Dick West’s “Lord’s Prayer” sign language from Channel 8’s nightly signoff in the 1970s. (from Guestbook 25) Christopher said: I was reading in the first guestbook, and noticed a comment about Dick West’s Indian Sign Language. It was at the end of Channel 8’s day. Dick was a good friend of our family. Mr. Leake got Dick (who at that time was resident artist at Bacone College) to do it. Dick was a tremendous artist. He later went to an Indian college in Kansas, then retired to Ft. Gibson Lake. Some of his paintings can be seen at Gilcrease Museum, at Bacone, and even the Smithsonian. He moved to Arizona to be close to one of his sons, and died a few years ago. (Video courtesy of Steve Smith) More about Dick West at the top of this page: tulsatvmemories.com.
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If you’re referring to the version with speaker and guitar accompanist, it was also used to sign off the CBS affiliate in Chico, California.
i’m looking for this on vhs or dvd
@cerealflakes the Lords Prayer….
wow this almost brought a tear to my eye….this sign off stayed on straight up through the late 70’s when I was a kid….and then when 24 hour cable took over… well it was an end to tv as we knew it…
does anyone know where i can find this?
Thankyou so much for posting this. I was born and raised in Tulsa. This grounded me again ty
I watched this every pm and never knew that the “Old Indian” was my very own teacher & advisor!
i remember this but not with singing, rather a rich voice speaking it.
TulsaLani, some TV stations used to be more interesting with sign-on/sign-off bumpers to indicate a local character. Still can be used for a sign-on instead, since TV stations became generally 24-hour-day schedules. What TV network KTUL 8 has now? I thought it was ABC, but could been CBS in an earlier time. +
What great memories this floods back to my old brain…Dick West certainly WAS a mainstay in the Oklahoma culture, and this was just one of his heart-rendering performances of the Native American Indian culture that he strove to instill in the Native American youth.
I use to be able to sign this by heart, I had seen it so many times. RIP Mr. West and thanks so much for posting it Mike…our youth of today would never experience this without places like TTVM and You Tube.
As one who signs the Lord’s Prayer using American Sign Language and someone extremely proud of my part-Indian heritage, I found this to be extremely profound and beautiful. Thank you for posting it. I also couldn’t help but notice how some of his signs correspond somewhat with American Sign Language. No doubt ASL copied and/or modified some signs from the Native American signs…..
What is this song? Anyone know?
A complete perversion and destruction of the Ancient wisdom knowledge of the American Indian view of the spiritual.
This was the sign off in the 1950 when I was a little girl. It was the original sign off.
I was born in Tulsa in 1963 and lived there until 1970. I remember staying up late at night in the summer and watching this sign off and a number of others including the High Flight poem with the star fighter which is also now on Youtube.
Very beautiful and definitely unique. I can imagine that people just sat watching the snow or the test pattern for several minutes afterwards.
This is sentimental and unique, the man was an authentic Native American and a devoted Christian, they do go together. The two characteristics of Oklahoma was its’ strong Christian faith and owes its’ foundation to Native Americans relocated after the removal (Trail of Tears), my maternal side of family originates and some of them live in the Tulsa area, my late grandfather was of Osage/Cherokee descent. I really liked this and thank you Tulsatv for putting it on here. +
I’m pretty sure this sign-off went all the way into the early ’90s. Definitely all the ’80s. Between this and PBS’ “High Flight”, it was worth staying-up for the nightly sign-off.
Try Gailord Sartain if you remember the Uncanny Film Festival. I remember this sign off too and don’t tell me I was the only one who would watch the snow at least for a minute or two, LOL!
This looks like the same one that was played when ch 7, Little Rock, AR would go off the air in the 1970s.
I loved watching this Channel 8 sign-off as a kid after Moments of Meditation, when I got to stay up late. I just knew I could find it here on YouTube.
Wow. i have not seen this since i was a kid. thank you so much for playing this and puting this on youtube. this pretty much brings a tear to my eye. the most beautifull sign off on tv ever. thank you.
You are welcome.
This ran on one of our local stations for years. I can’t even put my feelings into words at seeing it again. Thank you so much.
I always loved this sign-off. When my father died (1995), we tried to find a copy of this video to play at his funeral. My father was Creek Indian and he too loved this clip.