James "Sonny" & Janet Littlecrow are well-known for their powwow dance clothing & accessories throughout the United States & Canada. Although most business is done over the internet, they sometimes travel to powwows around Oklahoma & nearby states to set up a vendor booth.
Both Sonny & Janet have served on numerous powwow committees, organized events, cultural workshops & performances for festivals, schools, organizations & scouting groups. They helped create the Native American Heritage Badge program for the Wichita Area Girl Scout Council, & organized a day-long workshop where the girls earned their badges. They are experienced program presenters, having worked with organizations, museums & historical societies in Nebraska & Kansas & Oklahoma, & are available as consultants, event organizers, or for performances.
Sonny
makes the finest quality leather concho belts, concho drags for straight dancers, mens & boys dance bells, mens & womens breastplates & mens bandoliers. His regalia is worn by champion dancers throughout "Indian Country".
Sonny is descended from several Otoe & Missouria chiefs, & is a member of the Arkeketa, Pettit, Dent, Whitehorn & Kihega families. His great-grandfather Wahdusamanee was the last Elk Clan Chief before Oklahoma statehood. Sonny lived at Red Rock with his grandparents Murray & Ella Littlecrow, speaking only the Otoe language until age 5. While often serious, he jokes that "I flunked kindygarten because I couldn't understand English". His "mastery" of English still entertains everyone today. Coming in the back door one day, he innocently warned "Watch out, there's a big brown glucose (recluse) spider out there!" There's never a dull moment around Sonny.
Sonny was adopted as a son by the late Southern Cheyenne chief & artist Archie Blackowl, & also by the late Ted BraveScout, famous Fancy Dancer & drum maker. He sings many Otoe Native American Church songs, & also Otoe & Ponca powwow songs. A Southern Straight dancer, he has served as Head Man Dancer, Head Gourd Dancer, & Arena Director countless times. He has served on many powwow committees, organized & run several powwows himself, & led the Native Pride Dance Troupe of Wichita KS until moving back to Oklahoma.
Sonny was an Air Force jet engine mechanic during the VietNam war, & later a jet engine build-up crew chief at Cessna Aircraft (Wallace Plant) in Wichita KS. He attended Airframe & Powerplant School in Wichita, & studied Integrated Manufacturing Technology, CNC & CADM programming at Wichita Technical College & Wichita State University. He currently works as a precision machinist at an area mining & oil drill bit manufacturing plant.
Janet creates authentic & imaginative pow-wow regalia for dancers of many tribes, including dozens of champion dancers, princesses & members of Native American dance troupes touring world-wide. She has dressed Head Dancers for major powwows including Red Earth, Gathering of Nations, Morongo, Pechanga & others. Her designs are in museum collections & have appeared in a magazine feature. She is currently planning a line of limited edition native-inspired wearable art jackets.
Janet designed & sold her first wedding dress at age 15 & dreamed of becoming the next Bob Mackie. A battle with thyroid cancer changed her plans, & she graduated from Missouri State University with a degree in Computer Information Systems. Still a designer at heart, she continued dressing friends & family in Tulsa OK after college. After working in computer software for 20 years, she & Sonny started Littlecrow Trading Post. She also serves as Vice-Chairman of the Otoe-Missouria Tribe Housing Authority Commission.
Several branches of Janet's family were originally from the eastern Tennessee region of the Cherokee Nation, before the Trail of Tears. Her father descends from the Manus/Manis family, some of whom still retain citizenship in the Cherokee Nation of OK & United Keetoowah Band today. She sings many Cherokee-language church songs & is a Southern Cloth dancer.
Right: Janet's Grampa "Eddy" about 1900, Indian Territory
Below: Janet's "family palace" Great-Grandma was an NDN princess Aaaaye! LOL
Starting Littlecrow Trading Post
Littlecrow Trading Post was started in 2002 in Sonny & Janet's suburban Oklahoma City home. After both were downsized from their jobs during the post-9/11 economic crash, they didn't want to move cross-country for jobs. Since daughter April had recently graduated from college & begun working in Kansas City, Sonny suggested that they cut their overhead by moving back to his childhood home at Red Rock, Oklahoma, headquarters of his 1500-member Otoe-Missouria Tribe. Making a leap of faith, they left their comfortable life
behind & turned their hobby into a business on a shoestring budget.
Both worked as managers at the tribe's casino to pay the bills, until Sonny was hired by an area manufacturer. Janet resigned from the
casino in late 2006 & now runs the business full time.
Sonny & Janet tell others facing a career change in mid-life, that "You can reduce your standard of living but increase your quality of life. Don't let fear keep you from pursuing your dreams, make the sacrifice & just do it!" It was hard to give up so much at first, but they say "we're doing something that really matters to us" & that "making regalia pays rewards that money can't buy."