Strong Warriors

My Story

Where I Come From, My parents’ story, & The Origins of My Story

Everyone has a story. My story is directly correlated to my parents’ story. Before I can tell you my story I must first tell you part of their story. My mom and dad were both born in Oklahoma. My mom is from the Carnegie and Fort Cobb area and is an enrolled tribal member of the Kiowa Tribe, but she is also a ¼ Cheyenne & Arapaho. My dad was from the Lawton area and was an enrolled tribal member of the Comanche Tribe, but he was also ½ Muscogee Creek. When my parents reached their teenage years, they were both shipped off to boarding school to attend high school. They attended Chilocco Indian School, which was a Native American agriculture boarding school in Oklahoma near the border of Kansas. That is where the met and began their courtship. My dad was older and as soon as he graduated he signed up to be apart of the Relocation Act. The Relocation Act was a law passed in 1956 that was meant to take Native Americans away from their homelands and reservations and get them to relocate to major metropolitan cities in order to assimilate Natives into main stream American culture and modern-day life.  My parents were part of the Relocation Act in the late 1960’s. They left Oklahoma and headed out west to Los Angeles, California. With no family, no roots, and no idea what to expect my parents lived, worked, and made a life for themselves out in beautiful southern California for over 35 years. During that time, I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California.

Now, I can tell you my story. I am a first-generation relocation baby. When I was born my dad wanted me to have my own unique one of a kind name. He did not want me named after no one. He wanted me to walk my own path, to be my own man, and to create my own destiny. So, when I was born he asked, ‘Buster’ who was a Comanche Elder and well-known renowned Comanche Linguist to come up with the spelling and pronunciation of my name. My name is Toqua-Hanai Ticeahkie. My name is in the Comanche language. I was born at noon time. In my tribe that is the time of day when people come out of peyote meetings. A peyote meeting is a ceremony where people pray and sing throughout the entire night. When the prayers have been made, the songs have been sung, and the peyote meeting is over the people come out of the teepee and say, “Toqua-Hanai” or “Toqua-Naha” depending on the type of Comanche dialect they speak. The reason why they say that is because when they come out of the peyote meeting the sun is straight up, shinning down, there are no clouds in the sky, the birds are chirping, and regardless of what you are praying for or going through in life the fact is you have just made peace with God Almighty The Creator, and anytime that happens, it is “always good” or “just right”. That is what my name means, that is what my name represents, and “always good” or “just right” has been my life truth.