("Claire de Lune" plays in the background)

DR. GRANT FOREMAN & CAROLYN THOMAS FOREMAN

-Oukah

When I was growing up in Muskogee, Oklahoma, Dr. and Mrs. Grant Foreman were the most famous and respected people there. Carolyn Thomas Foreman was the daughter of the first Federal Judge in the area, and Grant Foreman had been a lawyer for many years for the Bureau of Ind. Affairs, and later a partner in Judge Thomas's law firm. They had won many awards and honors for the books and articles they had written about Native Americans. In fact, the two were the foremost authorities in the world on the subject.

The Foremans were always fascinating to me. I knew that they had been life-long friends of my family, and had written articles about my family for the Chronicles of Oklahoma, notably. My first visit to their home must have been when I was about fourteen years old, and I will never forget the beautiful things in the house which came from all over the world. There were oriental rugs all over the house. Rugs they had bought on one of their trips around the world. And I was particularly fascinated by an ivory carving of the Taj Mahal, which they had bought in India.

On my first visit, Mrs. Foreman told me about their trips around the world -- in the days when the world was still the world. They were between World War I and World War II, after which the world would never be the same. She said that they arrived in New Delhi, India, hot and tired, and were waiting on the pier for their luggage. They were standing by one of their large steamer trunks, which had their name and address on it, when a young American sailor approached them and noted they were from Muskogee. He said that his family lived near there, on a farm that was owned by Mrs. Ella Robinson. The Foremans said that it was indeed a small world, and quite a coincidence, because Mrs. Ella and Miss Ella were staying at their home in Muskogee while they were on their trip abroad!

Mrs. Foreman excused herself from the living room, and when she returned she had a small box. From it she took some unmounted gemstones, and gave me four of them. They were moonstones which she had bought in Ceylon, and they were the start of my personal jewel collection.

Some years later, my great-grandmother (Mrs. Ella) died, in 1947, when I was 17 years old and a senior in high school. Later, after I had my first car, I was able to take Miss Ella, my great-aunt, many places.

A number of times I took her to the Foreman House. Dr. Foreman was a gentleman of the old school, of course, and Mrs.Foreman was a charming hostess. The two of them seemed to have taken a liking to me, although I took their attitude for granted at the time.

One evening Miss Ella had arranged for us to visit, and we had barely arrived when their houseman came to fetch Mrs. Foreman to the telephone. She returned a few minutes later and told us that there was a writer-artist from the Denver Post on the phone. He was staying overnight at the Sever's Hotel, downtown (although only about a mile away), and he wanted to come out to do a quick portrait of Dr. Foreman while conducting an interview. Mrs. Foreman asked us if we would mind, as the gentleman would be in town only that evening, and we assured her that we would be fascinated.

At that young age, of course, I was very impressed, certainly sharing the opinion that Dr. and Mrs. Foreman were worthy of every attention, indeed. It certainly never occurred to me that later in life I would be the author of some books, would be a celebrity myself, and would give interviews for newspapers, on radio and television. It was my first connection with celebrity.

The gentleman took a taxi and arrived shortly, was introduced, and took out his sketch book and pencils. I believe he had a tape-recorder running most of the time while he conducted his interview and sketched at the same time.

Later in the evening the topic turned to the Foreman's forte, history and Native Americans, and Mrs. Foreman told him that Miss Ella and I, sitting right there, were from one of the oldest Native families in America. She told a little of our family history, and pointed out that Miss Ella was the oldest royal Cherokee living today -- was, indeed, a princess royal. The gentleman turned to Miss Ella and asked if even her neighbors knew who she was. Miss Ella replied that she sincerely doubted it, and he asked, "Why haven't you told them?"

Miss Ella said: "They never asked."

I have used Miss Ella's words many times in the years since.

IT WAS Mrs.Foreman who told me, sometime in the 1950's, that when she and Grant would be out doing research, they would run across people who obviously were Choctaw, Seminole, or something else, and that many of them would claim to be Cherokee -- although the Foreman's knew that they were not! Mrs. Foreman told me that we Cherokees have such enormous prestige that some other natives want to "pass" as it were. In the past 40 years of my life I have certainly learned that this is true, and have found it extremely difficult at times to keep from calling their hands. I can usually tell by their terminology. If they insist that grandmother was a Cherokee from Oklahoma, because she had said that she was born on the "reservation", then I know that it is probably not true because Cherokees have never had a "reservation". In the old days a Cherokee would have said they were born in the "nation" or the "territory". But what can you do?

A FEW YEARS before she died, Mrs. Foreman came to my house in Muskogee for Christmas dinner, again with Miss Ella for company. I learned later that it was her last private visit outside of her own home. The following year she sent regrets, as the houseman told me on the phone that she was not well, but that she had asked him to have me come by for a gift. I went to the house and received a small package which contained another gemstone. But this one was not a 10x12 millimeter, or medium-size stone. It was a 120-carat opal-in-matrix cabachon, which they had obtained in Mexico. It was as large as a hen's egg, and its appearance was like looking down into a cavern with molten fire. I still have it today, mounted as a plain silver ring, which I wear occasionally with great pride.