"As the American Civil Liberties Union ponders whether to sue the state for violating the constitutional prohibition against placing a Ten Commandments monument at the state Capitol, it may want to consider another such violation.

On Aug. 1, 2008, the Oklahoma Tax Commission approved a new license plate design featuring the "Sacred Rain Arrow" sculpture by the late Allan Houser. That art, now at Gilcrease Museum, has been described by a museum spokesperson as "depicting a young Apache warrior who was selected in a time of drought to shoot a 'rain arrow' into the sky, to bring his people's prayers to their gods so that they would get rain."

This interpretation comes from Apache literature, which describes the legend of a boy-god who shoots an arrow that kills a dragon, immediately after which, "storm clouds swept the mountains, lightning flashed, thunder rolled, and the rain poured." The religious symbolism of this sculpture is undeniable.

The commission missed the spiritual meaning imprinted on its new license plates. It probably never considered that the design promotes the polytheistic religion of a Native Americans tribe."

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Herb Van Fleet: Call the ACLU (The Tulsa World 9/3)