Comanche Straight Dancer, World Champion Honored at Powwow

On Wednesday, Aug. 28, the Comanche Nation held an honor powwow for straight dancer Anthony Monoessy, who won his third world championship at the 148th Annual Ponca Celebration.

Friends and family gathered for the surprise event.

Comanche Nation Chairman Forrest Tahdooahnippah and Tribal Administrator Lisa Dawsey surprised Monoessy through a “work meeting” that turned into a powwow.

“I love to dance. I grew up dancing. Later on in life, I became singing,” Monoessy said. “Most people knew me as a singer. As time went along, I had different people in my life that would dress me and put our clothing on me and I would dance. As time went along, they went, too. When they went, I didn't have nobody to do that for me anymore. And so, I became like singing around the drum, find myself around singing and trying to learn knowledge about the song and the songs of our people.”

He said when he got older and had children, he realized the importance of dancing.

“So, I had a brother, Jason Lightfoot; he fixed my outfit for me. Real nice, real pretty ribbon work and everything, and they gave it to me. And so, with that, then I started dancing again,” Monoessy said. “I started moving, dancing, and I really enjoy it. It's almost like a rehab in itself when you dance and you put these clothes on. All your cares, worries, everything just goes away, and you just feel the music and feel the spirit of it move.”

He said the Ponca Tribe is the originator of the straight dance, which was shared with the Comanche people, and it’s been an honor to dance there.

“I mean, you just got to see it, you know, and then to be in the environment and to compete with everybody that's there, you know, and then, and it's not even like a competition really,” Monoessy said. “Maybe to some it is, but to myself, it's like I get to dance with all these great dancers, you know, and then at the end, it's like when you win, or even if you place, or even if you make the finals, that's still awesome, you know, to be, that's just how high of an honor our Ponca relatives have with this dance.”

He hopes to reach out to the younger generations.

“It's real important to encourage to dance and then to encourage our younger ones to dance, so we can continue that,” Monoessy said. “We can continue that because when I look…and I look at powwows and around here, it's like our younger ones are more involved into something else other than our ceremonies, other than our powwows, and dancing, and singing, and things like that. So, I'm real big on trying to get the young people involved, you know, involved into dancing and all that, so I really hope that I can reach out to them, you know, reach out to them and encourage them, encourage them to do those, those things.”

Comanche Nation Princess Bluesky Tosee, Comanche Nation Jr. Princess Arlene Schonchin and several other royalties attended the powwow.