Comanche Little Ponies Crown New Princess at Powwow

On Saturday, May 10, Comanche Little Ponies held its annual Mother’s Day Powwow at the Comanche County Fairgrounds in Lawton, Oklahoma.

Comanche Little Ponies Princess Graison Yellowfish passed the crown to Arlene Schonchin.

“It's a bittersweet moment,” she said. “It's like I've been with them for a long time. They've like basically been with me my entire high school career. And I've grown to love all these people in the society, but I'm also…leaving, and I'm starting. It's like a new page in my life.”

Yellowfish has been with the little ponies for three years and enjoys the powwows.

“I would say going to all the powwows that we've been to, I was able to meet a whole bunch of people, and I have lifelong friends definitely that I've met at these powwows,” she said. “So, I would say the powwows, that would be my favorite part of going.”

Yellowfish said she’s used the time to embrace her culture.

“Before I became princess, I was definitely one of the shy kids that didn't like to talk about my culture,” she said. “But now it's like, it's my favorite thing to do is talk about my culture to my friends.”

Yellowfish wanted to thank everyone who supported her.

Schonchin said it felt amazing to be crowned.

“My mom's a part of it. My brother just got inducted yesterday,” she said. “So, my family's always been a part of this, and I'm excited to let this in.”

Schonchin said she wants to get the youth involved.

“I want to get our kids back into the arena because just yesterday I danced with these two, my friend's two little sisters and I gave them shawls and they danced with me all last night, and it just felt so amazing that I brought them into the arena,” she said. “And knowing that they're gonna carry on with these dances, and they come to our youth dancer practices to learn, too. So, it just felt good like bringing in these girls because they're gonna dance for the rest of their lives.”

Schonchin said she wants to represent society in the best way that she can.

“My family has always been in the society, and knowing that I get to represent my families and all the other Little Ponies families feels so amazing,” she said.

She is proud of Yellowfish for her time with the Little Ponies.

Comanche Little Ponies Vice Chairman Benny Tahmahkera said it was a great event that took a year to plan.

“It's a great time that we do our annual, you know, it's held on Mother's Day weekend, and we have people from you know across the nation that come to our powwow,” he said. “We've had actually we have somebody here this weekend they're from Germany and they come and they asked a little if they could you know film they're doing a documentary and they wanted some Little Pony input on it and they're here but it's a great feeling to have people interested you know across the globe that are interested in the Comanche Little Ponies and they come. We have people from New Mexico. There's a gore dance society that's here today. I believe they brought about 45 of their dancers. I mean, and that's just, I think it's just a mutual respect that we do.”

Tahmahkera said he joined over 20 years ago.

“Well growing up you know I've always I loved the gore dance and gore dance is just one of those dances you know go out and as a as a child you know I came into the arena and started dancing but I wasn't officially inducted into the Comanche Little Ponies until 2003,” he said. “I just came back from my first deployment in Iraq, and Little Ponies were out in Orange County, California, and I was stationed in Camp Pendleton, and I went to the powwow, and they asked me if I wanted to join the Little Ponies.”

Tahmahkera said he enjoys giving back to the community.

“And you know it's an honor to represent,” he said. “You know, we dance for the people that can't dance. We'd like to, you know, just congregate and socialize with everybody that we can.”

Tahmahkera said they try to expand and do better each year.