Captured in the Indian Wars and imprisoned in 1875 at Fort Marion (now Castillo de San Marcos), Florida, Oakerhater became one of the founding figures of modern Native American art.

Grace Episcopal Church in Syracuse, New York is a national shrine to Saint O-kuh-ha-tah, and he was celebrated there in 2005 with a major event including descendants.

Born in the 1840s in Indian Territory (later the U.S. state of Oklahoma) to Cheyenne parents Sleeping Wolf (father), and Wah Nach (mother), Oakerhater was the second of three boys.

[1] The battle, led by Comanche leader Isa-tai and Chief Quanah Parker, triggered United States government retaliation in the Red River War of 1874–75.

[1] In the Red River War of 1874 and 1875, the United States government attempted to pacify Native American warriors on the Southern Plains, fighting a series of skirmishes until the militants were exhausted by lack of food and supplies.

Oakerhater was in a group chosen for being the eighteen farthest right in a line-up by a US Army colonel who had been drinking and needed to select the prisoners before nightfall.

[1] Pratt quickly improved conditions, obtaining army uniforms, removing the prisoners' shackles, setting them to work building a new residential shed, and procuring bedding.

Later, as trust developed on both sides, Pratt convinced his superiors to allow the Indians to carry nonoperational rifles, perform guard duty, obtain outside employment collecting and selling sea beans and other tourist items, have passes to visit the town on Sundays to attend church, and camp unsupervised on nearby Anastasia Island.

Pratt and his wife also arranged for volunteer teachers from the many visitors in Florida, from across the United States, to instruct the prisoners in English, carpentry, and other subjects.

Aware for their part of the nature of Pratt's experiment, the prisoners took pride in their work and martial discipline, eager to demonstrate that they could master white Americans' cultural and military practices.

Within two years of arrival at Fort Marion, Oakerhater was proficient in English, and was regularly writing letters to townspeople he had befriended.

Somewhat abstract in style and depicting nostalgic memories of scenes from daily life, their art drew inspiration from earlier Plains Indian hide painting.

Typical subjects of the ledger art included community dances, hunts, courting, and events at the fort, as well as self-portraits depicting scenes before the men's imprisonment.

He often signed his works "Making Medicine," a non-literal English translation of his Cheyenne name, Sun Dancer, which the military had assigned him upon his arrest.

[8] In 1877 an Episcopal deaconess, Mary Douglass Burnham, began to make arrangements to sponsor the remaining prisoners, including Oakerhater, to serve as church sextons and continue education.

[1] The church's priest, the Reverend J.B. Wicks, took charge of Oakerhater's education on matters of agriculture, Scripture, and current events, and welcomed him as part of his family.

[1] According to sources, O-kuh-ha-tah's son, Frederick; wife, Millie; and another child, who died at birth, are also buried in the church cemetery in Paris Hill.

Traveling with Wicks to the Darlington Agency near what is now El Reno, Oklahoma, Oakerhater used his connections and influence to encourage local Cheyenne to attend Episcopal religious services.

The mission, built in 1887, was on the Dawes Act allotment land of Chief Whirlwind, one of the negotiators of the Treaty of Medicine Lodge.

[9] As at other Indian schools being established in the United States, many of Whirlwind's students suffered from poverty and diseases from poor living conditions.

[1] After Oakerhater died, the Great Depression and World War II interrupted mission work in the region by the Episcopal Church.

[10] In 1985 the Episcopal Church designated Oakerhater as a saint, thanks in part to years of work and research by Lois Carter Clark, a Muscogee Creek scholar.

Grace Church's celebration included a day-long cultural festival, followed by Holy Eucharist and a blessing of new memorial stained-glass windows.