Summer Youth Program Hosts TEK Camp

The Comanche Nation Youth TEK Camp began on June 5 at the Dorothy Sunrise Lorentino Education Center. The camp is centered around STEAM as well as Comanche culture.

Director of Comanche Nation Youth Services Randi Lynn Attocknie-Claborn said the program started several years ago, and planning starts around springtime.

“We've been doing summer programming since the infancy of our program back in 2004,” she said. “We opened our doors for our after-school program and then continuing on during the summer. Now after the pandemic, we've had to put it on pause. So, there was a summer that we had to pause; 2020. We did not have any programming and since then we've built it to where we're basically giving it back to our youth to run. And so, our youth have been the driving force to make this a possibility.”

Some of those youths include Lead Coordinator Leann Tahsequah. She’s been a coordinator for three years; however, she attended the camp since she was 6 or 7.

“My favorite parts of the are being able to engage with the kids and just showing them one day you can be in my position and doing this for your youth because we do start with the youth,” she said. “Our youth is everything at the end of the day. We give everything. We give them the tools and the necessary things that they need in life so that they can pass it on to everybody else. And another thing that I enjoy is seeing these kids every morning and just giving them that kind of relief that there's somebody like them out there that's always going to be there for them.”

Tahsequah said the camp is important because it teaches culture.

“A lot of kids, they don't get that in their daily lives. They don't get to like you know different bands and you know how to say certain words and I think that it's important for you know this workers too because some of the workers they don't even get that and they're learning everything. They learn something new every single day and that's good because they take it home and you know they tell their people and you know it could bring more kids more and more kids to these programs.”

She said the youth will change the world, and she enjoys working with kids.

Camper Melynn Fagan said she enjoys the advice the coordinators give her and the learning experience so far.

“I learned colors. I learned four bands,” she said.

This is her second year at the camp.

Meanwhile, Rashied Alattar has attended the camp for four years.

He said he enjoys various activities and hanging out with his people.

“I like when we do the games and when I can like socially talk to my friends like here and just hang out with them and do like fun projects and learn about Comanche history and all that stuff,” he said.

Alattar has also learned about the colors, which were incorporated into a game of twister, but also about the Comanche flag and animals.

Lulu Tahdooahnippah is going on her sixth year as a camper.

“My favorite part is being with the coordinators knowing lots of people like getting to know everybody,” she said.

She said she enjoys the camp because of her friends and learning about Comanche's history.

“I've learned a few numbers, the bands, colors, stories and games that were created by us,” Tahdooahnippah said.

Which include the day and nighttime games, chiefs and steal the ponies.

Attocknie-Claborn said the event runs throughout the months of June and July.

“The main thing is that we try to make it as accessible to as many youth as possible so we have to limit it to about 30 participants per each session,” she said. “So, right now we have three sessions and they run two weeks each and we are able to do repeat programming but a lot of the stuff that we're doing is something that's very important and vital for them to know when it comes to their culture.”

Attocknie-Claborn said these events are part of a life-long process.

“During the summer something that we try to plant the seeds of excitement and plant the seeds of knowledge within our kids about their culture so something that we just kind of want them to spark,” she said. “And then where they take it later on wherever it shows up in their life hopefully it'll be something that they want to continue and invest right back into our community.”

Attocknie-Claborn said she’s proud to be a part of something that impacts the next generation of youth.