I will not go into the great accomplishments made by John Joseph
Mathews for these are already recorded:
http://www.ipl.org/div/natam/bin/browse.pl/A48
 Rather
this account is about the day, November 17, 2009, when we went to
Pawhuska in the Osage to celebrate the Literary Landmark Dedication
for author, writer and Tribal Councilman, Naturalist, Historian, and
Scholar, Mathews, pictured below.
My continuing
to document my father's history in my last writing attempt had rather
come to a stand still. From all the constant distraction my zeal was
really diminished. I didn't feel I had writer's block but
maybe this is what it was. At any rate my desire to work just wasn't
there.
My sister-cousin, as we of the Ponca speak of our loved ones, my
sister called and informed me that Carter Revard will be speaking at
the event.
"It will be fun for you to meet him," she told me.
I had just finished one of his books and enjoyed it so much, so I
was up for the trip.
What a great surprise I had. Dr. Carter Revard, Osage and with
Ponca relatives was a tall gentleman who had impeccable manners. His
speech reminded me of the actor in Braveheart who portrayed that King
called Long Shanks. Of course, Dr. Revards education at Oxford had to
be responsible for this. His doctorate he received from Yale. I hope
you will read about this most outstanding gentleman:
All in all it was a great day with
first of all lunch from Bad Brads (love his Bar B Q) for which Dr.
Revard so graciously treated us. Then we were on to the old
Constantine Theater to the actual presenting of the plaque to Virginia
Mathews, John Joseph Mathews daughter. Her age and having to walk to
the front on her walker made an impression on me. She chatted happily
with Rhonda and me, for a time, as easily as if we were old friends.
The third leg of our visit was to the Osage museum where Kathryn
Red Corn is the director.
There I was able to meet Michael Wallis's wife, Suzane Fitzgerald
Wallis. She and Michael have authored 15 books together. She was so
pleasant and easy to talk with, too.
Of course, the spread the Osages
presented on two large round tables was simply elegant and fantastic
with strawberries as big as apples, huge grapes, delicious roll ups
and chocolate covered squares, to name some of the delicious tid-bits.
To make a long story short, after seeing the dedication and will
of these people to work toward their goals for writing and leaving
literature of value, I came home with a renewed spark for working on
my manuscript. To date I am down to page 150 on rewrites, correction
and editing. I'm not even any place near or in this class of great
scholars, but it was fun, for one day, to rub shoulders with the
giants.
Oh yes, I did join FOLIO, Friends of Libraries in Oklahoma,
simply because I liked this years president, Gerry Hendon. In her
opening introduction she said,
"The letters behind my name are, "MD, & DD, of the Ivy. She went
on to say, "This stand for, "Mares eat oats, and does eat oats and
little lambs eat Ivy."
I couldn't help but laugh even though some
were simply raising their eyebrows.
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