Liberals Circle the Wagons Against Indian Attacks

Insight on the News, August 20, 2001 by John Elvin

David Yeagley, once a humanities professor at the University of Oklahoma, lost his job as a result of his crusade to have the Oklahoma Legislature add an optional course on patriotism to the curriculum for state high-school students. Despite setbacks, he continues to work on the project. Initially, Republican Gov. Frank Keating endorsed Yeagley's idea, but the governor "has not come to my support lately," Yeagley tells Insight.

No doubt many politicians who normally would wrap themselves in the flag find Yeagley, a Comanche Indian who holds a divinity degree from Yale, a little unsettling in his broadsides against political correctness and "white guilt." Though obviously a conservative at the core, his views are the unique product of his own thinking and heritage. He is proud of his ancestors' "warrior spirit," explaining in one recent interview that the Comanches "were the lords of the Plains. They kicked out all the other Indians. They had no tolerance for other Indians, no tolerance for white people, no tolerance for anybody except themselves."

But times changed. Today, Yeagley says he loves and values what America stands for but, as he told Richard Poe of the electronic magazine FrontPage, he believes the "fighting spirit that built this country has been allowed to fade." As an example, he points out that a group of his students said they would prefer not to see a course on patriotism because it would be run by militias and skinheads. So he's trying to set the kids straight.

"If an indian wants to know what it means to be an Indian, he asks his elders," Yeagley says. "If you want to know what it means to be an American, ask your grandfather. He'll tell you." And that's the kind of talk that brought him to his present state of affairs. Upon his termination, his supervisor told him that he was "creating a lot of bad PR with this patriotism thing." Says Yeagley of the attitude he encountered: "The only good Indian is a liberal Indian."

These days Yeagley is working on his patriotism text and trying to get the word out through appearances on talk shows and in speeches. Anyone interested in helping out or learning more can contact Yeagley via e-mail at badeagle2000@yahoo.com.