Five Civilized Tribes featured in "True West " Magazine.

Cathy Spaulding, Muskogee Phoenix, Okla.
·2 min read

Aug. 10—Muskogee's Five Civilized Tribes Museum is listed in the Top 10 Western heritage museums in the United States, according to "True West" magazine.

The magazine's September issue lists Five Tribes as the no. 4 Western heritage museum in its article "Discover the West."

"The Five Civilized Tribes museum offers visitors the chance to see the Old West through the eyes and culture of the Indians," "True West" Executive Editor Bob Boze Bell said in a media release. "And the museum has done an amazing job in preserving the Five Tribes' history and culture and presenting it to the world. There's no question the Five Civilized Tribes is a Top Western Museum."

Museum executive director T. Sean Barney said it's an honor to be included in the magazine.

"It's not often that an Indian museum gets picked for a cowboy, western classification," he said. "Our core mission is to highlight the art, history and culture of the Five Civilized Tribes."

The Five Civilized Tribes were Cherokee, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek), Seminole and Chickasaw.

The museum is housed in the Union Agency Building, constructed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1875.

The museum's first floor tells of the tribes' history and traditions.

Barney said each tribe maintains a display case, which is changed each year.

One room tells of the tribes' forced relocation to Indian Territory.

"It shows the routes each of the tribes took from the southeastern United States to Oklahoma," he said. "It also highlights the treaties that were or were not signed by each tribe."

Other first-floor exhibits tell of Native culture and area history.

A display about Native Code Talkers has been up five years, partly because of the museum's proximity to the Jack C. Montgomery VA Medical Center, Barney said.

"It's our most popular exhibit, so we left it up," he said. "The other ones we change every six or seven months, we don't want this to be stagnant."

The second floor shows Native art. Works of renowned artist Jerome Tiger are on display through September. The museum's annual Master's Show will be in November.

Barney said officials with Visit Muskogee tourism nominated the museum for the honor.

"I kind of look at this as pass-through tourism," Barney said. "People who live here don't visit very often. Most of our school tours are from out of the city."

The magazine also listed Oklahoma City's National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in this year's Top 10 list.

This is not the first time the "True West" honored a Muskogee museum. Last year, the magazine named Three Rivers among its top five "True Western Museums of 2022."

"Oklahoma is such fertile ground for Old West history, especially law enforcement and outlaws," Bell said in 2022. "The Three Rivers Museum is using exciting new technologies to tell the stories of those people and times."