensive exploration program designed to find natural gas reserves known to exist at great depths in major sedimentary basins of the world.

This material was taken from or based upon two Oklahoma Geological Survey publications, Geology and Earth Resources of Oklahoma (revised, 1979) and Oklahoma Geology Notes 43 no. 6 (December, 1983).

Large reserves of bituminous coal are distributed over an area of 10,000 square miles in eastern Oklahoma. The coal ranges from low to high volatile. At present it is burned as an energy source in electric power plants and is converted to coke for use in steel manufacture. More than 200 million tons of coal have been mined from hundreds of Oklahoma mines since mining began in 1872. A recent estimate indicated remaining reserves of more than 3.2 billion tons. Ten Oklahoma companies are not producing coal at the rate of about 2.5 million tons per year.

In the past, mined open pit, or strip pit, coal lands have been left without any serious effort to restore or reclaim the land surface, but restoration is now required by Oklahoma’s Mining Lands Reclamation Acts of 1968 and 1971. Newly mined lands must be graded to a gently rolling surface, revegetated, and have their acid-forming minerals buried. In addition, most Oklahoma coal operators voluntarily set aside the original topsoil and then spread it over the leveled “spoil banks.” These reclamation requirements greatly reduce one of the major environmental problems that have been associated with the recovery of this much needed energy resource.


Body Ritual Among the Nacirema
By Horace Miner⁴
The anthropologist has become so familiar with the diversity of ways in which different people behave in similar situations that he is not apt to be surprised by even the most exotic customs. In fact, if all of the logically possible combinations of behavior have not been found somewhere in the world, he is apt to suspect that they must be present in some yet undescribed tribe. In this light, the magical beliefs and practices of the Nacirema present such unusual aspects that it seems desirable to describe them as an example of the extremes to which human behavior can go.

Professor Linton first brought the ritual of the Nacirema to the attention of anthropologists in 1936, but the culture of this people is still very poorly understood. They are a North American group. Little is known of their origin, although tradition states that they came from the east....

Nacirema culture is characterized by a highly developed market economy which has evolved in a rich natural habitat. While much of the people's time is devoted to economic pursuits, a large part of the fruits of these labors and a considerable portion of the day are spent in ritual activity. The focus of this activity is the human body, the appearance and health of which loom as a dominant concern in the philosophy of the people. While such a concern is certainly not unusual, its ceremonial aspects and associated values are unique.

The fundamental belief underlying the whole system appears to be that the human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to weakness and disease. Incarcerated in such a body, man's only hope is to avert these characteristics through the use of ritual and ceremony. Every household has one or more shrines devoted to this purpose. The more powerful individuals in the society have several shrines in their houses and, in fact, the lavishness of a house is often referred to in terms of the number of such ritual chambers it possesses.

While each family generally has at least one such shrine, the rituals associated with it are not family ceremonies but are private and secret. The rites are normally only discussed with children, and then only during the period when they are being initiated into these mysteries. I was able, however, to establish sufficient rapport with the natives to examine these shrines and to have the rituals described to me.

The focal point of the shrine is a box or chest which is built into the wall. In this chest are kept the many charms and magical potions without which no native believes he could live. These preparations are secured from a variety of specialized practitioners. The most powerful of these are the medicine men, whose assistance must be rewarded with substantial gifts. However, the medicine men do not provide the curative potions for their clients, but decide what the ingredients should be and then write them down in an ancient and secret language. This writing is understood only by the medicine men and by the herbalists who, for another gift, provide the required charm.

The charm is not disposed of after it has served its purpose, but is placed in the charmbox of the household shrine. As these magical materials are specific for certain ills, and the real or imagined maladies of the people are many, the charm-box is usually full to overflowing. The magical packets are so numerous that people forget what their purposes were and fear to use them again. While the natives are very vague on this point, we can only assume that the idea in retaining all the old magical materials is that their presence in the charm-box, before which the body rituals are conducted, will in some way protect the worshiper.

Beneath the charm-box is a small font. Each day every member of the family, in succession, enters the shrine room, bows his head before the charm-box, mingles different sorts of holy water in the font, and proceeds with a brief rite of cleansing. The holy waters are secured from the Water Temple of the community, where the priests conduct elaborate ceremonies to make the liquid ritually pure.

In the hierarchy of magical practitioners, and below the medicine men in prestige, are specialists whose designation is best translated as "holy-mouth-men." The Nacirema have an almost pathological horror of and fascination with the mouth, the condition of which is believed to have a supernatural influence on all social relationships. Were it not for the rituals of the mouth, they believe that their teeth would fall out, their gums bleed, their jaws shrink, their friends desert them, and their lovers reject them. They also believe that a strong relationship exists between oral and moral characteristics. For example, there is a ritual cleansing of the mouth for children which is supposed to improve their moral fiber.

The daily body ritual performed by everyone includes a mouth-rite. Despite the fact that these people are so meticulous about care of the mouth, this rite involves a practice which strikes the uninitiated stranger as revolting. It was reported to me that the ritual consists of inserting a small bundle of hairs into the mouth, along with certain magical powders, and then moving the bundle in a highly formalized series of gestures.

In addition to the private mouth-rite, the people seek out a holy-mouth-man once or twice a year. These practitioners have an impressive set of paraphernalia, consisting of a variety of augers, awls, probes, and prods. The use of these items in the exorcism of the evils of the mouth involves an almost unbelievable ritual torture of the client. The holy-mouth-man opens the client's mouth and, using the above-mentioned tools, enlarges any holes which decay may have created in the teeth. Magical materials are put into these holes. If there are no naturally occurring holes in the teeth, large sections of one or more teeth are gouged out so that the supernatural substance can be applied. In the client's view, the purpose of these ministrations is to arrest decay and to draw friends. The extremely sacred and traditional character of the rite is evident in the fact that the natives return to the holy-mouth-men year after year, despite the fact that their teeth continue to decay.

It is to be hoped that, when a thorough study of the Nacirema is made, there will be careful inquiry into the personality structure of these people. One has but to watch the gleam in the eye of a holy-mouth-man, as he jabs an awl into an exposed nerve, to suspect that a certain amount of sadism is involved. If this can be established, a very interesting pattern emerges, for most of the population shows definite masochistic tendencies. It was to these that Professor Linton referred in discussing a distinctive part of the daily body ritual which is performed only by men. This part of the rite includes scraping and lacerating the surface of the face with a sharp instrument. Special women's rites are performed only four times during each lunar month, but what they lack in frequency is made up in barbarity. As part of this ceremony, women bake their heads in small ovens for about an hour. The theoretically interesting point is that what seems to be a preponderantly masochistic people have developed sadistic specialists.

The medicine men have an imposing temple, or latipsoh, in every community of any size. The more elaborate ceremonies required to treat very sick patients can only be performed at this temple. These ceremonies involve a permanent group of vestal maidens who move sedately about the temple chambers in distinctive costume and headdress.

The latipsoh ceremonies are so harsh that it is phenomenal that a fair proportion of the really sick natives who enter the temple ever recover. Small children whose indoctrination is still incomplete have been known to resist attempts to take them to the temple because "that is where you go to die." Despite this fact, sick adults are not only willing but eager to undergo the protracted ritual purification, if they can afford to do so. No matter how ill the supplicant or how grave the emergency, the guardians of many temples will not admit a client if he cannot give a rich gift to the caretaker. Even after one has gained and survived the ceremonies, the guardians will not permit the recruit to leave until he makes still another gift.

Few supplicants in the temple are well enough to do anything but lie on their hard beds. The daily ceremonies, like the rites of the holy-mouth-men, involve discomfort and torture. With ritual precision, the vestals awaken their miserable charges each dawn and roll them about on their beds of pain while performing cleansings, in the formal movements of which the maidens are highly trained. At other times they insert magic wands in the supplicant's mouth or force him to eat substances which are supposed to be healing. From time to time the medicine men come to their clients and jab magically treated needles into their flesh. The fact that these temple ceremonies may not cure, and may even kill the recruit, in no way decreases the people's faith in the medicine men.

In conclusion, mention must be made of certain practices which have their base in native esthetics but which depend upon the pervasive aversion to the natural body and its functions. There are ritual fasts to make fat people thin and ceremonial feasts to make thin people fat. Still other rites are used to make women's breasts larger if they are small, and smaller if they are large. General dissatisfaction with breast shape is symbolized in the fact that the ideal form is virtually outside the range of human variation. A few women afflicted with almost inhuman hyper-mammary development are so idolized that they make a handsome living by simply going from village to village and permitting the natives to stare at them for a fee.

Our review of the ritual life of the Nacirema has certainly shown them to be a magic-ridden people. It is hard to understand how they have managed to exist so long under the burdens which they have imposed upon themselves.
Stories of Creation
From the Apache⁵
In the beginning nothing existed—no earth, no sky, no sun, no moon, only darkness was everywhere.

Suddenly from the darkness emerged a thin disc, one side yellow and the other side white, appearing suspended in midair. Within the disc sat a small bearded man, Creator, the One Who Lives Above. As if waking from a long nap, he rubbed his eyes and face with both hands.

When he looked into the endless darkness, light appeared above. He looked down and it became a sea of light. To the east, he created yellow streaks of dawn. To the west, tints of many colors appeared everywhere. There were also clouds of different colors.

Creator wiped his sweating face and rubbed his hands together, thrusting them downward. Behold! A shining cloud upon which sat a little girl.

“Stand up and tell me where are you going,” said Creator. But she did not reply. He rubbed his eyes again and offered his right hand to the Girl-Without-Parents.

“Where did you come from?” she asked, grasping his hand.

“From the east where it is now light,” he replied, stepping upon her cloud.

“Where is the earth?” she asked.

“Where is the sky?” he asked, and sang, “I am thinking, thinking, thinking what I shall create next.” He sang four times, which was the magic number.

Creator brushed his face with his hands, rubbed them together, then flung them wide open! Before them stood Sun-God. Again Creator rubbed his sweaty brow and from his hands dropped Small-Boy.

All four gods sat in deep thought upon the small cloud.

“What shall we make next?” asked Creator. “This cloud is much too small for us to live upon.”

Then he created Tarantula, Big Dipper, Wind, Lightning-Rumbler, and some western clouds in which to house Lightning-Rumbler, which he just finished.

Creator sang, “Let us make earth. I am thinking of the earth, earth, earth; I am thinking of the earth,” he sang four times.

All four gods shook hands. In doing so, their sweat mixed together and Creator rubbed his palms, from which fell a small round, brown ball, not much larger than a bean.

Creator kicked it, and it expanded. Girl-Without-Parents kicked the ball, and it enlarged more. Sun-God and Small-Boy took turns giving it hard kicks, and each time the ball expanded. Creator told Wind to go inside the ball and blow it up.

Tarantula spun a black cord and, attaching it to the ball, crawled away fast to the east, pulling on the cord with all his strength. Tarantula repeated with a blue cord to the south, a yellow cord to the west, and a white cord to the north. With mighty pulls in each direction, the brown ball stretched to immeasurable size—it became the earth! No hills, mountains, or rivers were visible; only smooth, treeless, brown plains appeared.

Creator scratched his chest and rubbed his fingers together and there appeared Hummingbird.

“Fly north, south, east, and west and tell us what you see,” said Creator.

“All is well,” reported Hummingbird upon his return. “The earth is most beautiful, with water on the west side.”

But the earth kept rolling and dancing up and down. So Creator made four giant posts—black, blue, yellow, and white—to support the earth. Wind carried the four posts, placing them beneath the four cardinal points of the earth. The earth sat still.

Creator sang, “World is now made and now sits still,” which he repeated four times.

Then he began a song about the sky. None existed, but he thought there should be one. After singing about it four times, twenty-eight people appeared to help make a sky above the earth. Creator chanted about making chiefs for the earth and sky.

He sent Lightning-Rumbler to encircle the world, and he returned with three uncouth creatures, two girls and a boy found in a turquoise shell. They had no eyes, ears, hair, mouths, noses, or teeth. They had arms and legs, but no fingers or toes.

Sun-God sent for Fly to come and build a sweathouse. Girl-Without-Parents covered it with four heavy clouds. In front of the east doorway, she placed a soft, red cloud for a foot-blanket to be used after the sweat.

Four stones were heated by the fire inside the sweathouse. The three uncouth creatures were placed inside. The others sang songs of healing on the outside, until it was time for the sweat to be finished. Out came the three strangers who stood upon the magic red cloud-blanket. Creator then shook his hands toward them, giving each one fingers, toes, mouths, eyes, ears, noses, and hair.

Creator named the boy, Sky-Boy, to be chief of the Sky-People. One girl he named Earth-Daughter, to take charge of the earth and its crops. The other girl he named Pollen-Girl, and gave her charge of health care for all Earth-People.

Since the earth was flat and barren, Creator thought it fun to create animals, birds, trees, and a hill. He sent Pigeon to see how the world looked. Four days later, he returned and reported, “All is beautiful around the world. But four days from now, the water on the other side of the earth will rise and cause a mighty flood.”

Creator made a very tall piñon tree. Girl-Without-Parents covered the tree framework with piñon gum, creating a large, tight ball.

In four days, the flood occurred. Creator went up on a cloud, taking his twenty-eight helpers with him. Girl-Without-Parents put the others into the large, hollow ball, closing it tight at the top.

In twelve days, the water receded, leaving the float-ball high on a hilltop. The rushing floodwater changed the plains into mountains, hills, valleys, and rivers. Girl-Without-Parents led the gods out from the float-ball onto the new earth. She took them upon her cloud, drifting upward until they met Creator with his helpers, who had completed their work making the sky during the flood time on earth.

Together the two clouds descended to a valley below. There, Girl-Without-Parents gathered everyone together to listen to Creator.

“I am planning to leave you,” he said. “I wish each of you to do your best toward making a perfect, happy world.

“You, Lightning-Rumbler, shall have charge of clouds and water.

“You, Sky-Boy, look after all Sky-People.

“You, Earth-Daughter, take charge of all crops and Earth-People.

“You, Pollen-Girl, care for their health and guide them.

“You, Girl-Without-Parents, I leave you in charge over all.”

Creator then turned toward Girl-Without-Parents and together they rubbed their legs with their hands and quickly cast them forcefully downward. Immediately between them arose a great pile of wood, over which Creator waved a hand, creating fire.

Great billowy clouds of smoke at once drifted skyward. Into this cloud, Creator disappeared. The other gods followed him in other clouds of smoke, leaving the twenty-eight workers to people the earth.

Sun-God went east to live and travel with the Sun. Girl-Without-Parents departed westward to live on the far horizon. Small-Boy and Pollen-Girl made cloud homes in the south. Big Dipper can still be seen in the northern sky at night, a reliable guide to all.
From the Cherokee⁶
Earth is floating on the waters like a big island, hanging from four rawhide ropes fastened at the top of the sacred four directions. The ropes are tied to the ceiling of the sky, which is made of hard rock crystal. When the ropes break, this world will come tumbling down, and all living things will fall with it and die. Then everything will be as if the earth had never existed, for water will cover it. Maybe the white man will bring this about.

Well, in the beginning also, water covered everything. Though living creatures existed, their home was up there, above the rainbow, and it was crowded. “We are all jammed together,” the animals said. “We need more room.” Wondering what was under the water, they sent Water Beetle to look around.

Water Beetle skimmed over the surface but couldn’t find any solid footing, so he dived down to the bottom and brought up a little dab of soft mud. Magically the mud spread out in the four directions and became this island we are living on—this earth. Someone Powerful then fastened it to the sky ceiling with cords.

In the beginning the earth was flat, soft, and moist. All the animals were eager to live on it, and they kept sending down birds to see if the mud had dried and hardened enough to take their weight. But the birds all flew back and said that there was still no spot they could perch on.

Then the animals sent Grandfather Buzzard down. He flew very close and saw that the earth was still soft, but when he glided low over what would become Cherokee country, he found that the mud was getting harder. By that time Buzzard was tired and dragging. When he flapped his wings down, they made a valley where they touched the earth; when he swept them up, they made a mountain. The animals watching from above the rainbow said, “If he keeps on, there will be only mountains,” and they made him come back. That’s why we have so many mountains in Cherokee land.

At last the earth was hard and dry enough, and the animals descended. They couldn’t see very well because they had no sun or moon, and some said, “Let’s grab Sun from up there behind the rainbow! Let’s get him down too!” Pulling Sun down, they told him, “Here’s a road for you,” and showed him the way to go—from east to west.

Now they had light, but it was much too hot, because Sun was to close to the earth. The crawfish had his back sticking out of a stream, and Sun burned it red. His meat was spoiled forever, and the people still won’t eat crawfish.

Everyone asked the sorcerers, the shamans, to put Sun higher. They pushed him up as high as a man, but it was still too hot. So they pushed him farther, but it wasn’t far enough. They tried four times, and when they had Sun up to the height of four men, he was just hot enough. Everyone was satisfied, so they left him there.

Among the trees and other plants, only the cedar, pine, holly, and laurel were still awake on the eighth morning. Someone Powerful said to them: “Because you watched and kept awake as you had been told, you will not lose your hair in the winter.” So these plants stay green all the time.

After creating plants and animals, Someone Powerful made a man and his sister. The man poked her with a fish and told her to give birth. After seven days she had a baby, and after seven more days she had another, and every seven days another came. The humans increased so quickly that Someone Powerful, thinking there would soon be no more room on this earth, arranged things so that a woman could have only one child every year. And that’s how it was.

Now, there is still another world under the one we live on. You can reach it by going down a spring, a water hole; but you need underworld people to be your scouts and guide you. The world under our earth is exactly like ours, except that it’s winter down there when it’s summer up here. We can see that easily, because spring water is warmer than the air in winter and cooler than the air in summer.

So he went down to the bottom of the water and began to stir up the mud with his tail and his claws. He brought up some mud to a certain place and piled it up until it made a mound.

The owners of the land at the bottom of the water said, “Who is disturbing our land?” They kept careful watch and discovered it was Crawfish. When they started toward him, Crawfish stirred up the mud so much with his tail that they could not see him.

Lock-chew continued to pile up mud, until it came out on top of the surface of the great water. This is how land first appeared. It was so soft that Wind said, “Who will spread the land to make it dry and hard?”

Hawk and Buzzard appeared. Because Buzzard’s wings were larger, he tried first. He flew, fanning the soft earth and spreading it all about. When he flapped his wings, hills and valleys were formed.

“Who will make the light?” Wind asked. It was very dark.

Yo-hah, the Star, said, “I will make light.” It was agreed. The Star shone forth, but its light only remained close to the Star.

“Who will make more light? Wind asked.

Shar-pah, the Moon, said, “I will make enough light for all my children and I will shine forever.” But the world was still too dark.

T-cho, the Sun, said, “Leave it to me to make enough light for everyone everywhere.”

Sun went to the East and suddenly enough light was everywhere. As Sun traveled over the earth, a drop of blood fell from the sky to the ground. From this spot sprang the first people, the children of the Sun they were called, the Yu-chis.

The Yu-chis wished to find their medicine since a large monster had destroyed some of their people. The Yu-chis cut off its head, but the next day its head and body were together again. They killed the monster a second time. Again, its head grew back on its body.

A third time, they cut off its head. They placed the head on top of a tall tree, so the body could not reach the head. The next morning, the tree was dead and the head had rejoined the monster’s body. They killed it once more, putting its head at the top of a cedar tree. The next morning the cedar tree was still alive, but covered with blood from the head. The monster remained dead.

This is how the Yu-chis found their great medicine, the Cedar Tree. Fire was soon discovered by boring a stick into some hard, dry weeds.

The Yu-chis selected a second medicine, as each one made a picture of the Sun upon their door.

In the beginning, all of the animals could talk with one another. All animals and people were at peace. The deer lived in a cave watched over by a Yu-chis keeper. When the Yu-chis became hungry, the keeper selected a deer and killed it for their food. Finally, all of the deer were set free with the other animals, and a name was give to every animal upon the earth.

This is how it was in the beginning with the first people, the Yu-chis Indian tribe.
From the Hebrew⁸
First this: God created the Heavens and Earth—all you see, all you don’t see. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God’s Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss.

God spoke: “Light!”

And light appeared.

God saw that light was good

and separated light from dark.

God named the light Day,

he named the dark Night.

It was evening, it was morning—

Day One.

God spoke: “Sky! In the middle of the waters; separate water from water!”

God made sky.

He separated the water under sky

from the water above sky.

And there it was:

he named sky the Heavens;

It was evening, it was morning—

Day Two.
God spoke: “Separate!

Water-beneath-Heaven, gather into one

place;

Land, appear!”

God named the land Earth.

He named the pooled water Ocean.

God saw that it was good.

God spoke: “Earth, green up! Grow all varieties of seed-bearing plants,

Every sort of fruit-bearing tree.”

And there is was.

Earth produced green seed-bearing plants,

all varieties,

And fruit-bearing trees of all sorts.

God saw that it was good.

It was evening, it was morning—

Day Three.
God spoke: “Lights! Come out!

Shine in Heaven’s sky!

Separate Day from Night.

Mark seasons and days and years,

Lights in Heaven’s sky to give light to Earth.” And there it was.

God made two big lights, the larger

to take charge of Day,

The smaller to be in charge of Night;

and he made the stars.

God placed them in the heavenly sky

to light up Earth

And oversee Day and Night,

to separate light and dark.

God saw that it was good.

It was evening, it was morning—

Day Four.

God created the huge whales,

all the swarm of life in the waters,

And every kind and species of flying birds.

God saw that it was good.

God blessed them: “Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Ocean! Birds reproduce on Earth!”

It was evening, it was morning—

Day Five.

And there it was:

wild animals of every kind.

Cattle of all kinds, every sort or reptile and bug.

God saw that it was good.

God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature

So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle,

And, yes, Earth itself,

and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.”

God created human beings;

he created them godlike,

Reflecting God’s nature.

He created them male and female.

God blessed them:

“Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!

Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air, for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.”

Then God said, “I’ve given you

every sort of seed-bearing plant on Earth

And every kind of fruit-bearing tree,

given them to you for food.

To all animals and all birds,

everything that moves and breathes,

I give whatever grows out of the ground for food.” And there it was.
God looked over everything he had made:

it was so good, so very good!

It was evening, it was morning—

Day Six.
Heaven and Earth were finished,

down to the last detail.

By the seventh day

God had finished his work.

On the seventh day

he rested from all his work.

God blessed the seventh day.

He made it a Holy Day

Because on that day he rested from his work,

all the creating God had done.

This is the story of how it all started,

Of Heaven and Earth when they were created.

The Prehistoric Cultures of Oklahoma
By Joseph B. Thoburn⁹
The prehistoric cultures of Oklahoma may be divided into three classes as to time, namely; (1) Ancient, dating back two thousand or more years; (2) Mediaeval, probably dating back from seven to fifteen centuries; and (3)Recent, dating back from the beginning of the historical period to three or four centuries.

As yet, comparatively little has been accomplished in the determination of the scope and extent of the Ancient Period. Traces of very ancient human occupancy and activities have been found in numerous parts of the state, though, as a rule, such discoveries have been so rarely made and so remotely connected, if at all, as to afford small basis of correlation, and it is not possible to draw much if any in the way of definite conclusions as to age or cultural identities. Among the most ancient of these might be mentioned the discovery of certain mortars, or metates, from the lower levels of the extensive gravel pit in Tillman County, together with specimens of chipped chert. This gravel pit is pronounced by geologists to be an extinct river bed, which, resisting the process of erosion, now appears in the form of a ridge, and which extends northward from the site for many miles toward the Wichita range of mountains, which seems to have been partially included within the drainage area of this ancient river. While no skeletal remains have been definitely identified as those of human beings, the presence of the artifacts already mentioned seems to point to the possibility of the presence of man in southwestern Oklahoma, in Pleistocene times.

Numerous other instances of the discovery of artifacts so deeply embedded in the earth as to attest great antiquity, might be cited. A few of these must suffice, however. In the eastern part of Washita County a sand pit was opened on the brow of a prairie hill. From this deposit of sand, several granite mortars, or metates were taken, the granite evidently having been transported at least sixty miles from the nearest spurs of the Wichita Mountains. In Greer County, a metate was excavated from a point five feet beneath the surface of the prairie loam in digging a basement. Near Oklahoma City, a stone arrow point was found beneath five feet of sand which, in turn, was overlaid by three feet of red clay loam. In the northwestern part of Logan County, a very large earthenware jar, or urn, was excavated from beneath several feet of sandy loam soil. This receptacle contained a number of bones, supposedly human. Unfortunately this last find was not called to the attention of any one especially interested in such matters until after all specimens had been lost or carried away.

Of the cultures of the Ancient Period which have been partially differentiated and separated, though not yet fully described, or definitely identified as to classification, there are at least two, namely; (a) a Cave-Dwelling stock of the western portion of the Ozark Uplift which occupied the caves and rock shelters of the Boone chert formation and, (b) the Basket-maker stock which occupied small caves in the Wingate sandstone, in the canyons of the Cimarron River region, in the western part of Cimarron County. Some work has been done in the first mentioned of these two cultures and the caves and rock shelters of northeastern Oklahoma and of Arkansas and southwestern Missouri. I have personally directed some work in Oklahoma and Arkansas. The archaeological material of this culture was secured by excavating the accumulation of ancient kitchen refuse from the floors of the caves. This kitchen refuse, consisting of wood ashes, charcoal, mussel and clam shells and broken bones, was carefully sifted and searched for artifacts and other vestigia. On the first expedition into that field, numerous specimens of bones, teeth and bivalve shells were gathered for examination and identification by competent biologists. These specimens attested the fact that the bill of fare of these ancient Cave people was greatly varied. With twenty species of mammals, including those from the size of a squirrel to those of the bison, or buffalo and the elk, with the bones of several species of game birds and several species of fishes were identified, and, with these, no less than twenty-six species of bivalve mollusks. In addition to these, the presence of stationary mortars, in situ, for the grinding of grain and the finding of charred specimens of maize or Indian corn in the ear, corncobs, beans, and the seeds of pumpkins, melons, and gourds, gave further evidence of their habits and customs.