PETILIKE TE'MTA GEKEKE
My Background
Hito! My name is Talon Silverhorn. I was born on the territory of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, and lived there all my life until I moved to work for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Growing up, I always had a bow in my hand! My first targets may have been toys, but little did I know how much of my life would be linked to this wonderful tool. The people around me pushed me forward, made my arrows, fixed my string, and taught me to be patient and persistent.
History in Motion
Growing up, I participated in our traditional events, ceremonies, and dances. Rain or shine, the incredible resilience of our culture has no better display than an elder enduring the Oklahoma heat to watch the young ones dance. I worked my summer jobs at the Tribe in the language department, taking language classes, and helping the younger ones. When I moved to work at Williamsburg, a whole new opportunity for sharing our culture was opened to me! The environment, the mindset, the energy that surrounds the living history community is truly astonishing. In this new venue I saw the tools I needed to reach a larger audience, to help tell OUR story, the way it was told to me!
Living Culture
Today there are over 500 federally recognized Tribes in the United States, and the county in Oklahoma where I was born has the highest concentration of tribes in the country. Having traveled across the nation, and to Canada, for me it has become abundantly clear that the absence of Native voices has resounding consequences. Native Americans exist in American history as a footnote, and in the minds of many people, exist only in the past and on the screen. Historical arts may seem an odd way of helping people understand who we are today, but they are more closely intertwined than one may think...