The Comanche Nation Museum and Heritage Center has a new exhibit celebrating George“Woogie”Watchetaker, a Comanche painter, champion fancy dancer, and tribal elder whose influence reached far beyond Southwest Oklahoma. The exhibit opened Tuesday with a reception where relatives and friends swapped stories about a man who seemed to find a powwow every weekend and who was known for his spirituality and his reputation as a rainmaker. It features dozens of artworks and memorabilia drawn from the museum’s permanent collection as well as outside loans.
The timing is no accident. This weekend brings the Comanche Nation Fair at the tribal complex north of Lawton, and the exhibit gives visitors a chance to connect the celebration to the people who carried these traditions forward. Watchetaker’s family remembers him not just as a multiple-time world and national champion dancer, but as someone who kept Comanche songs alive for the next generation. His grandson, Baliente Herrera, and his nephew, Edmond Nevaquaya, shared those memories at the opening.
If you want to see it, the museum is at 701 NW Ferris in Elmer Thomas Park. Admission is free, and it’s open weekdays and Saturday. Make it a two-stop weekend: the exhibit first, then the fair. Have you been to the Comanche Nation Museum yet, and what would you want to see on display next?
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Local Lawton
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