May 15, 2013

This Machine makes arrows. In this issue, we chronicle the struggle between the Cherokee Nation and its Freedmen. FROM ONE FIRE: Marcos Barbery pens a narrative that shows how the disenfranchisement of the descendants of African American slaves of the Cherokee people has evolved into an epic fight for identity. PROMISED LAND: Oklahoma historian Hannibal B. Johnson reveals the roots of Oklahomans’ continued struggles with race, place, and identity. FIRE BUILDING: James McGirk offers a portrait of the Cherokee as the tribe took on the strange and complex task of constitution-making. THE SILENCE TEACHES: Yousef Khanfar, an Oklahoma City photographer, takes his camera into Oklahoma’s penitentiaries to photograph incarcerated women. We have his story and one of his images on our back page. ORIGINAL OKIE: Daughter/mother Victoria Fattig and Monica Sutter were both inmates at Mabel Bassett Correction Center in McLoud when this portrait was taken.