The Oklahoma City Metro Chickasaw Community Council met on the first Tuesday of March at 6 p.m. for dinner and had its monthly meeting at 7 p.m. The council provided the smoked ham and once again we were blessed with homemade salads, green beans, potatoes, cornbread and desserts! This time to share a meal and visit is priceless to our members. Come join us!

Our speaker, Jeff Case, the Director of the new Chickasaw Small Business Development, was replaced with Bill James, Vendor Development registered with our Minority Business Development. There are presently 230 members and the list is growing. They are given preference over other businesses when our Tribe picks providers of products or services for the many businesses they own.

Mike Wingo, Division of Housing, Alan Elliott, Tribal Health, Jalinda Kelly, Human Services, and Sherri McManus, Services At Large Outreach Coordinator for the Tribal Health Program, were among the guests from the Chickasaw Nation. We appreciate them attending. Linda Giles and Sharon Nelson were also in attendance as our council liaisons to the Nation.

The Governor sent many Chickasaw books, language flash cards and other items for our council to set up as a library. Now our members can check out these books to read and return them for others to enjoy. We are also looking forward to a computer to help our council be better organized as well as reach our members to notify as many as we can of our upcoming events.

The Chickasaw Listening Conference was in Oklahoma City on Tuesday, February 19 through Thursday February 21, 2008. We heard many people report the good time they had visiting with those who traveled from far and near to attend. They made many friends and even met some relatives they didn’t know they had! The conference was a hit and the hospitality of the many red shirted staff was commendable.