TAHLEQUAH, Okla. — When you talk to Raymond Vann about War Pony Community Outreach, you have to ask the right questions. Vann is not one to bring it up in relation to himself.
The nonprofit organization has helped people in the Cherokee Nation’s 14-county jurisdiction in need of financial help with utility bill payments, diapers, emergency home repairs, appliances, clothing and other resources since it began in 2003 with Vann and a small group of friends and neighbors, including Sioux Smith-Vann, Jack and Catherine Christie, Art Floyd and Sally Williams.
“There was a need for it,” said the U.S. Army veteran. “That was the main thing. We kept getting more calls from people needing stuff.”
The organization, in fact, grew out of Vann’s effort to see that people’s basic needs were met. After a 30-year career with General Motors at its plant in Arlington, Texas, Vann retired in 1995 and returned to Oklahoma. Raised in the Chewey community in Adair County, he and his former wife settled in Tahlequah. When he thinks of Chewey, he remembers fishing and a good life.
“Sometimes it was hard. Most of the time it was good,” he said.
He also remembers the poverty around him and how his grandmother, Tina Gibson, used to help everyone who came to her. She was well known in Chewey, and her work left an impression on him forever.
“I’ve done it (help people) off and on always, and my grandmother used to do it,” he said.
In Tahlequah, he and his former wife came across the same need and decided to do what they could. When friends decided to join their efforts, they formally established the organization and applied for tax exempt status, which it received the following year.
Why “war pony” for the name? Because a warrior takes care of the people, defends them and helps see to their basic need, he said.
Those needs can be anything from a sack of groceries to see a family through until pay day, help to pay medical bills or referrals to agencies for legal advisement. For John Cornsilk, a leak in his roof brought Vann to his home more than eight years ago.
A Cherokee elder and member of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma, Cornsilk first went to the Cherokee Nation for financial assistance to repair the roof. Little came of his appeal to the tribe for help, he said. He then received a call from Vann, who had heard of his situation and offered to do what he could to help.
“He said he wanted to help through his organization and in two weeks, I had a new roof,” Cornsilk said.
In the years of their acquaintance, Cornsilk has donated items for War Pony that went to others who needed assistance and offered his help in other ways.
“I’ve known Raymond for a long time. We’re good friends,” Cornsilk said. “I never got into helping (people), but that’s his life, doing things for people.”
War Pony is run from his home. He stores what donations of goods he receives in a garage. The outreach assists on average between 15-20 individuals every month. Rural living can be hard enough economically where there is little work. In a down economy when jobs can’t open quickly enough, people turn to organizations like War Pony for assistance. And War Pony helps everyone whether they are Cherokee or of another tribe or of no tribe at all. It’s even aided people living in other states.
Cornsilk said Vann has been known to dig into his own pockets when War Pony’s funds are inadequate.
Vann said the organization is getting more aid from the Cherokee Nation, but private donations make up 75 percent of what it takes in.
War Pony is a full-time job, keeping him busy most days of the week, either working on houses, picking up donated appliances and answering calls from people in need.
In 2011 he ran for Cherokee Nation deputy chief, a natural step. The loss of that election, however, hasn’t kept him organizing Christmas toy drives for the children (500 last year, 1,000 this year) or from thinking of solutions to create more jobs locally that can sustain and stabilize families.
Why does he do it? Vann said his work through War Pony Community Outreach is an opportunity to get to know others and for him to stay active.
“There’s no need to come home and sit around. Once you do that, you just go downhill,” he said. “There’s always something that needs to be done and a lot of people with needs. I do what I can with what time I have.”
Although resources are limited, Vann, War Pony and its volunteers hope to catch all those people who, as Vann said, fall through the cracks – single-parent families, the elderly and sick or injured.
In 2010, both Vann and Cornsilk were recognized by the American Association of Retired Persons with AARP Indian Elder Honors. Cornsilk was named for his work toward recognition of descendants of the Freedmen in the Tribe. Vann was awarded for taking care of Cherokee people.
“He’ll go out of his way if he sees you need something,” Cornsilk said.
Vann isn’t after awards.
“It’s not about trying to make myself look good or make me feel good,” he said. “But it does make me feel good to see someone, the look on their face.”
To contact or make a donation to, call (918) 458-9095.
Raymond Vann of Tahlequah, Okla. , smiles while discussing his nonprofit organization that helps people in the Cherokee Nation’s jurisdiction.
KAREN SHADE | NATIVE AMERICAN TIMES PHOTO