W. W. Keeler: Difference between revisions

{{POV check|date=April 2018}}

| name=William Wayne "Bill" = William Keeler

Both of Bill Keeler's paternal and maternal grandfathers, George B. Keeler and Nelson F. Carr, were white men who had settled in Cherokee territory and married Cherokee women. They were notable for their roles in founding the community that is now [[Bartlesville, Oklahoma]]. Carr owned the sawmill and grist mill in town. George Keeler was one of the men involved in drilling the first oil well in what would become the state of [[Oklahoma]].<ref>Wallis, p. 180.</ref>

Keeler was born into the [[Cherokee clans#Anigilohi|Long Hair Clan of the Cherokee]].<ref name="Gridley"/> He moved to [[Bartlesville, Oklahoma]] as a child and lived with his grandmother due to his mother's ill health. She instilled into him "Indian ways" and Cherokee principles of morality. His mother eventually returned and attempted to raise him with white man principles and pushed for him to assimilate.<ref name="Gridley"/> The starkly contrasting influences from his mother and grandmother conflicted Keeler in his early life, but he ultimately successfully assimilated into white society. He began working part-time for [[Phillips Petroleum]] on various construction sites at age sixteen while still in high school, and continued during the summers while attending college. Keeler graduated from the [[University of Kansas]] with a degree in chemical engineering in 1930.<ref name="EOHC-WWKeeler"/>

BillKeeler accepted a full-time engineering position at Phillips' [[Kansas City, Kansas]] Refinery even before he graduated. While living there, he met Ruby Lucille Hamilton, who had graduated from the nursing school at Trinity Lutheran Hospital in [[Kansas City, Missouri]]. The couple married in Kansas City on September 15, 1933. They remained in Kansas City, where their first two sons were born, until 1939, when he transferred to the Phillips refinery in [[Borger, Texas]] as chief chemist. The family moved back to Bartlesville in 1941, where their youngest son was born.<ref name="Lowe"/> During World War II, he supervised the construction of a new refinery Phillips built in Mexico. After the end of the war, he was promoted to manager of Phillips' refining department in Bartlesville.<ref name="EOHC-WWKeeler"/>

Keeler's work with Phillips Petroleum was quite a step forward for Indians of the time. He managed to climb through the ranks of a white-owned company despite being a Cherokee Indian. After working for nearly half a century with Philips Petroleum, he rose to CEO of the company in 1968 until he was forced to retire in 1973 due to reaching the company's mandatory retirement age.<ref name="Lowe"/>{{efn|Keeler reached Phillips' mandatory retirement age in 1973.<ref name="EOHC-WWKeeler"/>}} His success with Phillips Petroleum drew the attention of the federal government and displayed him as a leader thatwho could be appointed to higher positions. Keeler was quoted as saying "easterners…easterners... are aghast" at finding he iswas Indian due to his success in the oil industry.<ref>{{cite news|title=In petroleum, Indian affairs he is a leader: Cherokee Chief leads Phillips oil firm|work=Chicago Tribune|date=April 2, 1967|via=ProQuest|access-date=April 24, 2012}}</ref>

In 1948 he was selected as vice chairman of the tribe's executive committee. Both the Cherokee National Council and the Oklahoma congressional delegation recommended that President Truman appoint Keeler as Chief in 1949, following the death of the previous principal chief, [[J. B. Milam]].<ref name="Lowe"/> {{efn|Milam was the first Cherokee Principal Chief appointed since the tribal governments had been abolished, just before Oklahoma was proclaimed as a state. Milam had established an executive committee to assist him in governing the tribe. Both Indian Commissioner John R. Nichols and the U.S. Government accepted Milam's committee as a legally constituted body.<ref name="Lowe"/>}} Keeler continued to build on the Milam model, and would remain in the chief position until 1975, having been reappointed by Presidents [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower]], [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]], [[Lyndon Johnson|Johnson]], and [[Richard Nixon|Nixon]].<ref>Gridley, p.114.</ref> During a period from 1945–19721945 to 1972 he also served as Chairmanchairman of the Executiveexecutive Committeecommittee of the Texas Cherokees and Associate Bands and was instrumental in getting the 1836 Treaty of Bowles Village brought before the [[Indian Claims Commission]]. He resigned that post in 1972.<ref name="Keeler Papers">W.W. Keeler Papers, TCAB Files, Cherokee National Historical Society, Tahlequah, Oklahoma</ref> Under President Johnson's Administration, Keeler was appointed as a member of the National Advisory Committee for the [[War on Poverty]] Program and was put on the President's Committee on Economic Opportunity.<ref name="Keeler Papers"/> Alaskan Governor [[Walter Hickel]] appointed Keeler chairman of a task force to find ways to improve utilization of native labor.<ref name="Keeler Papers"/> Also under President Johnson, the [[United States Secretary of the Interior|Secretary of the Interior]], [[Stewart Udall]], appointed Keeler to head a group to with the focus of reorganizing the [[Bureau of Indian Affairs]].<ref name="Keeler Papers"/>

He died in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, on August 24, 1987, after four years of failing health.<ref name="EOHC-WWKeeler"/>

[[Category:Principal20th-century ChiefsAmerican of the Cherokeechemists]]