Tulsa Law Review Volume 29 Issue 2 Native American Symposia Winter 1993 Way Down Yonder in the Indian Nations, Rode My Pony Cross the Reservation from Oklahoma Hills by Woody Guthrie Kirke Kickingbird Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.utulsa.edu/tlr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Kirke Kickingbird, Way Down Yonder in the Indian Nations, Rode My Pony Cross the Reservation from Oklahoma Hills by Woody Guthrie, 29 Tulsa L. J. 303 (2013). Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.utulsa.edu/tlr/vol29/iss2/14 This Native American Symposia Articles is brought to you for free and open access by TU Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Tulsa Law Review by an authorized editor of TU Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Kickingbird: Way Down Yonder in the Indian Nations, Rode My Pony Cross the Res "WAY DOWN YONDER IN THE INDIAN NATIONS, RODE MY PONY CROSS THE RESERVATION!" FROM "OKLAHOMA HILLS" BY WOODY GUTHRIE Kirke Kickingbirdt I. INTRODUCTION "Way down yonder in the Indian Nations, rode my pony cross the reservation, in those Oklahoma hills where I was born...." So begins one of the 1,000 songs written by balladeer Woody Guthrie. The In- dian Nations of which he writes are the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chicka- saw, Creek and Seminole. The phrase refers to both the tribes themselves and the lands which they occupy. An observer of the tribal-state conflicts in Oklahoma over the last century might conclude that the song seems to be based primarily on nostalgia rather than on any sense of legal reality.