The Center of the American Indian (CAI) was an intertribal, Native American-led museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It was housed in the second floor of the Kirkpatrick Center.

Center of the American Indian

Established	1978
Dissolved	1992
Location	Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Coordinates	35.5236°N 97.4751°W / 35.5236; -97.4751
Type	cultural museum
Executive director	Mary Jo Watson (1984–88)
Chairperson	Allie Reynolds (1984)

The Center of the American Indian produced a quarterly journal, The Storyteller.[1] The CAI held workshops, language classes, and symposia, such as "We Always Had Plenty: Native Americans and the Bison" held in 1989.

CAI helped launch the Red Earth Festival in 1987. In 1992, the Center of the American Indian merged into Red Earth Inc.,[2] marking the end of its Native American leadership.

Personnel and supporters

Mary Jo Watson (Seminole) served as director of the museum from 1984 to 1988.[3] Baseball legend Allie Reynolds (Muscogee Creek) served as board chairman. Artists Benjamin Harjo Jr. (Absentee Shawnee/Seminole and Sharron Ahtone Harjo (Kiowa) volunteered at the museum and served on the board.[3] Collector Arthur Silberman advised the museum.[4]

Selection exhibitions and publications

In 1990, the museum created a permanent exhibition Moving History: Native American Dance.[5] Kiowa artists Sherman Chaddlesone (1947–2014) and Allie Chaddlesone exhibited at CAI.[6]

Changing exhibitions, included:

• Kachin-Tihus: Those Who Sit with the People (1991) with catalog[7]
• Moving History: Evolution of the Powwow (1991) with catalog by Dennis Zotigh (Kiowa)[8]
• Songs of Indian Territory: Native American Music Traditions (1989) with catalog and cassette tape by Willie Smyth
• Children of Early America (1987) with catalog[9] by Daniel C. Swan[10]
• Big War/Little War: Oklahoma Indians in the Civil War, 1861–1865 (1985) with catalog[11]
• Making Medicine: Ledger Drawing Art from Fort Marion (1984) with catalog,[4] celebrating the ledger art of St. David Pendleton Oakerhater (Southern Cheyenne, c. 1847–1931).
• Full Blooded (1984), solo exhibition of work by Edgar Heap of Birds (Southern Cheyenne)[12]

References