Cherokees visit ranch

 

Rogers County Cherokees spent an afternoon wandering the grounds of the Will Rogers Birthplace Ranch and feasting on beans, pork, fry bread and grape dumplings. Will Rogers Memorial Commissioner and Cherokee Councilor Cara Cowan Watts brought the event to the ranch.

Robert Lewis, Cherokee storyteller with the Cherokee Heritage Center and Ancient Village, entertained with stories about animals, a Cherokee tradition.

Visitors were careful to place chairs where they could look out over Oologah Lake and what was once the Indian Territory Ranch of Clem and Mary Rogers.

Children (and adults) watched with joy the goats and burros playing around the barn and the peacock (fleeing to the bushes behind the barn.)

About 200 Rogers County Cherokee Association members and guests shared the afternoon, many of them visiting the ranch home for the first time.

 

Remembering Will
Doris “Coke” Meyer, Will Rogers’ great-niece, visits with Cherokee Nation Chief Chad Smith at the Rogers County Cherokee Association annual hog fry at the Will Rogers Birthplace ranch.

 

Catching up
Buster Wells, who worked at Will Rogers Memorial in the early days, shares his past with fellow Cherokee Cara Cowan Watts. Cowan Watts is a Cherokee Nation council and Will Rogers Memorial Commissioner.

 

Royalty
Danielle Culp, the new Miss Cherokee, and Junior Miss Cherokee Madison Whitekiller, both of Claremore, greeted guests at the Rogers County Cherokee Association hog fry at the Will Rogers Birthplace Ranch.

 

Storyteller
Robert Lewis had an appropriate setting as he told animal stories, a tradition among Cherokees, at the annual hog fry at the Will Rogers Birthplace Ranch overlooking Oologah Lake.

 

Chief cook
John Mouse was one of the cooks for the Rogers County Cherokee Association hog fry.