Cole Brings Plenty co-starred in the first season of the "Yellowstone" spinoff "1923" as Pete Plenty Clouds, a Native American sheepherder who comes to the aid of a young woman fleeing an abusive Indian School. The nephew of actor Mo Brings Plenty, he and his uncle visited Washington, D.C., in May 2023 to talk with the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs about the boarding schools and other issues facing Native Americans. Cole Brings Plenty also appeared in episodes of the INSP western TV series Into the Wild Frontier and The Tall Tales of Jim Bridger. He could also be seen gracing runways during Native fashion shows and events. Cole was a media student at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas. The circumstances surrounding Cole's suspicious death are still unknown.
N. Scott Momaday was widely credited with inspiring a renaissance in Native American literature with the publication of his 1968 Pulitzer Prizewinning novel House Made of Dawn. The Lawton, Oklahoma-born author, poet, essayist, and academic also drew upon his Kiowa heritage in The Way to Rainy Mountain, a 1969 book based on tales told to him by his grandmother. Momaday held the position of his native state’s poet laureate for two years and was an on-camera interviewee in several documentaries including Ken Burns’ The American Buffalo. In 2007, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President George W. Bush.
Clancy Gray was an acclaimed Osage Nation artist and retired longtime schoolteacher here in Oklahoma. A multi-hyphenate artist and educator, Gray taught art for almost 40 years in Tulsa Public Schools. For most of his career, he also coached sports, including baseball, softball, swimming, soccer and cross-country. In 2019, he was named the Red Earth Honored One at the art festival.
