Over 500 attend annual Chickasaw Elders Conference

This article appeared in the August 2023 edition of the Chickasaw Times

THACKERVILLE, Okla. - Governor Bill Anoatubby highlighted the importance of our elders during the annual Chickasaw Nation Elders Conference, June 12-13 at WinStar Resort and Convention Center in Thackerville.

For the first time in four years, elders gathered together at WinStar. The past three conferences had been online due to the pandemic. This year nearly 550 Chickasaw elders from across the U.S. attended the conference. This year’s conference theme was a celebration of elders’ health, happiness and longevity.

“You, and your experiences and insights, are extremely valuable to us,” Gov. Anoatubby said. “Through sharing your history and ideas with us, we have, and will continue to, glean a great deal of your wisdom.”

Gov. Anoatubby said elders’ wisdom serves as a blueprint to successfully navigating the perpetually shifting landscape of life.

“Your perspectives, steeped in the wisdom of experience and time, serve as a compass that guides our community,” he said. “In large part, our traditions and values make us who we are as Chickasaws and as a collective nation of people. Values such as perseverance, faith, adaptability, honor, courage and a strong sense of community are indispensable, as they will always be integral to our identity as Chickasaws.”

Gov. Anoatubby also spoke of critical topics including sovereignty, the Chickasaw Constitution and the Chickasaw Cultural Center’s history and development, providing in-depth insight into the Chickasaw Nation’s three decades of progress.

The Chickasaw Nation currently employs about 14,000 workers. The tribe offers services including education, health care, and housing programs, and extends many of those services to Chickasaws who live “at-large,” or outside the Chickasaw Nation treaty territory.

“We started that several years ago, and the motto was, ‘If you are Chickasaw, it does not matter where you live, you are still Chickasaw.’ So that is the approach that we take. We believe that it’s important to go beyond boundaries to assist people,” Gov. Anoatubby said.

27th annual Chickasaw Elders Conference

The Chickasaw Elders Conference has been conducted for 27 years, beginning at the old Chickasaw Motor Inn in Sulphur, Okla. The event later moved to Lake Texoma Lodge and finally WinStar Resort and Convention Center in 2006.

Forums like the Elders Conference give tribal officials the opportunity to gain insight from Chickasaw elders on their needs and concerns. The conference also provides a venue for elders to get vital information they may need.

Full-blood Chickasaw Nina Crossley has attended several Elders Conferences over the past two decades. Mrs. Crossley, who grew up in Tupelo, Okla., and attended Boiling Springs Baptist Church, now lives in Del City, Okla.

“I think it’s the best thing that could have happened to the Chickasaw elders, merely because it gives them a time to all get together and be informed of the services that they may not be aware of,” Mrs. Crossley said. “We have topics that pertain strictly to the elders, information that they need.”

Mrs. Crossley said she appreciated the Chickasaw Nation investing in the well-being of elders.

“They have energy assistance, dental, tribal health, everything that can go back to help the citizens.”

Mrs. Crossley is a former site manager at the Purcell Senior Center. She was happy to be at the conference among other Chickasaw elders from eight states.

“It’s nice to see old friends and make new ones,” she said.

Chickasaw cousins Fred Swinney Jr., of Tomball, Texas, and Daryl Swinney, of Mansfield, Texas, shared a table in the grand ballroom. Daryl, a retired educator, has attended several Elders Conferences through the years. He has also extensively researched his family’s Chickasaw heritage to connect with his great-great-grandfather Sloan Love, the son of Thomas Love.

Ben Willis, an 87-year-old Chickasaw from Marietta, Okla., attended the conference with his wife, Gloria, a Choctaw citizen. The couple has taken several trips with Chickasaw elders’ groups throughout the years and always look forward to the Elders Conference.

“I went to (the Elders Conference) when it was at Sulphur in the motel,” Mr. Willis said. “Every time it moved it got bigger. It’s quality. All the things we need to know are here. We always look forward to it. It’s kind of a treasure.

“The Chickasaw Nation, I think, is really good. I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for them. Elders are treated well by the Chickasaw Nation. He (Gov. Anoatubby) puts the elders up front,” Mr. Willis said.

“The Homeland Today,” a presentation by Chickasaw Nation Department of Culture and Humanities Director of Research and Cultural Interpretation LaDonna Brown and several informative presentations were included during the two-day conference.

Other presenters included Oklahoma Department of Human Services Legal Services Developer Barbara Gwinn, who presented “Advanced Directives, Healthcare POA and the DNR;” Michaelle Statham, Alzheimer’s Association, Oklahoma chapter, “Understanding Alzheimer’s and the Resources Available;” and “Rethinking, Reimagining and Reinventing Aging and Aging Services,” presented by USAging CEO Sandy Markwood, of Washington, D.C.