TVLSE, Oklv. – This year’s Muscogee (Creek) Nation Living Legends Ceremony featured a brand new category. The second set of awards that were given out at the ceremony was the Chief’s Choice Awards, which have the same criteria as the Living Legends, but are chosen by the chiefs.
The first person to receive a Chief’s Choice Award was Jimmie Carole Fife Stewart, a Muscogee citizen originally of the Tukvpvtce Tribal Town and the Raccoon Clan. Jimmie is a dedicated artist who uses her work to depict Native American culture and the MCN, having been inspired by her upbringing and by the stories, traditions, and culture of her tribe. Her art has been put on display at various locations around the United States, including the Daybreak Star Art Center in Seattle, WA, the Robins Air Force Base Museum in Macon, GA, the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport’s Native American exhibit in Atlanta, GA and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. She also enjoys attending events, both local and national, with her family, including her sisters who are artists as well. These include the Southeastern Art Show and Market in Tishomingo, OK, the Mvskoke Art Market in Tulsa, OK, the Artesian Arts Festival in Sulphur, OK, the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM, and the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, also in Santa Fe, NM.
“I want to thank my family. My brothers and sisters, my daughters, my grandchildren, my great-grandchildren, my nieces, nephews, cousins, friends, and everyone for the help,” Stewart said. “The love, and the encouragement on my journey… As a child, my dream was to be Jim Thorpe when I grew up. I feel like I have finally made it. I did not become Jim Thorpe, but now I’m a living legend, and I am Jimmie Stewart.”
The next recipient of the Chief’s Choice Award was Roy Roberts, a full-blood Muscogee citizen who has worked as a rancher and welder for decades. A U.S. Army veteran, Roy’s greatest achievement was his work on a set of softball fields, a rodeo arena, and a fence around 57 acres for the Muscogee Nation. He supervised 30 welders and workers from 1982 to 1984, completing what would become known as the Claude Cox Omniplex. He and his family are still very active in the community, participating in the MCN Rodeo ever since its establishment following the rodeo’s construction, and is proud to have been a part of it. He would also play a key role in bringing back the All-Indian Rodeo to the Muscogee Nation, turning the tribe’s rodeo into a national icon.
“I don’t speak too good, but I want to thank my grandson for nominating me, and all my family for being here. My kids, my grandkids, my great-grandkids, my nieces and nephews. Mvto.” Roberts said in a brief speech.
Justice Douglas L. Combs, the last recipient of the Chief’s Choice Award, is an Oklahoma judge and a proud citizen of the Muscogee Nation. He has served as a Special Judge, District Judge, and Chief Judge for the Twenty-Third Judicial District, where he oversaw the first drug court in the Twenty-Third District and the fourth drug court in the state of Oklahoma. He has served on the Oklahoma Supreme Court since 2011. He served as Vice Chief Justice from 2015 to 2016 and Chief Justice from 2016 to 2018. Outside of his capacity as a judge, he continues to care for and maintain an interest in the land held by his grandmother, Beulah Doyle, who was an original allottee under the Dawes Act.
“I appreciate this honor more than you know,” Combs said. “I become very emotional when I talk about family, and this day has made me think so much of my grandmother, and my great-grandmother who I never knew, but who I heard through the years to get her daughter, my grandmother, on the Dawes rolls. She was proud to be a member of the Muscogee Nation. I am proud to be a member of the Muscogee Nation.”
