TVLSE, Oklahoma – Muscogee (Creek) Nation Principal Chief David Hill was in attendance at the Greater Tulsa Indian Affairs Commission on April 18. He was accompanied by MCN Historic and Cultural Preservation Department Manager RaeLynn Butler.
The Council Oak Park in recent years has fallen into disrepair with faded signage, broken lighting, and damaged and crumbling monuments. Butler spoke to the commission on the state of the park.
“Many citizens complain about what’s happening at the park in terms of the tile breaking off the monument that’s there, the Trail of Tears Monument, that there was a pentagram engraved in that monument. When people have reached out over the last eight years that I’ve been working at the Nation. We have reached out to the City of Tulsa, to the park service department to ask, ‘can we come and fix those things or do you have it in your budget, how can we work together to resolve some of the issues at the park’ and basically some of those emails went unattended for a whole year.” Butler continued.
“We tried to coordinate who is over the Council Oak Tree Park. Is it in someone’s district? And
how can we better work with one another because we also had issues with signage….even the
main sign at the Creek Nation Council Oak Park today is peeling off, the paint is coming off of
it…..The park has been under maintained.”
Chief Hill outlined the Nation’s commitment to the Council Oak and its historical legacy.
“If the city is not going to take care of that, why not turn it over to the Tribe, because we
definitely will, we definitely will take care of it and do all the things that need to be done to
upgrade it, to show our history….Whatever improvements that’s done to the park, we would
definitely want to make sure that the Creek Nation is contacted.”
definitely want to make sure that the Creek Nation is contacted.”
The Indian Affairs Commission thanked Chief Hill for his attendance and support. However, the
Commission took no formal action at the meeting concerning the Council Oak Park
