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Bradford Is The Face Of A Nation

The Associated Press

Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford throws a pass during football practice at Barry University in Miami.

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By JOEY JOHNSTON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 4, 2009

Updated: 01/04/2009 12:13 am

FORT LAUDERDALE - He's the pride of Oklahoma, a humble, hard-working and incredibly accurate quarterback who has brought his Sooners to the brink of a national championship.

Last month, he struck a pose synonymous with sports history.

Sam Bradford, Heisman Trophy winner.

Sam Bradford, American hero.

But for thousands of young people in his home state - and plenty of adults, too - Bradford has become the ultimate inspiration as he prepares to face the Florida Gators in Thursday night's BCS Championship Game. They feel an attachment, like he's carrying them for the ride, because of a well-echoed sentiment through the plains.

Sam Bradford looks like me.

Bradford's Native American heritage - he is one-sixteenth Cherokee and five generations removed from his last full-blooded relative - has not been a major part of his life.

Until now.

Curiosity was piqued in 2006, when Bradford entered OU and innocently told school officials he was a registered member of Cherokee Nation. Before starting a game, Bradford already had a following in Oklahoma, the birthplace of legendary Jim Thorpe and which has the country's second-largest Native American population (behind California).

Attention picked up steam last month when a USA Today reporter visited the Riverside Indian School, a federally operated Indian boarding school, in Anadarko, Okla.

What does Bradford's Heisman victory mean to Native Americans?

"It opens everything up for us," said Ray Brady, a Riverside junior and tight end on the football team. "Like Obama becoming president."

Brady's quote was reiterated to Bradford on Saturday morning, just before the Sooners began their wave of BCS practices in South Florida. Bradford said he still can't fathom the depth of feeling from Native Americans.

"God has blessed me with an incredible platform," Bradford said. "It's something that I didn't really anticipate. I don't know very much about my heritage, but I embrace it and want to learn more.

"If they consider me a role model, it does make me proud. I want to be a positive influence and do the right things."

The Pride Of A Nation

Chad Smith, Principal Chief of Cherokee Nation, located in Tahlequah, Okla., loves what Bradford represents to young people.

"Sam plays with great sportsmanship and encourages his teammates," Smith said. "Those are characteristics that are very respected in our community, but are often downplayed in the dominant culture. His success validates those values."

Bradford's success has been noticed by 15-year-old Caitlin Baker, a freshman swimmer at Norman High School who is a Muscogee Creek Indian.

"I'm not much of a football fan, but I'm most definitely a Sam Bradford fan," she said. "He's awesome. He isn't just a great football player. He's a great student, and he's really an inspiration to Native American kids, someone to look up to."

Anthony Whitebird, 15, is a sophomore basketball player for Carnegie High, located in the headquarters of Kiowa Nation. The night Bradford won the Heisman, his victory was announced over the public-address system at Carnegie's basketball game. Whitebird said the crowd, about 90 percent Indian, put on such a celebration, the game's tip-off was delayed by 10 minutes.

"What he Bradford is doing means a lot to all of us," Whitebird said.

It's rare, too.

According to the latest demographic statistics compiled by the NCAA, only one-half of 1 percent of 306,000 athletes (in Divisions I, II and III) were Native American. In football, it's only 0.4 percent. The sport hasn't seen such a high-profile Native American quarterback since Washington's Sonny Sixkiller in the early 1970s.

Sixkiller, a full-blooded Cherokee who now works for a company that owns the media rights to Washington athletics, has twice seen Bradford play, but they have never met. He knows the potential pressure of being viewed as a "messiah" by the Cherokee Nation, but is heartened to see the positive attention heaped upon Bradford.

"It's all very ironic because neither Sam nor I were brought up with much exposure to the Cherokee culture," said Kent Bradford, Sam's father, who played offensive line for Barry Switzer's Sooners in 1977-78. "Not that we have run from it or avoided it.

"We're just an average, middle-class family from Oklahoma City."

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, nearly 392,000 Oklahoma residents (or 11.4 percent of the state's population) have Cherokee ancestry.

The elder Bradford knows his great-grandmother was Susie Walkingstick, a full-blooded Cherokee, but she died young (about age 30) and not much information was passed down through the family.

He said Sam was extended an open invitation by Cherokee Nation to visit the community and become involved.

"I'm interested, but for now, I'm just a college kid who's trying to keep up with his studies and play a little football," Bradford said.

The Cherokee Nation will be waiting.

Because of Bradford's success, "people see a different image of Cherokees than the one they may have had before," said Smith, the principal chief. "Having an intelligent, well-spoken, poised Cherokee citizen like Sam Bradford play quarterback for the Sooners means a lot to Cherokee people all over the country, not just the ones here in Oklahoma."

Florida's Cherokees Watching

Last year, the Cherokee Nation approved a satellite office - the Cherokees of Central Florida - its first east of the Mississippi River.

The group holds monthly meetings, trying to keep alive the Cherokee culture and language. There are approximately 1,200 Cherokees in Florida, according to the group's treasurer, Monte Hall.

"We're very interested in anything that can teach us more about our heritage, anything we can rally around," said Hall, a geologist who lives in northwestern Hillsborough County. "And you know what? That includes Sam Bradford."

Hall grew up in Tulsa, where he cheered on the Sooners. He has been in Florida since 1988 and became intensely interested in researching his family's Cherokee background since the death of his father.

Now he's in the heart of Gators country. Because his Sooners are being led by a quarterback with Cherokee blood, Hall said he couldn't be more excited about the BCS title game.

"There's still a good deal of repression among Indians; the rates of college graduation are still very, very low," Hall said. "To have someone like Sam Bradford in this position makes you well up with pride."

"We need examples like this," said Bonnie Cattello of Lecanto, who is membership coordinator for the Cherokees of Central Florida. "He can do it and so can you. Cherokee kids need to know they can accomplish big things."

Cattello said her great-grandmother walked "The Trail of Tears" in 1838, when the U.S. government drove out the Cherokees from their homeland (mostly North Carolina and Georgia) to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma).

It was the culmination of a brutal migration, beginning in 1830, when Congress passed the "Indian Removal Act." Thousands of Cherokees, initially rounded up by militia and taken to concentration camps, perished from exposure, disease and starvation. The remainder endured a 1,000-mile trek known in the Cherokee language as Nunna daul Isunyi ("The Trail Where They Cried").

"A lot of the history, I don't really know," Bradford said. "I'm careful how I answer questions about it. I need to become more educated about it, I guess.

"I do feel the support. That's nice. It makes you feel like you're part of something much bigger than yourself."

Bigger than the BCS Championship Game. Bigger than the Heisman Trophy.

Sam Bradford has embraced his heritage, along with his status as a role model.

And the Cherokee Nation couldn't be prouder.

Reporter Joey Johnston can be reached at (813) 259-7353.

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