FREDERICKSBURG — About 500 people — all donned with eagle feathers on their heads — gather in a circle every May in a northern Oklahoma field.
It's the Delaware tribe's yearly powwow.
The circle moves together as soon as the drumbeat and opening chant begins.
"Oh-he-hay, oh-he-hay. ... " rises above the dust from all the stomping.
It starts with war dancing around 8 p.m., and doesn't end until sunrise.
Amid the mass, it's hard not to notice one of the dancers. At 6-foot-5, Fredericksburg's Clay Sears is one of the tribe's tallest.
Sears is one-quarter Native American and the grandson of a former chief in the Delaware tribe. He comes from a bloodline of five former Delaware chiefs. "I'm proud to be an Indian," Sears said. "My heritage is a cool part of my life."
Although most of the tribe lives elsewhere, the Delaware are based in Bartlesville, Okla., where Sears goes for the annual powwow with his family.
His maternal grandfather, Dee Ketchum, was Delaware chief from 1998 to 2003.
Ketchum is expected make the trek from Oklahoma to see his grandson lead Fredericksburg in the basketball playoffs. The Battlin' Billies play Pflugerville Hendrickson at 7 tonight in Marble Falls in a Class 4A second-round game.
While Ketchum will cheer Sears on the court, Sears sees his grandfather as one of his biggest role models. He has considered following Ketchum's legacy in the tribe.
"Becoming a chief is something I might want to do someday," Sears said.
The Delaware nation is the 25th-largest tribe in the nation with about 12,500 members. Although Sears lives away from most of them, he often reminds himself of his heritage.
He said one of his greatest life moments was as a 10-year-old, the day his grandfather performed Sears' roaching ceremony. The roach — the eagle feather on his head — is a rite of passage for becoming a man.
Roaches are so highly revered, if one falls on the ground during a powwow, the entire dance of hundreds of people stops.
"I'm surprised at how well he's taken to the Indian culture," said Sears' mother and Ketchum's daughter, DeAnn.
His Native American name is Sisqu, which translates to Clay. His older brother Jake, a junior tight end at Texas-El Paso, is Little Drummer Boy and his sister Hannah, a freshman at Texas Tech, is Pretty Fox. Four years ago, they were all subjects of a PBS nationally televised documentary about growing up as American Indians.
Sears also has spoken to his classes to educate them on Native American culture, and likes to joke around with inquisitive friends at times. He tells them he still uses a spear to get dinner, and has fooled some girls into believing it. Before a football game against Cameron Yoe this season, he talked it up in hopes it would intimidate some opponents.
"A lot of people think we're walking around in loincloths all day," Sears said.
Not only is his heritage as a member of the Delaware tribe, but basketball is also in Sears' blood. Ketchum, 67, was Wilt Chamberlain's teammate for a season at Kansas. Sears' father, Andy, played at Baylor.
Sears is averaging 20 points and 8.5 rebounds this season. He led the Battlin' Billies to the second round of the football playoffs and finished fourth in the region in the discus last year.
He is currently committed to play football at Blinn Junior College, but is still entertaining scholarship offers from other schools in any sport. Regardless of where he winds up, he's making the chief proud.
"Our young Indian kids still need heroes," Ketchum said. "Clay's walked that walk, he's been in those moccasins.
"Any boy that's growing up could see Clay at the powwow and want to be like him."