Cedric Sunray: Tornado of fatherlessness grips Indian Country

For the last few days my wife’s heart has been heavy. Our loved ones residing in the area were spared the greatest of tragedies, but so many others were not.

The Oklahoma City metro area which includes Moore and Norman is one sprawling metropolis which has long been home to many Indian people from across the state and nation. It is well known athletically for its powerful University of Oklahoma sports program, which has a storied history of Indian athletic participation, and more recently for the NBA Thunder. Less well known are the numerous Indian coaches in both the public and private school systems which stretch across the metro to the eastern tip of Little Axe. For the last few months I have been sitting down with Indian fathers and coaches and their sons (with a future article on Indian mothers and daughters in the works) in an attempt to fully understand the connection between Indian men and their boys and how sports have been utilized to strengthen this bond. The goal was to not completely erase the stereotype of contemporary Indian communities being “fatherless societies”, but at least to challenge the complexity of such a blanketed and detrimental statement.