Haskell University installs permanent stickball pole, honoring Indigenous traditions

A bison skull from Haskell’s September harvest now sits high above the campus wetlands, topping a permanent stickball pole that students, staff and community members raised Thursday evening as a visible marker of Indigenous tradition and shared memory.

The pole stands near Haskell Indian Nations University’s old baseball fields, close to the Medicine Wheel and the Haskell-Baker wetlands on the south edge of campus. Its placement matters because the Medicine Wheel has long been used for meditation, prayer and ceremony, making the new pole part of a living cultural landscape rather than a standalone decoration.

Stickball itself carries that same blend of sport and meaning. Mackie Moore, a Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma member and dean of the College of Business, told attendees the game has long served serious social purposes, including settling differences and preparing young men for war, while also becoming a lasting way to build social connection across generations. The pole on Haskell’s campus now gives that tradition a permanent home.

Senior Aiyanna Tanyan helped care for the bison skull before it was installed, cleaning it, bleaching it and painting it with Haskell and Seminole designs. Her work made the top of the pole a collective creation, tied not only to the fall harvest but also to the hands and teachings of the people who shaped it.

That connection reaches beyond the campus fence line in Lawrence and Douglas County. Haskell describes itself as a public tribal land-grant university founded in 1884 and operated by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Education, with a mission to build leadership through academic excellence, cultural and intellectual prominence and holistic education for Indigenous communities. Its Institutional Code centers respect, cooperation, honesty and responsibility, values that were on display as people worked together to lift the trunk upright.

The university’s cultural center and museum also exists to preserve Haskell’s history and raise awareness of the American Indian boarding school experience, giving the new pole added weight as a public statement about memory, resilience and continuity. Even as Haskell has navigated leadership changes, including the Bureau of Indian Education naming Mackie Moore interim president in 2024 and Dr. Alex Red Corn temporary president on January 26, 2026, student-led cultural work has continued to shape campus life.

The bison link is rooted in recent campus practice, too. Haskell held its annual bison harvest on Saturday, September 27, 2025, at the powwow grounds, where students, staff and community members gathered to share food and ceremony. Now that harvest lives on in a landmark that will greet future generations, turning one evening’s work into a lasting point of connection on the edge of Lawrence.