Mound at First Americans Museum helps interfaith youth tour explore spirituality

At 10 stories tall, an earthen mound on the grounds of the First Americans Museum intrigued a group of visitors on Sunday in Oklahoma City.

More than 120 young people and their adult advisors made the trek up the FAM Mound, while they learned about its spiritual premise during the Rex Friend Interfaith Youth Tour. The event, coordinated by the Oklahoma Faith Network's Religions United Committee, was the first in the last few years to be held in person. The Oklahoma Faith Network, formerly known as the Oklahoma Conference of Churches, held virtual interfaith youth tours in 2020, 2021 and 2022 due to public health safety concerns stemming from the COVID pandemic.

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Each year, the tour generally features three houses of worship and the recent tour focused on northeast Oklahoma City with visits to East Sixth Street Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), 1139 NE 6; and Masjid Mu'min, 2224 Kate, and the First Americans Museum, 659 First Americans Blvd.

Blue Clark, a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, Oklahoma City University law professor and author of the book "Indian Tribes of Oklahoma: A Guide," shared insights about indigenous spiritual practices related to mounds as tour participants made their way up. Ace Greenwood, who is Chickasaw, shared a prayer when all the attendees made it to the top of the mound.

The mound at the First Americans Museum is a tribute to the many tribes in Oklahoma who descend from Moundbuilder cultures or have earthen architecture as part of their cultural lifeways, according to the museum's website.

Leticia Barrios, the museum's coordinator of school and tour programming, said it was good to see a group visit with a focus on spirituality aspects of the museum.

With the downtown City skyline in the background, Clark explained that earthen mounds were created or designed as spiritual monuments aligned to the Four Sacred Directions of North, South, East and West. He said tall earthen mounds served as platforms for a hierarchical leader to extol good behavior to followers gathered below.

"Earthen mounds in North America, mostly in Louisiana, go way back, to 3700 BC or so, with Watson Brake by 3400 BC and Poverty Point by perhaps 1300 BC all the way to Cahokia in southern Illinois after AD 1050," Clark said.

Later, at East Sixth Street Christian Church, the Rev. Jesse Jackson spoke about the Disciples of Christ denomination and East Sixth Street, where he is senior pastor. The tour culminated at Masjid Mu'min, where the group learned that the Islamic house of worship was Oklahoma City's first mosque and one of the first mosques in the state. Masood Abdul-Haqq, the mosque's congregational president, shared information about Islam and led a question-and-answer session with the crowd.

Tour participants said they enjoyed the opportunity to learn about local houses of worship and explore faiths different from their own. The Rev. Coy Remer, senior pastor of First Christian Church of Yukon (Disciples of Christ), said he brought his youth group to the tour.

"I want my youths to have experiences of other cultures and to respect other cultures and other faiths," he said. "There's a hymn that says 'Let there be peace on Earth and let it begin with me.' I think that's where peace has to start is with us."

Gena Weaver, 15, a Harding Fine Arts Academy student, took the tour with members of First Unitarian Church of Oklahoma City.

"I think there's a big difference between reading about religious differences and then going there and hearing about it from them because you're hearing it from primary sources and not secondary sources," she said.

She said she had visited the Spiro Mounds in Leflore County but was unfamiliar with the FAM Mound she toured on Sunday. The teen said she found much of the tour "fascinating," including the information shared by Clark about the matriarchal aspect of many indigenous cultures. She said she was impressed that indigenous groups were able to create the mound architecture of the past with the tools they had at that time.

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Volunteer was faithful 'Friend'

The Rev. Shannon Fleck, Oklahoma Faith Network's executive director, said the interfaith youth tour had been offered for about 17 years, but Sunday was the first named after Rex Friend, an Oklahoma City immigration attorney who was a longtime board member for the faith coalition and a faithful volunteer. Friend, 68, died in January. A member of the Religious Society of Friends, known as Quakers, he was a well known community activist who gave his support to social justice causes such as the movement to abolish the death penalty, immigration reform and racial equality.

Fleck said Oklahoma Faith Network leaders felt that a great way to honor Friend was to name the youth tour after him because he was particularly enthusiastic about the event She said he was always ready to helped stuff swag bags for attendees, serve at the registration table and perform other necessary tasks.

"We believe he is here in spirit," Fleck said.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: FAM Mound was part of recent Interfaith Youth Tour in OKC