Feb. 24—Climbing the family tree has helped Rikisha Harrison find herself.

“It makes me understand what I have and where I got my entrepreneur spirit,” Harrison said, adding that she feels empowered by such ancestors as grandparents who ran a cafe and a famed Cherokee leader. She said she uncovered people who might have been musicians or played Negro League baseball.

Harrison said she’s been researching her ancestry since she was in elementary school. She started with her parents.

“My mom gave me the information I needed but my dad couldn’t,” she said. “Ever since then, I have been on a search for his ancestors.”

She said the hardest part of researching her family was dealing with enslaved ancestors. Not only was it emotionally wrenching, but it often led to dead ends in research, she said.

Another part of the family research led her to the historic black town of Tullahassee.

“Some of my ancestors, when they came from Alabama came to the Tullahassee area,” Harrison said. “One was superintendent at the mission school there.”

Harrison said she found that the town had lost its zip code, as well as its historic buildings.

“Knowing it’s Oklahoma’s oldest historic Black town made me want to help,” she said.

She said she learned the value of telling her own story.

“We need to document our own history, because once people die off, it’s just gone,” she said.

Harrison also has found ways to pass her legacy onto others. A desire to help her community and help children drew her to the Optimist Club. When the Muskogee club’s early morning meetings proved inconvenient, Harrison helped establish the Muskogee B.R.I.C.K. Optimist club in 2018.

She also created and sells a workbook so others can begin tracing their ancestry and sharing their legacies.

Helping through B.R.I.C.K. optimistsRikisha Harrison has helped Muskogee B.R.I.C.K. Optimist with many projects since she helped start it.

“We give away costumes at Halloween time,” she said. “We’ve helped with carnivals at schools. We had a bicycle safety event at Civitan Park. We do respect for the law.”

The club recently hosted a prom for people with special needs.

An annual event is the Dream Pageant each January. Harrison said the pageant focuses on helping young people develop confidence and pride.

“It’s been an amazing experience watching the kids we have from year to year, watching them blossom,” Harrison said. “Their parents force them to be in the pageant at first, and then afterwards, they’re ready for it the next year. Watching the young people who have been with us over the years, watching how they’ve grown.”

She said she feels proud to watch the young people grow.

“I feel that’s being a true Optimist,” she said.

Bringing town back from extinctionHarrison said she feels a kinship with Tullahassee.

“When I started going there, it felt like home,” she said. “I felt like I had been there.”

She said she wants to help bring life back to the historic town.

“The historic buildings are no longer there, they no longer have a zip code,” she said. “Their zip code was taken away from them, even though it is still a town.”

Harrison said she helps through the Tullahassee Wildcats Foundation.

“We’re working on restoring the town’s gym,” she said. “It should be finished some time this year, and it will be available for rent. That will create a revenue for the town. It could be for basketball tournaments, events. It’s really nice, the bathrooms are redone, new lighting, new gym floor.”

Finding money has been the biggest challenge in helping the town, Harrison said.

“But it has to be done because that’s a piece of history,” she said. “I would love to be able to go to a town and see what was once there while it is still a town. I feel like I will make my ancestors proud.”

Finding family by researching pastGenealogy helped Harrison go beyond names on a tree.

“One of the things I found out was that my dad’s father was a Realtor in Memphis, Tennessee in the early 1950s,” she said. “Which was admirable to me, being a Black man in the 1950s being a real estate agent. He and his wife owned a cafe there in Memphis. and I’ve been told that my grandmother made definitely good pies. I didn’t get the cooking part from them. Knowing they were able to be those people in those days has made me sit up straight.”

Ancestral DNA testing also has helped.

“You find out who you are,” she said. “You find out whose blood is inside of you. We do carry the same DNA of our ancestors through subsequent generations.”

One eighth-great-grandmother was early Cherokee leader Nancy Ward, also known as Nanye-hi.

“Nancy Ward was found by a cousin of mine,” Harrison said. “That was something. I immediately enrolled in the Daughters of the American Revolution, started going to meetings in Tahlequah about Nancy Ward. It’s been an amazing experience.”

Harrison recalled former Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Bill John Baker visiting her after a recent presentation.

“And he said ‘hello cousin,'” she said. “He’s actually a descendant of Nancy Ward, too. There’s definitely a lot of Nancy Ward descendants.”

HOW DID YOU COME TO BE AN OKIE FROM MUSKOGEE?

“I was born in California. My dad came here to take care of his great grandmother who moved to Muskogee in 1920. We came to Oklahoma from California in 1986.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE BEST ABOUT MUSKOGEE?

“The rich history. I love the history of this town, and I love learning about it.”

WHAT WOULD MAKE MUSKOGEE A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE?

“Definitely more things to do for young adults and children. Things I can think of when I was a child are no longer here.”

WHAT PERSON IN MUSKOGEE DO YOU ADMIRE MOST?

“My mother, Renee Grayson. My mother moved here with a suitcase. That’s all she had, and she moved here and we had a good life. She worked at Yaffee Iron and Metal as a human resource manager, and she was actually the first Black to serve on the Human Resource Society. If I could be half the woman my mom is, I feel like I would have made it.”

WHAT IS THE MOST MEMORABLE THING TO HAPPEN TO YOU IN MUSKOGEE?

“My childhood is what I remember the most. While most people aren’t proud of it, I am. I lived in Port City. I didn’t realize we were poor. We had the best time in Port City, from 15 kids playing baseball and only two of us had a glove, to playing in the creek and building clubhouses. I had the best time in old Port City.”

WHAT DO YOU DO IN YOUR SPARE TIME?

“Genealogy research, volunteer at Muskogee B.R.I.C.K. Optimist Club and Tullahassee Wildcat Foundation, spending time with family and friends. Just doing things around the community, looking for ways to give back and help the children. Working with anyone trying to create things to do.”

HOW WOULD YOU SUM UP MUSKOGEE IN 25 WORDS OR LESS?

“Place with rich history. There’s a lot of things that went on here, good things we need to learn about. It is a good place to live. Just looking forward to the future of Muskogee.”