Vandals' Prey; "Friendship' Monument Needs Overhaul - Skedee, OK - News Article Locations on Waymarking.com

Skedee, population about 50, is located northeast of Pawnee, Oklahoma. The town's main intersection has a statue showing the friendship between Col. E. Walters and Chief Baconrind.

Article text:

There is a struggle going on in this north-central Pawnee County town between those who wish to preserve the historic Skedee monument and those who would destroy it.

Feelings are vigorous because the Skedee Monument is about all that is left of Skedee.

The monument depicts Col. Elsworth Walters and Osage Chief Baconrind clasping hands in "a bond of friendship," a monument to the massacres that never happened.

Col. Walters was an ealy Oklahoma auctioneer who was appointed a U.S. marshal to help keep whites out of Indian land. Baconrind was a prominent Osage chief who omade friends with early Oklahoma oilmen.

On one side of the struggle are townsfolk who remember Skedee as it once was.

On the other are vandals who have made the statue a favorite target.

"If something isn't done soon," said Pawnee County Sheriff Butch Allen, "it will be torn up to where you couldn't ever tell what it was."

The 65-ton, 18 1/2-foot tall statue was dedicated to peoples everywhere by Col. Walters and accepted by then-Oklahoma governor Martin Trapp in 1926.

At that time, Skedee was served by two railroads and boasted a number of hotels and cafes, two cotton gins and a thriving commerce.

Population now is listed as 117.

A fund drive sponsored by the Pawnee County Historical Society began last week in area communities in an effort to protect the "Skedee statue."

Mrs. Floris Brandenburg, former chairwoman of the Osage Tribal Council, arranged an introduction of Mrs. Athleen Bailey, granddaughter of Col. Walters, to the council in an appeal for funds.

Tribal funds are allocated years in advance, however, and none are available for such a project. George Tallchief, chief of the Osages, pledged $100 to start donations. Also present at the meeting was Mary Rose Revard, granddaughter of Chief Baconrind.

Mrs. Bailey, of Skedee, and Mrs. Revard, of Pawhuska, have worked together since that meeting on fund-raising drives in their areas.

Mrs. Brandenburg, a longtime friend of the Walters family, said, "I've seen monuments all over the world kept up through generations, and I've never seen two races of people clasping hands in friendship before.

"You always see monuments at scenes of battles and massacres, but never of friendship and peace."

Col. Walters' father, Alanson Walters, was one of the first four white men to enter Indian Territory to teach the Indians to farm in 1866. Col. Walters was then 8 months old.

As a boy, Walters befriended the Cherokees and afterward, the Osages who bought their lands from the Cherokees. At 19 he was commissioned as a U.S. deputy special marshal and charged with the removal of unauthorized whites from Indian Territory. He kept this commission until his death at 79.

Walters began his career as an auctioneer at sales in the Oklahoma Territory and later into early statehood.

The oil boom of that era had also visited the Skedee area, and it was here that Col. Walters endeared himself to the Osages.

He auctioned oil leases for the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Chilocco, Navajo, Ute, Shawnee and Osage.

In 1896, land in what is now Osage County came up for leases.

Walters was commissioned by the Department of the Interior to conduct the sales on each 160-acre tract.

By walking the tracts and pitching the sales, he would maximize the amount for each lease, making the Osage tribe the richest in the nation.

Walters' commissions were set so there was nothing to be gained personally by getting more on the bids.

"He could have fleeced the Osages like everyone else, but didn't," Mrs. Brandenburg said. "He was just a good man."

Mrs. Revard also is plagued by vandals at Chief Baconrind's burial place on family property outside Pawhuska.

Sheriff Allen has "had meetings with the family of the kids involved" and hopes the vandalism problem is over.

The fund-raisers hope to raise $10,000 to $12,000 to fence the monument and restore it with almost indestructible material.

Tax-deductible donations will be accepted at the First National Bank of Pawnee, Pawnee National Bank, First National Bank of Pawhuska and the First State Bank of Fairfax. Donations should be earmarked "Pawnee County Historical Society, Skedee Monument Fund."

Type of publication: Newspaper When was the article reported?: 08/08/1983 Publication: The Oklahoman Article Url: [Web Link] Is Registration Required?: no How widespread was the article reported?: local News Category: Crime

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