SkasdiCon Brings In Many

For the third consecutive year, SkasdiCon was held in Tahlequah on Saturday, Nov. 9. The event is like other comic-book conventions. However, this one has a focus on Indigenous Native American arts and culture as November is Native American Heritage Month.

This year the event moved from the University Center Ballroom at the Tahlequah campus of Northeastern State University to the Chota Conference Center adjacent to the the Cherokee Nation Casino.

Skasdi is a Cherokee slang word that conveys pride, impressiveness, awesomeness, fierceness and feistiness. Panels were held throughout the day. There was even a showing of the Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power dubbed into the Cherokee Language. Cherokee Film and other organizations had booths set up. Artists were showing off their working and people young and older were dressed in cosplay for the event, including myself as I went by Fat Thor.

Special guest included:

Crystle Lightning, a Canadian actress who is an Enoch Cree Nation member and has appeared in Outlander, The Good Doctor and Fancy Dance. She won the 2021 Canadian Screen Award Winner in the Best Actress in a Drama Series
Martin Sensmeier, a member of the Tlingit and Koyukon/Athabaskan tribe of Alaska who has appeared in 1883, Westworld TV show and Yellowstone as well as movies like The Magnificent Seven remake and Wind River.
Dallin Maybee, an artist and performer, who is Seneca and enrolled in Northern Arapaho. He has appeared in Mary Margaret Road Grader and Spirit: The Seventh Fire and had his work included in the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, the Autry Museum, the Heard Museum and the Portland Art Museum.
Elias Gallegos, who is an artist and producer born and raised in Santa Fe who has worked with author George R.R. Martin
Tom Farris, a member of the Cherokee Nation and Otoe-Missouria tribe, and artist whose works have been displayed at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian and other private collections.