Oklahoma's First "Flying Saucer" Festival

"Chief Standing Horse" of Sapulpa, Oklahoma shared his "contact" with beings from another world and his trip aboard their craft in the late 1950's. Early 1961, he is sponsoring the "flying saucer" or 'UFO Festival' at the campgrounds of his Sapulpa Native American church and campgrounds.

He will later exodus to join the people gathering around George Wellington Van Tassel (March 12, 1910 – February 9, 1978) tan American "contactee", ufologist and author.   Van Tassel was a classic 1950s contactee in the mold of George Adamski, Truman Bethurum, Daniel Fry, Orfeo Angelucci and many others. He hosted "The Giant Rock Interplanetary Spacecraft Convention" annually beside the Rock, from 1953 to 1971, which attracted at its peak in 1959 as many as 10,000 attendees. Guests trekked to the desert by car or landed airplanes on Van Tassel's small airstrip, called Giant Rock Airport.

Standing Horse, which may not have been his real name, claimed birth in Ohio and membership in the Ottawa Tribe.

The following is a bio entry from SOONER SAUCERS: Vol.2 (2023) by Marilyn A. Hudson (used by permission): Standing Horse, Henry B (Henry Buckeye, 1892-1977). A clergyman in the Sapulpa area of Oklahoma, along Route 66. He is first associated with a church named the Wildwood Chapel and then the Holy Church of God. Both were on the Oklahoma Indian Christian Camp grounds located at Route 66 and the “Old Henry Land place” (2.5 miles north of Sapulpa). The camp incorporated as an Oklahoma not-for-profit business May 24, 1949 as the “Oklahoma Indian Christian Camp and Mission with Institutional Features.” It is still listed with the state for that purpose. Three names are on the original record: Frank B. Standing Horse Chief, Harrison A. Snell, and Wandie White Wing. 

Frank B. Standing Horse was listed in newspaper ads, in the African-American newspaper of Tulsa, The Oklahoma Eagle, under the name “Dr. F.B. Standing Horse”, specialist in various ills and the “secret of life.” Starting in late 1949 he is listed in Sapulpa as “Bishop H.B. Standing Horse”, and sometimes, as merely “Rev. H.P. Standing Horse.” His church was actively engaged in working with the community and bringing races together. A July 1949 article in the Oklahoma Eagle announced that Standing Horse, of the Oklahoma Indian Christian Camp and Mission, Inc. and Rev. W.W. Mayle, The Calvary Bible Institute, Inc., would join forces for an inter-racial, undenominational, Bible school camp. 

A self-described Native American from Ohio (a member of the Ottawa Tribe), Standing Horse claimed sightings as early as 1949, 1957, and again in 1959. That was the year he claimed a major “Contact” experience with an alien species, with subsequent journeys to the Moon, Mars, Venus, the planet “Clarion” (made famous by Contactee Truman Bethurum).

In 1959, he organized the first UFO themed conference in the state at the Sapulpa campgrounds of his church. Guests included several well-known figures in the UFO and Contactee camps. Around 1966, he moved to California, became part of the west coast Contactee community, died there, and is buried in Riverside County. A biography was included in an announcement from the offices of the Oklahoma offices of the Washington Saucer Intelligence, headed by Wayne S. Aho. 

Standing Horse, said Aho, was born eighteen miles east of Toledo, Ohio in a tepee and says he is therefore a “Buckeye.” He was listed as 67 years old. He was quoted as saying he had seen flying saucers four times, perhaps five, since May 15, 1947. One nearly landed on him at his place at Tulsa one day while he was reading the Holy Bible under an oak tree in front of his house. 

He said his grandmother knew what Flying Saucers were and she believed she saw one when she was 13 years of age. She called it a “Canne.” She lived to within three months and four days of being 130 years of age.” Aho gave the dates for the coming conference as September 26 and 27, differing from the story in the local Sapulpa newspaper. 

Shortly after the conferences, he moved to California and was said to have become associated with the wider Contactee movement of Van Tassel and later died in California. 

Sources: “Professional Services” (Oklahoma Eagle, April 7, 1945, pg.2); “Bible School Camp Opens” (Oklahoma Eagle, July 21, 1949); “Church Announcements” (Sapulpa Daily Herald, 

December 18, 1949, pg. 16, “Wildwood Chapel”); “Space Convention Plans Announced” (Sapulpa Daily Herald, July 31, 1960, ‘Second Annual’).