Walters Annual Homecoming Powwow Honors Veterans, Service Members
Comanche Homecoming celebrated its 73rd anniversary from Thursday, July 17 to Sunday, July 19 at Sultan Park in Walters, Oklahoma.
Comanche Homecoming Committee Vice President Travis Codynah said it was a wonderful powwow weekend.
“We were scared of the rain for a little bit, but fortunately we got blessed with a lot of sunshine, really hot, so I'm glad to all the programs at pretty much the CHR that came out here to help us. Oh my gosh, the water was wonderful,” he said.
Codynah said the homecoming powwow began when ancestors were returning from war.
“They wanted to do something to celebrate for their ancestors, for our people to come home, and they wanted to do something for them. So, they come out here and they set up a big arena and made it look nice, and then just from what people have been telling me around here that's been older, that's been here before me, kind of telling me…at one time this arena was just all dirt…when it first started…and then it progressively,” he said. “Then they start coming up and start being something…and then pretty soon, as we start getting older around my generation, people were looking forward to this place to come home. Not just our veterans and our people at war, but even that they were included that through…different, like, ‘Oh man, I can't wait to come home.’ People from all over…Florida, North Dakota, Colorado…we got people all over…that got married into different families and different jobs, carried them out, and…they look forward to this, and they know it's always the third weekend of July. So, a lot of our people, they come, and they plan, and they make this date, and a lot of reunions come into place, and you look at all these tents and all these areas around here, a lot of families come together, and they're rejoicing.”
Codynah said his own family also returns home during the weekend.
“The different families that come here that I haven't seen in a while, reunions and all that,” he said. “We got somebody that comes from Oregon…all the way from down here, just to come back here for the homecoming, just to visit, just to say that they're home, you know, and that's what we look forward to.”
Codynah said it’s important for the youth to see where they come from as well.
“But we want to know who we are and where we come from, and then sometimes…as life, we get busy, and sometimes we get to tell who people, our children, who we are and where they come from,” he said. “But maybe we all come back together, we know we could rejoice and tell our children this is who we are, this is what we do, like that, and…it [goes] on a long time, but that's just my people look forward to this, you know.”
Codynah grew up around Walters and in the powwow environment.
“Since I was little, I was a member of Head Little Boy. I've been arena director all over…and here, I always look forward to being an arena director or doing some part,” he said. “So, when they asked me to be vice president, you know, and I wasn't even president when they asked me, ‘Would you like to do it?” And I had a phone call, you know, and I was like, ‘Wow, that's remarkable,’ you know, out of all these people, you know, they asked me…so I'm like, ‘Yeah, I'm, yeah, let's do it.’”
His favorite part is seeing families come together and the dancers.
