OKMULGEE, Okla.- A new contest will begin its inaugural competition this year during the Muscogee Nation Festival 2025. Mvskoke Foodways is a collaboration between the College of the Muscogee Nation Extension Program and the MCN Native Youth Community Project, and will include art, traditional food, photography, and plants.
The contest is open to Native Americans, with separate divisions for adults and youth. There are nine categories in total: o’safke, pvrko afke (grape dumplings), taklik-kvmokse (sour cornbread), traditional dish and recipe (recipe must be included), apron making, art (all mediums), photography, plant (house/flower) and plant (food/crop).
Contest entrants may enter two per category. The art and photography category must reflect their theme: Restoring our Ancestral Ways. Submissions are due by June 27 at noon at the Safe Space Facility in Okmulgee, and winners will be announced at 2 p.m.
CMN Curriculum Specialist Courtney Natseway (Mvskoke/Yakama/Laguna Pueblo) and CMN Extension Coordinator Chris Azbell (Mvskoke) worked with MCN Native Youth Community Project (NYCP) Curriculum Specialist Cassandra Thompson (Mvskoke). Because the CMN Extension Program is tasked with promoting traditional ecological knowledge, sustainable agriculture, and language, the team wanted the theme to align with work they do.
“Cassandra was also hyper focused on bringing back and creating those cultural teachers. We just thought it was a natural thing for us to do something around that theme, we’re restoring our ancestral relations,” Azbell said.
“It’s like ‘hey let’s remember the past, let’s honor it, let’s embrace it and let’s include it in our everyday lives’ versus just doing it once a year. Let’s get back to having these people in our communities that can teach these things. So this is just a natural thing for us to do,” Azbell said.
One of many reasons the contest was created was to focus on traditional foods. “A lot of people don’t have access to that or it’s usually a special occasion whenever we eat these kinds of things,” Natseway said. “So I think it’ll be fun for the people to come out and experience some of the traditional foods. We have a lot of really talented artists across the tribe, so we wanted to give them a chance to showcase some of their work,”
The team also wanted to create a public event similar to the fun in state fair competitions. “We just wanted to create our own Mvskoke version of those exhibits,” Natseway said.
Citizens will be able to view the different items that are being judged, and after the judging they will open the food entries for everyone to taste the different dishes. They will also open the full collections that had been submitted for the judging.
“Once food is judged, the space will be opened up to the general public, who will get a chance to taste the various dishes,” Azbell said. Winners in the food categories will receive an apron with the Foodways logo on it. There will also be a People’s Choice Award in food. “Each person will have an opportunity to vote for their favorite dish. The dish that receives the most votes will win.”
Each person entered into the Mvskoke Foodways competition will receive a customized t-shirt that says “Food Maker.” The different categories for the 1st-3rd place will receive ribbons and first place winners will also receive a customized bag. Art winners will receive supplies put together by MCN Youth Services, according to Natseway.
Natseway stated that once the contest is recurring, they would like to publish the traditional food recipes in a cookbook. Thompson came up with the idea of wanting a cookbook of traditional food recipes to show the different ways to cook traditional foods.
The main goal for the Foodways team is to spotlight Mvskoke culture. “It’s promoting traditional and ecological knowledge, promoting the language and building community,” Azbell said. “We think building a community will also drive the language forward as well, just intermixing with like minded people that care about those traditional things so that’s kind of our goal.”
To register for the free competition use the QR code on their flyer or register on their website at extension.cmn.edu.
For more information contact Chris Azbell at 918-549-2861 or cazbell@cmn.edu, or contact Courtney Natseway at 918-549-2862 or cnatseway@cmn.edu.
