Family heirloom to appear at Coffeyville Gathering 

The dress was made in the 1970s by her great grandmother, Mildren Ahboha.  Ahboha, of the Wichita tribe, danced in the dress at powwows and other celebrations.  She was the only one in the family to have worn the dress, until now.  Ten years after her death, Ahboha’s great granddaughter, Chrystal Talton, will slip into the family heirloom on April 19, 2008 to dance as the Coffeyville Community College (CCC) Princess at the 15^th Annual Coffeyville Gathering and Indian Art Market.

Talton, of Anadarko, Okla., is the second child of Helen Christine Talton and Terry Shawn Talton Sr.  She has two brothers, Terry and Norman and two sisters, Willa and Ebony.  Talton is from the Wichita and Kiowa tribes, as well as Cheyenne Arapaho and Absentee Shawnee.  She and her family have five dogs, a pit bull named Donnie, a South African Borbull named Diamond and Diamonds three puppies. 

Talton has done some traveling including a trip to Washington D.C. for Close Up in high school as well as three summer internships at Dartmouth.

”It was those internships that got me ready for college,” she said.

Talton is earning her Associates Degree at CCC before continuing her education in Sociology.  She hopes to one day be a high school counselor.  Talton was named an Academic All American on the CCC Cross Country team in the fall of 2007 and she is running long distance races on the CCC Track team this spring. 

She enjoys hanging out with her roommate and watching American Idol.