Chickasaw Garden
The Chickasaw Garden at Oklahoma City University is a gathering place that serves as the home to the Warrior Statue by acclaimed sculptor Enoch Kelly Haney. Art is appreciated and conversations started amidst prairie plantings beneath protective pines.
A gift from the Chickasaw Nation to the University, the donors wished to place the statue within a site of honor that made viewing the sculpture its priority, while creating a campus gathering place.
Working off of the simple, unbroken form of the circle, the basic framework of the garden mimics the American Indian medicine wheel. Each path of the garden represents the four cardinal directions, North, South, East and West. Within the circle, garden beds represent the four seasons of nature, spring, summer, fall, and winter - and the four seasons of life, birth, adolescence, adulthood, and our elder years.
Prairie plants have been used to add a robust naturalism to the garden and display the life cycle of all living things. The plantings attract birds and butterflies activating and enlivening the space.
A mix of regional materials such as pink granite and sandstone ground the garden in the colors and textures of Oklahoma.
