Comanche Nation, City of Lawton Celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day

On Sunday, October 13 and Monday, October 14, area Indigenous Peoples Day events took place at Fort Sill Indian School and City Hall in Lawton, Oklahoma.

Sunday featured a powwow, and Monday was a proclamation of the 7th annual Indigenous Peoples Day from Mayor Stan Booker.

Co-founder of Lawton’s Indigenous Peoples Day Cindy Famero said it’s a time to reflect on Native traditions.

“The actual Columbus Day that was covered or began to be absent is really important because it allowed for us to become more visible in the community,” she said. “Even to this day, we still have very little vision or visibility in this community, even though this is KCA land. We're not as prominent. We don't sit on the city councils, we don't sit on a lot of boards, you know, we don't have our footprint in their eyes, although this is all KCA land.”

Two Comanche Tribal Members were also honored at the event.

“Charlotte Marie Niyah, she is one of our community members who has been a princess for the War Scouts in her early days, and she recently became one of the members of our election board, Comanche Nation Election Board,” Famero said. “And she stood up when nobody else did and talked about the things that were right and true and that were true to the founding of our Constitution. And so those she set up against people that were her friends and her family, and she did it in a good, kind way.”

She said Kaysa Whitely was a founding member of Westwin Resistance.

“She does stand for the healing of our hearts and our people. If this Westwin…company continues, they will bring the first cobalt refinery here to this land,” Famero said. “It's always going to be the indigenous population that suffers, and this is no different. We're not a third-world country, but yet we treat it with third-world standards.”

She said Indigenous peoples need to balance the future and the history that creates it.

“We are the ones that are going to be the elders and we do need to maintain our integrity when it comes to being stewards of our land, tribal traditions, our cultures, our languages,” Famero said.

She said Cornel Pewewardy and those who participated in the event came from different areas of the United States.

“So, a lot of us out in the different states, we come from the east and west coast and left here, got our education and gone on, come from inclusive communities that celebrate diversity,” Famero said. “And so, when we come back, there's nothing like that here. We're like, ‘How do we change this?’ And so, Dr. Pewewardy came back home the same year I did. And so, not by coincidence, but by God's will. But what that meant was, is that we were a bunch of people that knew we could change these things. This grassroots effort began in this community. And it's not like there hadn't been one before, but this one hit at the right time. And so, we started with Indigenous Peoples Day as covering for, or being represented for, Columbus Day. That was a very hard thing for people to understand, ‘Why would you want to do that?’ And they fought with us to do so.”

She said former Lawton Mayor Fitch wanted to have the day on Black Friday as opposed to Columbus Day.

“So, of course, we were not for that. It took about three times for us to go to city council, but also many, many conversations throughout the years. I think it was two before we got to that point,” Famero said. “So, it took us coming to council with drums and banners and everything we could think of. And the minute we started beating our drum, Mayor Fitch was like, ‘Okay, give them what they wanted, give them whatever they want.’ And so, it just takes us standing up and standing together in a good way. I mean, this wasn't hard. This wasn't a hard thing to do. It happens in many other communities, and it really helped us to set the standard for future things like Comanche Academy, and the task force for Cameron University, and other Native American student associations that happened thereafter.”

She said those who are able to talk about these subjects need to be able to agree to disagree but still maintain love for that person.