Southwest
Oklahoma Native American community sees yearly return of popular wild onion dinners
As winter fades to spring and the bright purple blossoms of the redbud trees begin to bloom, Cherokee chef Bradley James Dry knows it’s time to forage for morels as well as a staple of Native American cuisine in Oklahoma: wild green onions.
Wild onions are among the first foods to grow at the tail end of winter in the South, and generations of Indigenous people there have placed the alliums at the center of an annual communal event. From February through May, there’s a wild onion dinner every Saturday somewhere in Oklahoma.
The bright green stalks of the onions reach a few inches above the dried leaves that crunch under Dry’s feet on a crisp morning in March as he hunts through parks and empty lots near downtown Tulsa. The land he forages straddles the Muscogee Nation and the Cherokee Nation, and he’s thinking of his elisi — grandmother in Cherokee — who taught him how to pick and cook wild onions.
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“Being able to cook like this, cook the things that my grandmother would cook for strangers, that’s really cool,” Dry explains as he scans the forest floor. He’s careful not to overharvest, taking only what he needs.
“Traditionally, what I grew up with, you just boil them in a little bit of water and then fry them with scrambled eggs,” Dry said.
That’s the way wild onions are typically cooked for large gatherings, a side dish of greens with a familiar peppery bite, served alongside fried pork, beans, frybread, chicken dumplings, cornbread, and safke — a soup made with cracked corn and lye from wood ash that is common among tribal nations in the southeast, including the Muscogee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Cherokee, and Seminole.
Carol Tiger, a member of Muscogee Nation and an elder at the Springfield United Methodist Church in Okemah, Oklahoma, lets the oil drip off a freshly-cooked piece of frybread at the church’s annual wild onion dinner on April 6, 2024. Wild onions are among the first foods to grow in the spring, and the dinners have been a tradition in Native American communities for generations. (AP Photo/Brittany Bendabout)
Dry likes to mix tradition with contemporary, such as using wild onions to make omelets and kimchi.
“I’ve even used them to create salsa or chimichurri for steaks,” he said.
The following Saturday morning, at least 100 people wait for the tribal community center to open in Okmulgee, the capital of the Muscogee Nation about 40 miles south of Tulsa. For the second consecutive year, the community is gathering for a wild onion dinner to raise travel funds for Claudia McHenry, a tribal citizen hoping to compete at this year’s Miss Indian World Pageant in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Dozens of people cook and hand out food, there is a silent auction, and a local mekko — a Muscogee spiritual leader — gives the opening welcome.
Over the last several generations, churches in Oklahoma — particularly United Methodist Churches in Native American communities — have used wild onion dinners to raise funds for church bills and annual dues, said Chebon Kernell, a mekko for his community and a UMC clergy member.
“But as the years went by, it became an enormous community event,” he said.
McHenry said seeing the community rally behind her gives her the courage she needs.
“To just see people turn out for me physically,” she said. “It gives me really a lot of good emotions and pushes me and propels me to continue forward toward my goals.”
For the next three hours, hundreds show up and pay $15 for a plate of food to send her down that path. For many, helping McHenry or the local church is the only thing that could improve upon the undeniable allure of hogfry. And in no place is that truer than the Springfield UMC in Okemah, another 35 miles south, the following Saturday.
It isn’t uncommon for people to come from Arkansas, Kansas, or Texas for a piece of that community’s famed fried pork and a heap of wild onions. Some travel that far because they’re part of the Muscogee diaspora. Others simply follow the church’s signs down a dusty gravel road until the canopy of trees opens up to an endless field of waving grass, still copper from the winter’s rest.
For nearly two decades, hundreds have lined up on the porch of the church’s small gathering hall on the first Saturday in April for a plate of food. And every year you’ll find Carol Tiger there, elbow deep in a bowl of frybread mix.
Everyone calls Tiger the head cook.
“I just let them know what we have to do,” she said, sending a wave of laughter through the kitchen.
In past years, Tiger and other church elders would take their grandkids to pick onions, but this year they’re expecting 500 to 600 hungry people, so they purchased their onions cleaned and chopped for $40 a gallon. The families of the church also contribute a gallon each.
Elders tell stories from the rocking chairs on the porch, children play in the woods nearby, and vendors sell beadwork and clothing. The small field around the church has been cut and edged and is full of vehicles with tribal tags from across the state. Men fry pork in a giant pan over a fire outside, while women fill the dining hall with the warmth of home-cooked food.
After clearing their plates, attendees enjoy a piece of cake or a bowl of grape dumplings — a dessert traditionally made from wild grape juice that today is often made with frozen juice and canned biscuits. They stay well into the afternoon, talking and eating, certainly sad when it’s time to go.
But it’s mid-April, and wild onion dinner season isn’t over yet. There’s always next Saturday, a little further down the road.
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Southwest
Multiple people, including pregnant woman, struck by alleged drunk driver at Navajo Nation Christmas parade
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An alleged drunk driver struck multiple people at a Christmas parade on the Navajo Nation in Arizona on Monday, according to officials.
The Navajo Police Department said officers responded at about 5 p.m. after four people were struck by a driver who was allegedly intoxicated. The driver drove into the parade route as bystanders were waiting for it to start.
Police confirmed “life was [lost] during this tragic event as family gathered for this joyous occasion to brighten the holiday season.”
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Police confirmed “life was [lost] during this tragic event as family gathered for this joyous occasion to brighten the holiday season.” (Navajo Police Department)
Damages to vehicles and property were also reported.
The driver was arrested and transported to the local Department of Corrections.
“A tragic event during the holidays can change someone’s life and hurt families across the Navajo Nation,” police wrote on Facebook. “If you see someone who may be impaired, take their keys, help them get home safely, or call your local Navajo Police Department.”
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The driver was arrested and transported to the local Department of Corrections. (Navajo Police)
The incident remains under investigation. The FBI and the Navajo Department of Criminal Investigation are assisting Navajo police in the investigation.
Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren said the people hit by the vehicle include a “young person” who remains in critical condition and a pregnant woman.
“This event was meant to bring joy, unity, and holiday spirit to our community—and is a time for families to come together and celebrate,” Nygren wrote on Facebook. “No one should have to experience tragedy during a season meant for love and togetherness.”
The FBI and the Navajo Department of Criminal Investigation are assisting Navajo Police in the investigation. (Getty Images)
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Kayenta Township said “an accident occurred along Navajo Route 591 near the Kayenta Rodeo Grounds.”
“Our primary concern is the well-being of those affected. We ask that you keep them and their families in your thoughts and prayers,” the community wrote on its Facebook page.
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Southwest
GOP governor lays out plan to ‘purge’ terrorists and terror supporters from state
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After designating two prominent Islamic groups “foreign terrorist organizations,” Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott gave insight into his plan to “purge” both terrorists and terror supporters from his state.
Abbott, who is a close ally of President Donald Trump and is running for a fourth term as governor, recently issued a proclamation designating the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Muslim Brotherhood as “foreign terrorist organizations” and “transnational criminal organizations” under Texas law.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Abbott explained that the designation means that CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood and their affiliates are prohibited from purchasing or acquiring land in Texas. The proclamation also authorizes state agencies to take heightened enforcement measures and legal action against the two organizations.
In response, two Texas CAIR chapters filed a federal lawsuit against Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, arguing that the proclamation violates the U.S. Constitution by exceeding state authority and infringing on due process rights.
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Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott designated CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations. (Getty Images)
Abbott, however, appeared undaunted.
He said that the “very important point” of his actions is to show that “when we as a state or we as a country step up and show there are legal consequences for you trying to violate religious freedom, when you try to impose your religion on somebody else, or whether you may be supporting some type of terror group, that there’s going to be consequences to it, that you will be brought into a court of law and be held accountable.”
“Any organization that supports terrorism, that harbors people who have provided material support for terrorism, is not allowed to exist in our state,” said Abbott, adding, “We will purge them from our state, they should be purged from our country, and they definitely should not be receiving tax-exempt status in our country.”
Shortly after Abbott’s proclamation, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order similarly designating CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations. The order bars the groups from receiving state contracts, funding, employment, or benefits, and prohibits state agencies from working with them or entities deemed to support them.
Additionally, Trump signed an executive order initiating the federal process for several Muslim Brotherhood chapters to be designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists.
On Dec. 2, Abbott sent a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent requesting the suspension of CAIR’s tax-exempt status.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has also designated CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations. (Rebecca Blackwell, File/AP Photo)
Though CAIR has pushed back, calling Abbott’s claims false, the governor said, “If they don’t want to be labeled a terrorist, they have to stop supporting terrorism. It’s that simple.”
He said that both the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR have a “long, well-established history with terrorism.” He pointed to CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad, reportedly speaking highly of the Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel and the Dallas-Fort Worth CAIR chapter advocating on behalf of Marwan Marouf, a Jordanian national set to be deported by ICE after allegedly making donations to a charity known to funnel money to Hamas.
“There’s a massive difference between religion and terrorism,” said Abbott. “It doesn’t matter what religious belief you may believe in or adhere to, if you support terrorism in any way, that is a crime, it has to be rooted out, has to eliminated, I don’t care who you are or what religion you’re a part of.”
In response, Edward Ahmed Mitchell, deputy director of CAIR, shot back at Abbott. In a statement sent to Fox News Digital, Mitchell said that “Governor Abbott is an Israel First politician who has spent years trying to smear and silence Texans who oppose the waste of American taxpayer dollars on the Israeli government’s war crimes.”
Mitchell said that “CAIR is an independent American civil rights organization that has spent 31 years speaking up against all forms of unjust violence, including hate crimes, terrorism, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.”
“In fact, CAIR condemned terrorism so often that ISIS called for the assassination of our leadership,” said Mitchell.
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Supporters of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood take part in a protest in the village of Sweimeh, near the Jordanian border with the occupied West Bank, on May 21, 2021. (Khalil Mazraawi/AFP via Getty Images)
“CAIR has strongly condemned the Israeli government’s decades of violent oppression against the Palestinian people, and CAIR has also condemned Hamas violence against Israeli civilians, from suicide bombings in the 1990s to attacks on Oct. 7th. That’s called moral consistency, something Greg Abbott and other supporters of the Gaza genocide know nothing about,” he went on, adding, “Abbott is upset with CAIR because our civil rights group filed the lawsuits that defeated his last three attempts to shred the First Amendment for the benefit of the Israeli government.”
“We are suing Governor Abbott again now to block his lawless proclamation and we look forward to defeating him for the fourth time in a row, God willing, so that we can protect the constitutional rights of all Americans,” he said.
The Muslim Brotherhood did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment by the time of publication.
On what other actions he will take next to crack down on terrorism in Texas, Abbott hinted there will be more coming from the Lone Star State on his border enforcement strategies.
“During my next term as governor, Trump will no longer be president. So, while he’s working for the next three years to secure the border, we’re going to be in the process of working for the next three decades to ensure that we have a secure border,” he explained.
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Texas law enforcement patrols the border between the U.S. and Mexico. (Fox News)
“In the next session, we’re going to be going back to the drawing board and finding out what works, what needs to be augmented, what we must do to continue the safe and secure border practices we have now, knowing this also that must be underscored.
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“Look at all the people who in the United States are killing others, committing crimes to others, who are here illegally,” he said. “The shooter at Brown, the murderer of the people at Brown University as well as at MIT, was here on a green card, unvetted. The shooter of the National Guard in Washington, D.C., here illegally, unvetted, was an Afghan. And then, an example here in Houston, Texas, just recently, there was an illegal immigrant who was arrested for murder. It turned out he had committed multiple murders in the Houston area, completely unvetted.”
“We as a country, and Texas as a state, we have to be much more demanding as it concerns who is entering our country. Are they safe for our country? Should they be allowed in? Americans deserve that brand of safety.”
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Southwest
Oklahoma teaching assistant fired after uproar over flunking Christian student who referenced Bible in essay
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Weeks after a University of Oklahoma student’s story about being flunked on a paper that touted her Christian faith caused a viral uproar, the teaching assistant behind the grade has been fired.
“Based on an examination of the graduate teaching assistant’s prior grading standards and patterns, as well as the graduate teaching assistant’s own statements related to this matter, it was determined that the graduate teaching assistant was arbitrary in the grading of this specific paper,” the state’s flagship school said in a Monday evening statement. “The graduate teaching assistant will no longer have instructional duties at the University.”
Samantha Fulnecky, a junior at the school, received zero out of 25 on an assignment in which she referenced the Bible after graduate teaching assistant William “Mel” Curth, who uses she/they pronouns, scored the paper.
The teaching assistant tasked Fulnecky and her classmates with writing a response to a scholarly article titled “Relations Among Gender Typicality, Peer Relations, and Mental Health During Early Adolescence,” which discusses results of a study about gender norms among middle schoolers and the social ramifications children may face for not conforming to gender norms.
OU student Samantha Fulnecky, with her Bible, in the Oklahoma Memorial Union, Nov. 24, 2025. (Doug Hoke/The Oklahoman/Imagn Images)
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They were asked to provide a “thoughtful discussion of some aspect of the article.” The rubric for the assignment did not require students to provide empirical evidence in their responses.
The third-year student responded by saying that gender norms should be celebrated, not denigrated. She cited Genesis, the first book of the Bible, in which God created men and women equally, but with separate purposes.
“Gender roles and tendencies should not be considered ‘stereotypes,’” Fulnecky wrote in her essay. “Women naturally want to do womanly things because God created us with those womanly desires in our hearts. The same goes for men. God created men in the image of His courage and strength, and He created women in the image of His beauty. He intentionally created women differently than men and we should live our lives with that in mind.”
UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA REMOVES PROFESSOR FOR ALLEGED DISCRIMINATION RELATED TO TA WHO GAVE CHRISTIAN STUDENT 0
Students walk on campus between classes at the University of Oklahoma on March 11, 2015, in Norman, Oklahoma. (Brett Deering/Getty Images)
She later described the societal push toward nonbinary gender identification as “demonic.”
Curth took exception to Fulnecky’s essay, and gave her a zero out of 25.
“Please note that I am not deducting points because you have certain beliefs, but instead I am deducting point [sic] for you posting a reaction paper that does not answer the questions for this assignment, contradicts itself, heavily uses personal ideology over empirical evidence in a scientific class, and is at times offensive,” Curth’s explanation for the grade said.
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Curth said the concept of only two sexes is not backed by science.
“You may personally disagree with this, but that doesn’t change the fact that every major psychological, medical, pediatric, and psychiatric association in the United States acknowledges that, biologically and psychologically, sex and gender is neither binary nor fixed,” Curth said.
Samantha Fulnecky, with her Bible, in the Oklahoma Memorial Union, Nov. 24, 2025. (Doug Hoke/The Oklahoman/USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
The graduate teaching assistant also called Fulnecky’s essay “highly offensive.”
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“I definitely think that I was being punished for what I believe because I very clearly stated in my essay in my response to the article, I very clearly stated my beliefs and stated what — not just my beliefs — but what the Bible and what God says about gender and about those roles,” Fulnecky told Fox News Digital amid the uproar.
Curth was placed on administrative leave after the student filed a discrimination claim, as the university conducted an investigation.
In its statement announcing Curth’s firing, the university said the school’s provost, described as the “highest-ranking academic officer,” personally reviewed the incident before the decision to fire Curth was made.
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“Because this matter involves both student and faculty rights, the University has engaged in repeated and detailed conversations with the Faculty Senate Executive Committee to ensure there is an understanding of the facts, the process, and the actions being taken,” the statement said.
The essay grade at the University of Oklahoma caused an uproar. (Brian Bahr/Getty Images)
The school also noted that Fulnecky’s grade had been restored.
“The University of Oklahoma believes strongly in both its faculty’s rights to teach with academic freedom and integrity and its students’ right to receive an education that is free from a lecturer’s impermissible evaluative standards. We are committed to teaching students how to think, not what to think. The University will continue to review best practices to ensure that its instructors have the comprehensive training necessary to objectively assess their students’ work without limiting their ability to teach, inspire, and elevate our next generation.”
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