OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma - “You don’t look innate enough,” customers told Jake Keys when they learned he owned Skidance Brewing Co., the first Indian-owned brewery in City, according to its website.
Keys said that the problem that the natives occasionally have to deal with is the oppressive perception of others, especially those who are not natives.
According to Keiz, Indian-owned business may seem like a foreign expression, leading people to believe they can experience something ceremonial or spiritual.
“I don’t know what some of them expect,” Keys said. “Then they ask who the owner is, so they point at me and seem somehow surprised. I think they would see a darker complexion sitting on a horse with a tomahawk and a head covering. ”
Keys said that he does not usually think that these comments or remarks come from other Indians, but it seems that those who are not natives have anything to say about his appearance.
“When a lot of people look at me, they don’t see Indians or what they think Indians should look like,” Keys said.
With fair skin, green eyes, and even reddish hair, Keiz may not fit the stereotypical Indian.
The picture drawn in the head of most comes from the stories of Indians told by non-native people which Keys claims are inevitably wrong.
Keys said that non-natives who make these comments may think that it is in defense of the Indians, but in reality it is their “strange twisted idea” about what the natives look like.
“I think it’s more important than ever to start telling our story.”
Keiz’s personal storytelling includes entrepreneurship, branding and business.
“The best part of any brand or business is the story, and if we don’t tell our story, someone else will tell it,” Keiz said. “And they’ll get it wrong.”
The younger generation is more open to sharing than the older ones because of the trauma and hardships they experienced at a time when being an Indian is basically illegal, Keys said.
“Those days are over now,” Keys said. “We don’t have to hide it.”
On the other hand, with more than 200 years of US government policy to assimilate and eradicate Indians into non-domestic, white, Christian culture; Keys said that the result is that fewer and fewer people look like Indians.
According to Keiz, his own family dynamic of having a full-blooded native mother and a white father could be used as an example to describe the results of colonization.
“We don’t all look like what you see in the movie,” Keys said.
In a Facebook post dealing with the problem, Keiz said: “When you look at me, just know that colonization looks like this. When you look at me and wonder how a native might look like me, you should think about the “Indian Removal Act.” You should consider “assimilation”
Despite efforts to destroy tribal nations, Indians are advancing in today’s world, according to Keiz.
“We are here now,” Keys said. “We are not just a horrible story about what happened to some people.
“We are making progress, we are opening businesses like this and we have been successful in business.
The tribes have come a long way in leading large cash operations such as casinos, as they are the largest employers in the country’s small towns, and now with McGirt they have great government influence, Keys said.
Keys said that the only thing they could share on Skidance about native culture is that the natives are top collectors, storytellers and a love community.
“We always have a reason to have lunch together,” Keys said jokingly.
He said his brewery’s bar is a great symbol of that.
Keys is registered in the Iowa tribe of Oklahoma, and the family in the Osage nation and the Otoe-Misuria tribe was recently named one of Native Business Magazine‘s “Top 50 Domestic Entrepreneurs.” His fiancé Bobbie is a registered citizen of Muscogee (Creek); she helps him make beer and run the business.
Skidance produces five types of beer, including the favorite Fancy Dance, along with several seasonal beers, such as the Sovereign Nation, inspired by the recognition of the United States tribe as a sovereign nation. Keiz serves oatmeal to his late fathers on tap. The beer is distributed at gas stations and small bars in the Oklahoma City area.
In early October, Skidance built its new home for brewing in 1 NE 7th St. Suite A, Oklahoma City, OK 73104. For additional questions call 405-768-2154.
Skidance can be found on Instagram @ skidancebreving.