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LAWTON, Okla. – For decades, travel agencies and tourism boards have used local Indian tribes in their marketing without giving anything back. The Comanche Nation has found a way to turn that around so the tribes benefit from the tourism by setting up Native Journeys, a company devoted to creating bus tours and working as booking agents for other tribes.
“We are under the arm of Comanche economic development and a couple of the commissioners were really into tourism, so one of them had me draw up a plan to get the business started,” said Geneva Hadley, one of the employees who runs Native Journeys. “We got some money in our budget, they opened a bank account for us about two years ago, and it took us a year of getting our foot in the door, networking, and joining the various organizations, then we started doing our tours.”
With the mission statement “Promoting cultural and traditional awareness through Native American travel and tourism,” the company offers extended tours on the Comanche Tribe’s buses.
“We have many different tour packages. One is the ‘Eastern Trails,’ one is called ‘Lords of the Plains,’ which deals with our area, dealing with the Comanches. We also have ‘Cultural Destinations,’ which also deals with the Comanches down by Amarillo; and we have ‘Western Native Trails.’ Last year we did a tour called ‘Northern Exposure,’ and that was our tour to the Northwest territory, like Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota – that was a nine day tour. We have anywhere from 15 to 40 people per tour.” They offer one tour that is based around the Oklahoma casinos, but all of the others are site-seeing tours.
“We customize tours also,” said Ruth Toahty, the other person in charge of Native Journeys. “A couple of months ago, we did a tour for the educators of the American Cancer Society. It was a cultural tour of our area called ‘Crossing the Tribal Paths,’ which was very interesting, as it dealt a lot with Fort Sill.
“We are also offering customized tours for other tribes. We have been to Eastern Oklahoma to try to partner with the Chickasaws, the Choteaus, and the Cherokees, and we have also been trying to get the tribes around here to get involved, because there doesn’t seem to be that much tourism in our area. Not that many people seem to understand how to go about starting tourism. We have had to learn that path ourselves, which is why it took us a year to get our foot in the door.
“We are in the Great Plains area and we’re trying to work with them to get a package going that is not just Native culture, it’s all types of tourism; but when it comes to Native culture, that’s when we come in. Right now with the summer months, we also work on travel accommodations. We’re working directly with the tribes to make travel arrangements for their conferences and personal vacations, so we do all of that too, like a travel agent.”
“Our ultimate goal is international travel, to bring international travelers to Oklahoma,” Hadley said. “We’re just starting to get our foot in the door, but with budget cuts, it’s been really hard to move forward, but we‘ll get there.”
“We are under the arm of Comanche economic development and a couple of the commissioners were really into tourism, so one of them had me draw up a plan to get the business started,” said Geneva Hadley, one of the employees who runs Native Journeys. “We got some money in our budget, they opened a bank account for us about two years ago, and it took us a year of getting our foot in the door, networking, and joining the various organizations, then we started doing our tours.”
With the mission statement “Promoting cultural and traditional awareness through Native American travel and tourism,” the company offers extended tours on the Comanche Tribe’s buses.
“We have many different tour packages. One is the ‘Eastern Trails,’ one is called ‘Lords of the Plains,’ which deals with our area, dealing with the Comanches. We also have ‘Cultural Destinations,’ which also deals with the Comanches down by Amarillo; and we have ‘Western Native Trails.’ Last year we did a tour called ‘Northern Exposure,’ and that was our tour to the Northwest territory, like Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota – that was a nine day tour. We have anywhere from 15 to 40 people per tour.” They offer one tour that is based around the Oklahoma casinos, but all of the others are site-seeing tours.
“We customize tours also,” said Ruth Toahty, the other person in charge of Native Journeys. “A couple of months ago, we did a tour for the educators of the American Cancer Society. It was a cultural tour of our area called ‘Crossing the Tribal Paths,’ which was very interesting, as it dealt a lot with Fort Sill.
“We are also offering customized tours for other tribes. We have been to Eastern Oklahoma to try to partner with the Chickasaws, the Choteaus, and the Cherokees, and we have also been trying to get the tribes around here to get involved, because there doesn’t seem to be that much tourism in our area. Not that many people seem to understand how to go about starting tourism. We have had to learn that path ourselves, which is why it took us a year to get our foot in the door.
“We are in the Great Plains area and we’re trying to work with them to get a package going that is not just Native culture, it’s all types of tourism; but when it comes to Native culture, that’s when we come in. Right now with the summer months, we also work on travel accommodations. We’re working directly with the tribes to make travel arrangements for their conferences and personal vacations, so we do all of that too, like a travel agent.”
“Our ultimate goal is international travel, to bring international travelers to Oklahoma,” Hadley said. “We’re just starting to get our foot in the door, but with budget cuts, it’s been really hard to move forward, but we‘ll get there.”
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