marking the - Bacone College

BACONIAN
WINTER 2016 VOL. NO.2
SPIRIT HORSE GALA
Celebrating 135 years
Marking the
Jesus Road
Excerpt from Professor
Russell Lawson
Blue Deer
Fraternity
DRAWING
FROM
TRADITION
BACONE
XCOUNTRY
Running to Glory
BACONIAN
1
A WORD FROM THE PUBLISHER
TABLE OF CONTENTS
4
Celebrating: 135 years
5
Letter from the President
6
Vlad Lodzinski : Sharing from afar
7
First Native American Civitan Chapter
8
9
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BACONIAN
Excerpt from Marking the Jesus Road: Bacone
College through the Years
History of the Baconian
10
Bacone XCountry
12
Drawing from Tradition
14
Alumni Story
15
Student Spotlight: Miss Indian Bacone
16
Giving Partnerships for the Future
17
Family Studies Education
17
Annual Spirit of Giving
18
Barbara McAlister
As we celebrate our 135th anniversary, we are proud
that our mission has spanned over three centuries. And
as we firmly establish a foothold on the new millennium,
we at Bacone are aggressively addressing the issues of
an ever-changing educational model. The old classroom
model simply doesn’t fit the world’s ever-changing needs.
Kimberlie Gilliland Cheorokee/Choctaw
Publisher Baconian Magazine / Executive Director of Development
[email protected]
It’s a fundamentally passive way of learning, while the
world requires more and more active processing of information. Today’s technology has the power to free
us from these limitations, to make education far more
flexible, personal and, in the end, portable. It allows us
to foster initiative, inspiration and to restore the excitement of learning. Technology offers another potential
benefit as well - the Internet can make education far, far
more accessible through online education that can be
accessed through, computers, tablets and now phones.
We hope you take a look at our new online degree programs as well as explore our new media opportunities,
which cross borders and geographical barriers.
GV “Wado” ( Thank you)
A WORD FROM THE EDITOR
I hope you enjoy this edition of Baconian magazine, filled
with stories of just how Bacone College has transformed
over the last 135 years. When this college was founded in
1880 by Almon C. Bacone, his vision was to provide religious
training for Native Americans as missionaries of Christ’s word.
Today Bacone maintains that vision, but also does much more
- educating students of all backgrounds in Christian ministry,
health, education, criminal justice, and Tribal Languages. In
this edition you’ll come to know Miss Indian Bacone, and the
legend of the butterfly dance; a Native American international
opera star sharing her craft with students; a young Navajo
man learning to love college and shining as the fasted Native
American runner in the NAIA. And you’ll meet an innovative
new instructor from London, teaching at Bacone all the way
from Hollywood - all beautiful stories which will surely inspire
you, as they have inspired me.
Wendy Burton
Baconian Editor
[email protected]
Thank you,
Wendy Burton, Baconian Editor
BACONIAN DESIGN TEAM
Wendy Burton
Josh Cagle,
Kimberlie Gilliland
Mandy Lundy,
BACONIAN
3
LETTER FROM THE
PRESIDENT
Happy New Year!
CELEBRATING: 135 YEARS
We enter the coming school year with a sense of gratitude, renewed optimism, eager
anticipation of the future and of the impending adventure that is the New Bacone.
As we celebrate our 135th anniversary serving Native Americans, we are proud that our mission has spanned three
centuries. The theme for our 135th anniversary is based on Master Artist and former Bacone Art Director Woody
Crumbo’s painting “Spirit Horse.” The painting is an original silk screen and was created in the Bacone-Style, an
internationally-recognized art style that emerged from Bacone in the late 1930s.
Crumbo’s styles were influenced by the streamlined, bold look of Art Deco. The most popular of his elaborate
silkscreens, was his “Spirit Horse,” a charging animal with a tumult of hair that would make it all the way to the
collections of Winston Churchill and the Queen of England. It seems a fitting piece to honor our 135th year as, like
Woody Crumbo’s “Spirit Horse,” our alumni have transcended barriers, leaped over racial divides and again like the
“Spirit Horse,” returned home to inspire the next generation.
During this season, people will count down the days
and the hours to 2016. Folks will sing “Auld Lang Syne,”
set off fireworks, and make resolutions. What is our
fascination with the New Year? Surely it is the word
“new!” The New Year holds the promise of new things.
The New Year also holds promise of new things at the
New Bacone College:
For the first time in anyone’s memory, the Center
for Christian Ministry will offer a new course entitled,
“Foundations in American Indian Ministry,” through our
Christian Ministry degree program. The original mission
of Bacone College was to “train preachers and teachers
for a more effective work among the tribes… ” Five
American Indian Christian Ministry majors are enrolled
in the class taught by Rev. Kyle Taylor, pastor of Bacone
College Baptist Church. This course is the first of many
that will be offered to rekindle the flame of Indian
evangelism at Bacone College.
Faculty has approved a new degree in criminal law - the
Bachelor’s Degree in Legal Studies. This degree program
is designed to funnel Bacone students into law school,
and we are working with law schools in Oklahoma to
make space for our graduates from this program.
Students will have their first hands-on experience in
our new communications degree, actually working in the
studios of OETV (Oklahoma Educational Television) in
Tulsa.
Spring sports begin a new season, with track, baseball
and softball and their new athletes we’ve welcomed at
Bacone. Our baseball team has always been a winner; two
years ago Bacone baseball was the Regional Champion.
Under its new coach, Mike Adair (Cherokee), the new
team is expected to carry on this winning tradition.
Our cross-country team increased from three runners
to 24 in two years’ time, and 18 of the 24 runners are
Native American. This fall we qualified for the NAIA
(small colleges) National championships, a Bacone first,
and our men’s team, composed of seven runners, five
Native American, finished 15th in the nation! Our top
runner, a Navajo, finished 4th overall – making him the
fastest Native American runner in the NAIA.
New students will study in our Center for Online
Teaching and Learning, where we now offer two
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BACONIAN
online degree programs in business administration.
Mobile education is the wave of the future and the
new students who join us in January will be using the
newest technologies available. Additional online degree
programs will be added in the coming months.
So, Bacone will be new in the New Year, and I invite
you to experience something new by being a part of the
New Bacone. Come and visit our campus; meet our new
students; follow the baseball, softball, track, men’s and
women’s wrestling and men’s and women’s basketball
teams on our new athletic website; and please consider
supporting the scholarships of our new students with
your gifts. When you support Bacone College, the new
things at Bacone become yours.
Join us in making the year “new!”
Franklin K. Willis
President
BACONIAN
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VLAD LODZINSKI : SHARING FROM AFAR
His was a journey that started during his first job at
MTV Europe in London, where he was assigned new
VJs. “They were often fresh from some little town or skislope where my bosses scouted them,” said Lodzinski,
Bacone’s introduction to mass media instructor. “I would
train them professionally for on-screen, but also be their
friends and help them cope with the instant fame they
often achieved.”
Volunteer chapter formed by Bacone College’s Center for American Indians
by Dr. Patricia King
Lodzinski’s career has come a long way since then, and
now he is a busy entrepreneurial developer, with scads of
experience in media, communications, marketing, product
development and much more. But he still finds time to
teach, now at Bacone College via videoconferencing
with 21st Century Media Communication students and
instructor Andrew Sikora.
“I’ve always enjoyed mentoring and helping others
bring out their full potential,” he said. “These students
have many varied passions, from computer graphics to
sports documentaries, and it’s about giving them a solid
grounding and the tools that apply across all sectors.
That’s especially important as lines between sectors
increasingly blur and students need to ‘future-proof’
their skill set.”
After starting out in his native London, Lodzinski helped
set up and run television stations in Poland and Romania.
This was during the years after communism fell, and he
had his work cut out for him there.
“We had to not only help set up a business and help teach
the young teams how to make modern/ western/ cool
television, but also help them as individuals,” Lodzinski
said. “They were all awesome, creative individuals
who were fighting the fact they were the products of
communist education systems - where compliance and
uniformity were prized over individual talents, which
we in the west were used to. We had to broaden their
minds, outlook and worldview, helping them learn how
to think, analyze and give them modern life skills.”
He ended up back in the UK, working for the
government to help young digital businesses in the UK
apply themselves to international markets. Then he
became a visiting professor of journalism (media) at the
University of Bedfordshire. “That media course is highly
regarded, and the college, like Bacone, takes a vocational
approach and has a lot of students from diverse and often
under privileged backgrounds,” Lodzinski said. “...the kind
of people that don’t get breaks and helping hands from
extended families and don’t have connections.”
That kind of teaching is what Lodzinski admires most
FIRST NATIVE AMERICAN CIVITAN CHAPTER
– the vocational approach and helping those who are
talented but less privileged get a “leg up.”
“I see lots of people with talent who don’t connect or
travel in the circles where ‘luck’ happens, and others
from privileged backgrounds who don’t have the raw
outstanding talent - but are good enough and dominate
the space,” Lodzinski said. “I look at the people around
me in Hollywood, and whilst some people are mindblowingly talented - who fought to get where they are
- others are simply local kids who were around.”
Lodzinski’s early experiences teaching and mentoring
gave him a passion for helping others, which led him to
Bacone College – half a continent away from California,
where he resides now.
“I always try and make time to help others, and when
Andrzej Sikorski (Andrew Sikora) told me about his vision
and the college he was teaching at, I was eager to help
and have the experience of working with the Bacone
Students,” he said. “I actually worked with Andrew in
Poland setting up Atomic TV, an MTV style station in
Poland that did so well we ended up selling it to MTV.”
Lodzinski and Sikora’s introduction to mass media
course is part of the 21st Century Media Communication
degree program at Bacone College. For more information,
visit the website at www.bacone.edu or call admissions
at (918) 781-7340.
Civitan International is an association of volunteer
service clubs with more than 40,000 members across
North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Founded in
Birmingham, Alabama in 1917, their mission, to build
good citizenship by providing a volunteer organization
of clubs dedicated to serving individual and community
needs, has created a network of caring volunteers
who through hands-on service projects, outreach
programs, and fundraisers assist local charitable causes.
Because Civitan has a history of partnership with other
organizations, the local Muskogee Chapter approached
John Timothy this past summer
and suggested that the Center for
American Indians form a campus
chapter. Four months later, our
friendship with the local Muskogee
Chapter has blossomed, and we are
proud to annouce the formation of
the Bacone Center for American
Indians Blue Deer Chapter of
Civitan. The Blue Deer Chapter is
the first Native American chapter
in the organization’s long history.
to develop leadership skills, public speaking abilities,
managerial and organizational skills. Campus chapters are
also an excellent way to meet people with similar interests
in the larger community and to strengthen the network
of contacts with various people. Campus chapters were
first introduced in 1958, and many of those early clubs
thrived through the 1980s. In 1992, a program to reenergize the clubs throughout the Campus programs
was initiated. Since then, Campus Civitan has been
striving to build new clubs and strengthen memberships
in existing clubs for future growth. The vision of Campus
Civitan is helping students hone
their dynamic leadership and career
skills by facilitating sensitivity to
human needs. Members will serve
campuses and local communities
while at the same time, bridging
the gap of cultural diversity
among the citizens of our world.
The organization’s atmosphere of
respect and acceptance among
peers nurtures the vision of every
Campus Civitan chapter.
Our new campus chapter’s name
and “Blue Deer” logo, is adopted
from famed Indian painter Acee Blue Eagle’s illustrated
book, “Echogee, the Little Blue Deer.” Blue Eagle a
Mvscogee Creek , Pawnee, and Wichita artist, educator,
dancer, and flute player from Anadarko, Oklahoma,
gained worldwide fame with his two-dimensional
paintings that now hang in private and public galleries
all over the world. In 1935 Blue Eagle established the
Art Department here at Bacone College in 1935, and
directed the program until 1938. There he helped shaped
development of the Bacone style of painting.
Civitans volunteers in schools
and communities often work
in partnership with their sponsoring Civitan clubs.
Members join together to clean up their schools, educate
peers about social issues, and volunteer with great
local charities. They also take part in regular meetings,
group fundraisers, and the annual Civitan International
Convention. Civitan groups also have a special focus on
helping people with developmental disabilities. This is
most visible through the Civitan International Research
Center, a world-class facility dedicated to research into
illnesses such as autism, brain cancer, cerebral palsy, and
other illnesses of the human brain. Civitans chapters meet
each year for the annual fundraisers, which benefit this
crucial research. We are looking forward to working with
our sponsoring Muskogee Chapter this spring semester
in our community service efforts. Through exercising a
healthy disregard for that which seems impossible, our
members’ efforts will be limited only by how much we
believe we can do. Our members learn, lead,
follow, and give, while acting in the spirit of
the Civitan Creed and Vision. We are proud
to be a part of this fine organization here at
Bacone.
Now that the Blue Deer Campus Chapter has been
officially chartered, membership in the chapter will be
open to all Bacone students, staff, and faculty. The
Civitans help wherever the need arises – from collecting
food for homeless shelters, to volunteering at local
retirement homes, to building playgrounds for children.
Whenever the need arises, Civitans are there. Therefore,
utilizing the help and expertise of the Civitan organization
will maximize our community service outreach, as well as
fundraising efforts on behalf of our own institution.
Campus chapters offer members the opportunity
BACONIAN
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Road
BACONE COLLEGE
THROUGH THE YEARS
INDIAN
UNIVERSITY
PRESS
B
MARKING THE Jesus
white Christians bringing their brand of civilization to
bear upon indigenous people with their own worldview;
of white professors and administrators attempting to
teach and remake Indian students; of Christians who
believe themselves open to other cultures having
historical difficulties accepting an increasing presence
of African-American students; of a small school with
the big, sometimes out-of-reach ideas of a university;
of people with liberal arts ideals in a world increasingly
demanding technical and professional expertise; of
Christian educators in an increasingly secular world.
Nineteenth-century Baptist missionaries to the
Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, Pawnee, Creek, Choctaw,
Cherokee, Seminole, Chickasaw, Arapaho, and other
Oklahoma tribes were struck by how eager the indigenous
people were to learn of a new religious road—the
Jesus Road— that they could take out of the shadows
of darkness and doubt into the light of understanding.
Religious converts understood what Jesus meant when
he told Nicodemus that one must be born again from the
mother’s womb. There was no other way, no other road.
As a writer in the Baptist Mission Monthly put it:“The
evidence of a genuine work of grace in the hearts of
these children of the plains are so marked and varied
that no one can doubt the reality of their conversion.”
By forging a road through life and time amid distractions,
temptations, suffering, and death, Baptist missionaries
showed that this road was one for all people. Christian
Indians believed that by taking the Jesus Road they
shared Jesus’s experience.
The Jesus Road, the metaphor used by missionaries
and Indians to refer to the narrow path following Jesus
of Nazareth toward love, peace, and redemption, is aptly
used to describe the history of Bacone College. The
history of Christianity, like the history of all human lives,
is one of people going in circles, like wheels revolving
over time, attempting to be released from the burden
of the past to widen the path toward the future.
Movement down this path is fraught with contradiction,
confusion, often failure. The Jesus Road is a wonderfully
enlightening path to follow—as the Kiowa native Sanco
put it over a century ago, it is “like a stream of living water
without sticks or stones or mud in it, ever-flowing, clear
as crystal, free to all.” He added: “before the missionaries
came [the Indians] knew nothing about God; the Indians
lived in the dark; their minds were covered just like a
veil over the face, but now they can see clearly.” Often
the missionaries had veils over their faces as well. But
as missionaries and teachers and students have come
together on this path during the 1800s, 1900s, and
2000s, the veils have been lifted, mutual curiosity
engaged, knowledge attempted, and the road toward
enlightenment pursued.
Almon Bacone, Joseph Murrow, and Daniel Rogers,
among other missionaries, began the process of
establishing an institution of higher learning that would
address the spiritual, educational, cultural, and social
needs of American Indians. Indian University, wrote an
author for the nineteenth-century Indian Journal, is “the
best school in existence for Indian youths.” Renamed
Bacone College in the early twentieth century, the school
has since its beginning in 1880 sought to provide for
American Indians a foundational liberal arts education
underpinned with sound Christian principles. As Almon
Bacone proclaimed, “A Christian school planted in the
midst of a people, becomes one of the most powerful
agencies in the work of civilization.”
BACONE COLLEGE
THROUGH THE YEARS
Russell M. Lawson, Ph.D., is Professor of History at Bacone
College, a Fulbright Scholar, and author of over a dozen books.
Road
In this rich and fascinating history, the story is told
of the 135 years of Bacone College, the oldest
college in Oklahoma. Historian Russell M. Lawson
describes how for over a century Bacone College
has worked to bring the message of Christ to
American Indians and others in Oklahoma. The book
highlights the contributions of students to the
intellectual environment of this small college in
Muskogee, Oklahoma.
MARKING THE Jesus
Bacone College, an institution of higher learning, is not
an inanimate thing, rather a living presence over time,
made up of individuals working together, sometimes at
cross-purposes, seeking varying goals according to their
own cultural background and personal histories. This
history of Bacone College is therefore a history of people
who comprise an institution. As such it is a history of
human frailty and achievement, promise and fulfillment,
error and success. The history of the people of Bacone
College is one of ideals competing against reality: of
INDIAN
UNIVERSITY
PRESS
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BACONIAN
Russell M. Lawson, Ph.D., is Professor of History at Bacone
College, a Fulbright Scholar, and author of over a dozen books.
In this rich and fascinating history, the story is told
of the 135 years of Bacone College, the oldest
college in Oklahoma. Historian Russell M. Lawson
describes how for over a century Bacone College
has worked to bring the message of Christ to
American Indians and others in Oklahoma. The book
highlights the contributions of students to the
intellectual environment of this small college in
Muskogee, Oklahoma.
EXCERPT FROM MARKING THE JESUS ROAD:
BACONE COLLEGE THROUGH THE YEARS
MARKING
THE
BACONE COLLEGE THROUGH THE YEARS
R U S S E L L
M .
L A W S O N
Historian Russell M. Lawson has written
a complete narrative history of Bacone
College. Bacone College, the oldest college
in Oklahoma, is celebrating its 135th year.
The book, Marking the Jesus Road: Bacone
College through the Years, highlights the
contributions of students to the intellectual
life of this small college in Muskogee
Oklahoma. The 329-page illustrated
paperback sells for $19.99, and can be
purchased at the Bacone College Bookstore.
(918) 781-7281
THE BACONIAN — EVER-CHANGING IN AN
EVER-CHANGING WORLD
By Wendy Burton, Baconian Editor
Though I’ve only been a part of
the 117-year-old Baconian for
the last eight years, I can attest
to its rich history and reminisce
about its last remaining years as
a traditional student newspaper
before it changed, and changed,
and changed again to keep up
with today’s modern journalism.
And thanks to diligent research
by one of Bacone’s historical
experts, Frances Donelson, I
can also attest to its rich history
of change – changing formats,
styles, names many times over
the last 117 years, but still
going strong and still The Baconian at its finest. Today’s
Baconian you see as a beautiful biannual magazine, but
it started out as a traditional newspaper in 1898, with
contributions from students and faculty alike.
In 1910, the Baconian morphed for the first time. It
became The Bacone Chief, a yearbook-like publication
which was only published annually until 1928 before
changing again into The Bacone Indian. The Indian was a
publication created under the tutelage of faculty advisor
Mary “Ataloa” Stone McLendon – the namesake of Ataloa
Lodge Museum.
The “Art and Exchange Manager” was none other than
AC McIntosh, a Bacone student then, who many know
now as famous Indian artist Acee Blue Eagle. Blue Eagle
went on to build the art department at Bacone College,
developing the now famous “Bacone-style” of painting
during his years as art director from 1935 to 1938.
Two generations later, cue me enrolling in 2007 to see
the last remaining years of the Baconian as a true student
newspaper – an experience I’ll cherish as long as I live.
They had launched The Baconian Online, and reduced
the number of print papers to monthly they were
publishing just before I joined the news team. Over the
next few years it changed more and more as we saw
traditional print journalism becoming less in demand,
and broadcast and Internet journalism becoming more
prevalent.
In 2013, I was honored to teach the last handful of
traditional print journalism majors, and saw them walk
across the stage as the last to receive an associate’s in
journalism at Bacone College. But the long history of
journalism education at Bacone hasn’t gone away – like
The Baconian, it’s just changed.
Today’s “journalism” is taught in its most modern
forms at Bacone College in the 21st Century Media
Communication program with Director and Instructor
Andrew Sikora. Students are now learning media
communication skills such as broadcasting, video
production, Internet journalism and much more.
I can say that I, too, have changed over the years
alongside the Baconian. I became the editor of The
Baconian and The Baconian Online early on, going on
to a career as a newspaper journalist before joining the
ranks of media communications myself and becoming a
public relations coordinator. And today, I am once again
editor of The Baconian, too.
It’s a strange, but satisfying, twist of fate that Blue
Eagle was once part of the publication I love and which
is most responsible for my career in journalism, because
not long after becoming a novice newspaper reporter I
had the honor of meeting his great nephew and writing a
story about the attempt to preserve some of Blue Eagle’s
murals here in Muskogee, Okla.
After 31 years as the Bacone Indian, which was filled
with student work, including cartoons by Acee Blue Eagle
himself, it became The Baconian once again in 1959.
BACONIAN
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BACONE XCOUNTRY
Running for Glory
Jackson Thomas, fastest Native American runner in the NAIA
Jackson Thomas, 22, recently placed fourth in nationals
for cross country in the NAIA, making him the top Native
American runner – something that came as no surprise
for his coach, Clay Mayes.
“Jackson has the tremendous ability to match any in
terms of talent and being able to keep an admirable level
head about it, and follow through with hard work and
being one of our leaders,” Mayes said.
The humble, unassuming young Navajo holds a 24.18
personal 8k best over a tough course, and surprisingly
didn’t come into running at an early age like some might
assume.
He couldn’t run for two weeks – a serious setback so
early in his career and one that had him thinking he might
not continue.
“It was frustrating. Even after it healed, it still hurt, but I
wouldn’t let that stop me from running,” Thomas said. “My
dad really helped me through that little period right there.”
In fact, Thomas credits his family with his inspiration to
achieve both in college and sports.
“My mom, my dad, my grandma and my auntie – they’ve
been standing on the sidelines cheering me on. They’ve
always encouraged me. My dad has always been the
positive one, my mom the supportive one, my auntie
shows me how to be humble and my grandma, well she
makes sure everyone eats,” he said with a little chuckle.
“I started my junior year in high school when one of my
friends asked me to join the team, so I gave it a shot,”
the Bacone junior sports science major said. “I didn’t
really know what running was
“I wasn’t really thinking about
about then, but my coach told me,
going
to college, but running gave
‘work hard and I promise you will
do good.’ Then in my senior year I me the opportunity.”
really blew up; I really noticed I had
potential in running.”
—Jackson Thomas
He spent his last couple years in high school on a grueling
routine – school at 7 a.m., straight to practice after, home
by 6 p.m., dinner, homework, sleep, repeat. After hitting
his stride he hasn’t looked back, even when setbacks
tripped him up early in his college running career.
Today, as the fastest Native
American runner in the NAIA, Thomas
enjoys the present and looks forward
to the future, where he sees himself
coaching runners like him someday.
WARRIOR
HIGHLIGHTS
“I wasn’t really thinking about going
to college, but running gave me the
opportunity,” he said. “Now I’m happy where I go to
school, how I’m running and everything.”
He enjoys being part of the Bacone team, who describes
as
“a bunch
The Bacone College men’s
track & fiof
eldpositive guys who put a lot of effort into
bett
er.
We always run together – we never run
team brings home getti
four ng
All-American
“During my first run in college, I was running great, felt
honors.
alone.”
good – but in the middle of the race I fell and busted my
knee open,” Thomas said.
Not worrying too much about a sore knee, he kept
running, not winning but finishing the race, nonetheless.
Jackson Thomas, second from right, is the NAIA’s fastest
Native American runner this year.
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BACONIAN
“At the end I looked down and there was like a chunk of
flesh hanging off my knee. A woman grabbed me and set
me down and poured peroxide on it, and then I had to go
to the hospital and get stitches,” he said.
When Thomas does become a coach, he hopes to pass
along what he’s learned from his coaches, experience and
teammates.
“Stay positive; be motivating; encourage kids to get out
there and experience life,” he said.
The St. Louis Rams of the National Football League formally announced the signing of former Warrior Keshaun Malone to
an undrafted rookie free agent contract.
Matt Qualls selected to NAIA
All-American Basketball Team.
BACONIAN
11
Jada Silverhorn
DRAWING FROM TRADITION
The Artwork of John and Mary Beth Timothy
by Dr. Patricia King
John Timothy, Mvscogee artist, crafter, and musician
has a mission. He wants to continue to carry on the
traditions of American Indian arts and crafting that once
distinguished Bacone College as a pivotal school for
Native artists. As the former Director of Ataloa Lodge
Museum, and the current Cultural Interpreter and Arts
and Crafts Club director / teacher at the Bacone Center
for American Indians, John is helping to perpetuate
and preserve American Indian cultural arts through his
students for decades to come. Bacone College has long
been known as an incubator for great American Indian
art and a home away from home for many talented
artists. Some of the most respected Native artists of the
20th century once wandered the halls of our historic
campus. Their contributions to Bacone’s incomparable
art collection, still dazzle and delight their beholders.
Under the guidance of three primary art directors,
Art Department founder, Acee Blue Eagle (Creek/
Pawnee/Wichita); W. Richard “Dick” West Sr. (Southern
Cheyenne), who headed the department for over two
decades; and Oklahoma Hall of Famer, Ruthe Blalock
Jones (Delaware/ Shawnee/ Peoria), Bacone became
a world-renowned center of the emerging Indian Art
Movement, or the Bacone School of Native Art. Bacone’s
American Indian art program began in 1935 in part, due
to the rising popularity of the genre, reached a crescendo
in the 1940s and 50s, and continued to evolve through
the ensuing years.
Native craft making is also a hallmark of Bacone’s
reputation as a premier school for American Indian
students. In 1931, The Baconian reported that students
of Ataloa’s Indian Arts and Crafts Club were “beading
belts, handbags, and other things. The girl’s have made
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BACONIAN
handwoven baskets, but the boys have been making
bows and arrows and practicing shooting them.” The
article went on to say that the students were also learning
to make moccasins, wood carvings, tom-toms, totem
poles, and were learning to construct and erect a tipi. By
the fall of 1932, Ataloa Lodge had been constructed and
was dedicated as a classroom, repository, and showcase
for Bacone’s Indian arts and crafts.
Since his employment at Bacone in 2000, John Timothy
has been carrying on the crafting traditions established
by Ataloa. Since he took over as the director of the
Native Arts and Crafts Club, he has taught a variety of
beadwork styles, choker, dream catcher, hand drum,
bandolier bag, and flute making techniques and much
more. John believes that in order to hone one’s skills as
a Native craftsman, one should spend time with more
advanced crafters in order to learn by example, which he
believes is the best way.
“Associate with creative and productive people that can
challenge you and offer encouragement.” he
says. “It’s also important to get to
know your creative time clock and
create a personal workstation and
maintain supplies on hand.”
John is a master sketch artist and says
his favorite medium is colored pencil.
“Graphite,” he laughs, “is like an old friend
I need to visit from time to time.” In the
last year alone, he has won top prizes
for several of his Bacone promotional
sketches at jurried art shows around the
state. Among these, his favorite is Rez
Car Hop, a colored pencil sketch he initially created for
the CAI Taco Sale.
As is evident from his sardonic image of a steamy Indian
Taco being delivered by an Indian cook on roller skates,
John draws inspiration from Indian humor. “I’m really not
a very vocal person,” he says. He first became interested
in art when his parents bought him a chalk board. He
says it just “felt right” when he began to draw on it. “Art
became my voice and I realized my small place in the
universe.” His favorite artists include Mars Biggoose,
Daniel Horsechief, Acee Blue Eagle, Joan Hill, and his
wife, Mary Beth Timothy.
Mary Beth agree that engaging in artwork for the sheer
pleasure and emotional satisfaction it brings to its
creator, still tops the list as the best reason for getting
involved. “Art as a trade is unfamiliar ground for me,”
says John. “Now art for the love of being creative? I am
willing to camp on that ground as long as possible!” Mary
Beth laughs. “The main reason for my work is that it is a
release for me. I have all this inside me and I get it out
through my art. If I didn’t create, I think I would shrivel
up and disappear.”
Mary Beth’s artwork can be viewed on her web page,
moonhawkart.com
After having been friends for years, seeing each other
at art shows and community gatherings, John and Mary
Beth married in 2014. Mary Beth, Cherokee, is herself a
talented artist who says she is inspired by nature and her
Indian heritage. Having drawn and painted since she was
a child, she says she is most inspired by the story an art
piece has to tell. “I get excited when one of my pieces
sparks a conversation about, not only the beauty of the
piece, but it’s meaning, it’s story.”
Like John, Mary Beth, is employed at the Five Tribes
Museum as the exhibit coordinator and gift shop
manager, so she is constantly surrounded by Indian
cultures. Nevertheless, she cites her favorite artists
as the classical masters, Michelangelo and Botticelii.
Interestingly, she also finds inspiration in the work of
American satirist, Norman Rockwell. She believes her
best work is her graphic sketch, Ga Sv Le Nv, a portrait
of a Southeasten Cherokee warrior.
In terms of realism, her work is striking and her color
work and attention to detail is very impressive. But Mary
Beth is also excels at portrayals of animals, birds, and
nature, defining them in such detail that one can almost
feel the textures of a bird’s wing, or the soft thick nap of
a wolf’s fur and his haunting, steely gaze
Both John and Mary Beth understand the sacrifices
and considerations that artists must make if they are
serious about pursuing a career in art, yet in many ways,
he feels making a living as an artist is somewhat easier
than in the past. It is a conversation John has regularly
with his students. “There are so many avenues to market
artwork today; social media and online sales have made
it easier.” But Mary Beth sees the internet as a detriment
to sales. “Unfortunately, many of the big time Indian art
collectors are passing away. This generation seems to
want something different, newer styles. They have so
much access through the internet that is makes it harder
to compete.”
As American Indian artists, however, both John and
BACONIAN
13
STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: MISS INDIAN BACONE
Torrii Crittenden, Cherokee butterfly
ALUMNI STORY
Many years ago, when the earth was still quite new,
there was a beautiful butterfly who lost her mate in
battle. To show her grief, she took off her beautiful wings
and wrapped herself in a drab cocoon.
135-year legacy of excellence since 1880, Bacone
College has seen more than 13,500 students graduate
and go on to become nurses, physicians, lawyers,
entrepreneurs and more.
The butterfly stayed inside her cocoon, lost in sadness,
unable to eat or sleep. One day she looked down and
happened to notice a beautiful stone beneath her, and it
healed her sorrow.
With a focus on recruitment and retention of students
from diverse backgrounds, the college has a record of
success in identifying, nurturing and supporting students
on their journey through higher education. Many of the
school’s graduates have stayed connected with the
college, but we want to hear from all of you
The butterfly cast off her cocoon, shook the dust from
her wings, and wore them once more. She was happy,
and began to dance to show her thanks for her new life.
To this day, we dance as an expression of thanks for new
seasons, new life and new beginnings.
We would like to invite you to visit the alumni page at
www.bacone.edu and give us your contact information
so we can be in touch about special events and all of the
exciting things happening at Bacone College.
And so the Cherokee legend of the butterfly dance
is told, and so it was told by Bacone student Torrii
Crittenden during the annual Miss Indian Bacone pageant
as she described her beautiful regalia to the judges and
audience.
Today, we are asking you to reconnect with Bacone
College as an alumni, so that today’s students can feel
your support, have a sense of the history and traditions
that came before them, and so that you can get back
in touch with friends, a place and a time that meant so
much to you.
“The legend of the butterfly dance describes my regalia
perfectly. When we do the dance, really the fancy shawl
dance, we move gracefully and the shawl sways gently
and resembles butterfly wings,” she said.
We would like to offer you a limited time offer to
become a lifetime member at our turn-of-the-century
rate.
And Crittenden is a bit like a beautiful butterfly
emerging from a cocoon herself.
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14
BACONIAN
the whole college in general,” she said. “And I’ll always be
striving to be a good role model, too.”
(limited time offer will increase to $250 on January 1st 2016)
by Dreamstale.com
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BACONE COLLEGE
Attention Office of Development
2299 Old Bacone Rd. | Muskogee, OK 74403
Tax Disclaimer:
Bacone College is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
Contributions are tax deductible as prescribed by law.
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\The 2015 Bacone College
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“I am a very, very shy person, and I wanted to break
out of my box,” Crittenden said of her decision to enter
the pageant. “And it’s very important to me to get our
culture out there. For example, it seems like not very
many people, other than our elders, know our language
anymore, but it’s important to keep our traditions alive.”
In fact, Bacone’s Native American tradition helped her
decision to accept a softball scholarship and come to the
school from her home in Westville, Okla.
“I wanted to know more. I wanted to learn about our
dances, our regalia and my culture,” Crittenden said. “Now
I am a part of the Native American Student Association.
I play stickball and I attend all the pow wows we have
here.”
And she is the 2015-2016 Miss Indian Bacone – an
honor, she said, that she intends to use to share her
culture with others.
“Sharing my culture is important to me, and I’ll be
making sure I represent, not only Native Americans, but
BACONIAN
15
GIVING PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE FUTURE
Since 1880 Bacone College had been committed to
providing educational opportunites to those in need.
The operation of a small college is dependent upon the
widespread support of alumni, parents and friends. As
we head into the 21st centure Bacone College’s future
is a vibrant one, but we can only reach our full potential
through the generosity of others.
Each academic year, such generosity manifests itself
in the form of donations to Bacone Fund. Gifts to the
Bacone Fund enrich the ongoing excellence of our
academic programs.
Over 90% of Bacone’s students receive federal
financial aid. The Bacone Fund helps supliment these
funds through scolarships and increases financial aid
offerings. Additionally, it helps upgrading computers
,and infrastructure by providing access to worldwide
electronic technology.
Your gift, no matter the size, is vital to our continued
success. Please consider all of the others who came
before you to make your Bacone experience meaningful
and affordable.
If you are interested in transferring money from your
IRA tax-free, please support Bacone College with a tax
free gift.
The Bacone Fund allows the college to fulfill its purpose
and mission and assists the college in maintaining the
quality and substance of the liberal arts.
The College welcomes gifts to The Bacone Fund of any
denomination from alumni, trustees, parents, friends,
faculty, staff, churches, corporations, and foundations.
Gifts to The Bacone Fund are unrestricted and help
underwrite budgeted operating expenses for every facet
of campus life:
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Scholarships, Prizes and Financial Aid for Students
Career Counseling
Academic Programs and Lectures
Library Resources
Student Activities
Off-Campus Study Opportunities
Health Services
Equipment and Supplies
Utilities and Maintenance
Salaries and Professional Development
What’s New?
Congress Controls Future of IRA Charitable Rollover
Congress has yet to take action on a bill that would reinstate the IRA Charitable Rollover, which offers tax
savings for some donors 70½ and older.
The bill that includes the IRA Charitable Rollover has been with the U.S. Senate since early August. It is part of
a bill that includes other expired tax provisions.
How the Rollover Works
• If enacted, the IRA Charitable Rollover benefits those 70½ and older who want to transfer up to $100,000
tax-free from their IRA to Bethany College.
• This gift is great if:You want to satisfy your IRA’s minimum required distribution without generating taxable
income.
• You are interested in transferring money from your IRA tax-free. Please support Bacone College with a taxfree gift.
• You are 70½ or older.
16
BACONIAN
FAMILY STUDIES EDUCATION
In Fall 2015 Bacone College
introduced a new degree plan,
bachelor of arts family studies
education. This degree will equip its
majors to enter fields of service or
graduate level education in:
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Social Work and Psychology
Teaching and Education
Advocacy and non-profit work
Business
Careers
Health Careers
Research
It has been said that every happy
family has the same story while each
unhappy family is unfortunately
unique. One of the ways that
students become more equipped to
serve families in their community is
by case work and clinical practice.
The program at Bacone places
a heavy emphasis upon service
learning, clinical experiences within
various communities and a research
requirement for graduation. Not
only do these requirements give a
robust and relevant education, they
prepare program completers to work
in positions upon graduation, or to
pursue graduate studies in areas
of expertise such as social work,
psychology, and research.
A unique feature in this major is that
students will develop competency
in an area of service that not only
aligns with the traditional mission
of Bacone College but also holds
personal efficacy.
Each student
picks an area of concentration which
rounds out their degree and allows
them to pursue future endeavors
and develop experience in an area
of personal interest.
Students
choose a concentration in Social
Work / Psychology, Native American
governance,
Native
American
Languages, or Christian Ministry.
This allows the students’ intrinsic
values to be followed, leading to
a personal commitment to their
education.
For all these reasons, particularly
those who are interested in career
paths focusing upon service to the
greater community, a bachelor’s
in family studies education offers
students at Bacone to follow their
path towards excellence.
ANNUAL SPIRIT OF GIVING
Bacone College’s students, faculty and staff
showed their Christmas
spirit – the spirit of giving – during the school’s
Tuesday morning Bacone
Hour services by donating
252 Christmas dinners to
Muskogee families in need.
This is the 10th year
Bacone has held a donation drive for area families, said Vice President of
Christian Ministry Leroy
Thompson.
“Each year food and
toys are gathered during
Bacone Hour, which is
also our annual Christmas
program and communion service,” he said. “So
we celebrate the Lord’s
Supper and we celebrate
Christmas by helping others.”
The food is donated to
the Gospel Rescue Mission
in Muskogee, and the toys
to the Salvation Army for
their Angel Tree program.
Representatives from both
organizations attend the
special Bacone Hour each
year to receive the donations.
A group of students
started this annual tradition back in 2005, and it
started off well with about
100 families receiving assistance that year. In 2010,
the toys were added to the
tradition.
“Each year we would average helping around 150
families, but this year we
wanted to do better than
that, so the students set a
goal to help 200 families,”
Thompson said. “And we
ended up with 252 bags of
food, providing Christmas
dinner for 252 families in
the Muskogee area. It was
amazing.”
Each student group, club,
team or organization on
campus sets a goal every
year to gather a certain
amount of food or toys.
For example, Center for
Christian Ministry, which
organizes and hosts the
drive, set a goal for 40 bags
this year – and brought in
53 bags instead.
“Everyone did well this
year. For example, the
football team had a goal
to gather 30 bags of food,
and they blew it away –
they brought 77 bags,”
Thompson said. “And the
Gospel Rescue Mission
representative told me
some of that food would
be in people’s hands the
very next day.”
BACONIAN
17
BARBARA MCALISTER
SHARING HER LOVE OF MUSIC
Growing up in a home filled with love for music, it’s
no surprise Barbara McAlister pursued a musical career.
Her talent, and hard work, took her from a hometown
Muskogee girl to performing in musical theater, becoming
an international opera singer, Cherokee Nation fine
arts instructor/performer and an accomplished Native
American painter.
She’s a well-rounded artist who knows what it takes to
become whatever a person with an artistic spirit wishes
to become. And she’s now sharing her skills, knowledge,
and experience with students at Bacone College as she
teaches a voice lesson course this fall.
“It’s just an incredible honor to pass on my skills
and knowledge I’ve gained over the last 40 years in
performing arts,” McAlister said. “I feel very blessed to be
able to impart my knowledge to those willing to learn.”
Because singing isn’t all about talent – it’s also about
technique and hard work, she said. “You have to develop
a technique for anything you want to succeed at – and
how do you learn that? You go to school,” McAlister said.
“With singing, you study with the best teachers you can
find, and hopefully you’re guided by the Lord to find
the right ones. Then I really think it’s almost a magical
process – first developing a technique, then it’s hard
work that requires incredible discipline.”
And McAlister knows what incredible discipline and
hard work can bring an aspiring artist firsthand. She
started her career while in college, performing in summer
stock musical productions.
Her first venture into professional musical theater was
in Dallas, Texas. She also sang in Theatreland, North
Carolina in Clu Gulager’s productions before moving to
Hollywood to continue performing professionally and
furthering her voice and acting studies.
It was there that she met her great master voice teacher,
Lee Sweetland, and received a full scholarship to attend
the prestigious American Center for the Performing
Arts at the LA Music Center, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion,
where she studied acting, dancing, mime, fencing,
musical theater scene studies and performance.
McAlister was then hired by Sacramento Summer
Music Theater, followed by a national tour with the LA
Music Center in “Sound of Music.” She auditioned for
the National Loren Zachary Opera Competition and was
presented with a flight to audition in Germany.
18
BACONIAN
Thus began her career in German repertory opera,
performing more than 35 roles there, including Carmen,
Azucena, and Santuzza.
She went on to study under Sweetland’s son Steve
Sweetland, whom she visits annually in Hollywood still,
and has won numerous acclaims and awards, including
being inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame,
receiving the Bare Bones Living Legend award, and
receiving the Cherokee Medal of Honor.
Today McAlister has returned to her hometown where
she teaches voice at Bacone College, as well as for the
Cherokee Nation and private lessons. Her knowledge of
international performing has been a blessing to Bacone
in other ways, too.
She has been instrumental in helping bring some of the
musical artists to Bacone who’ve performed over the
last few years, including New York Polyphony and Jenn
Gambotese, a Broadway star who held a master class
and concert.
She helped organize the Classical Native Stars concert,
featuring Native American artists Rebecca Mann
(Cherokee), pianist Timothy Long (Creek/Choctaw) and
bass baritone and stage director J.J. Hudson (Oglala/
Lakota) and herself; and most recently “Sing for Joey” a
fundraiser concert held at Bacone featuring McAlister,
Martha Sharpe (semi-retired professor of signing from
the Mozarteum Conservatory in Salzburg, Austria; and
accompianist Margaret Singer from Germany and plays
in Germany.
That fundraiser helped raise funds to support a little
boy recovering from a gunshot wound, who also lost his
mother and brother in the tragedy. “The stars aligned to
bring us together for this little boy,” she said.
“You have to develop a love for whatever art
form you’re going in to, and I loved singing and I
loved hearing people sing. As my voice developed,
I went on into Opera, but I started out in musical
theater,” she said. “I was inspired by my father and
my mother, who accompanied my father playing
beautifully on the piano. I was definitely inspired
to become a singer as a child.”
- Barbara McAlister
BACONIAN
19
Development Office
2299 Old Bacone Rd.
Muskogee, OK 74403-1568
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A COLLEGE FOR THE GLOBAL WORLD WHERE THE LEARNING
ENVIRONMENT BREAKS TRADITIONAL BARRIERS WITH
INNOVATION AND IMAGINATION.
Bacone College is taking its place in this millennium
with the introduction of iBacone - an online education
program flexible enough to accommodate working
adults’ busy schedules.
educational needs, and helps them avoid obstacles while
preparing them for a successful career. And this positive
change is just a part of what you’ll see from the NEW
BACONE.
Launched in the spring of 2015, iBacone is a year-round
program that accommodates students’ busy schedules.
Students can complete a bachelor’s degree in business
administration in just three years.
iBACONE INCLUDES:
Of the many business degree tracks being offered,
Bacone is the first college in the nation to offer a tribal
leadership track which is offered as part of a BSBA
degree program online.
iBacone allows Bacone to adapt to its students’
Business Administration
Accounting
Information Systems
Marketing
Tribal Leadership
http://i.bacone.edu