Courtney, Alva

Alva Courtney, 90, of Sweet Home, died Feb. 14, 2005. A graveside service was held today at the North Powder Cemetery. Workman & Steckley Funeral Chapel of Sweet Home handled the arrangements. Alva was born Dec. 10, 1914, in Anadarko, Okla., to Joseph and Myrtle English Courtney. He married Pauline Coates on Aug. 7, 1937, in Haines. She preceded him in death in 1972. He served in the U.S. Army in World War II. Alva is survived by his daughter and son-in-law, Juanita and Nick Hutchins of Sweet Home; two grandsons, Jeff Hutchins and his wife, Sally, of Lebanon and … Read more

Caddo Geographical Location

The remnants of the Caddo confederacies of northwestern Louisiana and northeastern Texas settled in Oklahoma in 1859. After the Louisiana  Purchase when Louisiana bands joined their tribesmen in Texas all lived there peaceably until some White Texans determined upon an indiscriminate massacre of raiding Comanche and of all Reservation Indians. The Caddo escaped by a forced march of two weeks in midsummer to the banks of the Washita River. Of this period White Moon talked as follows: Comanche and Kiowa would raid, up to the Caddo villages. The Texans trailed them and blamed the Caddo as well. The soldiers stood by the … Read more

Biography of G. O. Hall, M. D.

The career of Dr. G. O. Hall, a leading physician of Bartlesville, is proof of the fact that it is only under adverse conditions that the best and strongest in the individual are developed, for he is a self-educated, self-made man whose indomitable purpose and untiring effort have enabled him to overcome all obstacles and difficulties in his path and work his way steadily forward to the goal of success. A native of Texas, he was born September 1, 1882, and is a son of Dr. P. B. Hall, who for the past twenty-one years has been engaged in the … Read more

Stevens, Ova Belle Anderson Mrs. – Obituary

Richland, Oregon Ova Belle Stevens, 90, of Richland, died Jan. 11, 2004, at St. Elizabeth Health Services. Her funeral will be at 1 p.m. Thursday at the Richland Christian Church. Pastor Gordon Bond will officiate. Visitations will be from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday at Gray’s West & Co. Pioneer Chapel, 1500 Dewey Ave. There will be a graveside service at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 21, at Mount Hope Cemetery in San Diego. Ova Belle was born to James M. and Eva L. Anderson on Dec. 20, 1913, at Carnegie, Okla. She attended school and was raised in Caddo … Read more

Wichita Indians

The earliest certain location for the Wichita Indians was on Canadian River north of the headwaters of the Washita River in Oklahoma.

The Osage Massacre

Kiowa Calender

When the treaty council with the Osage at Fort Gibson broke up in disagreement on April 2, 1833, three hundred Osage warriors under the leadership of Clermont departed for the west to attack the Kiowa. It was Clermont’s boast that he never made war on the whites and never made peace with his Indian enemies. At the Salt Plains where the Indians obtained their salt, within what is now Woodward County, Oklahoma, they fell upon the trail of a large party of Kiowa warriors going northeast toward the Osage towns above Clermont’s. The Osage immediately adapted their course to that pursued by their enemies following it back to what they knew would be the defenseless village of women, children, and old men left behind by the warriors. The objects of their cruel vengeance were camped at the mouth of Rainy-Mountain Creek, a southern tributary of the Washita, within the present limits of the reservation at Fort Sill.

Houses of the Wichita Tribe

Wichita Indians grass-covered lodge, about 1880

Like the other members of this linguistic family, whose villages have already been described, the Wichita had two forms of dwellings, which they occupied under different conditions. One served as the structure in their permanent villages, the other being of a more temporary nature. But, instead of the earth-covered lodges used farther north, their fixed villages were composed of groups of high circular structures, entirely thatched from bottom to top. Their movable camps, when away from home on war or hunting expeditions, consisted of the skin-covered tents of the plains. The peculiar thatched structures were first seen and described by … Read more