1931 Class of Chilocco

The Life of Two Chilocco Students

After I sent the Chilocco students pictures out one of my readers said he wondered about the outcome of the lives of these hopeful looking people.

The stories I'm sure are there and could be told by their descendants. For my part my Mother, Velma Pensoneau Jones and Ed Pensoneau are the only ones of whom I can speak.

Velma is the girl who is wearing the white coat and is sitting on the front row of the orchestra picture. Her brother Edward is in the background playing the trombone. He is also pictured in the annual staff photograph and in the senior's

graduating class.

Edward came home and attended Northern Oklahoma College at Tonkawa. He played football and often walked approximately 10 miles home after practice.

His health broke and he had to go to a sanitarium at Shawnee, Oklahoma. He was cured but had to live the rest of his life with only one lung.

In spite of this he was an active member of his tribe and served on the council. His skills with office work gave him the opportunity to draft many of the documents necessary to present to Washington, D.C. Ed educated his children well. One son graduated from Harvard, another from Oklahoma University and another daughter graduated from O.U., as well.

As he aged it was not unusual to see him caring for a small group of his grandchildren. Some even made the comment, "Ed Pensoneau was a saint."

If sainthood requires dedication to family and loved ones certainly he would have qualified.

Velma, my mother, worked tirelessly throughout her life for her family and tribe. There were hundreds at her funeral and many testified to the help she had given them.

Mother never gave up with her help for my handicapped daughter. Her dedication to any and all therapy and her support throughout a lifetime is just a matter of record now.

Mother and Dad's sons were all successful in their work. Two of her sons made great contributions to the state in the way of road and bridge building. Cutting through dense back land country to push a shining strip of concrete through for a road seemed easy work for them. Conservation in the way of planting of trees along roadways, dams and towns was part of their work.

One son has been a successful producer of documentaries one of them being the producing of "The Trial of Standing Bear." His research in the archives at Washington, D.C. turned up the written material of Tibbles and from that the documentary was produced. This gave our Ponca people along with myself a knowledge and understanding of the history of our people in their own "Trail of Tears."

One documentary narrated by Kevin Kostner was called 500 Nations. It was a beautiful computer documentation and in one place through animation showed the ruins of the Aztecs as they original were.

Of course, these are only a few of the works achieved by Velma's sons.

One daughter worked for Conoco oil and her daughter, Velma's granddaughter, has worked there for many years. She has stayed at that post with unfailing commitment.

Another granddaughter lives in the east and is married to a man who has been successful in his work, as well. That girl's work in supporting her husband and son is exemplary, too.

Not to say there have not been sorrows and heartaches along the way. Every circumstance with life and living experienced to some degree by Ed and Velma, but what has to be noticed was their strength and loyalty to the endeavor in using the education they received early on to give all they could to their God, family, community and country.

For the sake of brevity I will not go into my husband and children's accomplishments but I must say I'm proud of them for not giving up under all adversity but continuing to try and work hard regardless of any setbacks.