SAPULPA -- Kenneth Anquoe, Kiowa Indian and one of Oklahoma's foremost Indian ceremony organizers, died Sunday. He was 68.
Anquoe's lifelong goal was to keep Indian youth from forgetting their customs and lifestyle.
Beginning with backyard performances, Anquoe's dream grew into the Tulsa Powwow. More than 1,000 dancers from the United States and Canada attended this year's Powwow at Mowhawk Park.
He revived the Kiowa Black Legging Warrior Society for veterans. The society dates back to the 1700s.
Anquoe was honored earlier this month at his bedside in St. Francis Hospital for a lifetime of achievements for his people. Awards came from Kiowa, Cherokee and Creek nations.
Born in an Indian mission near Anadarko and raised in Mountain View, Anquoe was called Pre-Toin-Ahn-Oy, which means "man with many spears."
Anquoe attended Riverside Indian School in Anadarko, Mountain View High School and Bacone College in Muskogee.
He emerged as a talented athlete at Mountain View as the football team's quarterback, a basketball guard, baseball pitcher and 10.2-second man in the 100-yard dash.
During college Anquoe took up boxing. He was a member of the boxing team at the University of Oklahoma, where he studied art. In 1941, he joined the Tulsa Boxing Club and won the state Golden Glove championship the same year.
Anquoe continued boxing in the 3rd Marine Division boot camp, training under pro Barney Ross. Anquoe spent 27 months overseas during World War II, fighting in battles at Bougaineville and Guam.
After the war, he returned to Oklahoma and in 1953 joined the W.R. Holway & Associates engineering firm as an accountant.
In 1957, he produced and directed T-Town Tom-Tom show.
Anquoe organized the Tulsa Powwow, which has become the largest Indian gathering in the state and the Tulsa Pow-Wow Club, the first in the state. He served on the Indian Affairs Commission, which he and Dewey Bartlett formed to help urban Indians in Oklahoma City and Tulsa.
In 1978, Anquoe was named by former mayor Jim Inhofe to the Ad Hoc Committee on Citizen Participation.
A few hours before his death, according to a family member, Anquoe said, "I finally know what I want to be. I want to be a star so I can watch over everybody and show them the way."
Rosary services are scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday in Fitzgerald's Ivy Chapel, Tulsa. Mass will be noon Tuesday at Christ the King Catholic Church, Tulsa. Fitzgerald Funeral Service is handling arrangements.
Survivors include a son, William Kenneth Anquoe; stepson, Scott Williams Bradshaw; step-daughter, Alice Ann Allen; brothers Truman, Jack, Gerald, Leonard and James Anquoe; sisters Marjorie and Mary Ann Anquoe and Anita George.
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