Uploaded April 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This session is part of The Lucinda Hickory Research Institute’s efforts to educate, promote, and preserve the allotment experience of our Mvskoke Creek ancestors. Tulsa’s Muscogee (Creek) past has been obscured by its mythology as the erstwhile “Oil Capital of the World.” This session aims to correct that narrative by telling the stories of allottees whose lands held the riches that made the city famous. In particular, we will raise awareness about Tuckabache, a central figure in removal, the Civil War, and Tvlse tribal town’s reconstruction. Tuckabache’s story reflects the tragedy of Oklahoma guardianship, which tore families apart and dispossessed Indigenous people from their land and wealth as oil was discovered. Part of the new Gathering Place park sits on Tuckabache’s land. There is no public acknowledgment of the original allottee, nor any public discussion of how his grandchildren were divested of that land to make way for Maple Ridge, Tulsa’s first suburb. The speakers will aim to understand how oil industry tycoons such as Charles Page dispossessed American Indians of their land and then consolidated their reputations as philanthropists. We do this in the hopes of providing a framework for truth-telling and reconciliation.
Tatianna Duncan is founder and owner of the Lucinda Hickory Research Institute. Russell Cobb is an associate professor at the University of Alberta and author of “The Great Oklahoma Swindle: Race, Class, and Lies in America’s Weirdest State” (Bison Books, 2020).
This session is part of The Lucinda Hickory Research Institute’s efforts to educate, promote, and preserve the allotment experience of our Mvskoke Creek ancestors. Tulsa’s Muscogee (Creek) past has been obscured by its mythology as the erstwhile “Oil Capital of the World.” This session aims to correct that narrative by telling the stories of allottees whose lands held the riches that made the city famous. In particular, we will raise awareness about Tuckabache, a central figure in removal, the Civil War, and Tvlse tribal town’s reconstruction. Tuckabache’s story reflects the tragedy of Oklahoma guardianship, which tore families apart and dispossessed Indigenous people from their land and wealth as oil was discovered. Part of the new Gathering Place park sits on Tuckabache’s land. There is no public acknowledgment of the original allottee, nor any public discussion of how his grandchildren were divested of that land to make way for Maple Ridge, Tulsa’s first suburb. The speakers will aim to understand how oil industry tycoons such as Charles Page dispossessed American Indians of their land and then consolidated their reputations as philanthropists. We do this in the hopes of providing a framework for truth-telling and reconciliation.
Tatianna Duncan is founder and owner of the Lucinda Hickory Research Institute. Russell Cobb is an associate professor at the University of Alberta and author of “The Great Oklahoma Swindle: Race, Class, and Lies in America’s Weirdest State” (Bison Books, 2020).
