As you know I’ve been out of the loop with the Chilocco happenings but did take the time to call Garland Kent, President of the Chilocco Alumni chapter here. Evidently there is continued progress by the five tribes, Ponca, Otoe, Kaw, Pawnee and Tonkawa who have been meeting every week, regularly. The tribes have leased a small office in the old Federal Bank Building in Ponca City on Central Avenue for meetings. Garland now has a key to the Chilocco campus and if the vandals will leave the locks alone he can get on the grounds now. This is wonderful news.

There are talks going and a hopeful prospect of the tribes putting in a good road leading to the cemetery. We are planning a meeting here for discussing plans for a marker listing the names of the 59 graves that are there. A hitch has come up because there are more than 59 graves discovered during the clean-up of the cemetery.

I did confirm with my brother, Dan Jones, that the campus has been leased out to an entity who is now busy with large mowing machines. Garland also said they would bring in smaller machines to further clean things up.

One other thing Garland talked about was the possibility of having a pow-wow on October 13th of this year. This would be a wonderful way for those of the alumni who have been barred from the grounds to once again enjoy fellowship on campus.

These have been my dreams and I am elated that these men have turned their attention actually to the campus. I’m so proud of them. Many rewards will come to them for their efforts and goodness. It will be a blessing for progress, jobs and a moving forward from a formerly stagnant situation.

PS. There has been a postponing of the Pow-wow on Campus at Chilocco, October 13, 2007.  However there will still possibly be some sort of activity, meeting or something for the alumni there on that date and it will be well announced so that everyone will know about it.

The area behind Home Five where the pow-wow was held once before is too rough, I'm told. After a longer clean up time a date for a pow-wow will be looked toward in the spring.  This will allow clean up crews plenty of time to get things ready for a crowd.