A 10-foot-tall image of Dr. Herman “Mogri” Lookout was recently unveiled at the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, located on the Kansas State University campus in Manhattan, Kans.
According to an Instagram post, the 2018 photo is by Osage artist Ryan RedCorn and is titled “Uncle Mog.” RedCorn took the portrait of Lookout in the former Wakon Iron Hall at a dinner for the remaining Osage full bloods of the tribe. The image, a dye-sublimation print on polyester fabric, belongs to the collection of Dr. Alex RedCorn, Ryan’s younger brother and professor at KSU.
“In 2021, The Kansas Board of Regents approved the awarding of an honorary doctorate degree to Lookout. Kansas State University’s then-President Richard Myers spoke about Lookout’s contributions including creation of an alphabet for the Osage language,” according to the post.
Lookout is the first person in KSU history to receive an honorary doctorate from the College of Education. He is also the first Osage to deliver a commencement address at a KSU commencement ceremony, and he gave it entirely in the Osage language.
Lookout is one of six remaining full blood Osages and is the grandson of Chief Fred Lookout. He is credited with leading the team that developed the Osage orthography, as well as the team that reached out to Google to make the orthography into Unicode. Their efforts made it possible for Osages everywhere to write the orthography on any digital platform.
Lookout has been teaching with the Osage Language Department since its founding in 2003. During his time at the department, Osage language classes have been taught in up to seven sites across the reservation, in four high schools and on Zoom for Osages living coast to coast. In 2012, Lookout was selected as an honoree for the AARP Oklahoma Indian Elder Honors and in 2015, the Fourth Osage Nation Congress commended Lookout for his leadership of the Osage language department and the revitalization of the language.
Lookout, 82, continues his work with the Osage Language Department as its master language teacher.
For more information on the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, visit https://beach.k-state.edu/