Harvey Pratt

Harvey Pratt is a proud member of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Tribe, a devoted law enforcement officer and detective, an artist, and veteran. He served as a U.S. Marine in Vietnam 1962 to 1965. He began his law enforcement career in Midwest City in 1965 in the fledgling field of forensic art. Then, in 1972, he joined the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation as a narcotics officer.

A longtime supporter of the arts, Pratt blended his love of artistic craft with the hard work of law enforcement. These skills and passion for his work showed as he played a pivotal role in solving several high profile cases, including the Oklahoma Girl Scout murders, the prosecution of Ted Bundy, and the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Later in his career, Pratt improved the forensic art field again by pioneering soft tissue facial reconstruction drawings. With this technique, he was able to show victims of crime in their original appearance.

Pratt designed the seal for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, the agency badge, as well as many logos for law enforcement agencies here in Oklahoma and across the country. He continues his community service through lectures on the importance of art, helping those in his community, and furthering forensic art education for law enforcement officials. In 1997 he was chosen to become a Southern Cheyenne Peace Chief — the Cheyenne' Nation's highest honor and took the ancestral name White Thunder as his chief name. Recognized nationally for his fine art, Pratt was selected unanimously from a pool of international artists to design the National Native American Veterans Memorial located in Washington D.C., unveiled in November 2020.