AARP Hosts Annual Awards, Two Comanches...
Former Comanche Nation Chairman Mark Woommavovah and Comanche tribal elder Galin Motah received awards on October 28 at this year’s AARP awards at First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City.
Woommavovah said his family helped him get this far.
“My grandparents Vida and Nat Woommavovah reared me from a young age,” he said. “They taught me the meaning of leadership, mainly servant leadership, and it was a great experience serving our Comanche people as chairman. I learned a lot. I learned about how we take care of our elders and how we pass down our traditions to our younger people.”
Woommavovah had several people to thank for the nomination.
“It was an honor to be nominated among all the other honorees from across our Indian Nation, especially the ones that are from, well, all the ones from here from Oklahoma,” he said. “But what it kind of shows is that our elders, we want to honor our elders a little more, and it's just an honor being here.”
Motah said he enjoyed himself at the event.
“I was surprised to see how many guys I knew from way back when were being honored today. Made me feel good to be up there,” he said. “They fed us a good lunch, and it was a long process interviewing everybody, but I got to hear what everybody done, what everybody was up there for, and it made me feel proud for some of them, and it really touched my heart when that guy [came] up there. He was accepted for his dad, [who] had passed away about a week ago, and he had to accept that, and he almost broke down, and he almost fell. His knees almost buckled, and I said, ‘Boy, that takes a lot of courage for some young man like that to do what he had to do.’”
Motah was thankful that the people he enjoyed were at the ceremony.
“And I wanted to thank the AARP for acknowledging me and thank them for giving me a medal. I got a medal, and I got to see the chairman, Mark Woommavovah,” he said. “He was honored with me today. So…I enjoyed myself, and I thank everybody for doing what they could to get me involved in that.”
The annual event is AARP’s Oklahoma Native American Elder Honors, which recognizes contributions to tribal nations, public service, language and leadership.
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