Gundown At Trail Dance

The Guns rode into Duncan, Oklahoma on January 16th & 17th to attend the Trail Dance Film Festival and the gang had a wonderful time. The Guns presented themselves as gunsmoke and petticoats, barbed wire and roses and enjoyed spending time with one another watching movies, shopping thrift stores (for outlaw clothes) and gunfighting. The Guns performed Toughest Man in Town and despite and few interruptions they were able to pull the skit off.

Johnny held a vigil at the Sipokni West booth and got a number of leads about possible upcoming movie shots at Sipokni West.

Here's a few pictures of the trail we rode.

A New Trail

On January 5th, 2009 the Guns of Sipokni elected a new posse, a vigilante of sorts to lead them down the trail for the next year.

It will be an exciting year on the open prairie!

Elected to lead the posse we have Bruce Bailey as President. Bruce brings years of experience as one of the original members of the gunfighters from Sipokni West. Bruce also has experience in drama and theater from..."well, let's just say a younger day". Without a doubt Bruce will choose the right path to lead the Guns.

As Vice President we have Jack Howell. Jack brings his no nonsense, even keeled character to light. Jack will tell you rather quickly he doesn't care about the "fifteen minutes of fame" but rather simply wants to have fun playing an old west character.

Elected to the post of Treasurer we have Miss Tammie also known as Tammie Howard. Quite honestly, Miss Tammie has been the work-horse of the Guns since inception and it is reassuring to know that she will be serving the coming year.

Just like Miss Tammie, Miss Sherrie (Sherrie Adams) will also be serving another term as Secretary and she also has done a tremendous amount of work in the past year.

As Sergeant of Arms we have Pete Duffey and Joe Stout. Pete, being an officer of the court, very well knows the safety concerns in handling firearms and Joe Stout, being a member of several gunfighting groups knows the same. The Guns should be reassured with having these two fine outlaws serving in their elected capacities.

A new post created and one we all should be excited about is Club Historian and elected to that post is Lucenda Duffey. Lucenda will do a great job at this post because of her attention to detail and creativity.

The Guns also established three committees which include prop, event, and skit committees. Chairing the prop committee we have Jack Howell. The event committee will be chaired by Miss Tammie, and Jerry Stout will chair the skit committee.

2009 is shaping up to be a great year especially with some new members like John Howard, Val Bailey, Mylinda Stout and most exciting is David Allen will be returning to the Guns in the near future. The year 2009 looks very promising for the Guns of Sipokni and all who love the rich history and heritage of the old west.

Guns Givin' Back For Christmas

The Guns of Sipokni have had a great year in 2008 and met with huge success along with having a lot of fun. We feel lucky and fortunate and as cowboys and cowgirls go they tend to be a giving bunch.

Christmas is just around the upwind on the cattle drive and some months ago the Guns decided to do something special for some group, agency, or individual for Christmas. Several ideas came forward but at our last meeting a very special need came to our attention.

You see, Miss Tammie's and John's daughter is a school marm and in being such she is privy to the lives of the children she teaches. It came to our attention, through this dedicated school marm, that a family in Sulphur has suffered a tragedy and it looks like the children involved will have no Christmas.

But...the Guns are going to make sure that doesn't happen.

Miss Tammie, along with other members of our gunslinging, gunfighting, bawdytown residents are going to saddle up and ride to Sulphur to make sure these young'uns have that wonderment in their eye that so many children have on Christmas morning.

Gunfighters are better known for their rough and rowdy ways...but if we look underneath we'll see the soft hearts that often are hidden by gunsmoke and bullets flying.

Merry Christmas everyone from the Guns of Sipokni.

Guns Packin' Up Saddle Bags

The Guns of Sipokni are packin' their saddle bags and ridin' west toward Duncan, Oklahoma, the Chisolm Trail, and the Trail Dance Film Festival.

The Guns have been invited to not only attend the festival but to do what we do best which is share with the festival goers a part of territorial history in Oklahoma.

We are excited!!!

One of the better movies that will be shown, and the only western we know of, is one called Palo Pinto Gold. In watching the trailer I can tell ya that it looks to be a well done movie with some rather good acting. Since this may be the only western shown at the festival all old west fans should try and attend and give it a rousing applause. Town Mayor Johnny Shackleford will be excited because one of his favorite entertainers in the world - Mel Tillis, stars in the movie. Another notable is country entertainer Roy Clark.

The Trail Dance Film Festival will be January 16th through the 18th. The Guns will be performing at high noon on the 17th at the Simmons Center. The Marlow Gunfighters are bringing their old west town so there should be an excellent setting and backdrop.

Sipokni West and the Guns will have an information booth on the 16th and 17th and we will be trying to make contact with potential film producers for movie production at Sipokni West.

So git ya gear in order and keep ya powder dry because we'll be ridin' west soon.

A Cowboy Christmas

At the gracious invitation of Pete "Pistolero" and Lucenda "Lady Luck" Duffey, the Guns of Sipokni attended a delightful Cowboy Christmas at Pete and Lucenda's home in Sulphur.

Pete, Lucenda and Lucenda's brother Alan went to great strides in giving us a Cowboy Christmas setting constructing time period tents, campfire scenes, and everyone dressed in cowboy-cowgirl fashion.

Thireteen members of the Guns were able to attend but Sipokni West town mayor Johnny unfortunately has to make sure the post office was operating and a couple of other members were also out of pocket. Bruce "Ortho" and Val "Dinker" had to ride out early and they missed a wonderful chuck provided by Pete, Lucenda, and a host of others. Miss Lucenda was so busy trying to get the chuck in order we unfortnately didn't get a photograph of her which is a shame because she looked great in her Christmas Cowgirl costume.

The Guns performed Raw Deal and it had been sometime since we'd practied this skit and we had two new members in Malinda Stout and Val. However, the Guns pulled it off and gave the crowd a few warm hearted laughs.

The Guns of Sipokni have the costuming down and everyone looked great. Each time we get together I notice a subtle change in costuming like Miss Tammie's clump of pheasant tail feathers in her hat and Miss Lucenda also looks wonderful in her vast array of costumes. The whole group is a visual delight.

Tammie and Sherrie are the territorial sisters of the Guns of Sipokni.

Miss Sherrie wondering where her pistol is.

Malinda Stout is one of our newest members and she stepped right up to the plate.

Joe "Little Joe" Stout actually looks more like Hoss.

Jack "Don't mess with me" Howell enjoying some good conversation and sharing a story from years past.

Cheryl "Sassy" Parker being Cheryl "Sassy" Parker.

Cactus Carol Radford becomes Christmas Carol during this time of year.

Sipokni's West own version of Belle Starr Miss Susan.

Guns Entertain Trailriders

The Guns of Sipokni had the pleasure and privilege of entertaining the Purcell Trailriding Club on Saturday, October 18th. The trailriders rode into town from Round Rock Ranch which is south of Sipokni West. Now, it's not for certain if the trailriders knew or not that on that trail they took they rode past some history of the era of the Great Cattle Drives. One of the major cattle drives was the Western Shawnee and one of the fingers of the Western Shawnee crossed at nearby Slippery Falls which is between Round Rock and Sipokni West.

The trailriders were treated to a fine chuck which included smoked brisket, potato salad, Blue River baked beans, hot biscuits, peach cobbler, Miss Lucenda's Mexican cheesecake, and a fine relish tray. Then they were entertained with music from our own Johnny Shackleford.

Of course ya never know what's goin' happen in the old west and it just so happened that the marshal and deputy had a couple of writ's to serve on two of the notorious riders. And, those writs were indeed served.

All in all the trailriders had a good time and said the food was great! The Guns were proud to be part of this gathering on a fine fall day.

Celebrating The Chickasaw Culture

The Guns of Sipokni saddled up and rode into Tishomingo, the historic capital of the Chickasaw Nation, on October 4th to celebrate the great heritage and culture of the Chickasaw Nation. During the week of the Annual Chickasaw Festival an estimated 50,000 people take part in all of the cultural festivities.

The Guns were hosted by the Johnston County Historical Society and these folks do a wonderful job displaying and creating exhibits of past history in the Chickasaw Bank Musuem and the Historical Society building. Personally it was a great week for this gunslinger getting to see some faces I've been missing such as Vickie Luster, Letha Clark, and Mary Jane.

And, of course our lady gunslingers are always looking out for us and they packed the picnic baskets to serve us a most welcomed lunch. Gunslinging does tend to make one hungry.

The Guns performed Raw Deal first and this reenactment is quickly becoming a favorite for the crowd. One gentleman missed the performance and then said, "Shucks, that was the only reason I came down here." Then the Guns performed Toughest Man In Town and just like Raw Deal, Toughest Man is a crowd pleaser for sure.

Then the Guns heard of a disturbance in Pennington Park so they went there to get things under control. It seems the Backwood Gang was coming to town to sell some moonshine and rob the bank. It just happened the Ladies Temperance League was on another crusade to control the vile drink that turn the town men into mush.

The Guns had a wonderful time performing for the crowd and as always our lady gunslingers shined like a diamond in a plowed black dirt field. Their costumes bring so much color, flavor, and diversity to our reenactments it's no wonder many say the Guns of Sipokni are indeed the best performing gunsling troupe they've seen.