ONEOK, Inc. Gallery
We Are Who We Were
This exhibit represents the 38 federally recognized American Indian tribes currently associated with Oklahoma. The ONEOK, Inc. Gallery offers visitors the opportunity to explore the past of the Native peoples of Oklahoma and experience contemporary American Indian cultures. Using 20th-century American Indian experiences as a bridge between the past and the present, the exhibit offers artifacts, music, photographs, art, and oral histories from the Indigenous people of Oklahoma.
The Art of Woody Big Bow
An exhibit featuring works by Kiowa artist Woodrow Wilson “Woody” Big Bow is now exhibit. Born in Carnegie, Big Bow was the grandson of Kiowa chief Zepko-ette.
Big Bow studied art at the University of Oklahoma under the instruction of Oscar B. Jacobson. He is best known for the Thunderbird insignia he designed for Oklahoma’s 45th Infantry Division. The exhibit includes sketches and other iterations of the 45th Infantry emblem from the Oklahoma Historical Society’s collection.
Big Bow employed the narrative-based style of painting known as Flatstyle, which was popularized by Native American artists in the 20th century. Flatstyle emphasizes shape and contour by using limited shading and perspective. Examples of Big Bow’s Flatstyle works are included in this exhibition.
Gouache painting by Woody Big Bow, c. 1956
(2023.065.006, Triangle Heritage Museum Collection, OHS)
