Alumni Gather for Fort Sill Indian School Reunion

On Saturday, April 5, Fort Sill Indian School Reunion took place at Best Western Hotel in Lawton, Oklahoma, due to rain.

 Director of Kiowa Comanche and Apache Intertribal Land Use Yolonda Ramos said it felt awesome to be at the reunion. 

“It feels good,” she said. “We had to jump some hurdles to get here, but it feels great as there's so many people that came from out of state, and I think there's about 11 different tribes that are represented today, so it's pretty awesome.”

Ramos said the gym was too cold to have the powwow hosted at the school.

“It's never this cold in April, but it was so cold in there; the heaters that we brought in were not sufficient to warm up the gym, and we also had a huge accident with a canopy,” she said. “And so, we had to hurry up and switch gears first thing this morning and bring everything over here and let everyone know that it had been changed, and so this here, it's a little different having to come over to Best Western because we're not in the historical gym, but at least everyone's warm and safe.”

Ramos said they honored the elders and alumni.

“And to have fun, and so we can, you know, we can do that anywhere,” she said.

One of those alumni is Jimmy Ray Caddo, who was the honored elder. He lived at the school from the time he was 5 to 20 years old.

“It was a very strict school. Of course, we lived there year-round,” he said. “We had a muster in the mornings. We had to fall out like military, fall out in the street and have roll call.”

Caddo said they would march in the morning to the dining hall.

“The guy would come and pray,” he said. “He'd ring the bell, and there was a senior lady and a man. There was three of us. There was eight of us, total. And the three, there's a boy, girl, boy. The other three would be girl, boy, girl. And the lady would have all the food at her table and at her place at the table. She'd fill them up, everything, and she'd pass it to you.”

One of Caddo’s experiences is after showers, those working at the school made sure they cleaned themselves.

“They had a dormitory downstairs, one upstairs, the middle one, and a porch, and then another room,” he said. “It was full of men. And we had a roll call at night to go to bed. And in the morning, they come around, they wake you up. You had to get up, march to the downstairs, take a shower. And when you come out of the shower, they would get you. The guy was sitting there, and he'd rub you like this, see if any dirt rolled off. They wanted to make sure we were clean.”

Caddo said they got out of school at 2 p.m. and would begin working.

“You'd go to the barn, and you did different tasks,” he said. “I had to get up early in the morning, go to the dairy, and milk the cows. We had electric milkers. We milked the cows. And that was, I did that for four years. And then, sometimes, after we'd get through milking, in the afternoon, we went out and worked in the farm. I'd plant corn, and different things, potatoes.”

At the school, Caddo was involved in a farming accident.

“I was working on a tractor. And when I cut grass, a little blade had to sit back there, pulled by a tractor,” he said. “And you sat in the back on this cutter. And the grass was so tall, it would get jammed. I had to get off and clean it. We was going pretty good then. It got clogged again. I got out and cleaned it. And he thought I was finished. And he pulled my tractor. He took off. I fell over the blades. Those blades go like this. My hand went through there. See all these right here.”

Caddo said it felt great to be honored at the reunion.

“I was in the Navy for 20 years. And I was honored in the Navy,” he said. “So, there's nothing greater than getting honored by your own family. I mean, your own blood.”

Ramos said she was excited to have alumni at the reunion and is already planning for future events.

“Next year, they're going to have a 70s-themed dance,” she said. “And so, they're already excited for next year's reunion. And we're just excited to have everyone back that's here.”

There were yearbooks and t-shirts for those interested.