Indigenous Roots 2026: Look What We Created Together! ❤️
Three days. More than 300 participants. Ten community beneficiaries. And a whole lot of community love!
From October 2-4, Native families, artists, storytellers, organizations and allies gathered across Tulsa for the third annual Indigenous Roots Community Summit.
This year, we expanded beyond a single venue, bringing activities into community spaces across Tulsa for three days of culture, history, learning, laughter and connection.
And our community showed up!
More than 300 people participated in this year's gathering, from the opening celebration at Indian Health Care Resource Center and the Memory and Connection on the Mother Road art exhibition to our first sold-out Benefit Dinner and Sunday's Family Fun Day at Veterans Park.
But Indigenous Roots was about more than just one weekend.
Together, we created new resources, shared stories, supported Native-serving organizations and started conversations we hope will continue growing long after the summit.
We're excited to share some of what we accomplished together!
READ OUR FULL INDIGENOUS ROOTS RECAP
VIEW THE INDIGENOUS ROOTS 2026 GALLERY
What We Heard From Our Community
We are thankful for everyone who completed our post-event survey and shared their experiences.
Your feedback helps us understand what's working and where we can continue to improve.
Among our 30 survey respondents:
- 20 discovered a Native organization, business, artist, resource or opportunity they hadn't known about before.
- All 30 said they would probably or definitely recommend Indigenous Roots to someone else.
- 29 reported either making a connection they plan to collaborate on or seeing a possible future collaboration.
One attendee shared:
"This was a great weekend for networking & discovering new locations. My family is thankful for experiences like this that our whole family can attend."
We're still collecting feedback about scheduling, traveling between venues and creating more opportunities for participation. And your input will help us make Indigenous Roots 2027 even better.
Explore Native Tulsa: A New Guide to Our Community
One of the projects we're especially excited to share is our new Explore Native Tulsa Guide 🌺
Developed by Crosswinds News in collaboration with Summerhead Creative, this free guide invites residents and visitors to experience Tulsa through a Native lens.
From historical landmarks and cultural spaces to Native businesses, public art and community gathering places, the guide encourages people to discover the Native presence woven throughout Tulsa.
Whether you're a lifelong Tulsan or visiting for the first time, we hope this guide inspires you to explore somewhere new, learn something about our shared history and support the people and places that make Native Tulsa special.
And unlike the summit, you can enjoy the guide year-round.
ACCESS THE FREE EXPLORE NATIVE TULSA GUIDE
New Videos: Sharing Our Time Together
Inside Tulsa’s Tribal Policy Work: An Update + Q&A with Amanda Swope | Indigenous Roots 2026
How is the City of Tulsa working to strengthen relationships with Tribal Nations and support Tribal sovereignty? Amanda Swope, Director of Tribal Policy and Partnerships for the City of Tulsa, hosted a virtual discussion about the city's ongoing efforts to improve government-to-government relationships with Tribal Nations.
Walking in Balance: Culture, Wellness & Resilience | Indigenous Roots 2026
How can Indigenous cultural teachings help us build healthier lives, strengthen our communities and heal from intergenerational trauma? Abraham Bearpaw, creator of Walking in Balance, and Dr. Alexa Barnes, psychologist and holistic health educator, for a presentation exploring the connection between Cherokee cultural teachings, modern science and holistic wellness.
These sessions are part of our ongoing commitment to documenting and sharing Native resources. We hope you'll take a few minutes to watch and share them!
Beyond the Ballot: What's Next, Indian Country?
Indigenous Roots isn't only about celebrating our communities. It's also about creating space to listen, learn and explore how we can work together to address issues affecting Native people in Oklahoma.
During this year's summit, Crosswinds hosted the first community conversation in our What's Next, Indian Country? series, building on our Beyond the Ballot: Native Engagement in Oklahoma research.
Our original research gathered perspectives from more than 70 Native respondents about community engagement, representation and the issues that matter to them.
On October 2, 14 participants joined us for a community lunch to discuss their experiences, share priorities and explore ways Native people can have a greater voice in decisions affecting their communities.
And the conversation is just getting started.
With support from the National Issues Forums Institute's Spark Grant program, we're continuing this work through two more community discussions and opportunities to turn shared ideas into community action.
Whether you participated in our original research, joined us for lunch or are just learning about this project, we hope you'll be part of the conversations ahead.
READ CROSSWINDS' BEYOND THE BALLOT REPORT HERE
And watch for upcoming What's Next, Indian Country? community conversations and ways to participate.
Ten Community Beneficiaries, One Shared Celebration ❤️
This year's Indigenous Roots Benefit Dinner was a special milestone.
For the first time in our three-year history, the dinner sold out! Guests enjoyed an evening of community, a delicious meal from Nātv, an inspiring Love as Medicine keynote from Dr. Michelle Johnson-Jennings and plenty of laughter with Full Blood Productions' Rezzy Jams comedy show.
Most importantly, the evening gave us an opportunity to support the organizations that helped make Indigenous Roots possible.
Thanks to our guests, donors and supporters, the dinner generated $2,172.34 in proceeds to be shared among 10 community beneficiaries.
We want to recognize and celebrate each of them:
- Burning Cedar Sovereign Wellness
- Carabelle's Legacy
- Center for Public Secrets
- Crosswinds News
- Four Locv Indigenous Arts
- Four Mothers Collective
- Indian Health Care Resource Center
- Lucinda Hickory Research Institute
- Walking In Balance
- Words of the People
Each organization contributes something important to our community, whether through arts and culture, wellness, education, research, storytelling or spaces for people to gather and connect.
Our community is stronger when we support one another, and that doesn't have to end when Indigenous Roots is over.
We encourage everyone to continue supporting these organizations, exploring their programs, visiting their spaces and sharing their work.
During the Indigenous Roots Benefit Dinner, we also had the opportunity to debut our Tulsa Indian Youth Center exhibit at our wonderful venue, the Museum of Tulsa History!
The exhibit explores the Tulsa Indian Youth Center’s role in the Native community during the 1970s, highlighting the people, stories and experiences that made it an important gathering place for Native youth in Tulsa.
Some of those featured in the exhibit were even in attendance that night!
Thank you to community member Elisa Hopinka for helping to create our 5-panel exhibit. Be on the lookout for its next location - coming soon.
We couldn't have brought this year's Indigenous Roots Community Summit to life without the generosity of sponsors who believed in our vision for a more connected Native community.
Thank you to Tinker Federal Credit Union, Muscogee Nation Businesses, the Anne & Henry Zarrow Foundation, Osage Casinos, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oklahoma and Enbridge for their support.
We're also grateful to the Pawnee Nation Housing Department and Pawnee Tribal Development Corporation for their contributions.
These sponsors helped make three days of cultural programming, community learning, family activities and celebration possible.
We appreciate their investment in our community and for helping create opportunities for Native people and families to connect.
The People Who Made It Happen
A three-day summit across multiple community spaces doesn't happen without a whole lot of people working behind the scenes.
This year's Indigenous Roots was truly a collaborative effort, guided by a planning committee of Native community members and allies who contributed their ideas, time, relationships and expertise over several months.
We are incredibly grateful to our Indigenous Roots Planning Committee, as well as the speakers, artists, performers, volunteers, vendors, venue hosts and community members who shared their talents and helped make this year's gathering possible.
(Some but not all of our Indigenous Roots volunteers!)
From helping plan activities and opening community spaces to setting up tables, welcoming guests, sharing stories and cleaning up afterward, every contribution mattered.
MEET OUR INDIGENOUS ROOTS PLANNING COMMITTEE
And special thanks to:
- The Indian Health Care Resource Center for providing space for our Indigenous Roots Kickoff event!
- The Center for Public Secrets for donating their space for our Indigenous Roots weekend!
- Nathalie Standingcloud for creating this year's beautiful Indigenous Roots artwork!
- Haute Press Consulting for helping to create our Indigenous Roots Passport Book!
- Wild Things, LLC for crafting our beautiful dinner center pieces!
- Coracle Coffee for donating coffee throughout the weekend!
The Connections Don't End Here
As we reflect on Indigenous Roots 2026, we're reminded that the greatest impact of a gathering like this isn't measured only by attendance or the number of activities offered - it's found in the connections we make and the community we build together.
We hope you'll keep exploring Native Tulsa, sharing the resources we created, supporting our community partners and joining conversations about the future.
From all of us at Crosswinds News, mvto/wado/nawa iri for being part of Indigenous Roots 2026!
The Crosswinds News Team ❤️
Carrying stories from the heart of Indian Country.
