Ligon Endowment Brings History Back Home

The piece, which depicts a Mvskoke elder reminiscing as he watches two warriors prepare to battle in a game of stickball, is no stranger to the community of Wewoka. In fact, it was here in Wewoka that Beaver originally exhibited the painting as an entry in the first annual Barking Water Indian Arts & Crafts Show. Held in May of 1973, the art show was part of a weeklong series of festivities celebrating the formation of the Seminole Nation Historical Society, the parent organization of the museum. As noted in the May 11, 1973 edition of the Wewoka Daily Times, “Remembering the Old Ways” won First Prize in the competition, excelling over many other artworks by well-known Native artists from across the state. Following the painting’s award-winning debut in Wewoka, Beaver exhibited the painting in a one-manshow at Tulsa’s Gilcrease Museum. Subsequent to that, however, the painting’s whereabouts was lost to history. Lost, that is, until the painting made a social media appearance some four-and-a-half decades later.