Anyone going to the Choctaw Pow-wow in Durant, OK?

[kiowakat]

leaving at 0700 to get down there for Gourd Dancing at 1000am!!!!
Man I think this is the earliest I have Gourd Danced!

DANCE HARD!!! aye lol, give dad and brother hug for me :)

[amarie49]

I also wish I could go down there. Will someone please post the winners? That would be great!

[luvstamales]

Jr Adult Southern Categories

Jr Straight
1 Wahkeen
2 Shude Victors
3 Denny Medicinebird
4 ?
5 Jason Lightfoot
(I think that's how it went)

Jr Women's Cloth
1 Yvonne
2 Alva
3 Buffy
4 Ponka-We
5 Holly Warrior

Jr. Buckskin
1 Toni
2 Dustina
3 Erin
4 Chalene
5 Elizabeth D.

Jr. Fancy
1 Amos Yazzie
Can't remember the others

[2kiowa4u]

Jr Straight
1 Wahkeen
2 Shude Victors
3 Denny Medicinebird
4 ?
5 Jason Lightfoot
(I think that's how it went)

Jr Women's Cloth
1 Yvonne
2 Alva
3 Buffy
4 Ponka-We
5 Holly Warrior

Jr. Buckskin
1 Toni
2 Dustina
3 Erin
4 Chalene
5 Elizabeth D.

Jr. Fancy
1 Amos Yazzie
Can't remember the others

Who else won,placed and the usual memoir's

[ok24stacey]

Good turnout, good singing, had fun with our crew, danced a lil but.......awards, bleh. We didn't leave til 2 am.

We had good seats tho! Thanks for the early birds getting there so we could sigh heavily during Grand Entry. lmao....

Ada next weekend? I might be there. Was supposed to go to New Iberia but I just don't have the energy and I might be having company in town. maybe....

Now, I have to work a whole 5 days this week.

[ac_miss]

Wow, the pow-wow was nice, but the announcement of the winners took a long time. I don't even remember the ones who were called. It was sooo late.

[ndnMSW]

This powwow was way different than last year, and I don't mean that in a good sense. We did well in our contests, when they actually got around to announcing our categories at 2am, but I don't think we'll go back. There were alot of issues with this powwow this year that went beyond the disastrous announcing of winners. It was ridiculous.

Here are some more winners. I'll post more commentary later when I'm in a better frame of mind....cuz it's not like me to be real negative about any powwow when I post on here. I usually will just not post anything if it was that bad and just decide not to go back.

Anyhoo, here are some more winners. I quit paying attention after they had yet another endless round of round dance singing to fill in more time so I don't remember many at all.

Jr. Adult Jingle
1 - Willow
2 - Grace Pushetonequa
3 - December Arrowhite
4 - Tawny Beck
5 - Danya Keahna

Jr. Adult Fancy Shawl
1 - Tawny Hale
2 - Carol Meltingtallow (tied w Josette)
3 - Josette Wahwasuck
4 - Matilda Littlehead
5 - can't remember

Golden Age Women Northern
1 - TeeTee Shields
2 - Anna Mae Pushetonequa (tied w Karen)
3 - Karen Wahwasuck
4 - Lita Matthews
5 - Almeda Harris

Golden Age Women's Southern
1 - Linda Tsontekoy
Can't remember the rest

Golden Age Men's Northern
1 - Wayne Pushetonequa
2 - Royce Kingbird ?
3 - Patrick Spotted Wolf
Can't recall the rest

Golden Age Men's Southern
1 - Darryl Moore
I know that a couple of fancy dancers got in, and there was a tie in this category also.

BTW, there were ties in almost every category, including juniors and teens.

Sr. Women's Jingle
1 - Yvette Goodeagle
2 - Vickie Hindsley
3 - Lois Wildcat
4 - can't remember the lady's name

Sr. Women's Fancy Shawl
1 - Shelley Bointy
2 - Melonie Mathews

Sr. Women's Buckskin
Can't remember the order they placed, but I know that Jackie Tsontekoy, Keri Noise Cap, Salina Todome, Linda Standing all placed.

Sr. Women's Cloth
1 - Tracey Pewo?
2 - Sandy Harris
Can't remember the rest of the order, but I know Amber Komacheet and Angie Thurmond got in.

Sr. Men's Fancy
1 - Jerry Cleveland Jr.
2 - Dwight Buffalo
3 - Joe Bointy
4 - George Alexander
5 - Billy Pewo

Junior Adult Men's Fancy
1 - Amos Yazzie
2 - Darryl Hill
3 - Doug Scoffield
4 - Courtney Yarholer
5 - Eric Bird

When they called this category, the first adult category they announced, most of them didn't have their arm bustles or roaches on, so they made them go put them on before they gave them their checks. They DQ'd Courtney and took him out because he wasn't dressed and moved 5th place up to 4th, then moved up the 6th place winner to 5th (Gabe Bullock). When I asked one of the winners what happened, he explained that during the evening session contest, Courtney got out of the line up cuz his drum was getting ready to sing and it was a singing contest round. Since he stepped out of line early he didn't think he would place, so he went and changed. He had enough points for 4th place, but since he wasn't dressed they took his prize money away and moved everyone else up.

Then they took so ridiculously long to announce the winners that sometime around 1:30am the MC announced that we did NOT have to be fully dressed in our outfits to get our prize money. They then called Courtney back up to the MC stand and I'm assuming they paid him since they changed their rule near the end.

I didn't catch any more winners after my category cuz I was so disgusted with all that had been going on throughout the day. The winners were being called in no kind of order whatsoever so I got tired of trying to keep track and trying to keep my babies warm and keep them from having a meltdown cuz they were so exhausted. It just got better and better as the day went on (and I am being completely sarcastic when I say that).

More later.....

[ok24stacey]

Yea, I agree....not sure what to say about it. There seemed to be way too many ties for one thing. The deal with Cortney was another strain as the night began to unravel. lol I heard a lot of people said they wouldn't come back and then I heard them asking people to make sure they come back next year because it was a promised to be 100% better.

I think with the facilities and location, it could be a good powwow. I hope they get it worked out for next year. And uhhhhh it could be even better with the webcast. lmao....but I'm byas.

[2kiowa4u]

Singing Contest?

Who won,placed and the memoirs?

[ok24stacey]

1. Kingbird
2. Thunderhill
3. Otter Trail??? not sure....it was late and I was asleep on my feet

[2kiowa4u]

1. Kingbird
2. Thunderhill
3. Otter Trail??? not sure....it was late and I was asleep on my feet

Thanks, for the info., Ok24Stacey

[Josiah]

This is one of those Powwows that started great and ended like crap
I had a good time most of the day saw a lot of friends and danced hard.
But they seem to have a real issue with the tabulations even though they had barcodes on all the dancers and were actually scanning them as they came in for Grand Entry!
And yet they had a ton of problems when it came to announce the winners
It made a good powwow into a real nightmare!!!

[ndnMSW]

Well here is one of the things that got to me as the night began to unravel...lol...I like that description, it is just right.

A friend of mine went to Tuskahoma powwow over Labor Day weekend and she told me after that they tried out their new computer scoring system at that powwow and there were ties in almost every category...including her and she said she tied TWICE at Tuskahoma...I have no idea how that can happen.

So the committee knew there were problems with their system. They gave it a test run and found problems. The problems should have been fixed by the time Durant came around, there should have been no reason for that to happen.

Mike Roberts took the time, since he had plenty of it, to talk to each category of winners when they were announced. He apologized for all the problems with registration, tabulating, and announcing the winners. He said, "I am taking it upon myself personally to make sure that this doesn't happen next year and I want all of you to come back next year."

I told him, after he gave us his spiel, about hearing about the prior test run...he quickly said, "I wasn't at Tuskahoma, so I don't know what happened there." So here is my other issue with the powwow: all day long Tim Tallchief went on and on about Mike Roberts, how "he is responsible for bringing all of this to you folks," "he put this all together." I have been to my share of powwows and it's not unusual for the MC's to thank the powwow committee for their hospitality at various times throughout a weekend powwow....I may be wrong, I may have missed something during the day, but I didn't hear mention of a committee, I just heard Mike's name all day long.
But at the end, when things started falling apart, I never heard Mike take personal responsibilty for the all those problems as the powwow coordinator...he told me that he wasn't at Tuskahoma, he didn't know what went on there with the computer scoring....he distanced himself from the issues, when if he was responsible for "bringing this celebration to" us, then he should have taken responsibility for the problems right then and there...not just inadvertantly blame someone else and tell us that he personally would fix it next year. If he was running the powwow then he should have known how all his equipment worked.

He told a different group of dancers during one of his apologies, "they decided to go with technology this year." More distancing himself.

I know that honest mistakes happen at powwows with the most well-intentioned people. I have worked enough powwows and made honest mistakes to know that the unexpected will happen. I don't believe any of what happened at this powwow was deliberate...I think the results of the regular contests came out as I would have judged it. My issues are different that the usual powwow griping. It would have made a world of difference to me no matter how badly things were going if Mike had told us that he dropped the ball...not that someone else dropped the ball. I admire people who will step up and take responsibility. You can't take the credit when things are good, then shift blame when things are bad.

I think I was just disappointed more than anything. We really enjoyed ourselves last year, it was so much fun and the committee really took care of people at last year's event. This year was alot different in many ways. All kinds of small things, that cumulatively made a difference, started to add weight this year as the day dragged on. Like I said, we did really good in our contests, I finally got to try out my hoof and it felt really good, and we got to see family and friends, so there were some good things. Okay, gotta try to find my happy place again before I post anything more....lol.

[chazziff]

dang what kind of tabulation company ... takes out a computer program that they obviously didnt work out all the issues with before they committed to tabulating a whole pow wow. not very professional if you ask me ...

[ac_miss]

I know computer tabulation is supposed to be easier to use, but more and more I hear that it's more of a pain. I think using a simple calculator would be more sufficient.