Oklahoma Nonprofit Opens New Building to Help Formerly Incarcerated Tribal Members

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (KOKH) — An Oklahoma City nonprofit called Native Wings Like An Eagle held a grand opening for the building the organization will now operate out of.

The organization helps enrolled tribal members coming out of incarceration with reintegration services like finding housing, food and employment.

Native Wings Like An Eagle’s founder and executive director Melvin Battiest was convicted of first-degree murder in 1985 and sentenced to life in prison.

In 2020, the Supreme Court’s decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma meant that the state no longer has criminal jurisdiction over crimes committed by Native Americans in Indian Country. This resulted in Battiest being released from state prison. He then entered a guilty plea in federal court to one count of felony murder. He was released from federal prison in 2021.

Now, he has formed an organization focused on helping Native Americans with the difficulties of reintegration he experienced after being released from incarceration.

“To do this, this is gonna help us help those who don’t get any assistance because they live off the reservation, and when they don’t get no assistance they either go homeless, they reoffend and go back to prison or they commit suicide,” Melvin said.

Michael Haney said he is a member of the Seminole Mississippi Choctaw tribe and has been out of prison for about a year. He said he was able to get resources through the organization.

“Personally it has helped a lot. There were times when I felt that I wasn’t gonna be able to find my next meal, and with him helping me get back on my feet I was able to get the things that I needed to be able to carry on,” Haney said.

J Paul McHenry said he is a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation and said when he came out of prison he was living in a hotel. McHenry said the organization helped him find a place to live and paid for two months of his rent.

“Everywhere you call says well you need to apply for Section 8. That takes time,” he said. “What am I gonna do between here and then? Well then I’m either forced to go stay places that there’s drugs and alcohol being consumed or sold, and I’m back to where I was before and you know it’s not gonna be long and you’re lucky if you end up going to jail. You might end up dead this time.”

Native Wings Like An Eagle has been an organization for more than a year, but Saturday was the grand opening of its new building. It was previously ran out of the founders’ home.

“They can come in here we just wrap our wings of eagles around them basically and we give them comfort. We give food. We give clothes. We want to make them feel that they’re worth something because they’re not throw aways,” founder and Director of Peoples and Operations Tammeria Battiest said.

The nonprofit will help a member of any native tribe in Oklahoma.