It had been seven years since Okuhhatuh (O-kuh-ha-tah) or Making Medicine (1848-1931) had been with his Cheyenne people in Oklahoma. His fellow warriors had vivid memories of Making Medicine, leading them in battle to retaliate for white settlers killing buffalo and stealing horses on the reservation. The US army intervened, forced them to surrender, and transported seventy-two ringleaders in leg irons to a Florida prison. They were given army uniforms, trained as soldiers, and taught English from the Bible. Three years later, Making Medicine and three others were transferred to New York to receive training in Christian ministry. They were baptized and confirmed in 1878. Making Medicine took the Christian name, David, adopted the middle name Pendleton to honor his sponsoring family, and assumed the last name Oakerhater, the English spelling of his Cheyenne name. After three years of training with an Anglican priest J. B. Hicks, David was ordained as a Deacon and sent to the Cheyenne reservation to minister among his people. David arrived during the Cheyenne Sun Dance celebration; a ritual David knew well as one of the youngest warriors ever to master the traditional dance. The tribe gathered on that first Sunday with David and J. B. Hicks in a circle around their former leader. David’s brief message was delivered in Cheyenne, “You all know me. 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.” This prayer by Making Medicine, following his prison conversion, expresses his deep anguish:
Okuhhatuh
Notes to the Living Father:
You brought us this. You showed them the water to cross.
They kept coming. We resisted.
Should we fold up our teepees? Leave the Great Plains?
They pushed until we had nowhere to go.
Holy Lord, the buffalo roam now in the other world.
You have them with you there. You gather the dead from the earth.
You have it your way.
We rode to Fort Sill with a white flag. We came to captivity by your hand.
The flag flopped before our eyes. We eat the surrender you give us.
We wore leg irons. We rode the train, the boat.
After a long journey, we walked into Fort Marion on the ocean.
They cut our hair and covered our legs with trousers.
Our chests with blue coats. We were made to look like them.
Fervent, Lord, hear our prayer. We are not them.
K. B. Kueteman, “He Goes First: The Story of Episcopal Saint David Pendleton Oakerhater,” 2006.
Rev. Dr. Peter James served 42 years as the senior of Vienna Presbyterian Church in Vienna, VA — 21 years in the 20th century and 21 years in the 21st century. He retired in 2021 and now serves as Pastor-in-Residence at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
Even as a pastor, prayer came slowly to Pete. Read Pete’s story.