District 6, August 2022

Gary Samuels and his red warrior mustang win the Choctaw Choice award at the 6th annual Relics & Rods Car Show in Wilburton.

Halito! The hot days of summer have arrived, and we are all feeling the effects of it, but it has not slowed down all the activities that have been going on in District 6.

In April, we made sure that the Choctaw Head Starts in Wilburton and Talihina, as well as the Choctaw Nation Daycare in Talihina and the Veterans Center in Talihina, had visits from the Easter Bunny. They were excited about the visit and the goodies he and our Choctaw princesses brought. We have two new princesses this year and one who retained her crown, our Senior Miss, Riley Isabell. Our Junior Miss is Aiana Holman and our Little Miss is Hatapushik Ramsey. We are excited to have our princesses join us in our many activities and are sure they will represent District 6 well.

We are excited about the new home we added this year to our Choctaw Housing Community. We added ten more Independent Elders and ten Affordable Rentals homes. These beautiful brick homes have been filled up with seniors and families that appreciate their new homes. We are taking LEAP (Lease to Purchase) home applications for Red Oak, Wilburton, Buffalo Valley and Quinton. We are also still accepting our Affordable Rental and Independent Elder housing applications.

The Choctaw Nation Job for the Day Program has been busy putting our tribal members to work. We have put 40 people to work so far in 2022 and we are hopeful that at least that amount being be hired for the remainder of the year.

We held our quarterly check presentation on June 29 through our Community Partner Fund. We presented to our city and county over $28,000 of much-needed assistance.

We had the honor of being able to do a few activities involving our veterans. We hosted a drive-thru parade and hot dog cookout for the veterans at the Veteran Center in Talihina, Oklahoma, on May 31. We were joined by our Tribal Police, Wilburton Fire Department, Choctaw Princesses, Boys and Girls Club and others who wanted to make our veterans feel appreciated.

We can all say that we survived the heat in many events that we attended this summer, such as participating in the Fourth of July Parade in Red Oak, Oklahoma, Outreach at The Beach at Sardis Lake in July and I had the opportunity to present the first “Choctaw Choice” award at the Rods and Relics Car Show in Wilburton on June 27. The award was given to Gary Samuels for his beautiful Red Warrior Mustang.

We have many activities going on at the Community Center. This summer, we are feeding four days each week through our Kids Summer Meal Program. We encourage parents to bring their children to the Center during these extremely hot days. We want to be sure that no child is without a meal during the summer months. We also have a new Computer Lab Assistant at our center. Ethan Scott has been hired to assist tribal members in teaching them how to use a computer and navigate the Chahta Achvffa Portal to apply for programs through the tribe. He is in District 6 Community Center from Monday to Wednesday from 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. He and other employees are also here to help you verify your addresses for our second round of payments for the ARPA Economic Recovery Program.

Our Veterans Day dinner was held on July 20 at 11:00 a.m. This is our time to honor our veterans and thank them for their service.

With this extreme heat, we are being vigilant in checking on our tribal members, especially our seniors, to ensure that they are getting assistance if they need it. If you know of any tribal members in need, please encourage them to call us at 918-465-2389, so we can assist them.

If you need any assistance, please be sure and call the District 6 Community Center. Our staff would be happy to assist you and my door is always open. We are District 6! The Heart of the Nation!

Yakoke!