Chief Leaford Bearskin was born September 11, 1921, on his parents’ allotment land in northeast Oklahoma. He was reared and educated in the Wyandotte, Oklahoma area, graduating from high school in 1939. Immediately following graduation, he entered military service, which became his first of three careers.
Following basic training, Bearskin was assigned to Alaska as a crew chief. As World War II broke out, he entered flying cadet school, received his pilot wings and entered heavy bombardment training.
He was assigned to New Guinea as an Aircraft Commander on a B-24 Liberator Bomber, and flew 46 combat missions. Late in the war,Bearskin was assigned to train heavy bomber crews in various phases of warfare. Following the surrender of Japan, he served as a ground force officer.
During the Berlin blockade of 1948, Bearskin assisted in the airlift as a Squadron Commander, flying 29 missions. After the blockade was lifted, he moved on to Squadron commander, Director of Material, and Deputy Commander of a fighter base in Georgia, where he later served as Air Base Group Commander in the first flight of jet fighter aircraft across the Pacific.
After graduation from the Staff Logistics Course at the Air University in Montgomery, Alabama, Bearskin was assigned to a Squadron Commander’s position in Korea. Later he was assigned as Squadron Commander and Assistant Headquarters Commandant at Strategic Air Command (SAC) headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska.
Bearskin retired from the Air Force in 1960 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He began his second career in the Federal Civil Service as a Chief of Vehicle and Aerospace Ground Equipment at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Among his responsibilities at Vandenberg was testing, monitoring and analyzing ground handling equipment for the Atlas, Titan and Minuteman Missile weapons systems.
In 1969, Bearskin was assigned as Executive Officer to the Director of Operations, Headquarters Fifteenth Air force and served as the Administrative Manager of seven major directorates within the Fifteenth Air Force headquarters, and 19 air bases.
Bearskin retired from the civil service in 1979, having served 40 years with the government. He and his wife, Barbara Cannon Bearskin, retired to his native Wyandotte, Oklahoma. He is the father of two children and grandfather to eight grandchildren.
In September 1983, Bearskin was elected Chief of the Wyandotte Tribe of Oklahoma, rededicating all his efforts to the betterment of his people. He currently is entering his 13th year of service to the Tribe, during which time the Tribe has become financially self-sufficient with considerable improvement in health care, education, adult services, employment and emergency services. Since 1983, the tribal complex has gone from one small building to a multiple building complex, and the staff has risen from five to more than 70 employees. Among his achievements has been the development of the Turtle Tots Learning Center, which has become the highest ranked Indian preschool in the nation.
Bearskin also administers not only to his own tribe and community, but to the general Native American population as well, conducting various Indian ceremonies and burials. He has spearheaded local Veterans’ Day events, established an Avenue of Flags stretching for over a mile and initiated the Fourth of July Patriotic Community event.