Onaa Kahni Hosts Honor Powwow for Students

On Sunday, May 4, Comanche Nation Childcare held its honor powwow at Watchetaker Hall for students who participated in the Language Fair in Norman, Oklahoma.

Language and Culture Advocate Misti DeVine said they’re one of the youngest groups at the competition and won first place in spoken language and traditional song.

“It's really good. I feel really good about it,” she said. “I'm really excited for them. They love learning. They always participate, usually. Sometimes it's hit or miss, but usually they participate.”

DeVine said it’s great to celebrate the children because they’re learning their cultural identity.

“It’s very different for the little ones because they're not so used to big, large crowds, and it's pretty large. Very large for them,” she said. “Some of them went up there fearless. Some of them kind of shied away. Some of them just stood right at it, got up there and had no problem taking over the mic.”

DeVine said it was a good event and beautiful to watch.

“We've been doing this for almost 20 years, the Child Care has, and so…I think that was the first time we actually did spoken language, so that was like really interesting,” she said. “Usually, we just do the traditional songs or the modern song categories.”

DeVine said it was a learning process for her as well.

“I've actually been working for the Child Care for 23 years. Actually, on May 6 will be 23 years. And when I started out, that was a learning process for me, too,” she said. “I started off with just numbers, animals, colors, and then I went to the language department for about…two years, and I learned some more stuff there, so it's still like a repeating, it's like really repeating. I don't think I'll ever be fluent, but at least I'm learning.”

DeVine said there were several educators who helped the students prepare for the competition.

The Onaa Kahni will next perform at the Comanche Nation Fair for the Shoshone Language Reunion.