The coffee will “amp you up, Wahzhazhe style,” said Russ Tallchief, addressing a crowd of a few dozen during the sunny morning opening of the new, revamped Osage Nation Visitors Center.
Tallchief was speaking of brews by Osage-owned Ekowah Coffee, served up inside the 3,900-square-foot center, but also to the amped-up feelings surrounding the unveiling of a distinctly Wahzhazhe contemporary space serving as the gateway to Pawhuska, Okla.
Located on the east side of town, the new Visitors Center has undergone a dramatic redesign by MIDL Architecture, where Osage co-owner Cherise Lookout Miller was proud to contribute something to eschew stereotypes. “A lot of people think that Osages are [just] historic,” she said. “It’s not an 1880s [building], it’s not an old, prehistoric way. Here, we get to see Osages of today. … If people have any pre-conceived ideas, they’ll see, this is Osage.”
With her husband, principal architect Cory Miller of their co-owned firm, the two helped show that Wahzhazhe people are firmly in the present through the building, which features a coffee shop with ribbonwork metal railings and top-of-the-line espresso machines as well as an expansive, breezy patio featuring posts reminiscent of Osage arbors and pilasters evoking the Osage style of homes. The design is intended to “‘feel Osage,’” as Miller remembers Wahzhazhe Cultural Center Director Addie Hudgins expressing. Miller said, “Because I’m from here, [when] Addie said, ‘I want this,’ I didn’t have to guess. When you’re Osage and you’re not around, you don’t quite get those things,” she said.
The new Visitors Center will be an ideal starting place to help people – Osage and non-Osage alike – get what being Wahzhazhe is. Cherise’s husband commented, “We tried to tastefully add some Osage elements in a cohesive way. Harmonizing with the art, not getting in the way.” That art includes Wahzhazhe ie orthography designed by Dr. Jessica Moore Harjo, as well as videos and photographs of contemporary Osage life, and pieces for sale in the gift shop.
The gift shop is the last room in the expansive building, which contains four rooms, the first of which has a garage door that can open up for a farmer’s market, or else, to showcase a pop-up for community businesses. For after-hours public events, there is a security grill that comes down to close off the boutique, so art and other valuable items can remain safe. A multi-purpose space can be set up to accommodate farmers markets, meat pie sales, and gatherings such as readings or music events.
Beyond the patio, a parking lot and ADA-accessible approach (continuous throughout the building) ensures that the overall design expresses “the warm hospitality that is the Nation,” said principal architect Cody Miller.
Grant funds appropriated to the building incentivized adding space, in a way that visitors could socially distance, too. “Out here,” Miller commented, indicating a lawn on the north side of the patio, “we tried to save some space, in case they wanted to do a movie on the lawn.”
Addie Hudgins of the Wahzhazhe Cultural Center expressed her excitement and the hope that she would see those there back again as “regular faces.” She thanked Osage leadership for empowering her, and acknowledged employees Jaycie Bighorse, Dava Daylight, Chloe Shadlow, Aaliyah Wahwassuck, and Rachel White. “I want to thank Kevin Hale from 1Architecture,” she added, speaking of an architecture firm which acts as a representative for the Nation. “Thank you TDLA, Casey Johnson, he has always believed in me since day one,” she said, and also acknowledged Osage Congress, IT, the City of Pawhuska, and Tribal Works, “for moving us time after time after time.”
Congresswoman Jodie Revard, who sponsored the bill, said the new Visitors Center provided a place where “we tell our story … instead of other folks telling our story.” Behind the speakers, a lush spread of breakfast foods by Brian and Joe Lookout awaited attendees, as well as the coffee shop.
Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear reflected that the building had gone through a journey, from when Assistant Chief RJ Walker filed the measure to find the property, then, volunteers helped clean it up. Julie O’Keefe found some furniture, he noted, and the Tinker family held a reception—and finally, Congress approved funds for a redesign. At the re-opening, Osages of diverse backgrounds appreciated all that work. “It’s everybody,” said Standing Bear. “It’s been a real honor to be principal chief and to see something like this happen.”
The coffee shop is open at 7:30 a.m., and the boutique opens at 8:30 a.m. Early morning walkers and runners utilizing the Wahzhazhe heritage trail across the street can begin or end their efforts with a caffeinated beverage, and employees are welcome to work remotely at the Visitors Center, where regulars are soon to be expected.
Plaques on the Wall Read:
“The Osage ancestral territory is not a ‘territory’ map as in a Western-perspective meaning land owned. The Osage Ancestral Territory map shows, using modern boundaries as reference, where the Osage used to live, hunt, and trade across the landscape and where Osage cultural sites are numerous, including villages, camps, trails, ceremonial areas, medicinal plant gathering locations, glades previously maintained by Osage fires, lithic/stone resource areas, sacred rock art panels, and a variety of burial sites. Many of these sites are sacred themselves, or contribute to, sacred sites and landscapes.”
“In 1957, the Osage Nation seal was created and chosen to be the official symbol for the Osage Nation. It was designed by the late Romaine Shackelford, a beloved Osage artist and historian of Pawhuska, Oklahoma. The Osage Seal appears on official publications for the Osage Nation, and can be used only with special permission.”
A third plaque displays sections from an essay on the Wahzhazhe relationship to water by Dr. Andrea Hunter: https://mohumanities.org/ss-2020-water/.
. Osage design elements, educational plaques, art, a gift shop – and a whole room of photos of contemporary Osage life – are part of the total package, making the new Visitors Center a stunning, apt introduction to contemporary Wahzhazhe, as well as space for people to meet, work, and feel at home.){kind=link}