Free Red Earth TreeFest celebrates the holidays and Native American Heritage Month in OKC

In downtown Oklahoma City, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, including in the south lobby of BancFirst Tower.

You can tell by the miniature teepee topping the Ponca Tribe's Christmas tree, the sparkling horses galloping around the tree skirt of the Comanche Nation's evergreen and the tiny, beaded moccasins, diminutive drums and turkey feathers adorning the Caddo Nation's tree.

"Phil Cross — he's one of two, I believe, Caddo bowmakers — gave us the turkey feathers. ... That's part of our turkey dances, which is one of our traditional Caddo dances," said renowned Oklahoma beadwork artist Yonavea Hawkins, a member of the Caddo Nation who is also Delaware and Kickapoo.

"There's drums on there that represent our drum dance. There's bells for our bell dance. There's bears for our bear dance; there's alligators for our alligator dance. ... I need to find some ducks, because we have a duck dance."

In festive yuletide fashion, the ninth annual Red Earth TreeFest is showcasing the distinctive cultures of about a dozen of the 39 tribal nations headquartered in Oklahoma.

Organized by the long-running nonprofit Red Earth Inc., the free event annually opens during November, which is Native American Heritage Month, and continues through the holiday season.

When can people experience Red Earth TreeFest in downtown OKC?

This year, Red Earth TreeFest is open to the public from 10 am to 5 p.m. weekdays through Dec. 29 in the Red Earth Art Center in the lobby of the BancFirst Tower, the second-tallest building in downtown OKC.

A special Holiday Open House is planned from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Nov. 29.

"TreeFest is just meant to represent the different tribes that are part of Oklahoma. So, you're able to go around and see all of the different trees and see what that tribe really holds near and dear to them — and what makes them separate and individual from each and every other tribe that's in Oklahoma, because there are, sadly, so many that had to be forced in together," said Red Earth Executive Director Chelsey Curry, who is Chilkat Tlingit.

"It is a great way to educate kids about all the different tribes and understanding that being Indigenous is not a blanket term, that it is a lot of different cultures and different meanings to each individual tribe."

What Oklahoma-based tribal nations are participating in this year's Red Earth TreeFest?

Every year, Red Earth invites all 39 Native American nations headquartered in Oklahoma to decorate a holiday evergreen with handmade ornaments and art objects that showcase the lifeways, language and heritage of their tribe.

Scattered throughout the Sooner State, not all the tribes are able to participate in the OKC holiday event in any given year.

This year's TreeFest includes about a dozen decked-out evergreens representing the Caddo Nation, Absentee Shawnee Tribe, Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Ponca Tribe, Kaw Nation, Kiowa Tribe and more.

Different groups often take on the merry task of trimming their tribe's tree, like the Osage Nation Museum, Central Oklahoma Cherokee Alliance and Muscogee Nation Cultural Center.

"It is something that we've just really enjoyed and grown over the years," Curry said. "We get excited every year when we get that yes, that they're going to be here, and we get to see their tree come to life."

The towering intertribal Red Earth Docent Tree showcases the nonprofit organization's vast collection of ornaments like beaded ears of corn, Ojibwa dreamcatchers and rawhide bags called parfleches that were traditionally made and used by members of Great Plains tribes.

The youngsters from Norman Public Schools Indian Education program also are decorating an intertribal tree with ornaments they've made.

"And we'll have one that's the Women's Tree: It's just representing Indigenous women and what they bring to daily life," Curry added.

In the Red Earth Art Center's retail gallery space, additional trees are adorned with handcrafted ornaments made by Oklahoma Native American artists that are for sale.

"We sell a lot of ornaments for the holidays because everybody likes to add a new one to the tree, or, as gifts, it's always so easy to give somebody a new little ornament, especially when it was handmade by someone Indigenous," Curry said.

How are the various Oklahoma-based tribes decorating for Red Earth TreeFest?

Red Earth TreeFest is a fun and festive way to educate gallery visitors about the cultural differences and similarities in Oklahoma's diverse tribal nations, which brought their traditions with them when they were moved to the state from across the country, Curry said.

Along with clear glass balls, filled with cedar, tobacco and sweetgrass, all important emblems of the tribe’s heritage, the Citizen Potawatomi tree is trimmed in purple lights and garland, a tribute to the flowers of the trailing arbutus, a plant from the nation's ancestral homelands in the Great Lakes Region.

The Cherokee Nation holiday evergreen is topped with a striped turban like the one favored by the legendary Sequoyah, while the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes' tree is capped with a miniature model of a traditional Wichita grass house. Topped with a teepee, the base of the Ponca Tribe's evergreen is draped with a red skirt dotted with cone-shaped jingle dress bells.

The Caddo Nation tree topper is an angel wearing a traditional hair ornament called a dush-toh, with the ribbons from it spiraling down and draping the branches. Clay ornaments created by acclaimed Caddo pottery Chase Kahwinhut Earles and his daughter, Elizabeth BahNoos Earles, also are nestled among the boughs.

"When I was first asked if I could participate with the Caddo Nation Christmas tree ... I set up a couple of different workshops to create some of these ornaments, like the dush-tohs that are hanging down. So, there's children's work on this tree as well as elders'," said Hawkins, who is president of Red Earth's board of directors.

"Every year, I try to add to it, like I found the alligators this year."

This year, her son and his fiance helped Hawkins deck out the tree in Caddo style.

"I always enjoy it every year when I come out with her," said Hawkins' son, Jay Hawkins. "It's fun to put a little creativity into it."

RED EARTH TREEFEST

• When: Through Dec. 29.

• Where: Red Earth Art Center, south lobby of BancFirst Tower, 100 N Broadway Ave.

• Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays.

• Holiday Open House: 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Nov. 29.

• Admission: Free

• Information: https://redearth.org/pages/treefest.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC's Red Earth TreeFest celebrates Christmas in Native American style