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HB 1775 and Critical Race Theory
The substance of HB 1775 occupies a mere page and a third, 282 words by my count. So why should mainstream media mischaracterize the bill, when they could easily quote the entire text?
How did the Unassigned Lands become unassigned?
This past April 22, 2020, was the 131st anniversary of the land run that opened the central part of today's State of Oklahoma to homesteading by non-Indian settlers. These were lands owned by the U. S. Government and not assigned to any organized territory nor to any Indian nation or...
Tulsa School Board Office 5: Scott Pendleton questionnaire response
Scott Pendleton, candidate for Tulsa Public Schools Office 5, responds to the BatesLine questionnaire.
Mapping Tulsa: historical maps on exhibit downtown
Mapping Tulsa, a diverse collection of historical maps illustrating Tulsa's history and culture, is on display at the Henry Zarrow Center gallery, at the southwest corner of Brady Street and Cincinnati Avenue in Tulsa's Bob Wills Arts District. The gallery is open noon to 6 pm on Thursdays, Fridays, and...
Diaries of Cheyenne warrior turned missionary donated to Oklahoma History Center
"Men, you know me. You remember me when I led you out to war. I went first, and what I told you was true. Now I have been away to the East, and I have learned about another captain, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he is my leader. He goes...
Resist the social media mob
In recent years, social media has facilitated the rapid spread of outrage. A few representative cases: Deborah Brown Elementary School being bullied into modifying its dress code rules for hair. Demands to remove the Confederate flag, Confederate memorials, or monuments to historical figures. The hounding of Brendan Eich from his...
Independence Day 2015
Happy Independence Day! Take 10 minutes to listen to a reading of the Declaration of Independence, from the Monticello website, read by Thomas Jefferson Williamsburg re-enactor Bill Barker. founding.com has an annotated version of the Declaration of Independence, with links to explanations of the the specific historical context behind the...
Alton Nolen DOC record matches Jah'Keem Yisrael Facebook tattoo photos
Tattoo photos in the Facebook profile of someone calling himself Jah'Keem Yisrael matches tattoos named in the Department of Corrections record of Alton Alexander Nolen, the man eyewitnesses say beheaded a worker at a food processing plant in Moore, Oklahoma, on Thursday. A number of websites uncovered the profile and...
Rename Sheridan Road?
Oklahoman urban reporter Steve Lackmeyer may have unintentionally sparked another street-naming controversy up the turnpike in Tulsa. Lackmeyer recounted the 1961 renaming of Oklahoma City's Grand Avenue to Sheridan Avenue. The name Sheridan, to honor Civil War general, Ft. Sill founder, and "Indian fighter" Philip Sheridan, was a compromise after...
A Thanksgiving reader
The Wall Street Journal's Thanksgiving tradition, since 1961: The Desolate Wilderness: The New World in the words of the Pilgrims' historian And the Fair Land: A modern reflection on America's prosperity and challenges. Plus this story on Franklin Roosevelt's short-lived attempt (1939-1941) to move the date of Thanksgiving one week...
Paint Rock Indian Pictographs
We were driving south from Ballinger, Texas, on US 83. It was about time to stop and stretch our legs anyway, when I saw a skinny brown and white sign -- an official -looking, state-placed sign marking a recreational or historic feature -- that said "Indian pictographs." I stopped some...
Joel Kotkin on civic improvement schemes and city policy
This morning on KFAQ, Gwen Freeman and Chris Medlock interviewed real estate expert and urban critic Joel Kotkin. Last week in the Wall Street Journal, Kotkin wrote a pointed takedown of cities that chase the "Creative Class" with civic improvement schemes -- arenas, convention centers, government-planned entertainment districts, light rail,...
Happy Birthday, Bob Wills
An edited version of this column was published in the March 1 - 7, 2007, issue of Urban Tulsa Weekly. The published version is available on the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. Posted April 11, 2024. Happy Birthday, Bob By Michael D. Bates It looked like a typical scene in an...
Iconic Tulsa
One of my Urban Tulsa Weekly columns was about the idea of the new downtown sports arena as an "icon", and what it means for a building to be iconic: An icon is a symbol. In the computer world, it’s a small image that has enough detail to help you...
Big Lincoln to overshadow big Indian?
A reader sends a link to this CNN story about a proposal to build a 305-foot-tall fiberglass and steel statue of Abraham Lincoln, which would dwarf "The American" -- the 220-foot-tall statue honoring American Indians which will be built in Tulsa. The statue would be built in Lincoln, Illinois, a...
Big Indian coming to Tulsa?
There's a press conference tomorrow at 2:30 at the Central Library with sculptor Shan Gray, and it's almost certainly going to be to announce that the monumental statue "The American" will be built in Tulsa. Where in Tulsa remains an open question, with some contending for the Osage Hills, some...
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