Much has been written about Dr. Archie Mason. It’s no secret he is an accomplished educator, artist, musician, historian, pastor and has spent most of his life as a culture keeper for the Grayhorse District.
Most recently, Bacone College, which bestowed an honorary doctorate on Mason in May, notified him that they have named a school after him. Students studying religion at Bacone College will now be entering the Dr. Archie Mason School of Religion when they attend classes in the fall. Mason has been preaching for the American Baptist USA church since 1994.
Archie Mason was born in Ponca City, Okla., on Aug. 22 in 1944 to parents Archie Mason Sr. and Julia Deal Mason. His paternal grandparents are Joseph and Rose Mason, and his maternal grandparents are Sherman Deal and Rosa Bigheart Deal. His Osage name is Max-pu Ma^thi^ or “Cloud Walking.” It was his grandfather’s name and his grandmother told him to use it after his grandfather passed.
He has two children, Lance Mason and Shannon Mason Young. He has five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
After spending 30 years in the classroom for Tulsa Public Schools, and 14 years on the Osage Nation Congress (he was the Nation’s first-ever Congressional Speaker), at 78 years old he is enjoying retirement and residing in Pawhuska. What he likes most about retirement is being asked to participate in Osage events or contribute to events or activities. However, he has been pulled out of retirement recently to emcee at various powwows, but he doesn’t mind, he enjoys it.
“I’m glad to get out and once again be part of the people and intertribal, if you will,” he said. “I have many people connections out there in the Indian world and I do enjoy mostly being with our Indian people and hearing our Indian music, seeing our expressions of music, song and dance and beauty of all people from all tribes.”
He also likes to travel. Recently he took a trip to Long Island where he spent a few weeks on the East Coast. And before our interview, he had just returned from Santa Fe and Taos, N.M., to get his camp prepared for Kihekah Steh Powwow where he camps every year and was asked to emcee.
“Building a camp and feeding people is a great joy in my heart and having people come visit me,” he said.
He sat down with Osage News on July 29 and talked about his childhood in Pawhuska, being the son of Archie Mason Sr., tail dancing and the Rock and Roll band, The Misfits.
Osage News: What are your fondest memories from childhood?
Archie Mason: “Growing up here in Pawhuska, as a youngster, as a child. Running and playing with the kids from up on the [Osage] campus. In the neighborhood, which back in 1950s Pawhuska, it was a fun place to grow up in as a child. I have many fond memories of doing many things. Living close to the countryside, running and playing in the country. Before all the technology, we played in the countryside, in the woods, as many people did back then. I have many fond memories of the businesses in downtown. Pawhuska was full of business, and it was fun to visit downtown, to come get ice cream cones, go to the movies, and the drive-in movie we had here. We had entertainment, we had cinema, we had good movies in town. Of course, the price to go to a movie was very minimal in those days, 25 cents could get you into the movie, double features and the serials as well. As a child, we would enact every movie as we walked back to our homes.”
ON: How much has Pawhuska changed since you were young?
AM: “Pawhuska has evolved into another Pawhuska. Another Pawhuska, into this 2022, this century. In a good way. At one time Pawhuska was all boarded up, not much here, not much activity, and today the shops and storefronts are indeed again open and we have people coming into Pawhuska. I think to me the difference is the need has changed. One time we needed to have our clothing and hardware stores, automobile dealerships, full-service stations, back in the day and all of those were good memories of which we don’t see today in Pawhuska or many towns. Things have just evolved into other ways of expression and business. You can pay for anything with a plastic card. Back in the day it was more or less cash only or write a check. When we went to the store, they had to count change back to you. It felt more personal back then, than it does today. It’s all very transactional today.”
ON: Who are your heroes?
AM: “Of what decade? Early heroes, in the early days my hero was Gene Autry, Whip Wilson, Roy Rogers, these are movie cowboys of course, Howdy Doody. As I moved forward, my instructors at Pawhuska High School were all heroes to me. I think I went into education because of what was shared with me and the expressions by those professionals at our high school in Pawhuska. Very personal, very touching people, and shared their knowledge with us very easily and we absorbed that back in the 1950s and 60s. We received it well and it taught many of us the road beyond high school.
“And of course, my uncle Bennie Joe Mason. He was always my hero.”
ON: What was the happiest time of your life?
AM: “The happiest time of my life was becoming a father, and a grandfather.”
ON: What do you love most about Inlonshka?
AM: “The order and the respect that we have in our expressions and the ability to maintain that order and respect, which comes over to the beauty that we have in our Osage people. The beauty of our people, the beauty of our dress, the beauty of the dance, the beauty of our songs, the beauty of our camps, of fellowship, of the spiritual life that comes alive, the prayers that are rendered and the reunions, family reunions that happen during that time.”
ON: What was your dad like?
AM: “My dad was very orderly, he was a full blood, pure blood Osage. I heard the language from him, a way of life and expression that he grew up with and he shared so many things with me, along with my aunts and uncles and grandparents. I was fortunate to grow up among pure blood Osages, among the language, their thoughts, their way of life, to experience something that is rare today.”
ON: What was it like to be a tail dancer?
AM: “I was a tail dancer for 35 years. I enjoyed dancing the tail. My father, grandfather, great-grandfather were all tail dancers, all the way back to the beginnings of our dance at Grayhorse. I was very honored and proud to know I was following the footsteps of those men before me. To be a tail dancer, it serves a purpose and has a place in our dance. To be a tail dancer, to know what that is and the importance of it, it serves a purpose and has a place in our dance. To be a tail dancer is an honored position and to carry that, and to be present at every dance, if you can, and to tail every song, because that song is an expression and a history. So every dance and every tail is historic to me.
“I enjoy watching tail dancers.
“In the beginning I was nervous, then it changed to being familiar with the songs, and confident in the songs at which time you begin to loosen up and get free with your expressions in the tail and dance your best and know that it’s a … you know that people enjoy watching you do that and there’s a pride in it and a good feeling that you’re bringing joy, to those that perhaps cannot come out and dance, they enjoy watching you dance. So you express yourself the best that you can. Not to be bragging, and not to be showing off, but to create that joy for others.”
ON: What is something people don’t know about you?
AM: “They don’t know that once at one time, in the late 1950s and 1960s, I played the saxophone in a rock and roll band and we were called ‘The Misfits.’
“We were local in Pawhuska and became famous in Osage County and had just had more fun making rock and for me to be with these men, we started as a garage band in Pawhuska. Earl Brunger was our bass player, Bobby Smith was our lead singer, the late Dwayne Ramey was our drummer, and Buddy Ricketts was our lead guitar player and we played at the Whiting Hall and different colleges in northeastern Oklahoma and had fun doing that.
“Whiting Hall was on the second floor in the building where the Osage County Election Board is now. There’s a ballroom up there, wood floors, and that’s where we would play. That place would be packed. They would leave the windows open at night and my mother said they could hear us playing all the way across town each night.
“We were the original Misfits, and composed a song called ‘Pig Stand Boogie.’
“So, I was able to jump cultures, change hats, play rock and roll, and then go to Inlonshka and dance over there too. But, I like music and I can still blow a sax.”
ON: You’re an accomplished artist. What type of art did you most enjoy?
AM: “I like watercolor, acrylics, flat two-dimensional kinds of work that I learned to appreciate. I began my art formally under Jim Redcorn, while I was attending Northeastern State in Tahlequah. Later, I went to graduate school in fine arts in Tulsa and began working in oils, doing portraits and exhibited a number of works throughout the USA, back in my productive years as an artist. I no longer create but I can still draw a straight line.”
ON: What is your favorite Osage meal?
AM: “Meat gravy, bread and corn soup. That’s all I need. Green beans and new potatoes. I have those and I’m a happy camper.”
ON: What is your motto? AM: “My motto is ‘Love one another, be respectful, enjoy life.’”
