"the People's Paths!" Cherokee News Path - Will Rogers Museum Honored

TAHLEQUAH, OK - The legacy of a famous Cherokee continues to live on as the Will Rogers Memorial Museum will be added to the National Literary Landmark Register on Friday, October 26, at 1:30 p.m. in Claremore.

Friends of Libraries in Oklahoma (FOLIO) will partner with the Cherokee Nation and other Oklahoma organizations to celebrate the contributions of Will Rogers to Cherokee and Oklahoma culture to make the Will Rogers Memorial Museum the seventh Oklahoma Literary Landmark to be listed on the national registry.

FOLIO’s multi-year centennial project, “Oklahoma Literary Landmarks,” began in 2001. This year’s guest speakers will include: Chad Smith, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation; Steven Gragert, Will Rogers Museum Director; Cara Cowan Watts, Cherokee Nation Councilwoman; Gerry Hendon, FOLIO First Vice-President; Susan McVey, Oklahoma State Librarian; Jane Bryant, Oklahoma Library Association; Jon Douthitt, Friends of the Will Rogers Library President; Fernando Este, Will Rogers Library Director; Julia Brady Ratliff of FOLIO and a Will Rogers historian.

Noted author, Michael Wallis will act as master of ceremonies and the Cherokee National Youth Choir will perform during the festivities.

“All of us at the Cherokee Nation are pleased to be a part of this celebration,” said Chad Smith, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. “Will Rogers was a great Cherokee and was proud of his Indian heritage. He was once quoted as saying, ‘I am a Cherokee and it's the proudest little possession I ever hope to have.’ This man continues to inspire many today to see the world in a different light. It will be an honor to take part in an event that will commemorate the contributions that Will Rogers made to Cherokee and American culture, history, literacy and philosophy.”

William Penn Adair Rogers is noted as being first a Cherokee Indian, a cowboy, a national figure and a legend. Rogers was born in 1879 near Oolagah to Clement Vann Rogers, a Cherokee senator and judge who helped to write the Oklahoma Constitution and Mary America Schrimsher Rogers, a descendant of a Cherokee chief. Rogers learned to rope and ride on his family’s ranch.

As the years passed, Will Rogers’ skills with a rope developed into a talent that would list him in the Guinness Book of Records, won him jobs trick roping in wild-west shows and on the variety show stages where his wit and humor delighted audiences even more than his expert roping. Rogers would ultimately become recognized as being a very well-versed and smart philosopher by telling the truth in a simplistic manner that anyone could understand. In his lifetime, Rogers would star on Broadway, make 71 movies during the 1920’s and 1930’s, become a popular broadcaster, a writer and humanitarian, while never leaving behind his Indian Territory roots and always being known as the “Cherokee Kid.”

The Will Rogers Museum opened in 1938 and is spread across 20 acres that Rogers purchased in 1911 and was his planned retirement home site. However, after his untimely death, the land and parts of the collection were donated by his widow and children. Today the museum features a host of exhibits that include Will Rogers’ artifacts, memorabilia, photographs, a research library and several other attractions that highlight the life of Will Rogers and the contributions that he made to society.

“I am honored to take part in this event,” said Cowan Watts. “Will Rogers, son of Indian Territory, the Cherokee Nation and Oklahoma, personifies humanitarian attributes which many Oklahomans still exhibit. For me, Will’s literary talents have never been surpassed anywhere in the world and in my opinion it is only fitting that his museum be added as a literary landmark. I encourage everyone to come and out and help to celebrate this esteemed Cherokee writer.”

FOLIO was established to promote and cultivate libraries in Oklahoma by assisting and encouraging citizens to support their libraries.

For more information contact Julia Brady Ratliff, phone: 918-743-5751 or by e:mail: JuliaBrady@cox.net.