{"id":7102,"date":"2016-08-10T15:14:41","date_gmt":"2016-08-10T15:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crazycrow.com\/site\/?p=7102"},"modified":"2024-11-21T17:34:06","modified_gmt":"2024-11-21T17:34:06","slug":"no-veteran-left-behind-vets-journey-black-leggings-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crazycrow.com\/site\/no-veteran-left-behind-vets-journey-black-leggings-society\/","title":{"rendered":"No Veteran Left Behind: A Vets Journey into The Black Leggings Society"},"content":{"rendered":"

No Veteran Left Behind, by Triston Ahtone<\/h1>\n

Includes excerpts from and links to original 2014 story by Tristan Ahtone<\/h2>\n

One Kiowa Veteran’s Journey into Membership in the Kiowa Black Leggings Society<\/h3>\n

For as long as anyone can remember, veterans have held one of the most revered places in the culture of the tribal people of the Americas. In the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma, that reverence for\u00a0veterans is reflected in the Kiowa Black Leggings Warrior Society.<\/p>\n

In 2014, \u00a0Tristan Ahtone<\/a> (Kiowa) wrote a story about the Kiowa Black Leggings Warrior Society. The story narrative is touching and the photo journalism that is part of it is\u00a0beautiful. In this story, Ahtone follows Michael Sankadota, an Iraq War veteran, who is about to join the Black Leggings Society.<\/p>\n

Excerpts from Tristan Ahtone’s Story: No Veteran Left Behind<\/a> — ANADARKO, Okla. \u2014 Michael Sankadota’s face was clean-shaven and round. He wore black shorts, tennis shoes and a gray University of Oklahoma t-shirt. Around him were men wearing red capes, bone breastplates, long breechcloths, porcupine-hair headdresses and eagle feathers. Their legs were encased in black cloth.An autumn sky hung over the outdoor arena, carved out from a copse of oaks and hickories, and lined with concrete bleachers painted orange. A light wind ruffled dry leaves and stirred the men’s capes as they lined up to enter the arena to dance.<\/p>\n

Family members, veterans and spectators stood up from the bleachers and on all styles of outdoor folding chairs as a silence settled over the arena and through the woods.Then an old song rose from the throats of the Kiowa Black Leggings Warrior Society members. Lances in hand, they danced their way into the arena, one step at a time in a column, eagle feathers waving in the wind. Sankadota joined them, but as a new member he had to wait one more day before he could change from his civilian clothes into the dress of the Black Leggings \u2014 the uniform of the Black Leggings Warrior Society Ceremonial, held every October in this town just 50 miles southwest of Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n

\"No<\/p>\n

When Sankadota, an Iraq War veteran, was asked to join the Black Leggings, he said yes immediately. “My kids will look at me different, like, daddy’s this now, he’s a part of something bigger” he says, “and it feels a lot bigger than just what I am as a veteran.” For as long as anyone can remember, veterans have held one of the most revered places in the culture of the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma. The ceremonial is the crowning manifestation of the tribe’s attitude toward its warriors. “In American society, when the war is over, you’ve got your ticker-tape parade, you’ve got your speeches, and you’ve got Memorial Day and Veterans Day, and that’s pretty much it,” says Dr. William Meadows, a professor at Missouri State University and author of “Kiowa Military Societies.” “Here, it’s never-ending. Once you’re a veteran, that respect is always given to you.”<\/p>\n

Participants must be Kiowa tribal members, and they are heirs to a legacy stretching back centuries to a time known only through oral history. A time before English. Before the state of Oklahoma. A time when the society was known only by its Kiowa name: Ton-Kon-Gah. On the surface, the Black Leggings celebrate warrior culture, but at its core, the society offers a lesson to the next generation of tribal members on what it is to be a Kiowa in a changing world.<\/p>\n

“Every culture has values and beliefs and ideology, but there’s always a handful of things that are more important in that particular culture than the others,” says Williams. “One of them, in this culture, is the importance of the veteran.”<\/p>\n

Dance is the primary feature of the Black Leggings’ yearly ceremonial, with scalp dances, shuffle dances and the turn-around dance, which is performed only once a year by Black Leggings members, at the end of the ceremonial on the final day. “This is our dance, this is our language, this is our spirit, and this is an expression of that spirit,” says Warren Queton. “That’s what makes us different from other organizations or white America: They honor their veterans; we have a ceremony, and that spirit comes out through that ceremony.”<\/p>\n

Tristan Ahtone’s story of this Iraq war veteran, Michael Sankadota, shows the crowning manifestation of that tribe’s attitude toward its warriors as he travels the road to becoming a member of the Black Leggings Society. This story follows his preparation for and participation in the annual Kiowa Black Leggings Warrior Society Ceremonial held each October at Indian City Ceremonial Campgrounds in Anadarko, Oklahoma.<\/p>\n

Read the rest of the Black Leggings story, No Veteran Left Behind<\/a>.<\/h2>\n

Attend the annual Kiowa Black Leggings Warrior Society Ceremonial
\nThe annual event is free and open to the public. It is held in October at Indian City Ceremonial Campgrounds in Anadarko, Oklahoma. The Kiowa Black Leggings Warrior Society Ceremonial includes traditional dancing, a presentation of colors and the singing of a war mother’s song. The Kiowa Black Leggings Warrior Society, known as the Ton-Kon-Gah, was established many generations ago to honor veterans. This historic event dates back to over 200 years ago.<\/p>\n

See current Kiowa Black Leggings Warrior Society Ceremonial event detail<\/a>.<\/h2>\n<\/div>
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