Speaker 1: Good morning, good morning, good morning, Welcome, welcome, welcome. It
Speaker 1: is nine forty five time for Native beat and John
Speaker 1: Weston is doing with us. How you doing today, sir, Well,
Speaker 1: I'm doing great.
Speaker 2: Tom. It's you know, a little chili considering it's supposed
Speaker 2: to be springtimes. It really is. Yeah, I'll definitely be
Speaker 2: glad we see that seventy sundergree temperatures later this week
Speaker 2: for sure, the last for two weeks will be in
Speaker 2: the hundreds. Exactly, Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we'll have spring for
Speaker 2: just about two weeks. That's about right. So what's going on?
Speaker 2: I much just a lot of stuff happening here in
Speaker 2: Washington County and around the reservation Oco Nagata. Hello everyone,
Speaker 2: Osta Sonali, good morning and happy Monday, or as we
Speaker 2: say in Cherokee Benada dog quanta. See as always, Tom,
Speaker 2: it's great to see you. Despite and like we talked
Speaker 2: about the freezing weather we're experienced lately, spring seems to
Speaker 2: do with us now and for natives that means a
Speaker 2: few things. We're gonna start having a wild onion dinners,
Speaker 2: which we already have, uh and they've been harvesting those,
Speaker 2: and also morell mushroom hunting there you go. Yeah, that's
Speaker 2: that's one of the things My favorite things my brother
Speaker 2: and I always love to do is go mushroom hunting.
Speaker 2: And if anyone goes mushroom hunting out there, you know,
Speaker 2: the tip that I picked up not long ago is
Speaker 2: make sure you carry a mesh bag with you. And
Speaker 2: I learned this from an elder Cherokee because that just
Speaker 2: helps spread those spores even more and creates even more
Speaker 2: little mushrooms. So but yeah, it's it's delicious. You put
Speaker 2: those roll those a little bit of flour, you you know,
Speaker 2: fry those up, and man, they are delicious. And that's
Speaker 2: what people may be noticing around a lot of the
Speaker 2: organizations for our native groups is as we are having
Speaker 2: wild onion dinners. And like I said, we're going to
Speaker 2: talk about that more in a bit, but before beginning
Speaker 2: today's show, I'd like to thank our sponsor, haaw Field
Speaker 2: Cooperative for oud Union is always It's one of the
Speaker 2: things you can impress me most about CCCU is that
Speaker 2: you get a hometown field and you walk through the door.
Speaker 2: Of course, I know Lyle the president up there and
Speaker 2: the folks. He's a Cherokee, very dedicated Cherokee, and they
Speaker 2: all treat you like members of the family. And if
Speaker 2: you're a market for a car loan, financial planning or
Speaker 2: needing a little extra cash in for the holidays, which
Speaker 2: I'll we have tax Day coming up, so you know,
Speaker 2: that's one of those things that it might be a
Speaker 2: little painful for some people. So headed up to caf
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Speaker 2: so I still have some of those left. They have
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Speaker 2: lunch box and pens, a really cool flashlight led flashlight,
Speaker 2: which I every once in a while'll look for a
Speaker 2: flash light and I'll take one out and use it.
Speaker 2: It's it's really terrific. And some pens and some other
Speaker 2: things like that in the bag. And if you want
Speaker 2: to enter for a drawing to win one of these bags,
Speaker 2: we just need you to comment in the Facebook comments
Speaker 2: section CCCU and we'll enter you into a drawing to
Speaker 2: win one of those bags. Call Field Cooperative Credit Union.
Speaker 2: It's where you belong. Injured by NCUA. Check out their
Speaker 2: web page at Cooperative CUD and we'd also like to
Speaker 2: thank you are listeners. Without you, we wouldn't be here.
Speaker 2: And as always, we get feedback from our listeners. It's
Speaker 2: great to know that people are listening. Sometimes they provide
Speaker 2: programming suggestions, which I think is great because I don't
Speaker 2: have all the answers and I don't have all the ideas,
Speaker 2: so it's great to actually hear from people who have
Speaker 2: some pretty good ideas. So they are yeah, it's right,
Speaker 2: and I welcome those comments and our listeners. It's just
Speaker 2: really nice to know that people are listening. But it's
Speaker 2: also nice to know people are listening to the station.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I'm I've been a faithful listener of the station since
Speaker 2: I was in high school, you know. And and the
Speaker 2: weather coverage is always great. I've always enjoyed that. I
Speaker 2: always enjoy the banter back and forth between some of
Speaker 2: the on their personalities, and you know, I always enjoyed
Speaker 2: listening to you guys. So, as we mentioned earlier, wild
Speaker 2: onion dinners are becoming becoming pretty common right now. They're
Speaker 2: prevalent Native culture. A lot of people may not know
Speaker 2: the significance of them, and Cherokee would call wild onions
Speaker 2: sugay e. The growth of wild onions sold special to
Speaker 2: significance for many tribes, not just Cherokee tribes. They have
Speaker 2: social gatherings around it, especially a lot of our southeastern tribes.
Speaker 2: It's something that kind of brought with them when they
Speaker 2: came over on the trail and they were removed. And
Speaker 2: the meals focus on the spring appearance of wild onions,
Speaker 2: of course, and a food that's familiar to most of
Speaker 2: the tribes east of the Mississippi, because that's the area
Speaker 2: where it's gonna grow. It's not gonna grow in the
Speaker 2: arid desert of you know, the southwest. So anyway, families
Speaker 2: often gather wild indians together from February to April. The
Speaker 2: plants can be found in urban areas. In fact, I
Speaker 2: have been. You drive along and you look around public
Speaker 2: utility easements and things like that, and you'll see them everywhere.
Speaker 2: You look in people's yards and their wild onions growing everywhere.
Speaker 2: So it's people don't really they think probably we need,
Speaker 2: but they are actually wild onions that are growing there.
Speaker 2: In fact, I can remember as a child playing on
Speaker 2: the playground of Copan elementary school, as kids would go
Speaker 2: out and we would pick them and we would probably
Speaker 2: to the chagrin of our teachers would peel them and
Speaker 2: clean them and eat them there on the playground. But
Speaker 2: typically they're made with fried scrambled eggs, which is really delicious.
Speaker 2: Poke salad can be added. I'm got a bit, I'm
Speaker 2: not a big fan of poke salad. And it's the
Speaker 2: sort of a grape looking thing. When it grows, it
Speaker 2: sort of has a purple stalk to it. My grandmother,
Speaker 2: she was just really adamant. I always wanted to weed
Speaker 2: eat her pope down when I would take care of
Speaker 2: her yard, but she would stand at the door and
Speaker 2: make sure I didn't cut her pope plant down because
Speaker 2: she would want to have poke salad. So yeah, but
Speaker 2: fry bread and corn bread and beans and other things
Speaker 2: are pretty typical. The dish that they serve along with
Speaker 2: wild onions and typical assert we have is grape dumplings,
Speaker 2: and historically it's made from the juice of indigenous grapes,
Speaker 2: which are commonly called possum grapes, and today the dumplings
Speaker 2: are often made from frozen grape juice and biscuit mix,
Speaker 2: which we have made them down at the community quite
Speaker 2: a bit. It's really delicious, not great when you're diabetic
Speaker 2: because of this, the sugar and the great choice. Exactly.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: But these feasts are often held at cultural clubs, Indian
Speaker 2: churches and stomp grounds. They can include gospel singing or prayers,
Speaker 2: and tribal languages. Stickball games are also commonly associated with them,
Speaker 2: and that inspired I don't know, maybe he'll know this,
Speaker 2: but the French they adopted our stickball games as lacrosse,
Speaker 2: and so that's kind of where they came with lacrosse.
Speaker 2: Interesting side notes. I did my research on this. The
Speaker 2: name of the city of Chicago, and this always kind
Speaker 2: of cracks This kind of cracks me up because I
Speaker 2: think of New York as being the Windy not the
Speaker 2: Windy City. It's the Big Apple. But you know, Chicago
Speaker 2: is known as the Windy City. But it's also the
Speaker 2: literal name Chicago comes from a Jibwe word which means
Speaker 2: place that smells like onions, because that used to be
Speaker 2: a big gathering place for wild onions. So make of
Speaker 2: that what you will. So in nineteen thirty two, there
Speaker 2: was a cookbook published by the Indian Women's Club of
Speaker 2: Tulsa suggesting subsuiting scallions with one club of garlic for
Speaker 2: wild onions to be fried in bacon grease. And I'm
Speaker 2: gonna tell you, I don't know any recipe is made
Speaker 2: better by bacon grease, and that includes wild onions. So
Speaker 2: you know, you cook them in a little bit of
Speaker 2: bacon grease, you boil them in some water, and then
Speaker 2: you add your eggs and it's really good stuff. I know,
Speaker 2: it's a miracle meat, it really is.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: But the Barsoladian Women's Club, it's tell an annual wild
Speaker 2: onion festival for over half a century. So for more
Speaker 2: than fifty years I've been observing that my Delaware grandfather
Speaker 2: I used to go out and gather wild onions for
Speaker 2: my grandmother and she would clean and cook them. We
Speaker 2: would also go to the possum grapes. And one of
Speaker 2: the reasons, of course, people are like, why do they
Speaker 2: call them possum grapes, Well, they will grow on vines
Speaker 2: and structures that are hanging high in the air, and
Speaker 2: that's just as a possum hangs from a tree, you know,
Speaker 2: that's exactly right. Yeah, So that's kind of how they
Speaker 2: cope with the phrase possum grapes for these these indigenous
Speaker 2: greens apes. But we would make jelly and jams from
Speaker 2: those grapes, and man, I tell you, I'm doing hyry
Speaker 2: just thinking about it, so, in addition to other things,
Speaker 2: will make you hungry. For a few months now, at
Speaker 2: the Washington County Cherokee Association, we've been distributing meat from
Speaker 2: the eighteen thirty nine Cherokee Meat Company through our Nude
Speaker 2: Food Sovereignty program. Let me be clear on a few
Speaker 2: things regarding the program, because there has been some confusion
Speaker 2: about it. Here are the requirements for being served by
Speaker 2: the program. You must be a Cherokee tribal member and
Speaker 2: not be receiving SNAP benefits or commodities. Elders, veterans, Cherokee speakers,
Speaker 2: they all receive preference. But families who are in need
Speaker 2: of assistants who don't qualify for SNAP benefits or other
Speaker 2: programs will be able to help feed their families every month.
Speaker 2: They're also encouraged to come and be served by this program.
Speaker 2: And it's actually a gap program, just sort of designed
Speaker 2: to meet those needs of people who don't qualify for
Speaker 2: SNAP benefits or tribal commodities. But yet really you're struggling
Speaker 2: to get along and fay the food bill and you know,
Speaker 2: let's face it, with the inflationary period that we've had
Speaker 2: in the United States, it's gotten really harder and harder
Speaker 2: to keep food on the table.
Speaker 1: So nobody falls through the crack.
Speaker 2: That's exactly right, that's what we're trying to prevent. This
Speaker 2: program is slated to run for a year. They will
Speaker 2: gauge it success in the term and its continuation after
Speaker 2: that period. We're allowed thirty packages to distribute at our
Speaker 2: community building, which is down in Oceled It's right next
Speaker 2: door to the Kodyscue Health Center. And these packages include
Speaker 2: five one pound rolls of hamburger meat, four one pound
Speaker 2: rolls of pork sausage, and one two pound pork tenderline.
Speaker 2: And let me state this, the program is first come,
Speaker 2: first served. Be sure to bring your tribal ID when
Speaker 2: you come to pick up. We will require that information
Speaker 2: when you sign in. The tribe needs to know who's
Speaker 2: actually receiving the benefit of this. We'll hold our next
Speaker 2: distribution on May third at eight am. Last time we distributed,
Speaker 2: in fact, it was just last Sturdy distributed all of
Speaker 2: our meat within thirty minutes.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: So that demonstrates the need for this program in a
Speaker 2: dramatic way, I believe, and it was if you knew
Speaker 2: was happening. In between eight and eight thirty that morning,
Speaker 2: it was pouring down rain. It was so people were
Speaker 2: showing up in the cold, pouring rain to pick up meat.
Speaker 2: And that really says a lot about the need for
Speaker 2: this program. You must appear in person to pick up
Speaker 2: your distribution if you qualify for the program with the
Speaker 2: criteria I just mentioned. We will not be allowing you
Speaker 2: to pick up for people who aren't there. We feel
Speaker 2: that it's unfair to do so because there are people
Speaker 2: who made the effort to come down in person and
Speaker 2: pick up. Also, I saw her there was a comment
Speaker 2: on one of the page that somebody had driven two and
Speaker 2: a half hours to come pick up the meat distribution.
Speaker 2: You don't have to do that if you're on a
Speaker 2: Cherokee reservation. Most CCO affiliated Cherokee communities are participate beating
Speaker 2: in the program. So you should be able to find
Speaker 2: a community close by to you where you don't have
Speaker 2: to drive two and a half hours. Yeah, to try
Speaker 2: to take advantage of the program. So just check around
Speaker 2: your local communities and see, you know, if you can
Speaker 2: get signed up for it or whatever stipulations they have
Speaker 2: on it. We are seeking to serve the Cherokees at
Speaker 2: Washington County and those who are members of our community,
Speaker 2: you know, and we welcome those who are Cherokee to
Speaker 2: come and take advantage of the program.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: We asked that if you did receive the meat distribution
Speaker 2: last month, try to skip a month because we want
Speaker 2: more people to have the opportunity to pick it up.
Speaker 2: And we distribute everything beginning at am and once it's distributed,
Speaker 2: we're done for the month and we close up shop.
Speaker 2: And this allows us, you know, everyone to come in
Speaker 2: and have a chance. And if you're interested in the program,
Speaker 2: please reach out by emailing me at WCCA pres at
Speaker 2: gmail dot com. I'll be also discussing in greater detail
Speaker 2: at our May meeting in the Washington County Cherokee Association
Speaker 2: on Thursday, May first at six pm. If you're not
Speaker 2: a member of our community, I highly recommend you consider membership.
Speaker 2: We will have membership forms of the meat distribution as
Speaker 2: well as other meetings our early meeting on Thursday evening
Speaker 2: May first, you'll receive updates about events s it's the
Speaker 2: meat distribution program as well as other things we have
Speaker 2: to offer such as our language classes, our cultural classes,
Speaker 2: and special presentations and meetings. Plus you get the chance
Speaker 2: to build community with our fellow Cherokees, which I think
Speaker 2: is invaluable. Now, speaking of things that we're having happened at
Speaker 2: the Turkey at the Washington County Cherokey Association, it's a
Speaker 2: busy month. Let me tell you. Tuesday, April eighth, at
Speaker 2: six pm, we'll be hosting a Cherokee Nation Smoking Cessation class.
Speaker 2: If you smoke cigarettes, use a vape, or use smokeless
Speaker 2: tobacco and you want to quit, this class will help you.
Speaker 2: Julie Blessing with the Public Health Department of the Kuisui
Speaker 2: Health Center, she'll be instructing these courses. It all add
Speaker 2: years to your life if you want to kick the habit,
Speaker 2: and I highly encourage everyone to do so. Thursday, April tenth,
Speaker 2: at six point thirty, WCC will have its Knife Collecting
Speaker 2: Group meeting for those interested in knives. Jim Pratt, who's
Speaker 2: the vice president of the Washington County Cherokee Association, he
Speaker 2: leads this group. He has an amazing collection of knives
Speaker 2: and they're always interesting to check out. In fact, he
Speaker 2: had won one of our last meetings. It was actually
Speaker 2: in the shape of an eagle feather with the blade
Speaker 2: and it was just really awesome and I've never seen
Speaker 2: anything like it, so well, that was really Neat April seventeenth,
Speaker 2: there's gonna be a new tradition for us. We're hosting
Speaker 2: our first ever bingo fundraiser and we asked that you
Speaker 2: bring a prize for the prize table. We're paid twenty
Speaker 2: dollars at the door for entry. We'll be having big
Speaker 2: goods for sale and selling popcorn for a dollar bag
Speaker 2: during our games, and it should be a fun night
Speaker 2: for everyone. That's just before the Easter holiday. We kind
Speaker 2: of wanted to do on a Thursday night rather than
Speaker 2: the weekend because we realized that some people may be
Speaker 2: going to visit family.
Speaker 1: So we're just gonna be help.
Speaker 2: That's gonna be hell. At the Washington County Cherokee Association,
Speaker 2: we're on the East West twenty nine hundred road, about
Speaker 2: a mile and a quarter east of highways or west
Speaker 2: of Highway seventy five, right next door to the Koubi
Speaker 2: Scoobee Health Center.
Speaker 1: Beautiful piece of land. Yeah, it really is.
Speaker 2: It's nice out there and it's improving all the time.
Speaker 2: We're making some great improvements on it with some of
Speaker 2: the projects the Cherokee Nation has been doing. We're getting
Speaker 2: some tribal housing put in next door, and we've get
Speaker 2: a nice beautiful digital sign out there now. And I'm
Speaker 2: just looking forward to what we have in store. Lights
Speaker 2: in the parking lot, the lights in the parking lot,
Speaker 2: exactly right. Yeah. On Saturday, April twenty sixth, from ten
Speaker 2: am to three, we'll have our Spring Cultural Celebration. This
Speaker 2: event is hands on for the public and we invite
Speaker 2: everyone to attend. We'll have a lot of make and
Speaker 2: take activities. We'll have feather painting, beating projects, wink finger weaving,
Speaker 2: medicine bags, copper impressions, and corn host dolls and a
Speaker 2: lot more. We'll have outdoor events like tomahawk throwing and
Speaker 2: cornhole games. I mean, you can't have anything now without
Speaker 2: cornhole games, right. We'll also be having community pot look,
Speaker 2: so bring a dish. Our friend Carmen Catcher who is
Speaker 2: now Carmen Johnson. You know her well, Tom She'll be
Speaker 2: cooking traditional foods like five bread and like I said,
Speaker 2: all this will be happening with the Washington County Cherokee
Speaker 2: Community Building just east of the Kuizkui Health Center. We're
Speaker 2: located a mile and quarter east of Highway seventy five
Speaker 2: on east West twenty nine hundred road. Also be to
Speaker 2: check out Sure to check out our Delaware Indian or
Speaker 2: actually the Delaware website. No stage facebook pages. I want
Speaker 2: to make sure we include those folks because they always
Speaker 2: have something going on. And also be sure to catch
Speaker 2: our friend Chris Crane on Frybred Journeys in the mighty
Speaker 2: sixth ninety KGGF. Check out their Facebook page. You can
Speaker 2: catch Native Beat on the Barzel Radio Facebook page. You're
Speaker 2: on demands of the Barzil Radio app available in the
Speaker 2: Apple Store. A big waldeau, as we say in Cherokee,
Speaker 2: one ishi is the Delaware would say, wansi as the
Speaker 2: Osage would say. And to all of you listening, de
Speaker 2: goha e until we meet you know it certainly adds
Speaker 2: to the government's ability to fund itself