Federal initiative helps bring hope to Choctaw Nation, southeast Oklahoma

CLAYTON, Okla. (AP) – Statistically, Choctaw Nation Chief Gary Batton was not set up to succeed.

At 14, his parents divorced. Batton moved from Wichita, Kansas, back to southeast Oklahoma with his father and siblings. But then his father was in a car accident, leaving him largely paralyzed. And then his brother, Joe, died by suicide. It all happened in a year, and it left Batton feeling alone, The Oklahoman reported.

He could have ended up with not much of a life, drinking, not making much of himself.

But teachers in Clayton and local families saw potential. And they pushed him to be better.

“It was people like that that showed they cared and treated me like normal,” Batton said. “Before that, I always felt like I was looked down upon, being poor, and just all those things. That’s personally the reason why I still live in Clayton. That’s the reason why I still believe in southeastern Oklahoma. I’m just your average-day Joe – If Gary Batton can become chief of the Choctaw Nation, there’s no telling what some of our brightest and best youth (can do).”

Batton is tired of seeing young people in southeast Oklahoma face barriers to opportunity. Half of Choctaw Nation members who go to college drop out their freshman year. That, among many other things, has to change, he says.

Last January, the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma was designated by President Barack Obama as one of five Promise Zones, an anti-poverty initiative that provides resources such as grants and tax incentives to help improve conditions in persistently high poverty communities.

The Promise Zone in Oklahoma spans over almost 12,000 square miles of the Choctaw Nation and includes several southeastern Oklahoma counties: Atoka, Bryan, Coal, Choctaw, Haskell, Latimer, Le Flore, McCurtain, Pittsburg and Pushmataha.

Since the Promise Zone initiative started, the Choctaw Nation and its community partners have secured $60 million in grant funding.

The Choctaw Nation’s goals for this region include workforce training, after-school programs and infrastructure investments.

The tribe is the largest employer in southeastern Oklahoma, and its leaders want to use that to their advantage. Leaders say they want to help diversify the economy in this region to provide a range of jobs.

They’re partnering with Oklahoma State University, Eastern Oklahoma State College and the Kiamichi Technology Center in hopes of improving workforce training and providing more certifications in science, technology, engineering and math.

But Sara-Jane Smallwood, the Choctaw Nation’s Promise Zone coordinator, said even without the Promise Zone initiative, the Choctaw Nation still would be investing in the community. The initiative offers them a tool that helps making better the community easier.

“What we’re doing is so much bigger than the Promise Zone,” Smallwood said. “The Promise Zone is a recognition of what we’re doing by the president and by every single federal department and agency. The Promise Zone was awarded to communities that have a unique formula of high poverty but high capacity. ... I know we have a lot of things that are pretty bad, some bad statistics, but I can’t even imagine where we would be if it weren’t for the Choctaw Nation.”   

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Clayton, with a population of about 800 in Pushmataha County, is an example of a town in the region trying to make a difference with the opportunities provided.

Almost 40 percent of children in Pushmataha County live in poverty. The average household income is only $32,350, compared with the state average of $45,720 and the national average of $52,250.

An analysis of U.S. census data, published in USA Today, dubbed it the poorest county in Oklahoma.

In short, it’s a poor county, and many of the residents know that.

“Very few of our students come from homes where both parents have a job because of the availability of those,” Clayton Public Schools Superintendent Randall Erwin said. “And really, here because of the lower income, they both need to work to meet their needs. You have a lot of these students come with a lot needs that are not met at home because of the income barrier.”

And even in the midst of progress, the town faces challenges.

One issue that town leaders have faced in securing Promise Zone grants is that the town of Clayton is about five years behind on its audits.

Clayton is one of several in the 10 counties that aren’t eligible for federal grants until they get their audits up to date.

Clayton Board of Trustees member Janice Ben said this is one of the reasons she got involved in local government.

Ben said she has been on the board since 2013 and still hasn’t heard a good reason why the town got behind. But she’s ready for that to change. She’s ready for a lot to change.

“I got on (the board) because I didn’t like some of the things that was going on,” Ben said.

“We need people who care about the town. I’ll be honest and tell you, for a year, the whole time I’ve been on there, I’ve been preaching to the choir about – let’s clean our town up. Let’s get rid of some of these derelict buildings. Let’s send letters to homeowners, tell them we need to clean up these empty buildings. And the choir’s not listening. And I’m real aggravated.”

Driving into Clayton on State Highway 2, one of the first things visitors see is a boarded-up motel. It’s not far from a small blue sign, welcoming you to Clayton.

Years ago, the Dairy Barn served as a hot spot for locals, kind of like a Sonic Drive-In before those were prevalent throughout the state. It’s now a largely empty plot of grass. Nearby, Mr. C’s sits, dilapidated and unused. At one time, it was a thriving local convenience store.

Ben and other leaders see potential for investment, and Ben is among several who hopes the rumors about the tribe bringing new amenities around Sardis Lake, with 117 miles of shoreline, are true.

“We live in one of the prettiest, most beautiful area of this whole state, and there’s so much we could do,” Ben said. “How we’re going to get it done, I don’t know.”

One major economic factor that can play against a town is whether its residents have access to health care.

Years ago, long before the Promise Zone designation, the town of Clayton’s medical clinic was closing after a hospital operating the clinic determined it wasn’t profitable enough to stay open.

Angie Batton, a nurse at the clinic, worked with other clinic staff to write grants to make sure that clinic stayed open.

For years, they operated in a 3,000-square-foot building, using any and all space they could find to provide health care. At one point, they moved their business office into a feed store across the street.

But today, they operate in a 14,000-square-foot newly constructed building. At the new location, they provide medical care, dental services and behavioral health services. They’re planning to add vision services soon.

They operate on a sliding scale for low-income residents and also take private health insurance, Medicare and Medicaid.

“No one is turned away due to inability to pay, which is what we’re all about,” Batton said. “We want to make sure the people who have never had medical care before because of the cost can actually come here, and we don’t think about it. You come in as you are.”

That’s especially important in a region of Oklahoma with so much preventable illness and death.

One-third of adults in southeast Oklahoma are obese, the highest rate in the state. The region also has the highest number, 85 percent, of adults who report not eating five fruits and vegetables each day.

The region also has the highest rates of heart disease deaths in Oklahoma.

More than one-third of women in southeast Oklahoma ages 50 and older haven’t gotten mammograms. Half of adults ages 50 and older report not having a colonoscopy.

And about one-fourth of women ages 18 and older haven’t regularly gotten their Pap smear, which screens for cervical cancer. Half of the women diagnosed in southeast Oklahoma with cervical cancer were diagnosed in the late stages of the disease, when it’s much more difficult to treat and cure.

Batton is proud of the care they can provide at the clinic, knowing many residents wouldn’t have many other options. It can be hard for some patients to find transportation to the nearest physician, which could be as far as 50 miles away.

“Without health care, you really don’t have anything. If you’re sick all the time, you can’t have jobs,” Batton said. “We’ve seen a lot of dental problems because there has not been dental, and if you have a big toothache, you’re not going to be able to go to work. You’re not going to be able to apply for a job with half your teeth missing. It builds the whole community.”

Luke Tate, special assistant to the president for economic mobility at the White House Domestic Policy Council, said a key reason that the Choctaw Nation was chosen as one of the first Promise Zones in the country is because of how motivated its leaders and local officials were to make change.

“This is predicated upon local leadership,” Tate said. “The federal government did not go out and arbitrarily pick a bunch of Promise Zones across the country.”

Rather, they asked local government officials, educators and faith leaders to work together on shared goals, using evidence-based practices to explain how they would be successful in achieving those goals.

“As opposed to when folks are parachuting in and saying, `This is how it should be done,’ and then the second they’re gone, the efforts are gone, as well,” Tate said.

Local leaders express optimism, albeit with a dose of skepticism at times.

Many officials in the region are on the same page, wanting to see Clayton and Pushmataha County not be the poorest, not have poverty rates well above the national average.

But these initiatives often take time, and sometimes it’s more time than residents and local leaders want to wait.

“Unfortunately, an issue like poverty is not a quick fix,” said Tara Kay Hall, a Rose State College sociology professor who studies poverty. “It’s not going to be fixed in five years, 10 years, maybe even 15 years. This is something that’s going to have to be fought for and held on by generations, essentially, to really get a stronghold and build up the community enough to where it can support itself. And often what we see happen in the U.S. is, we get behind something really good for five or 10 years, and we want immediate results, and we don’t get those results, and we say, `Oh forget that, let’s try something new.’ And we really never gave it a good enough chance to begin with.”

Clayton Vice Mayor Odus Scarberry is somewhat hopeful.

Scarberry, who runs a local tire shop, has noticed more people attending board of trustees meetings. That’s a good and bad thing. More people come, but many complain.

When Scarberry, 45, graduated high school, the population of Clayton was about 1,500.

But over the years, Clayton has seen the scourge of poverty and a lack of investment in the community.

Scarberry was a logger for most of his life. The first time he went into the woods and worked with a logging crew, he was 9.

He bought the tire shop about four years ago. Things have been slow.

Last month was the best he had in four years. This month, business was back to normal.

He hopes, with potential development, that things will pick up.

Rumors circulate about more business coming to town. Maybe a doughnut shop or a place that sells sandwiches.

Scarberry wants to see the town improve and for people to want to come here. But they’ll need jobs first.

When young people graduate high school, they leave, looking elsewhere for jobs and opportunity.

Scarberry hopes that with the investments that residents and the Choctaw Nation continue to make, that will change.

“For being poor, we’re doing pretty good,” Scarberry said.

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Information from: The Oklahoman, http://www.newsok.com