Oklahoma City University Dedicates “Chickasaw Garden”

Haney Designs Statue, Chickasaw Nation Donates Garden

OKLAHOMA CITY —A dedication ceremony for the Chickasaw Garden was held at Oklahoma City University Sept. 6.

The garden was built over the course of the summer to provide an appropriate setting for a statue that was donated to the university by Chickasaw Nation Governor Bill Anoatubby. The statue, titled “Chickasaw Warrior,” was designed by prominent Native American artist Senator Enoch Kelly Haney, an OCU alumnus who also designed the statue that tops the Oklahoma Capitol building.

OCU President Robert Henry said careful planning went into the garden in the center of campus that will encircle the statue.

“This will be a place where students and campus visitors can relax, study or just think in peace while surrounded by beauty,” Henry said. “Every little detail from the color of the walkway to the layout of the garden was carefully considered in order to create a space that is fitting for this great work of art.”

The statue was installed on a pedestal to raise it slightly above ground level. A walkway and other features are intended to mimic the American Indian medicine wheel with an unbroken circular form.

The four quadrants within the circle represent the four cardinal directions, the four seasons of the year and the four seasons of life — birth, adolescence, adulthood and death.

The design uses regional materials like pink granite and sandstone along with native plants to reflect the colors and textures of Oklahoma.

The dedication ceremony included a Cedar blessing by Steve Littleman of the Kiowa tribe, a prayer by Chickasaw elder Lee Frazier and a flute performance by musician Me-Way-Seh Greenwood of the Chickasaw, Ponca and Otoe tribes.

Steve Littleman performs the cedar blessing during the dedication of the Chickasaw Garden at Oklahoma City University on Sept. 6. Looking on are OCU President Robert Henry, OCU alumnus and Native American artist Senator Enoch Kelly Haney and Chickasaw Nation Gov. Bill Anoatubby. Haney designed the Chickasaw Warrior statue donated to OCU by Anoatubby.	Rev. David Wilson, superintendent of the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference of the United Methodist Church; landscape architect Brent Wall, designer of the Chickasaw Garden; Native American artist Senator Enoch Kelly Haney; Bud Sahmaunt, former OCU athletic director and professor and prominent member of the Kiowa tribe; Chickasaw Nation Gov. Bill Anoatubby and President Robert Henry look at the Chickasaw Warrior statue designed by Haney and donated to OCU by Anoatubby.
The designer of Oklahoma City University’s Chickasaw Garden, Brent Wall, plants grass during the dedication ceremony for the new garden and Chickasaw Warrior statue at OCU on Sept. 6. Rev. David Wilson, Native American artist Senator Enoch Kelly Haney, Chickasaw Nation Gov. Bill Anoatubby and former OCU athletic director and professor Bud Sahmaunt look on during the dedication ceremony for the statue designed by Haney and donated by Anoatubby.