Sixth Annual Choctaw Pow Wow

Me and my dad

Last November, there was little time to digest Thanksgiving dinner as my parents and me loaded up on Friday and drove to Durant, Oklahoma, for the Sixth Annual Choctaw Casino Pow Wow. We stayed in the beautiful Choctaw Tower.

The real work began early Saturday morning, meeting with the crew pulling off this huge event. We staked out our front row seats, with camera and tripod, behind a drum group and two steps from the main floor. We were set for what turned into a fifteen hour stay, minus the hour catnap at the hotel.

It took awhile to get my bearings as this was our first Pow Wow. But it wasn’t long before I started interviewing dancers, coordinators, vendors and anyone else who wanted to talk about the pow wow experience. I was even blessed to visit with Choctaw Assistant Chief Gary Batton. But that’s another story to be told in the article spinoffs.

I’m saving the poetic descriptions for my articles, but I’ll just say this: we’ll be back next year, Lord willing.