Feast Day of David Pendleton Oakerhater
On September 1st we celebrate the feast day of Oklahoma’s own, David Pendleton Oakerhater*, or in his native Cheyenne, Oak-uh-hat-uh.
“O God of unsearchable wisdom and mercy; Liberate us from bondage to self, and empower us to serve you and our neighbors, that like your servant David Oakerhater, we might bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; through Jesus Christ, the captain of our salvation, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.” (Lesser Feasts and Fasts.)
David Pendleton Oakerhater or Making Medicine, a Cheyenne warrior, converted to Christianity while a prisoner of the United States government at Fort Marion in Florida in the 1870s. During his imprisonment, he became acquainted with Episcopal Bishop Henry Whipple and Ohio Senator George Pendleton. While a prisoner, he drew pen and ink art in ledger books, signing his name Making Medicine** often with a glyph of a dancer in a Sun Dance lodge. This glyph is now depicted as a stained glass window at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Oklahoma City. During his imprisonment, he was baptized and confirmed, and following his release from Fort Marion he studied in Syracuse, NY to become an ordained deacon in the Episcopal Church. He returned to minister among the Cheyenne in Oklahoma for over 50 years.
Oakerhater began his work at Whirlwind Mission of the Holy Family in 1889, near Fay, Oklahoma, about 17 miles west of Watonga. In one of his first sermons, he preached, "You remember when I led you out to war I went first, and what I told you was true. Now I have been away to the East and I have learned about another captain, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he is my leader. He goes first, and all He tells me is true. I come back to my people to tell you to go with me now in this new road, a war that makes all for peace." He remained among the Cheyenne and Arapaho peoples until his retirement in 1918. Even in retirement, he continued to preach and serve as a Chief and holy man. During his 50 years of committed service on his home reservation in western Oklahoma, the devout deacon was at times the single ordained presence in all of what was then known as Indian Territory. Oakerhater passed from this life on August 31st, 1931. In 1985 he became the first Oklahoman to be added to Lesser Feasts and Fasts. We celebrate his Feast Day on September 1st.
*David Pendleton Oakerhater, at his Baptism, took the name David from the Bible and Pendleton from Senator George Pendleton, his sponsor. Oakerhater is the Anglicized spelling of his Cheyenne name, Oak-uh-hat-uh.
*Making Medicine is an Anglicized version of his name, more accurately translated as Sun Dancer.
*Special credit to Neva Rae Fox, Forward Movement's Lenten Madness series, and the Edmon Low Library's Warrior to Saint Project.
