"Comanche Boy" Wins by a Knock Out

Remington Park Casino in Oklahoma City was the venue for "Comanche Boy" George Tahdooahnippah's latest win. The bout was the main event on the Tuesday night fight card. Terrance Wilson faced "Comanche Boy" in the super middleweight fight scheduled for 6 rounds. VIEW CLIP

Comanche Nation, Ft. Sill talk to update MOU

The Comanche Nation is in ongoing negotiations with the U.S. Army at Fort Sill to come to terms on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that will generally address Army and Tribal concerns regarding the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). The focus of the MOU is to update the existing MOU between the Comanche Nation the U.S. Army at Fort Sill that will account for changes in federal law since it was signed, and also to build a relationship of communication, cooperation, and consultation between the parties on all NHPA and NAGPRA matters. The Tribal attorneys have been directed to explore all possible alternatives to expedite progress on the MOU, and also to address immediate concerns surrounding the impending construction of a Training Service Center near Medicine Bluff.

July CBC Highlights

The July CBC meeting was called to order with all members present. Several enrollment lists were approved: one list of 51 eligible applications and three lists of ineligible applications. The Hope Improvement Program presented a resolution for the CBC to approve a contract with the BIA for home improvement funds. Law Enforcement presented an agreement with Comanche County Detention Center for approval. The Tax Commission presented amended tax codes in order to implement the new Tobacco Tax Compact signed with the State of Oklahoma in June.

Secretary/Treasurer Bob Tippeconnie made a motion to engage the accounting firm of Finley and Cook to help the Nation with several financial issues. The 2005 and 2006 audits have some findings that have to be addressed and some "638" programs have high-risk findings that must be corrected.

Bill Voelker, Board President for NAGPRA spoke to the CBC about concerns that Ft. Sill is planning to build a facility on land near Medicine Bluff. Mr. Voelker's concern is that there are most likely burial sites on the land. Voelker asserts that Ft. Sill has been less than forthcoming and honest about the proposed construction and at one time indicated that the construction was not going to take place. The CBC directed the Tribal attorneys to write a letter requesting Ft. Sill to cease and desist with groundbreaking. VIEW CLIP

John David Wahnee came before the CBC to request that his father, Ralph Wahnee, be included on the Comanche Code Talkers memorial. The elder Mr. Wahnee was trained as a Code Talker in World War II but did not see combat. Committeeperson Asepermy said he would take the request to the CIVA who was responsible for erecting the memorial.

A resolution appointing Jenice Bigbee to the Economic Development Commission was passed. The same resolution named Dennis Weryavah as an alternate and Secretary/Treasurer Bob Tippeconnie as ex-officio member.

Newly elected CBC member Darrell Kosechequetah was appointed as the Comanche representative to the KCA. Two commissioners were appointed to the Housing Commission: Clorinda Tsatoke and Billie Kreger.

Vice-Chairman Ron Red Elk brought for approval new guidelines for Social Service emergency assistance. The guidelines included expanded coverage for Comanche people at the Community and Outreach Centers and a client evaluation form. Mr. Asepermy noted that for the first time in a long time the Social Services department is fully staffed. The guidelines passed. VIEW CLIP

Mr. Toby Robles was appointed by the CBC as Judge for the Tribal Children's Court. Mr. Robles has para-legal training and is eminently qualified for the position.

Hendrix case dismissed

On July 10th 2008 Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange granted the defense motion to dismiss the Hendrix vs. Coffey case. The Judge used the term "lack of subject matter jurisdiction" in granting the motion to dismiss. The court order goes on to cite several cases, including U.S. Supreme Court rulings, affirming tribal enrollment is the sole responsibility of sovereign tribal governments. Therefore Ms. Hendrix dis-enrollment is an internal matter for the Comanche Nation to resolve.

Ms. Hendrix also asserted that her civil rights had been violated under the Indian Civil Rights Act. Again the Court ruled that it did not have jurisdiction. Except for a petition of habeas corpus the Indian Civil Rights Act does not authorize federal civil actions against either a tribe or its officers.

The matter was initiated when several Tribal members called for an audit of the Comanche rolls. In the course of the audit it was discovered that Ms. Hendrix had been enrolled as a Caddo under the name Deborah Wells Roberts, with enrollment number 2414. Evidence was also uncovered that she received a Caddo home and a $400.00 per cap payment. The enrollment office should have examined these facts at the time of Ms. Hendrix' application. Under the Comanche constitution because Ms. Hendrix received benefit from the Caddo tribe she is ineligible for membership in the Comanche Tribe and her application should have been denied. The Comanche Business Committee acted on the evidence on April 17th 2008 removing Ms. Hendrix and others from the rolls. The Constitution does not address the issue of improper enrollment, touching off great concern among Tribal members.

The enrollment audit has revealed problems with other applications as well. Boxes of applications have been discovered that have not been processed. Eligible applications have not been forwarded to the CBC for action. Other enrollments are questionable and were dis-enrolled by the CBC. Most alarming is the lack of procedure when dealing with issues not specifically addressed in the constitution.

Titchywy/Wissische Family Reunion

by Carmelita Thomas

This is written as a tribute to Delores T. Sumner, the instigator of our family reunions. By her own admission, Delores Titchywy has always a curious child. Delores' early years were spent in her grandparent's home which is south of Walters along what the Walters Public School bus route referred to as "the Indian Road". Delores was a frequent visitor to the Codynah's, Wauqua's, Red Elk's, Poemoceah's,Tomah's, Nahwooks', Tahmahkera's, Oberly's, Chemah's, and Tahsuda's. From these families as well as others not mentioned she got the beginning of her love for genealogy. Who was really related to whom? And how was her family connected to others? Those were her commonly asked questions. Her best informants were her mother, her grandparents, and her aunts. Especially, Aunt Eula, who helped Delores put in writing what she got from their oral history. From there she went to the Anadarko Area Enrollment Office to see the early enrollment or census list. Delores called these records, the government's "inventory".

The first enrollment book was a small volume dated 1893 and has KAC (Kiowa, Apache, Comanche) limited information. Sadly, this volume is no longer with us, but in there was a record of TITCHYWY with adult female names and children's names and ages. In the 1895 Enrollment of just Comanches, their names appear again, but in different family placements. This lead her to ask for probates and an interpretation from her living relatives of what the written record should actually be.

She learned that her great grandfather, TITCHYWY, was a Mexican captive, but chose to be a Comanche and that he was a leader who had taken four sisters to be his wives. He had another wife, but she was not a sister to the other four. Delores' charts will show that quite clearly.

The government had to have him listed with one wife, so he chose the youngest of them, but to them and to us it didn't matter. We just knew that we were all related. At that time, dates of birth, English names, and who was who's parents were not that important. Just getting along was important. Just living with the Taboos nipping at their heels, making them go to Fort Sill Boarding School, building frame houses for them, white preachers and their families living near them, and telling them to put up their feathers, etc.. That was considered more important then writing the history down. Then comes curious Delores who wanted to write down everything!

Delores remembers her Grandfather Reed getting up at dawn and singing and swaying to his morning songs to the four directions. All in Numu, of course. His place became a gathering place for relatives and neighbors. They all encouraged Delores and her peers to go to school and praised them for being such good students and English speakers.

There were always family gatherings. It could be at the peyote meetings, or down south at the Homovich/Wook kah nah's creek, or at her grandfather's place for church, or just visiting and of course, eating! We even have pictures of them sitting on the concrete benches, eating from the concrete tables set up for the general public at Walters' Sultan Park. All of this was a working memory for Delores to get everybody straight as to who was a true relative or not.

After college and still raising her children, Delores wrote out what she knew about the TITCHYWY line on butcher paper in a make shift pedigree chart form. Can you imagine, how difficult it would be to list each wife and her children?

At the time Walters pow wow people (not Delores' main relatives), were starting up the Comanche Homecoming at the Walters Sultan Park in July. She had Mose Poolaw Jr. and his friends put up an arbor down at the park and invited her family to come see her charts and to have their input. Delores would have rocks holding down her charts as every one had her pencil in their children and correct her Anadarko findings. Even Aunt Eula would come, but she wanted everyone to know that she wasn't there for the pow wow. There were the pow wow Numus and the church Numu. The church Numu were taught by the white preachers that Indian dancing was wrong, so there was a major conflict with our relatives as to what to do. Happily, we've got it all work out today!

Delores' work with Northeastern University at Tahlequah was a blessing for our family. She was able to gather and reproduce her butcher paper charts into color coded pedigree charts. Her daughter Rosemary put all of her works onto a genealogy program to be released onto a CD and a hard copy booklet. This has been submitted to various known genealogy places for future generations.

SUBE