Students Coordinate Comanche Youth Powwow

On Saturday, August 26, several Comanche Nation organizations, including Prevention and Recovery, Comanche Academy Charter School and IMNDN, helped put on a youth powwow at Watchetaker Hall.

Prevention and Recovery Executive Assistant Jessica Tahah said they wanted to highlight the youth. Their outpatient also has a lot of youth services.

“With IMNDN, for example, it's ‘culture is prevention,’ and so we kind of want to highlight that, like bringing the culture in, and we wanted to really highlight the youth at this powwow,” she said.

Tahah said their booth provided information for the youth.

“It's really important because they, one, they are our future; two, they're going to learn from, like, generations before me,” she said. “Because everybody usually has their parents, their grandparents, those that are fortunate have their great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents, so on and so forth, and to just keep them involved and to keep our culture going.”

Tahah said a sober environment is important for the Comanche youth and adults.

“My favorite part of it is seeing the memories made, because whenever you come to something like this, you don't just come by yourself,” she said. “It's usually generations that are there, and, you know, you have your mom and your dad, your grandparents, your kids, or as a parent, you have your kids and your mom, so your kids are with their grandparents, and you're just all involved, so there's laughing, there's, you know, we all like to terrorize, so there's some type of teasing going on, and dancing, and just being in the moment and healing with the songs or with the laughter.”

IMDND Project Coordinator Hayden Cable said several youth groups were involved at the powwow, including roles such as MCs and arena directors, head singers and drummers.

“Everybody just kind of placed or did a part today within, like, roles that usually adults play, and they kind of got a feel for how those roles are taken on,” she said.

Cable said public speaking was one of the newer roles the kids took on.

“A lot of them have never gone up on stage and…cracked a couple jokes in front of people, so this is just getting them comfortable into that, into the arena,” she said. “A lot of them, too, have never gone into the arena from our youth council, so we just kind of, like, this past year, we had attended a unity in Washington, D.C. We had several first-time people, so this is just, like, it's just us getting them back into our culture and heritage, just so that they can continue those traditions on as well.”

Cable said their culture is important because of outside influences.

“Our culture and heritage is dying, and we are the future, you know. We're the ones who are supposed to keep these traditions going, and we're the next generation to stop these generational traumas of not being involved,” she said. “And we, as IMNDN, we focus on culture as prevention, so, you know, we also focus on culture preventing drug and alcohol use and also, like, just not, or maybe dropping out, you know. Like, we say that culture prevents the majority of those things.”

Cable said she participated last year and has been a part of IMDND since 2019.

“This was awesome, especially to see how big our youth council has gotten since then. When I first got here in 2019, I want to say there was 10 or 15 of us, so, that attended the first Unity,” she said. “Compared to this last year, we took maybe 50 youth, so we had a full charter bus of 55 people. So, it was awesome. It's honestly just such a good feeling to see our youth still involved, because I was such an involved youth, so it's just awesome to see that it's still going and continuing, and that's why I love what I do, just because of stuff like this.”

MC Malachi Large was one of the several MCs of the event. He’s a part of the IMDND youth group.

“Feels good, you know. Never thought I'd the one up there,” Large said.

He said the powwow was a new experience.

“It is a lot different because usually, we're just like helping…with stuff like this, not actually being the main, the main part of it,” Large said.

He said it was a good feeling to be involved in his heritage.

“You know, being a part of IMNDN, and I like dance sometimes, and you know, being an MC,” Large said.

He said it’s important to remind others of the importance of culture and heritage.

“And I say you should be able to make time for this,” Large said.

Tahah wanted to thank all the departments involved in putting on the powwow.

There were several competitions from youth to adult, booths and vendors. Comanche Academy Charter School also had a concession stand.