Home |  PublicationsEncyclopedia |  Oklahoma Scottish Games

The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

OKLAHOMA SCOTTISH GAMES AND GATHERING.

Held annually in Tulsa since 1980, the Oklahoma Scottish Games and Gathering highlights Scottish heritage and features athletic events, Highland dancing, food, and music. Descended from gatherings and "weapenschaws" once held in Scotland to test soldiers' abilities before battle, Oklahoma's version attracts national and international athletes to compete in events such as the sheaf toss (a weighted burlap bag thrown with a pitchfork), the caber toss (somersaulting a large wooden pole, similar to a telephone pole), the hammer throw, and other Scottish events. There are also dancing, bagpipe playing, and drumming competitions.

Many of the Creek, Cherokee, Choctaw, and Chickasaw people who came to Oklahoma in the 1830s had Scotch and Scotch-Irish ancestry. Later some tribe members married Scottish immigrants who were seeking land in Oklahoma Territory. As a result, Scottish place-names that dot the state include Afton, Glencoe, and McIntosh County. Commemorating this ancestry, Oklahoma has two tartans registered with the Scottish Tartans Society: the Tulsa District Tartan was designed in 1978, and the official Oklahoma State Tartan was accepted in 1999. In 2000, 52,030 Oklahomans claimed Scottish ancestry and 58,798 claimed Scotch-Irish ancestry.

Sponsored by the Scottish Club of Tulsa, the event was first called the Tulsa Scottish Games. Later, the Scottish Club of Central Oklahoma became involved, and in 1988 the festival name changed to the Oklahoma Scottish Games and Gathering, as the new United Scottish Clans of Oklahoma helped with the event. Although the gathering has been held at various Tulsa parks, by 2002 Chandler Park hosted the event. In 1986 eleven clans and approximately 350 people attended. By 1988 there were more than three thousand spectators. The competition charges admission, and prior to 2004 the largest number of paid attendees for the weekend stood at 11,200.

Larry O'Dell

Browse By Topic

Folklife

Explore

Events

Learn More

Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City), 18 September 1987.

Highland Herald [United Scottish Clans of Oklahoma, Inc.] 3, (1 October 2004).

Tulsa (Oklahoma) World, 15 September 1993, 15 and 20 September 2004.

Citation

The following (as per The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition) is the preferred citation for articles:
Larry O'Dell, “Oklahoma Scottish Games,” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=OK077.

Published January 15, 2010

Copyright and Terms of Use

No part of this site may be construed as in the public domain.

Copyright to all articles and other content in the online and print versions of The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History is held by the Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS). This includes individual articles (copyright to OHS by author assignment) and corporately (as a complete body of work), including web design, graphics, searching functions, and listing/browsing methods. Copyright to all of these materials is protected under United States and International law.

Users agree not to download, copy, modify, sell, lease, rent, reprint, or otherwise distribute these materials, or to link to these materials on another web site, without authorization of the Oklahoma Historical Society. Individual users must determine if their use of the Materials falls under United States copyright law's "Fair Use" guidelines and does not infringe on the proprietary rights of the Oklahoma Historical Society as the legal copyright holder of The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and part or in whole.