Will Rogers Days, Indigenous Heritage Day and National Native American Heritage Month begins the first Saturday of November.
The Indian Women’s Pocahontas Club has been celebrating Will’s birthday since the Will Rogers Memorial Museum was opened in 1938.
The Ceremony will begin at the Rotunda with Club members dressed in their Cherokee Tear dresses and red Pocahontas Club shawls around the bronze statue of Will Rogers, as they recite their Club Collect and place a basket of fall foliage at the foot of the statue.
The Club members will proceed to the Tomb for the Wreath Laying Ceremony, led by the Cherokee Nation Veteran Color Guard.
There will be a program in the Will Rogers Theater following the Wreath Laying Ceremony with guest speakers Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr., Cherokee Nation Tribal Councilman for District 14, Kevin Easley, Jr. and special entertainment by Jana Jae “Queen of Fiddle”, member of the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame and the National Fiddler Hall of Fame.
In addition, there will be a “Hat Contest” at the close of the program, in honor of Will’s wife, Betty Blake Rogers. Everyone is welcome to participate.
Following the entertainment will be Will’s favorite lunch, navy beans, cornbread and pie.
Join us at the Will Rogers Day Parade at 3:00 p.m. and later at the Birthday Party at the Will Rogers Memorial.
Thank you to the Cherokee Nation and the Oklahoma Arts Council and National Endowment for the Arts for making this event possible.
This project was supported in part by the Oklahoma Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Oklahoma and the National Endowment for the Arts.