Maude “Grandma” Supernaw
Interviewed by: Bill Supernaw, Jr.
Interview Date: 1962
Transcribed by: Rise Supernaw Proctor & Billy Supernaw Proctor
Subject: Lost Creek Cave (1962 Interview)

Lost Creek Cave
(1962 Interview)
 Bill: Did you say Grandpa found a cave out there?

Grandma: Oh yeah, he (Tallchief) find a cave, cave, went hunting, he find it with a dog. Uh, he thought was there, find a coon, he look in there was a, big hole in there so, he look around in there, uh, there ain’t no flashlight nothing, but he look around in there and, uh, seem like he could find something. So he look in there and after a while, uh, find something in there, dishes like. Uh, something like that so, later on, they come back and they take wagon and he take another boy with him. My mother went too, I guess, I went too.

And uh, they look around in there, they got a lot of dishes, all kind, jug and crock and pan, uh, a tin pan all rotted up, rusted out, tea kettle, little tea pot, all like that, iron pot, just all right, just, just whole lot of them, like that. A machine, make, make uh, goods out of it, machine, that kind they put away in there too. People make, uh, cloth, I guess. And they storage everything you can think of in that cave, but he don’t need, so, he didn’t tell anybody and nobody didn’t know he had it, I guess, and nobody didn’t ask him, so, they didn’t know where it is. And uh, next time he thought he look again and went back up there and, and a big fall, uh, a big rock fell in there, filled up that big hole. So he said, if people, if the white people know they can blast that, he said, but they, he didn’t tell anybody, I guess white people didn’t know it, I guess, he didn’t tell them.

Irene: What creek was that on?

Grandma: Huh?

Irene: What creek was that on?

Grandma: A, a creek.

Irene: Uh huh.

Grandma: Uh, Lost creek, he told me. A bluff around there, I guess, Lost Creek. I don’t know where Lost Creek is.
   
 
 

Maude “Grandma” Supernaw
Interviewed by: Bill Supernaw, Jr.
Interview Date: 1969
Transcribed by: Rise Supernaw Proctor & Billy Supernaw Proctor
Subject: Lost Creek Cave- Located west of Quapaw Creek (1969 Interview)

Lost Creek Cave
(1969 Interview)
 Bill: Tell me about that Lost Creek Cave where all them Indians went to ….

Grandma: Lost Creek Cave, Tall Chief, he said.

Bill: Your Grandpa, I mean my Grandpa (Tall Chief)?

Grandma: Uh huh! He, he was hunting, so he just, uh, uh, he thought maybe a coon in there, he just look in that hole.

Bill: Coon?

Grandma: And he dog go in there and looking around, and looking, and he went in there, so, he find out, go a little deeper so, he just look around and can’t see. See some stuff in there, see, he digging out, and dig a little more, little more and.

And uh, next time well he, he go back down there again, he, my mother with him, two them, take a wagon down there. They show where the wagon come down the hill, chop trees down, they come down the hill, and they would come to the cave, come from up on hill. And so, they keep little more, they find them dishes. They got a lot of dishes and jug and all kinds of pretty plates must be store, I guess, or something. They know they going have war (Civil war) so we, you find that cave, you put everything in there. Machine, everything, make uh, goods out of it, make machine. So, that’s what they kind of, to find out, skillet and everything, they in there.

They (Tall Chief) got all wagon it, wagon load everything, he said. They took them home. Everybody, the other people didn’t know (about the cave) …. the white people, they could find out but they, nobody didn’t know it. Cause uh, he always go hunting where your daddy show him up on the hill, that a way he didn’t know what he, what he mean. So, he didn’t show that cave, he says, so that’s the reason nobody know who that cave is.

And they went back and like, oh, before he quit, he quit hunting he went back over there and he said big rock just cave in and fill that hole in there, rock cave in. So that’s how, that’s last time he saw it, he said. If you, white people, know they blast it, that rock, but they didn’t, nobody know, he said. That’s all!

Bill: That was on Lost Creek?

Grandma: Uh huh.
   

Maude “Grandma” Supernaw
Interviewed by: William “Kugee” Supernaw III
Interview Date: 1969
Transcribed by: Rise Supernaw Proctor & Billy Supernaw Proctor
Subject: Lost Creek Cave - Located west of Quapaw Cree (1969 Kugee Supernaw Interview)

Lost Creek Cave
(1969 Kugee Supernaw Interview)
Kugee: Your father found a cave out there?

Grandma: Uh huh! Lost Creek.

Kugee: Lost Creek?

Grandma: Uh huh. And uh, dog, uh, smell around in there …. he, he thought maybe coon in there, he looked in there, and uh, oh, he find something else, you know, so he look and, and he took something, make light and he light something and look around, see something else over there, see something else over there. Oh, after, later on, and I don’t know how he did find out, take somebody with him. They find out there lot of dishes in there. They’re storage, kind a shelf like, two shelf, lot of storage and jug and dishes, pan, all kind, big cave, kind of machine like, you know, make, making goods like this, you know, machine. That kind of storage, I guess they know they going to have war, civil war, you know. They storage everything in there, must be store, something. They didn’t know. They find everything in there, oh, but they didn’t look for anymore. And, my father went up there to, they went down there, brought lot of dishes with him, put in wagon and brought home. We used to have it, all kind dishes, blue, dark blue flower in it. Big platter, that big, just lot of dishes they brought, we had but all broke up now, we didn’t, I ain’t got no more of them.

Kugee: Where’s that at, Lost Creek?

Grandma: Lost Creek, back that way, they call Lost Creek.

Kugee: Over by Turkey Creek?

Grandma: Yeah, Martin, back that way, cross Quapaw, back that way.

Kugee: Up there by Battle Creek, that far, they say?

Grandma: Uh huh. My father went back down there last time, went back in there, and he find big cave there, you know, big rock fall in there, fill that hole.

Kugee: It did?

Grandma: But, white people didn’t know it, they could blast it out, they could get out whatever they want, lot of things in there.

Kugee: Still there?

Grandma: Uh huh! Just covered up in that hole, gate covered up. That’s all.

Kugee: Hmm, Lost Creek though, I can’t think where that is. Do you know where Battle Creek is?

Grandma: Uh huh!

Kugee: Is it up there?

Grandma: Uh huh, that go that way.

Kugee: By that big bluff?

Grandma: Uh huh, yeah, big bluff, I guess, big bluff go around there. Crack there, I guess. Now a big rock in there, cover it up. Didn’t tell nobody, can look right there, might find it, blast it out. Lot of things in there, dishes weren’t rotten, so I guess, a lot of things in there.

Kugee: Huh!

Grandma: He always tell your Grandpa (Bill Supernaw, Sr.). Uh, he always tell him, but he didn’t know what, what he means, says he just point at, like that, you know. He didn’t know what he mean, he said, after he died, talking about it.


Kugee: Oh, he couldn’t understand him?

Grandma: Uh huh, yeah!

Kugee: That was your father?

Grandma: Uh huh! He didn’t know that, your grandpa, uh, your, your daddy’s daddy (John W. Supernaw). He told him where it was, but he didn’t know. Lost Creek that’s all, Lost Creek.