Warrior Wellness is born
In Sept. of 2022, Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma was awarded the SSG Parker Fox grant for suicide prevention. A small part of this initiative included peer support groups and a group specifically for female veterans. The beginning groups, while small, created opportunities for the women to begin getting to know each other more intimately. The Holidays for Heros group participants created gingerbread houses, decorated cookies, and wood-burned charcuterie boards. These and other fun activities were the beginning of building cohesion in the group. During the groups,
the women shared stories about their experiences as
women and veterans. During one session, the
conversation turned to Choctaw Ancestors and
grandmothers during times of historical trauma.
The women began describing them as warriors, too.
First women’s conference
In March of 2023, Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma Warrior Wellness partnered with CNO Veterans Advocacy and held its first Women Veteran Conference to honor Native American female veterans. There were approximately 30 female veteran attendees. One of the women stated, “I have never been in a room filled with so many other female veterans. I know now that I’m not so alone.” One of the women who attended was one of the cadets of the Command Chief Master Sargeant Erika
Kelly, who spoke during this conference and was able to reconnect with her
and thank her for the years she learned so much from her. At the end
of the conference, Command Chief Master
Sargeant Erika Kelly coined all of the women
who attended with this beautiful coin.
Identity of the group
Soon, the group members started to share experiences as veteran women, such as not being recognized as veterans or being overlooked when others were recognized. Identity issues regarding being a tribal member and not being raised within cultural traditions. They wanted to learn more about what it means to be a Choctaw and what it means to be a
Choctaw Woman Veteran. The realization that they wanted to be
recognized and to be seen. In the fall of 2023, as the holiday groups
started back, a group of female veterans who regularly attended started
to talk about how they could represent what it means to them to be
Choctaw and a veteran. Quickly, an idea started to shift into a plan, a
design, and research. Then one of the members told the story that united
the group not just in planning but in heart, the Little Blue Hen. By adopting
the Little Blue Hen as a mascot, the women started identifying and
developing a relationship with our history as Choctaw survivors.
Carrying the DNA of survivors within our DNA inspired us
all as we moved forward.
Story from one of our veterans
As we started meeting together as women, we did as women do and shared stories from our experiences as women and as veterans. While talking about those experiences, we began to talk about the women we come from, our ancestors, our grandmothers. We must have come from women with incredible strength and heart to have faced the hardships they faced. We talked how
they must have been women warriors in their own right. We also talked about how
they held a unique role in their communities to serve as the matriarch and what that
must have meant. The story of the Little Blue Hen was shared. She inspired us. She
carried all the attributes of a Choctaw Woman, an Ohoyo, and a Warrior. Her
loyalty, compassion, strength of mind during times of duress, her love for her family,
and her stamina to overcome are all attributes needed to survive in life, then and now.
We would like to share that story with you.
This story changed us, bound us, and created us into the Tvshka Ohoyo Alliance.
We would not be standing here, claiming our role without the Little Blue Hen.
The Little Blue Hen
The Story of the Little Blue Hen and Her Admirer, the Honey King
In honor of one of THE GRANDMOTHERS - Elsie Beams Roebuck
as told by Little Blue Hen’s great-granddaughter, Josephine Usray Latimer
(Regarding Elsie’s experience in removing from Mississippi on the Trail of Tears)
Even for the well and strong, the journey was almost beyond endurance. Many were weak and brokenhearted, and as night came, there were new graves dug beside the way. Many of the Indians contracted pneumonia, fever, and cholera.
They camped a mile from the Ouachita, waiting for the water to recede so they could cross. While they were camped there, Ezekial Roebuck, father of my grandfather, William Roebuck, became ill but said nothing. When the river was low enough to cross, everyone got in the wagons and started on the journey, but Ezekiel was so sick he became unconscious and fell over. Someone told the driver, and he said, “I will have to stop and put him out as we can’t afford to have anyone with the cholera along.
So, they stopped by the roadside and put him out. My great-grandmother said, “You can put the children and me out too.” The driver replied, “Alright, but he will soon be dead, and you and your three children will have to walk the balance of the way.”
Each child had a small blanket. My great-grandmother had a paisley shawl, she had also brought along a bucket of honey and some cold flour from their home. This flour is made by parching corn and grinding it in a coffee mill until pulverized. This food she carried along for her six-month-old baby.
She begged the driver for food and a blanket for great-grandfather, and he grudgingly gave the blanket and one day’s supply of food.
Great-grandfather was conscious at the time. He had dubbed great-grandmother “Little Blue Hen,” and when he became conscious of the plight, he said:
“Dear Little Blue Hen, why didn’t you take the children and go on? I can’t last much longer, and my soul will rest much easier if I knew you were safe. My body is just dust and will be all right at any place.” She replied, “As long as you live, I will be with you, Dear.”
The Little Blue Hen and the two boys, aged ten and twelve, set about fixing a bed. The boys had knives with which they cut the long-stemmed grass until they made a fairly comfortable bed, and then the three pulled their father on it. They were fortunate to be where there was pine. The boys weren’t long in gathering plenty of wood and pine knots; not only for warmth and lights, but to keep hungry wolves and panthers away as they came circling around, growling and vicious looking.
The boys threw up a high barricade behind their father’s pallet of brush, then a big fire a few feet in front, and here the little family huddled together. They dared not let the fire die down until after daybreak when the beasts went back into the woods.
When the father became conscious, he praised Little Blue Hen for her loyalty and prayed that his little family might be spared from the dreaded disease. He lived only twenty-four hours after being put out of the wagon, and at sunset, his soul passed on.
The little mother with sticks and the boys with knives dug a grave deep enough to bury him and piled rocks and dead trees on top of the grave to keep the beasts from the body. Then the boys blazed the
trees all around the grave. They wanted to leave the grave well marked for they intended to return for their father’s body someday.
They fed on roots, wild berries, a spoonful of honey, and a small portion of the cold flour. The next morning, the brave mother with her three children bade farewell to the Honey King’s grave by the roadside of the Trail of Tears. They traveled on to the post, following the wagon tracks to the river, where they realized they would have to swim across.
Undaunted, she took her paisley shawl and tied the baby onto her back. Cautioning her boys to stay close to her, they all swam across the river. Here, they found the wagon tracks, but they stopped long enough to build a fire to dry their clothes. Then, they walked all the way to the Government Post, where they were given food, clothes, and shelter.
The Honey King’s prayers were answered; not one of them took the cholera.
NOTE: Elsie’s Son William Roebuck grew up to become an important lawyer in the fledgling Choctaw Nation . . . At his wedding, Elsie presented his wife with her beloved paisley shawl that had traveled over the Trail of Tears with her.
The regalia
As the group discussed the skirts and regalia, they spoke of ceremony. Not only does every carefully chosen piece have a meaning, but every cut, stitch, and placement is done with heartfelt intent.
The Tvshka Ohoyo Alliance Regalia
The ribbon skirt
Each element has meaning for us.
The blue skirt is our homage to Little Blue Hen
(no matter what our Marines out there might think)
The Red Binding at the bottom binds us to the ancestral blood
that we share. The DNA of survivors runs through our veins.
The Red Ribbon at the beginning bears homage to that knowledge
of our past.
The Black Ribbon represents the traumas our people
experienced in our history.
(continued on next page)
The Blue Ribbons represent our resolve to overcome those traumas. Each generation working to transform the level of hurt experienced. So, you see a lightening of the blues as we continue the work from our own loving place.
The White Ribbon represents our hopes and dreams for future generations. That we transform our lives so that their lives are blessed. And that we are a light in their lives to create health in all its forms: mind, body, spirit, and community.
The final Red Ribbon represents our hope to share our stories and our connection to our culture and ancestors to future generations, recognizing the blood that we share as Choctaw People.
The ceremony
Along with the skirts, the group had also agreed on prayer shawls. Every shawl had to be hemmed, and all four sides hole punched for fringe and tied in knots, as the community of coworkers came together during lunch breaks and cancelations to help tie the knots in each piece of fringe and then come around again for the second tie, we did so with ceremony, tying a prayer in every single knot, that this shawl with bring safety, security, honor, comfort and love to the women who would wear it. Though very tedious work, we reminded one another that being grounded in ourselves and being mindful of our feelings during this was extremely important. At this time, we were very crunched on time and started recruiting family members to pitch in with
some of the work. We had grandparents, sisters, spouses, and children all assisting
and creating something even bigger than we expected. As we taught them about
the ceremony, they would one by one pass it on, creating a space in which all who
entered respected and participated. This space became a space of peace and love.
As the days went on, not only did the members come and go as they made time
to help, but slowly, some of the men would help with the sewing and the tying,
showing that they believed this was as important and showed they, too could have
love and respect for this space that was created.
Two weeks before the big reveal, we had completed the skirts and had final fittings. We had also completed most of the shawls and added a military patch for each of the women’s specific branch of service. As they tried them on, we felt something was missing. One of the members had been gifted a beautiful beaded military medallion, which made the regalia complete.
Though most of us had never beaded in our lives, we met with the cultural center teaching staff and started to hand bead the military patch medallions for each of the women in the group. One by one each of these beads were meticulously placed and prayed over, giving the women a complete look.
The reveal
The women’s stickball team escorted the Tvshka Ohoyo Alliance into the ballroom during the reveal with their drums and sticks holding cadence.
The ripple effect
After the reveal, many members received requests to appear or speak for ceremonies, color guard events, community meetings, and more. Other women have also requested to join the Tvshka Ohoyo Alliance, and monthly meetings are held to discuss these requests. Community members have also expressed interest in honoring these women, including a bridge dedication in Antlers, Oklahoma, to memorialize their exemplary service and cultural representation of the Choctaw Nation.