By Robert Medley
Managing Editor
Rising on the far northwest Oklahoma City horizon is a bank with people who live and work in one of the fastest-growing parts of the state.
From inside the conference room of Chickasaw Community Bank is a view of eastern Canadian County. The Piedmont Intermediate School is on the horizon. The bank President, Gene Watson, and the vice president, and business relationship officer Dustin Stubblefield are both from Piedmont. The office has a sweeping view of eastern Canadian County. Even the Okarche wind turbines can be seen on the flat cross timbers region of the state when looking northwest near the Paycom headquarters at W Memorial and N Council Road about three miles southeast of Piedmont.
In April, the bank that was founded by the Chickasaw Nation relocated from the former Oklahoma City Meridian office near Interstate 40 to a new stone and steel structure on the southside of the John Kilpatrick Turnpike. It is accessible by eastbound Memorial Road just west of Council Road. It is the only Oklahoma City area location. The bank has another branch in Tulsa.
A statue of a Chickasaw leader of the 1700s, Piominko, towers more than 40 feet from the ground in front of the glass and steel doors of the entryway to the bank.
The bank is steadily drawing customers from the nearby, surrounding area.
Stubblefield, the vice president and business relationship officer, is a longtime Piedmont resident. He moved to Piedmont when he was in kindergarten.
Stubblefield is familiar with the statue of Piominko, the influential Chickasaw leader of the 1700s in Mississippi known as the “Mountain Leader.” He signed the Treaty of Hopewell in 1786 to ally with the United States.
Piominko’s statue faces the northeast from in front of the bank.
Josh Pape, chief operating officer, talked about the bank’s history.
Chickasaw Nation Gov. Bill Anoatubby started the bank over two decades ago.
“His (Gov. Anoatubby) vision at the time of starting a bank was to provide home ownership to first Americans, Native Americans. At the time, Native Americans owned homes at the lowest rate of any racial demographic in the country. So we set out to become a leading provider of the HUD 184 Native American Home Loan Program. Since we started originating those loans we’ve become the leading bank provider of that program in the country and now native Americans are no longer the lowest home ownership demographic.”
“So we’re heavily centered in our passion to help Native American homeowners, but in addition to that we’re a standard community bank here in Oklahoma City like any other community bank so anyone can bank with us. You don’t have to be Chickashaw or native American at all. We are here to serve the local Oklahoma City community in any capacity.”
Stubblefield, 37, has worked with the bank for about nine years when the bank was at the Meridian location. He now has a closer drive from home to work.
“My primary job duties consist of working with other tribes outside of the Chickasaw Nation and forming partnerships with them,” Stubblefield said. Then also just working locally with the communities around us, Piedmont being one of them, and just fostering relationships with people inside those communities.”
Stubblefield attended 12 years of school in the Piedmont district. He worked in Addison, Texas and lived in Surrey Hills. He moved to the Piedmont district again for his daughter who is now in fifth grade.
“I’ve spent the majority of my life in Piedmont in some type of capacity,” Stubblefield said.
The bank is close to the John Kilpatrick Turnpike, the exit for westbound traffic for Council Road is at Rockwell Avenue.
“I get to work in about eight minutes every morning. It’s right on the Turnpike and super convenient. So we welcome anybody to come, come see us whether you are from Piedmont or anywhere. We’re a full service bank so we love to take care of everyone and anybody,” Stubblefield said.
Pape talked about the area being developed near the new bank location.
“There are a lot of households and neighborhoods of all kinds, everything from apartment complexes to larger homes in this immediate area and we feel like there is a lot of growth in this part of the city, on the northwest side of Oklahoma City and it kind of merges between Oklahoma City, Deer Creek and Piedmont, and we noticed this happening before our eyes. So we thought this would be a great place to anchor our headquarters and hopefully over time grow along the John Kilpatrick corridor and be able to serve this immediate community,” Pape said.
The bank is located at 7500 W. Memorial, visit www.ccb.bank or call 405-946-2265 for more information.
