Speaker 1: Good morning, good morning, good morning, welcome, welcome, welcome, mediot
Speaker 1: set time now for Native Beat right here on K one,
Speaker 1: the one you trust, and John Weston is in studio
Speaker 1: with how you doing there, John.
Speaker 2: I am doing great, Tom Osio Nagata, Hello everyone, Osta,
Speaker 2: sun A Lee, good morning and happy Monday, which in
Speaker 2: Cherokee is known as juan nahi, which is a mouthful.
Speaker 2: How are you, Tom, I'm I'm doing great.
Speaker 3: I learned so many new things every time we get together,
Speaker 3: and it's and that's what this is all about. It's
Speaker 3: a learning and sharing experience.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. And how is your weekend, Tom, that's the pressing question.
Speaker 3: Well, I I had fun and that's all Imbut about that, that's.
Speaker 2: All that matter to you. You're gonna keep the things
Speaker 2: that happen on the weekend. And the weekend, I'm teaching
Speaker 2: my daughter how to drive. I had oh my yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: that's I had a lot of fun. Yeah. So, as always,
Speaker 2: I'd like to start out Native B by thanking our sponsor,
Speaker 2: Coffeeville Cooperative Credit Union located three thirteen West nine Street
Speaker 2: and Coffeeville. They're all about providing with great personal financial services.
Speaker 2: The new school year is in full swing everyone. They
Speaker 2: know things like new clothes and school supplies can be
Speaker 2: very expensive, especially if you have one, three, five, sometimes
Speaker 2: seven children. Maybe you'd like to start a college fund
Speaker 2: for your young scholar. If so, headed up to Coffeeville
Speaker 2: Cooperative Credit Union to see Lile Martin staff if you
Speaker 2: need some extra funds. They'll treat you right and help
Speaker 2: make your financial goals to success. Coffeell Cooperative Credit Union,
Speaker 2: It's where you belong. Check them on Facebook or their
Speaker 2: website at cooperativecu dot com. Insured by NCUA. Native Beat
Speaker 2: would also like to thank you or listeners for your
Speaker 2: continued support and tuning in. Without you, we wouldn't be here.
Speaker 2: So there's been a lot happening this past month and
Speaker 2: Cherokee Nation, both locally and across the reservation. In fact,
Speaker 2: Labor Day weekend, we celebrated the seventy second commemoration of
Speaker 2: the Cherokee National Holiday in Tahlequah that we've been celebrating
Speaker 2: that since nineteen fifty three, and it commemorates the original
Speaker 2: signing of the eighteen thirty nine Cherokee Constitution, which would
Speaker 2: be the one hundred and eighty fifth anniversary. It was
Speaker 2: signed September sixth, eighteen thirty nine, for those that don't know,
Speaker 2: after contentious meetings between two Cherokee factions, the Eastern Cherokees
Speaker 2: or the Ross Party, led by Principal Chief John Ross,
Speaker 2: which I'm not sure if a lot of people are
Speaker 2: familiar with this, but kouy Skuy is actually the Cherokee
Speaker 2: name for John Ross. I think it believes. I believe
Speaker 2: it means a little spring bird anyway, And the old
Speaker 2: settlers who settled Arkansas and what is now eastern Oklahoma
Speaker 2: in the early eighteen hundreds. A third faction, the so
Speaker 2: called Treaty Party, that in eighteen thirty five signed a
Speaker 2: way that what remained a Cherokee land in the southeast
Speaker 2: for five million dollars, sided with the old settlers. Those
Speaker 2: led by Ross had just arrived in Indian Territory in
Speaker 2: the spring of eighteen thirty nine after being removed from
Speaker 2: their homes in the Southeast. So the Cherokee National Holiday
Speaker 2: it's grown to be one of the largest annual festivals
Speaker 2: in Oklahoma. In fact, they estimated over one hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty thousand visitors this in Ontahaquah each weekend that we
Speaker 2: have it. It's a focal point for our Cherokee heritage,
Speaker 2: cultural awareness and the reunification of our families. And you know,
Speaker 2: it's funny because you reach out across the reservation and
Speaker 2: you meet make friends with fellow Cherokees, and generally down
Speaker 2: the line somewhere your cousins right, oh yeah, your relatives,
Speaker 2: somewhere down the line. You just keep searching long enough,
Speaker 2: you're going to find it. So that always kind of
Speaker 2: spoke to me was it really is like a reunification
Speaker 2: of families coming together celebrated cultural heritage. The festival. The
Speaker 2: festival was jam packed. We had cultural activities events for
Speaker 2: all ages, traditional games, competitions in fact, we have a
Speaker 2: hatchet throwing was one. We had stickball, we have the
Speaker 2: cornstalk shoot. Got us a shout out to Harry Howard
Speaker 2: up at the Native American Fellowship in South Coffeeville. He
Speaker 2: won a gold medal in the hatchet throwing contests and
Speaker 2: we kind of tease him a little bit. We are
Speaker 2: very competitive with our hatchet throwing and so we decided
Speaker 2: that we would have a Cooey Scooy commissioner for hatchet throwing,
Speaker 2: and Harry Howard was our commissioner. So it's only fitting
Speaker 2: that he brings home the gold medal. There you go.
Speaker 2: And the other events that we had. It was very
Speaker 2: family oriented. We had lots of stuff for the kids.
Speaker 2: One of the things they absolutely love is we have
Speaker 2: an annual downtown parade that celebrates our culture. And of
Speaker 2: course we're throwing out candy left and right, and they're
Speaker 2: just going up out there and gobbling it up. Right,
Speaker 2: I've seen that parade. That is fun. It is fun,
Speaker 2: isn't it. Yeah. And we had some new exhibits at
Speaker 2: our museums and for those who don't know, admission to
Speaker 2: our museums are completely free year round, because that's really
Speaker 2: how we tell our story from you prehistoric times to
Speaker 2: the true history of the tribe is making right now. Actually,
Speaker 2: we also had the Inner Tribal pow Wow, which is
Speaker 2: always a great event. We had just so many people
Speaker 2: from across the country come in and beautiful regalia, beautiful
Speaker 2: dancing that goes well into the night. We had about
Speaker 2: thirty five thousand dollars I believe in prize money this
Speaker 2: year at the pow Wow, which is a pretty impressive.
Speaker 2: I'm always amazed at power at the cultural ground where
Speaker 2: they have it just how they're able to get the
Speaker 2: ground to be like a putting green. You walk out
Speaker 2: there on Oh, you're not going to trip over anything.
Speaker 2: It's like walking on carpet, right, Yeah, it's great. Also,
Speaker 2: during this time, our elected officials, they fulfill their countless
Speaker 2: duties as summer ceremonial others are at the heart of
Speaker 2: our constitution. In fact, the Chief delivered his State of
Speaker 2: the Nation address, which I had the privilege of seeing
Speaker 2: live on the Law of the Cherokee National Peace Pavillion.
Speaker 2: He gave a wonderful State of the Nation address, as
Speaker 2: he does every year. He outlined priorities for the coming year.
Speaker 2: He also briefly discussed the intention of Cherokee Nation to
Speaker 2: continue issuing vehicle tags even if no compact agreement is
Speaker 2: renewed between the tribe and the State of Oklahoma. The
Speaker 2: Chief stated, our Tag Compact agreement shares real time tag
Speaker 2: data with the state. Everyone is safe and accountable during
Speaker 2: a traffic stop. It is the agreement that allows us
Speaker 2: to provide car tags to our at large brothers and
Speaker 2: sisters across the state of Oklahoma. At the end of
Speaker 2: the year, we'll either have a car tag compact or
Speaker 2: we won't but no matter what happens with our compact,
Speaker 2: come January first, twenty twenty five, we will continue issuing
Speaker 2: car tags and titles to Cherokee citizens within their reservation.
Speaker 2: And that's really good news for me and other Cherokees
Speaker 2: because we like paying that forty five dollars or so
Speaker 2: for our car tags. You know, it's a wonderful benefit
Speaker 2: to us. The Chief said the Cherokee Nation will negotiate
Speaker 2: a contract with Governor kevinstead of aable, but he stressed
Speaker 2: the compact must be fair and then it depends on
Speaker 2: the governor if Cherokee Nation continues sharing its compact revenue
Speaker 2: with the state after twenty twenty four. And a lot
Speaker 2: of people don't realize, is the love of that money
Speaker 2: that we get back from car tags. It gets pumped
Speaker 2: back into our public schools. It does, It does, and
Speaker 2: I believe it is over a period of ten years
Speaker 2: or so, we had around seventy five million dollars and
Speaker 2: we have pumped back into local schools just here in
Speaker 2: northeastern Oklahoma. That's pretty remarkable, it is. It's great. The
Speaker 2: Chief also said his administration would inroduce a sixty five
Speaker 2: million dollars Sequoia Schools capital improvement project. He wants to
Speaker 2: make it a stay of the art campus. He's going
Speaker 2: to ask for an additional eighty six million in loan
Speaker 2: support to help cheroche own small businesses, and a proposal
Speaker 2: that the Cherokee Nation take over the Claremore Indian Hospital,
Speaker 2: which is currently operated within the Federal Indian Health Services,
Speaker 2: and he wants to do that by the end of
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five. He stated, where a nation committed to
Speaker 2: historic resources and helping the education well for our people.
Speaker 2: This means the generation of Cherokees coming up can be
Speaker 2: a generation of Cherokees that are healthier, better educated, in
Speaker 2: a better position to seize the great opportunities of this
Speaker 2: Great Cherokee century than any generation before it. It means
Speaker 2: that Cherokees in their twild can live with greater security
Speaker 2: and greater dignity. For all of us, it means our
Speaker 2: communities keep improving. The Chief also cited one hundred and
Speaker 2: seventy five billion dollar gap in housing security over the
Speaker 2: next ten years, and to address that, he said that
Speaker 2: it's a crisis that commands our attention. He says, we're
Speaker 2: not a people who sit back and wait for others
Speaker 2: to come to the rescue. We're going to get up
Speaker 2: and do something about it. We are people meant to lead,
Speaker 2: and we must lead on housing and to help that
Speaker 2: meet or to help meet that anticipated housing need. The
Speaker 2: Chief suggested bringing to the tribal council a permanent version
Speaker 2: of the Housing Jobs the Sustainability Communities Act. They would
Speaker 2: allocate forty million dollars to housing and community structures every
Speaker 2: three years. And locally, that's what's interesting here is locally
Speaker 2: we're being impacted by the Chief's commitment to providing housing
Speaker 2: for our tribal citizens because next to the grounds of
Speaker 2: the Washington County Cherokee Association in Oceanida, which is just
Speaker 2: east of the Kouyskui Health Clinic, I'm please to report
Speaker 2: construction as underway which will ultimately result in eleven for
Speaker 2: plexes for local families. We not only see this is
Speaker 2: a great thing for the local Cherokee citizens, but it's
Speaker 2: great for the washingtonk and Cherokee Association since we will
Speaker 2: have an actively thriving community of Cherokees living adjacent to
Speaker 2: our community building. Our association is currently taking bids or
Speaker 2: not our association, I'm sorry Cherokee Nation is currently taking
Speaker 2: bids to complete our community building thanks to the Chief
Speaker 2: and Cherokee Nation. Once completed, we'll have a state of
Speaker 2: the art facility with a full kitchen, classrooms. We're going
Speaker 2: to have expanded parking lights for our parking lot, which
Speaker 2: has been an issue here lately, and finished bathrooms, and
Speaker 2: it's really going to be a great venue space for everyone.
Speaker 2: If they want to use it, they can rent it out.
Speaker 2: It's not limited just to Cherokee citizens. Anyone can rent
Speaker 2: that space if they'd like to. Basically, everywhere you look
Speaker 2: across Cherokee Nation, we're building, building building. I know we
Speaker 2: have billions of dollars in construction projects going on, and
Speaker 2: I think it really speaks to the commitment the Chief
Speaker 2: and his administration has securing the future of this tribe.
Speaker 2: I think it's just it seems almost like we're going
Speaker 2: a Cherokee Renaissance at this moment in time. The theme
Speaker 2: of this year is Cherokee Nashville Holiday, which I think
Speaker 2: was a fitting one, was weaving our future, and everywhere
Speaker 2: you look across Cherokee Nation, this is exactly what we're doing.
Speaker 2: We're building stronger communities for sustained future for our people,
Speaker 2: but also the greater communities which we resign, which include
Speaker 2: Washington County. We live here, we work here, we run
Speaker 2: businesses here, our kids go to school here, we pay
Speaker 2: taxes here, and that's what it translates to a stronger
Speaker 2: communities for everyone, not just the Cherokee people. So anyway,
Speaker 2: I wanted to mention a few things before we go today,
Speaker 2: a few announcements. Don't forget to check out our Cherokee
Speaker 2: community Facebook pages for the latest events, news and meetings,
Speaker 2: Washington County Cherokee Association, Cherokee Cultural Community and Dewey Nouita
Speaker 2: Cherokee Community Foundation, and the Native American Fellowship in South Coffeeville.
Speaker 2: I encourage everyone, whether Cherokee or not, to find a
Speaker 2: community and get involved. As with many organizations, and now
Speaker 2: I've mentioned this and I see this across the board,
Speaker 2: the membership is aging. We really need younger folks to
Speaker 2: stand up, step up, take over some of these organizations
Speaker 2: and get them active and get them thriving. Because our
Speaker 2: elders are not going to be here where it's forever,
Speaker 2: you know, we need to ensure that these traditions are
Speaker 2: carried on and that includes our culture or language, whatever
Speaker 2: it may be. This is something a concerned to every
Speaker 2: one of our Cherokee associations. Is something we at the
Speaker 2: Washington County Cherokee Association are addressing through attracting new members
Speaker 2: and inviting back old ones. If you haven't been there
Speaker 2: to a meeting in a while, we invite you to
Speaker 2: come on back. We'd love to see you. Also check
Speaker 2: out the Delaware website and O Sage Facebook pages. They
Speaker 2: always have something fun and cultural and meaningful happening. I
Speaker 2: ask our listeners not to forget the Teton Trade Cloth
Speaker 2: Store located at one sixty Southwest Frank Phillips and the
Speaker 2: Johnstone Siah Building, or their location at the Eastland Shopping Center.
Speaker 2: You can also shop online at Tetontradecloth dot com. Cherokee
Speaker 2: Nation now has two official offices open at the Cherokee
Speaker 2: Cultural Community and Dewey to serve the Cherokee People Career
Speaker 2: Services Office and Cherokee Nation Human Resources Office, which are
Speaker 2: both located at seven hundred easterm. The Career Services Office,
Speaker 2: I know, is open Monday through Friday from eight to
Speaker 2: five pm. The Human Resources offices is now open Monday,
Speaker 2: Wednesday and Friday from eight to five. And so if
Speaker 2: you need any of those services, you know, if you
Speaker 2: need update your resume, if you need help planning a job,
Speaker 2: that's one great place to go. If you're an elder
Speaker 2: or a veteran, or somebody who needs help navigating a
Speaker 2: housing application or some help with some benefits of some sort,
Speaker 2: the Human Resources Department office is definitely a place that
Speaker 2: you'd want to go visit just to get better information.
Speaker 2: The Cherokee Cultural Community will be having at September meeting
Speaker 2: Thursday at six pm. There will be a presentation about
Speaker 2: diabetes prevention, which is something that greatly affects Native communities,
Speaker 2: this Native as well as is Tom absolutely right, it's
Speaker 2: just the plague of our people basically. But anyway, anytime
Speaker 2: you can be a educate about taking care of your health,
Speaker 2: that's going to help build destroyer community as well. The
Speaker 2: Washington County Cherokee Association September potluck has passed, but in
Speaker 2: October we'll have a special guest with us. We're going
Speaker 2: to have the Secretary of State for Cherokee Nation, Shella Bolan.
Speaker 2: Shelle was raised not far from here in Boland Spring,
Speaker 2: which is over in Craig County. That's where Venida is
Speaker 2: located in that county. Her great grandfather had settled there
Speaker 2: as a freedman, and she holds a Bachelor of Science
Speaker 2: in Industrial Engineering and Management from Oklahoma State University. She
Speaker 2: began her career as an engineer in the airline industry
Speaker 2: and earned a Master's of Business from Kelley School of
Speaker 2: Business at Indiana University in Bloomington. In two thousand and four,
Speaker 2: she joined Cherokee Nation Businesses. By twenty twenty, she was
Speaker 2: the senior director of Strategy and Analytics for overseeing long
Speaker 2: term growth planning. She helped mitigate the COVID nineteen pandemic
Speaker 2: impact on our gaming, which is one of the tribe's
Speaker 2: main business sectors, which we're actually kind of shifting away
Speaker 2: from so much gaming and shifting at more to traditional businesses.
Speaker 2: I think about forty percent of our revenue comes from gaming.
Speaker 2: So we wanted to just let everyone know that she's
Speaker 2: going to be there at our October meeting. We're looking
Speaker 2: forward to having her. She's going to be a great
Speaker 2: guest for those who don't know. Were located just east
Speaker 2: of the Kouyskui Health Clinic on County Road twenty nine
Speaker 2: hundred and one and a half miles west of Highway
Speaker 2: seventy five. Be sure to catch our friends Chris Crean
Speaker 2: and Amy Dollar with Firebred journeys on our sister station,
Speaker 2: the mighty six ninety KGGF. Check out their Facebook page. Also,
Speaker 2: we wanted to give a shout out to the Native
Speaker 2: American Fellowship in South Coffeeville that's located two fifteen Oklahoma Street.
Speaker 2: September twenty eighth. They're going to have the great unity
Speaker 2: gathering they have every year. It's going to have lots
Speaker 2: of fun, games, food, competitions, presenters. It's going to be wonderful.
Speaker 2: Tune in to catch the next edition of Native Beat
Speaker 2: August Night, I'm sorry, September nineteenth, the nine to forty
Speaker 2: five am. You can catch Native Beat on the Barsel
Speaker 2: Radio Facebook page or on demand through the Barsel Radio
Speaker 2: app available in the Apple Store. The Big Waldoda, as
Speaker 2: we say in Cherokee wanishis the Delaware would say wansei,
Speaker 2: as the O s Age would say. And to all
Speaker 2: of you listening, do to do goha e until we
Speaker 2: meet again.
Speaker 3: Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, you have been
Speaker 3: watching and listening to Native Beat with John Weston.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to one on one with a professional,
Speaker 2: A paid presentation in fourteen