ONEOK, Inc. Gallery
We Are Who We Were
This exhibit represents all thirty-eight federally recognized American Indian tribes currently associated with Oklahoma. The ONEOK, Inc. Gallery offers visitors the opportunity to explore the historic past of the Native peoples of Oklahoma as well as experience contemporary American Indian cultures. Using the 20th century American Indian experiences as a bridge between the past and the present, the exhibit offers artifacts, Native music, photographs, American Indian 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 on exhibit in the ONEOK, Inc. Gallery. Born in Carnegie, Big Bow was the grandson of Kiowa chief Zepko-ette. He studied art at the University of Oklahoma under the instruction of Oscar B. Jacobson.
Big Bow 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 logo 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 this technique painted by Big Bow are included in the exhibition.
Gouache painting by Woody Big Bow, c. 1956
(2023.065.006, Triangle Heritage Museum Collection, OHS)
