January 28, 2010

Successful athlete, attorney to be inducted into Tiger Hall of Fame

Having served as an All-American collegiate football player as well as a mentor to younger Indian lawyers and tribal judges, Francis Browning Pipestem will be posthumously inducted into the Tiger Athletic Hall of Fame on Saturday, Feb. 6.

Pipestem was an All-American offensive and defensive tackle for the Arkansas City Junior College football team during the 1961 season. He played on two successful teams, which were coached by fellow Tiger Athletic Hall of Fame inductee, Ben Cleveland.

ACJC went 7-4 during the 1961 season and did even better in Pipestem’s second year at the school as the Tigers went 8-3 and finished as conference co-champs.

Pipestem, who passed away in 1999 from diabetes complications, went on to become a noted attorney, judge and lecturer who was a committed and compassionate lifetime advocate for Native Americans. He has a Wellness Center named after him in Red Rock, OK.

The son of Francis Pipestem, a chief of the Otoe-Missouria Tribe, Pipestem attended elementary school at the federally operated Chilocco Boarding School where his father was a well-respected teacher. Later, he starred on the football field and excelled in the classroom at Newkirk High School.

Following his graduation from ACJC, he went on to earn a degree in law from the University of Oklahoma.

Pipestem started his law office in Norman, OK in 1974. He served as chief justice for the supreme court of the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma and as a justice for two other tribal supreme courts, the Citizens Band Potawatomi Tribe of Oklahoma and the Kaw Nation.

He was a leading defender of tribal sovereignty and was awarded the Spirit of Excellence Award from the American Bar Association for his exceptional achievement and substantial contributions to the legal profession despite facing societal barriers to success.

 When receiving the award, Pipestem wore his father’s Otoe-Missouria war bonnet and an Osage blanket hand-stitched by his mother.

Following his death, the F. Browning Pipestem Memorial Scholarship was established at the University of Oklahoma. For the past eight years the University of Oklahoma American Indian Alumni Society has held the F. Browning Pipestem Memorial Golf Scramble in Norman, OK.