While the Lake of the Arbuckles is popular for wasting gas zooming in circles on the water, I think the hiking is the best form of recreation here. The smaller Veterans Lake is reserved for paddling, but since you can see everything from the boat ramp, there’s no point. I hiked for a couple miles near the Travertine Nature Center through the ecotone that ranges from Redbud to Cactus, along the CCC developed creeks and mineral spring pools, admiring the foliage, the tall Sycamores and various Oaks, and I watched an armadillo digging around in the brush. There are half a dozen simple campgrounds, and when the water is flowing there are many small waterfalls and an old pavilion where they used to bathe in mineral waters. Once tourists observed bison wallowing in the muddy pools, but now the area suffers in man-made drought.
To prevent over-development, the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations sold the springs and surrounding forest to the Interior Department, hence the name. I very much recommend visiting the neighboring Chickasaw Cultural Center, which connects to the park by the pedestrian Inkana Bridge. There I observed a pair of Great Blue Herons, admired the pollinator gardens, toured the replica village, watched a stomp dance, and learned about the tribe in their beautiful museum. The history of the Chickasaw is tragic, fascinating and inspiring, including conflicts with the Spanish, French, British and the US. My trip to the southeast goes in the direction their ancestors traveled many centuries before the tribe was removed to Oklahoma.
No veteran wants to realize that their command lied to get them to commit war crimes. In the film The Last Samurai, Tom Cruise plays a Civil War veteran haunted by his part in the Washita Battle. In my view, honoring veterans begins by honoring the truth, the rules of military engagement and heroism. And it’s important to get it right, not just for the veterans, but so we get it right in future conflicts.
The US Cavalry here were told inaccurate stories about the Cheyenne, that they were all savage warriors, that they had killed more settlers than they had, and that they must all be punished for their crimes. They were ordered to attack a peaceful village of non-combatant elderly men, women & children while they slept and to destroy their possessions so the survivors would starve during winter. Despite inferior weapons, the Native Americans defended themselves bravely.
The village Chief, Black Kettle, survived the Sand Creek Massacre, and still counseled peace with the US, until the US Cavalry killed him here. Yes, some of the Cheyenne were angry over that earlier massacre, and they raided settlements. But most of the raids were thefts of food and cattle and destroying property, after the US government reneged on its treaty promises to provide food, land and compensation. Yes, some white settlers were killed by renegades, including women and children, but for every settler killed, hundreds of natives were killed, for ever cow stolen, tens of thousands of bison were killed. Three months before the massacre here, Chief Little Rock agreed to turn over those responsible for raids, but he was also killed protecting women and children as they escaped down the Washita River.
Generals Sheridan and Sherman exaggerated the number of white settlers killed to justify declaring war on the entire tribe. No culture is entirely comprised of warriors, but Sheridan and Sherman promoted that lie to encourage the troops to commit war crimes against peaceful non-combatants, including women and children. Custer was unconcerned about whether the village was peaceful or harboring fugitives. He was just interested in surrounding the village and killing all the men, some of the women and children and taking hostages. He showed the same disinterest in sizing up his target at Little Bighorn.
The US government repeatedly lied to the Native Americans, broke treaties, ignored Supreme Court orders, forcibly deported tribes, ordered troops to war against allied and peaceful tribes, stole lands, burned homes and possessions, drove the bison to the edge of extinction (50 million to 500), destroyed crops, introduced diseases, forced children into re-education centers, and tried to destroy native culture, language and religion, all to promote a near-genocidal racist policy of populating most of the country primarily with white settlers.
Those US military and government acts and policies were wrong, and we should honor our veterans and flag by admitting the truth, so that we can act correctly in the future. We do not teach our children that if they want something, they should take it by force and then lie about it. We do not believe that declaring war justifies intentionally killing civilian non-combatants, including women and children. And we should not lie to our children to excuse the mistakes of our ancestors.
Unfortunately, rather than confront the one-sided and disproportionately violent history against Native Americans, the old excuses for US war crimes still continue today, funded by your tax dollars. The pamphlet for this site blames Native American raids for the Sand Creek Massacre, the film describes the Cheyenne as a hostile warrior culture (because they eat bison?!?), and the site presents the “battle” as a necessary victory to achieve peace and open the west. No. Without justice, there is no peace. And the west was already open: California had been a state since 1850.
That our ancestors engaged in avoidable, brutal massacres out of racism and greed is upsetting, albeit truthful. Our veterans deserve to live in a truthful country. The Native Americans who contributed to this site are doing a public service in telling us the truth, and we owe it to them to listen. That some people today, 150 years later, still whitewash history with dishonest racist pseudo-justifications is unacceptable. That the park service here misinforms visitors and believes 1/2 of its mission is to excuse tragic avoidable war crimes is profoundly wrong.
Each of the chairs is etched with a name of one of the 168 victims of the bombing here on 19 April, 1995. The smaller chairs are for each of the 19 children killed.
The memorial is designed to achieve closure for this traumatic event, for the families, survivors and responders. The reflecting pool spans the 1 minute interval at 9:02 am ‘between innocence and healing’. There’s a statue of Jesus weeping with his back turned away. There’s a grand old elm that survived. And there’s graffiti, sprayed by a CSI bomb specialist working in the rubble, promising to seek Justice for the victims and for God.
For me, the decision not to delve into the cause of the bombing makes closure impossible. Neither the victims nor God could be satisfied that 27 years later our country is still under assault by violent anti-government white supremacists. The $15 museum (closed Sunday mornings) describes the investigation and trial (2nd floor), but the main film is on “personal responsibility” (GW Bush’s campaign theme).
The truth is that McVeigh (executed) and Nichols (life) were anti-semitic, white supremacists who believed that attacking the government and killing civilians is justified. They were heinous criminals, not patriots. Yet their hateful, militant and deadly beliefs have continued to grow into a powerful political movement that still threatens our democracy.
The memorial offers a powerful opportunity to teach people about overcoming bigotry, about non-violence and about true patriotism. The focus should be on the strengths of our democracy, including “liberty and justice for all” and our right to “peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances”. Instead, each memory is placed in a glass case, platitudes abound, Christianity is affirmed, extremism ignored, and our nation is left unable to come to terms with the issues that caused the bombing.
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