Summer Service workers share Cheyenne culture, history

Mennonite Central Committee
Friday, 17 August 2001

CLINTON, Okla. -- When visitors come to the Cheyenne Cultural Center, Nicolas Barton shows them the native plants that line the center's paths. He points out yellow coneflowers, which his Cheyenne and Arapaho ancestors used to fight infections, and sage, an aromatic herb still used in traditional ceremonies.

Born and raised here in western Oklahoma, where most Southern Cheyenne live, Barton, 19, didn't grow up being taught this plant lore. Instead, it's part of what he's learned during three years as a Summer Service worker at the center. This Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) U.S. program allows young people of color to work in their home communities, which benefit from the long-term leadership skills and faith-based commitment participants develop.

Barton and Mary Yellowman, a Summer Service worker in nearby El Reno, are two of 16 participants in Oklahoma since the program began. Over nearly two decades, Summer Service workers have helped strengthen community church, health and cultural services, often through the Cultural Center. They have also learned about themselves.

"This is where I've found out what it means to be Cheyenne," Barton says. "You have to know and participate in the culture, in the traditions."

Unfortunately, he adds, many young American Indians don't have this sense of identity and self-respect, which may lead to self-destructive behavior: "I've stayed away from alcohol and drugs, but that's a problem for a lot of people."

The center, directed by Cheyenne peace chief Lawrence Hart, was founded in 1977 and moved into permanent facilities just outside of Clinton about a year ago. Hart, a leader at Koinonia Mennonite Church in Clinton, and his wife, Betty, are mentors as well as supervisors for the Summer Service Workers.

A second-year student at the University of Oklahoma, Barton attends Koinonia Mennonite. His Summer Service work has included preserving the Cheyenne language (see sidebar) and introducing visitors to the center, which also has an art gallery, a pavilion for dances or lectures and space for future buildings.

Barton helped organize a gathering of artists commissioned by the center to create a series of 16 paintings depicting Cheyenne history, from the tribe's years as a horticultural society in Minnesota, through the comings of the Europeans and the Cheyenne's subsequent moves west through Montana, Colorado and Oklahoma "Indian Territory."

The Northern branch of the Cheyenne tribe continues to live in Montana, where four Summer Service participants worked this year with children through White River Cheyenne Mennonite Church.

Many of the locations in the paintings are familiar to Barton: the Battle of Washita, for example, in which a band of Cheyennes was massacred by General George Custer, took place only 65 miles from Clinton.

Mary Yellowman, a descendent of survivors of this battle, also carried out her Summer Service term in a historic location: the visitor's center of Fort Reno. Established in 1874 as a military post in what was then Indian Territory, the fort supplied troops to oversee the Land Runs of late 1800s that opened up the area to white settlers.

Yellowman was one of 37 Summer Service workers in 2001, out of 82 total, to attend orientation at MCC headquarters in Akron, Pa., while Barton had a chance to participate in orientation before one of his previous Summer Service terms. Both agreed the opportunity to see a new part of the country and meet other young adults was exciting.

Just as important is the opportunity the program has given them to understand their own identities -- and to use this understanding to strengthen their communities.

"Being Cheyenne is part of who I am," Barton says. "It's a rich history."

For more information, or to contact Mennonite Central Committee, see their website at: www.mcc.org