Red Earth FallFest and Parade marking Indigenous Peoples Day in downtown OKC
In February 2020, Red Earth Inc. announced plans for a new autumn event that would celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day in downtown Oklahoma City.
Less than a month later, the COVID-19 outbreak shut down even the most established events around the globe.
Now, the nonprofit organization is preparing for its long-awaited inaugural FallFest, slated for Oct. 16 in the Myriad Botanical Gardens.
“Last year, we just had to postpone because of COVID and everything,” said Christy Alcox, director of development and administration for Red Earth Inc. “But the whole premise is that it’s a free, family event. They can bring their lawn chairs, bring their blankets, bring a picnic. It’s going to be fun ... and I’m crossing my fingers for pretty fall weather.”
Along with a Native American arts and craft market and fall powwow, the new event will herald the return of an old favorite: the Red Earth Parade, a 35-year tradition that last marched through OKC in summer 2019.
“When it was at the Cox Convention Center, we always loved seeing the parade and all its pageantry as well as the visitors and participants from all over the Oklahoma area who came in support,” said Myriad Gardens Foundation President and CEO Maureen Heffernan said in an email.
“Being the venue for the inaugural Red Earth FallFest ... is an honor and a perfect match for both the Gardens and Red Earth.”
FallFest debut follows Red Earth Festival’s move
In early 2020, Red Earth Inc. announced plans to move its marquee event — the long-running Red Earth Festival, an intertribal celebration of Native American visual art, dance and culture — from downtown OKC’s Cox Convention Center to the Grand Event Center at the Grand Casino Hotel & Resort in Shawnee. With the opening of the nearly $300 million MAPS 3 convention center, the Cox Convention Center would no longer be operating as a convention center — it has since been converted to Prairie Surf Studios — so moving the Red Earth Festival was necessary.
Although the 2020 Red Earth Festival was postponed from its usual June dates to Labor Day weekend due to the pandemic, this year’s event went on as planned at the Shawnee casino, which is owned by the Citizen Potawatomi Nation.
But Red Earth, state and community leaders in February 2020 revealed
plans to keep the popular Red Earth Parade in downtown OKC while shifting it to autumn to go along with a new event to mark Oklahoma City’s Indigenous Peoples Day.
The parade typically features Native dancers, color guards, tribal princesses and officials, drum groups, school groups and other community organizations. Cheyenne-Arapaho artist and peace chief Harvey Pratt, the Guthriebased who designed the National Native American Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., and has deep roots with Red Earth, will be this year’s parade grand marshal.
The 2021 Red Earth Parade will begin at 10 a.m. Oct. 16 at NW 6 Street and Walker Avenue and travel south Walker, ending near the Myriad Gardens, the site of FallFest.
FallFest showcasing the Gourd Dance
FallFest activities are planned for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 16 in the Myriad Gardens in conjunction with Indigenous Peoples Day, which is observed on the second Monday in October.
The event will include an arts and crafts market showcasing about 15 Native artists, mostly Oklahomans.
“We’re going to start small and then grow it,” Alcox said.
In addition, Red Earth Inc. is partnering with the venerable Oklahoma City Pow Wow Club to bring Native dancing to downtown OKC for FallFest. The club will have a Gourd Dance from noon to 4 p.m. on the Myriad Gardens Great Lawn.
“The Gourd Dance came from the Kiowas. ... So, we follow the protocol of the Kiowa Gourd Clan,” OKC Pow Wow Club Chairman Joe Poe Jr., who is Kiowa. “It’s a gentleman’s dance, so we request that people wear dress slacks, long-sleeve shirts and are dressed properly.”
After a two-hour break, the Gourd Dance will move from downtown to the OKC Pow Wow Club’s Indian Hills Dance Grounds, 8980 N Sooner Road, where the club also will host social and war dancing from 7 to 11 p.m. Oct. 16.
“We’re there to dance to our Creator and to to celebrate life and honor each other, honor our dead, honor our war heroes, honor our elders,” Poe said.
The Kiowa Gourd Dance was once part of the Sun Dance ceremony, which the U.S. government prohibited in the late 1800s.
“The Kiowa people don’t do Sun Dance anymore because they were threatened by the soldiers, ‘We’ll kill you if you do this.’ We weren’t allowed to worship,” said Mary Helen Deer, the Kiowa-Creek treasurer of the OKC Pow Wow Club.
“The Gourd Dance was the dance prior to the Sun Dance, which was in spring and the harvest time to give thanks for life and blessings.”
A third-generation member of the more than 70-year-old OKC Pow Wow Club, Poe said the FallFest powwow is believed to be the first time the club has brought the Gourd Dance to downtown OKC.
“We’re very happy to to be downtown for this,” Poe said.