Comanche Nation Adopts a Street

At 9 a.m. on Wednesday, July 12, Comanche Nation Transportation held a dedication for a portion of Madische Road and unveiled the Nation’s Adopt a Road signage.

Comanche Nation Chairman Mark Woommavovah held opening remarks.

“What we did is we worked together with our transportation, our public relations, and our PIO team, as well as our environmental, to adopt the road from Highway 49 all the way to McCracken Road,” he said. “So, we're going to maintain that road. We're going to mow it and we're going to keep it clean. We were already doing this, but we wanted to make it official.”

The signs were provided by the County Commissioner’s officer Josh Powers, who spoke at the event, according to Woommavovah.

Woommavovah said some people exercise on the main road and began discussing adopting it.

“We asked each other, ‘Why don't we adopt this road? We maintained it anyway.’ So we got with transportation,” he said. “We said, ‘Hey, we want to adopt this road. Can you please coordinate it with our County Commissioner?’ They said, ‘Absolutely.’ We talked to environmental. Environmental said, ‘We maintain that road anyway. Why don't we adopt it?’ So, we started this initiative.”

The maintenance began in 2009, according to Lynn Schonchin, the IT Administrative Assistant.

He said the clean-up efforts were part of a General Assistance Programming Grant through the US EPA.

“We started it because we wanted to keep the road clean when they'd come in for the Saturday CBC meeting,” Schonchin said. “So, we'd clean it usually the Monday prior, and it was once a month. We wanted to have it to where when the CBC came in, our tribal members as well, the road was clean.”

Woommavovah said it’s important because the road leads to the Comanche Nation Headquarters.

“This is where we conduct business for our number one customers, our Comanche people, and it's to show pride,” he said. “Not only with our road that leads, but also our neighbors that live in our community. We want to take pride in that they live in our community, and we will support and we will keep our communities clean.”

Schonchin said it was neat to see the tribe adopt Madische Road.

“We have a lot of traffic in and out via tribal members,” he said. “As well as when people come in for the fair, we have tribal members and non-tribal that come into the complex. Our maintenance department keeps the complex ground nice and clean. So, I think it's pretty good that we as a nation try to keep our road that leads into the complex clean.”

Schonchin said it benefits everyone nearby.

“Tribal people in general, they say, well, our mother earth, we got to respect it,” he said. “So as being a good neighbor as well, we have a lot of non-tribal that live and travel up and down Madische Road. We just wanted to step forward as a tribe and do our part and just try to keep this one-mile section clean.”

Woommavovah said Public Relations Officer Sarae Ticeahkie helped coordinate different entities for the event.

“We did a lot of teamwork and it shows that we are Comanche strong and we are stronger together,” he said.

Lloyd Heminokeky prayed and cedared the sign and attendees. Then, Bubba Sovo led the Comanche Song.

Comanche Nation Princess McKenzi Sovo was also in attendance as well as the Language Department.

Woommavovah said it felt great to have everyone at the unveiling.

He said other improvements would be discussed with the tribal administrator and environmental program. 

Schonchin said he hopes it will be a continued effort.