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HomeCommunityMCL Osage Detachment #669 delivers record number of toys this holiday season

MCL Osage Detachment #669 delivers record number of toys this holiday season

Members of the Marine Corps League Osage Detachment #669, from left: Paul Bemore, Commandant John Henry Mashunkashey, Ahnawake Mashunkashey, Jaime Clark, Robert Wells and Chuck Galipau. SHANNON SHAW DUTY/Osage News

It was a very busy holiday season for the Marine Corps League Osage Detachment #669. This year they received a record number of toys from the Toys for Tots Foundation and were able to give toys to every school within the Osage Reservation for the first time.

Thanks to the efforts of its members and networking with Toys for Tots Foundation President/ CEO, Marine Lt. Gen. (Ret.) James B. Laster, the Osage Detachment will begin working on recruiting more tribal nations within Oklahoma to join Toys for Tots.

In past years, the MCL Osage Detachment has assisted with Toys for Tots efforts at the Broken Arrow-based Marine unit and then obtained toys to distribute within the ON reservation to children in need.  

John Henry Mashunkashey, MCL Osage Detachment Commandant, said this year they applied to join the Native American division of the Toys for Tots Foundation and the Osage were accepted. On Dec. 10, Toys for Tots sent a truck to the MCL Osage Detachment.

Mashunkashey said they were preparing to receive the toys and setting up signs for the 11 public schools within the ON reservation, and the Nation’s schools when it occurred to him that they might need more help.

“They didn’t say how big of a truck, or if the truck would be full, whether it was a small or a big truck, just that they were sending a truck,” Mashunkashey said with a laugh. “Then a semi-truck pulled in with a 53-foot trailer and 26 pallets inside stacked to the ceiling. We couldn’t even get them in the door.”

They called in reinforcements and the Osage Nation Tribal Works department came as well as a crew from the City of Pawhuska. Together, they managed to get the pallets out of the truck and into a building at the Osage County Fairgrounds.

To help sort toys and make deliveries, MCL Detachment members were there and the American Legion Motorcycle Riders. For four days they delivered toys to every school on the reservation for children in grades Kindergarten through 8th grade, complete with Santa Clause suits.

Mashunkashey said the MCL Osage Detachment is the only Marine Corps detachment in Oklahoma formed by a tribal nation and was chartered in 1988 by WWII veterans. There are over 70 members and each one is Osage, he said.

“Gen. Laster wants us to be the lead program in the state of Oklahoma in getting all the tribes toys,” Mashunkashey said. “So, we’re working with the 1st Sergeant in Broken Arrow to work with every tribe in Oklahoma. Not only that, but he also wants to go nationwide and have us be the lead program. I don’t know how we’re going to do that, but we’ll do our best.”

The Marine Toys for Tots program dates back to 1947. The Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, an IRS-recognized 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit charity, was established in 1991 at the behest of the Marine Corps to help run and support the Marine Toys for Tots Program, according to the Toys for Tots website.

For more information on the Marine Toys for Tots program, including ways to donate toys or money and to locate local campaigns nationwide, visit its website at www.toysfortots.org


By

Shannon Shaw Duty


Original Publish Date: 2021-12-30 00:00:00

Shannon Shaw Dutyhttps://osagenews.org

Title: Editor

Email: sshaw@osagenation-nsn.gov

Twitter: @dutyshaw

Topic Expertise: Columnist, Culture, Community

Languages spoken: English, Osage (intermediate), Spanish (beginner)

Shannon Shaw Duty is the editor of the Osage News. She is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma with a bachelor's degree in Journalism and a master's degree in Legal Studies, Indigenous Peoples Law from the OU College of Law. She served on the Board of Directors for the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA) from 2013-2016 and served as a board member and Chairwoman for the Pawhuska Johnson O’Malley Parent Committee from 2017-2020. She is a Chips Quinn Scholar, a former instructor for the Freedom Forum’s Native American Journalism Career Conference and the Freedom Forum’s American Indian Journalism Institute. She is a former reporter for The Santa Fe New Mexican. She is a 2012 recipient of the Native American 40 Under 40 from the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development (NCAIED). In 2014 she helped lead the Osage News to receive the Elias Boudinot Free Press Award, NAJA’s highest honor. An Osage tribal member, she and her family are from the Grayhorse District. She currently resides in Pawhuska, Okla., with her husband and six children.
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