No Tomahawk

Along with many another prominent Oklahoman, Oil Millionaire Thomas Gilcrease takes quiet pride in having had an Indian grandmother. Last week he was honoring his heritage by giving fellow Tulsans a look at Indian history. The first public show of the six-year-old Thomas Gilcrease Foundation (in the township of Black Dog, on a hill overlooking Tulsa) consisted of 170 paintings of Indians and the West, including some by Frederic Remington, Robert Henri and the tireless 19th Century documentor of Indian life, George Catlin.

At 59, Gilcrease speaks with the doeskin softness of the Creek Nation, and only after ponderous buffalo-like reflection. He has no tomahawk to grind. Gilcrease says: "I just want to present the facts about the conquest of the West and the way the Indian was treated--just present it and then set people thinking about it."

Only about 4% of Gilcrease's huge art collection was on display. The rest, saved for future shows, included the art of 45 Indian tribes, dating back to 300 A.D., along with 62,000 books, letters and manuscripts. Among the letters was one from Christopher Columbus' son, Diego, to Charles I of Spain. Another, written by General George Custer, ends: "You will next hear from me . . . not from the plains of Philippi . . . but from those of Dakota, the home of S.B." The initials stood for Custer's Sioux conqueror, Sitting Bull.

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