Journey to Freedom by Kent Blansett

Author:Kent Blansett
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780300227819
Publisher: Yale University Press

Richard Oakes at the San Francisco General Hospital, June 25, 1970, with (left to right), Annie Oakes, Peter Mitten, and Mad Bear Anderson. Photo courtesy of Getty Images, Bettmann Collection 640119160.

On June 24, 1970, having learned of Richard’s condition, medicine person Mad Bear Anderson from Tuscarora, along with Cayuga healer Peter Mitten, made their way into Oakes’s hospital room. Hospital staff and doctors agreed to allow the two healers to work with Oakes. At this point, doctors were open to anything that might assist in Oakes’s recovery. Standing at Richard’s bedside, Mad Bear held onto Oakes’s hand, becoming misty-eyed as he remembered the young man who was so eager to assist Longhouse leaders.46 Mitten, wearing a tilted cowboy hat, and Mad Bear retreated to a private room, away from curious doctors to mix the medicine. Doctors and nurses watched as Mitten added a teaspoon of the liquid medicine to Oakes’s feeding tube. Five minutes later a red spot appeared on Richard Oakes’s chest just above his heart and began to spread. After an hour his body became relaxed and his temperature started to drop; the baffled doctors could only scratch their heads. The medicine had a dramatic effect. In a couple of days, Oakes was able to wiggle his toes and yawn on command.47

As Richard Oakes struggled to hang onto life, he was haunted by a recurring dream. He saw a human body laid out in front of him, broken into pieces. The body was being devoured by hundreds of maggots. As the “horrific” dream continued, the figure pulled itself back together, shaking off that which sought to consume its flesh or spirit. The body of the person, now complete, trembled and struggled to rise from the ground. Walking toward Richard, this lone figure stopped and said, “I am an Indian.”48 Struggling for his life and enduring his dreams, Oakes’s fight symbolized the idea that freedom for Indian Country would not be without physical harm.

A few days later, Richard Oakes, while he may have suffered from paralysis over the left side of his body, was awake, scribbling messages with his right hand to Annie on a notebook. Their son Rocky Oakes stood at the doorway watching as his hero fought to execute the simplest of movements. His head was shaved, and he bore a large scar rising from his ear to the top of his head. Richard noticed his son and with his hand shaking, motioned for him to come closer. Oakes wrote a note to “Anna,” as he affectionately called Annie, to buy Rocky some new clothes and a baseball bat. Rocky smiled when his mom read the note, reassured that his dad could overcome his injuries.49

By August, Oakes had become restless. He had been confined to a hospital for almost two months. Back in June, Bruce Oakes made a long trip to San Francisco to visit with his cousin and was overcome when he entered the brightly lit hospital room. Bruce stayed by Richard’s side constantly, having arrived only a few days after Oakes was admitted to the hospital.

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