Speaker 1: Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome me.
Speaker 2: It is time now for Native Beach right here on
Speaker 2: K one, the one you trust, nine forty five on
Speaker 2: the dot.
Speaker 1: Hey, how's it going, John Weston?
Speaker 3: Great Tom o cion Niganta. Hello everyone, Osta suna lei,
Speaker 3: good morning and happy Monday, or as we like to
Speaker 3: say in Cherokee Nation, dog claw not see as always. Tom.
Speaker 3: It's good to see you. And I was asking you
Speaker 3: before the show today, are you ready for Snowmageddon?
Speaker 1: No, I'm not.
Speaker 2: By the way, how do you how do you say
Speaker 2: get your snow shoes in Cherokee?
Speaker 3: I don't know. Well, really, I'm gonna I'm gonna have
Speaker 3: to look that up, really, because I think we might
Speaker 3: be having to break those out here pretty soon.
Speaker 1: We got to do that phone or front and call
Speaker 1: chief exactly.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, So you stocked up on bread, milk, and
Speaker 3: toilet paper because those are the usually a three staples
Speaker 3: over one.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I hate to see what Walmart's going to be like
Speaker 3: later on the day.
Speaker 2: It's crazy enough Friday when this came out, I know, right,
Speaker 2: and the shelves I think are going to be bear.
Speaker 3: By the time this evening ends. Oh yeah, but I
Speaker 3: was monitoring the computer models for predictions. I've just been
Speaker 3: monitoring the weather app for a while and I've read
Speaker 3: everything from seven inches to thirteen inches and we're gonna
Speaker 3: the next day have three to four inches maybe, and
Speaker 3: and I mean it's the computer models.
Speaker 1: Are just going crazy all over the place.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like popcorn exactly. And that's that's Oklahoma for Yeah,
Speaker 3: what was it? Will Rogers said, if you don't like
Speaker 3: the weather, just stick around a little while, it'll change. Yeah.
Speaker 3: That's yeah. If we could throw a tornado and an
Speaker 3: earthquake in there somewhere.
Speaker 2: You got it would be It's quite essential Oklahoma, Oklahoma exactly.
Speaker 3: But I think most people live here when it comes
Speaker 3: to the weather, they're pretty skeptical. I know I am.
Speaker 3: I I generally don't even look at the weather app
Speaker 3: until it's like maybe a couple of days out because
Speaker 3: I know it's gonna change, just kind of.
Speaker 1: All over like a.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's kind of one of those things. I'll believe
Speaker 3: it when I see it, but I am preparing for
Speaker 3: the worst.
Speaker 2: I was a TV weather man for many, many years,
Speaker 2: and I'll tell you why.
Speaker 1: I couldn't do what they do at New Sun Sick exactly.
Speaker 1: I mean it was batten up in central Illinois. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I couldn't do it there. I couldn't do it here exactly.
Speaker 3: And I think the best place is to be a
Speaker 3: weather man would be either be Florida or California. It
Speaker 3: was really easy. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: I have eight of afternoon shower that's exactly every day
Speaker 2: day killed a hurricanes exactly, right.
Speaker 3: But Happy President's Day to everyone that's today. I want
Speaker 3: to mention that this past Saturday, I attended a little
Speaker 3: training session we had through the Cherokee Nation Community and
Speaker 3: Cultural Outreach Department and whatever community building is in Hulbert.
Speaker 3: If you don't know what where Hulbert is. It's down
Speaker 3: a near Tahlequah and it's one of our great rural communities,
Speaker 3: probably best known for being the home of millionaire bull
Speaker 3: rider Ryan Dirt Eater. And you know you've got to
Speaker 3: be pretty darn good at being a bull rider if
Speaker 3: you're if you've made over a million dollars, yes, yeah
Speaker 3: he has. So we have a wonderful Cherokee community there
Speaker 3: as well as a beautiful community building. They've got a
Speaker 3: storm shelter that can hold up to a couple hundred people.
Speaker 3: I've kind of taken a little tour of that at
Speaker 3: an underground billy exactly it is.
Speaker 2: It is.
Speaker 3: It's actually above ground. It's supposed to be able to
Speaker 3: take a direct impact. Oh yeah, so that's that's what's
Speaker 3: really neat about it. But and we also right next
Speaker 3: to the campus, we have housing for Native speakers and
Speaker 3: elders who live there, which is great because you know,
Speaker 3: it's just one of those things that's kind of all
Speaker 3: this whole idea of building community. You know, if we
Speaker 3: build these community buildings and then if we can build
Speaker 3: housing right next to it, it just kind of acts
Speaker 3: as a hub for community activity. So I think it's
Speaker 3: a great setup. But we had a couple of training sessions.
Speaker 3: One was on computer basics, which some people you still need.
Speaker 3: And you know, and then even I, you know, as
Speaker 3: I get older, I start to lose track of some technology,
Speaker 3: you know, and I might be talking to a little
Speaker 3: Gen xer or Gen Alpha or whoever kid. Basically, in
Speaker 3: my opinion, I'm nearly fifty years old, so anyone that's
Speaker 3: you in their twenties is considered a kid now. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so yeah, and they might mention something to me and
Speaker 3: I'm like, wow, I had not heard of that. So
Speaker 3: it's one of those things that's everyone can brush up
Speaker 3: on it. And that was one of the great things
Speaker 3: about this meeting was that kind of covered some of
Speaker 3: that stuff and board governance, which you know, it's not
Speaker 3: apparent to some people how important the board is for
Speaker 3: a community and how they establish an agenda and make
Speaker 3: and kind of move the community of the direction that
Speaker 3: needs to go, you know, because your board is your
Speaker 3: leadership and it really needs to be an active and
Speaker 3: engage board to make sure that you can get things
Speaker 3: accomplished for your community that you want accomplished. But I
Speaker 3: always think it's great to see the investments Cherokey Nation
Speaker 3: and CEO put into these buildings and making our community stronger.
Speaker 3: It's just amazing because I know the chief is really
Speaker 3: dedicated to it, you know, and these trending sessions are
Speaker 3: one way that they do that. Turnout for this event
Speaker 3: was just spectacular. It's probably the largest we had in
Speaker 3: cco's history of hosting these, and I know everyone learned
Speaker 3: a lot, but we had a great time getting together.
Speaker 3: We always do with these communities. You start to know
Speaker 3: these folks, you go into these meetings and you see
Speaker 3: the same faces over and over again, and you become
Speaker 3: familiar with their communities, and then before you know it,
Speaker 3: you start building these relationships and these friendships that are
Speaker 3: going to last. And it really does mean a lot
Speaker 3: to go to these So before we begin today's show,
Speaker 3: I'd like to think our sponsor, as always, Coffeell Cooperative
Speaker 3: Credit Union. What can I say about CCCU. One of
Speaker 3: the things impresses me most about them is that they're
Speaker 3: give you a hometown feel when you walk through the door.
Speaker 3: It's like it's like greeting friends when you walk in.
Speaker 3: Of course when I walk in, I am greeting friends
Speaker 3: because I know about half the people there. You do exactly,
Speaker 3: so you're treated like it. You're not just feel like
Speaker 3: another customer. That's what I love about it, but you're
Speaker 3: also a friend. Lyle Martin, president of CCCU, and the
Speaker 3: folks there, they always treat you kind of like a
Speaker 3: member of the family. If you're in the market for
Speaker 3: a car loan, financial planning, or you need a little
Speaker 3: extra cash after the holidays, heading up to Coffeel Cooperative
Speaker 3: Prayer Union today. Also, we have a tax day coming up,
Speaker 3: so you might need a little extra money to pay
Speaker 3: for your taxes. I don't know. It might be a
Speaker 3: painful thing, but they're there in case you need them.
Speaker 3: I had breakfast with Lyle this past week and he
Speaker 3: provided me hooked me up with an awesome swag bag
Speaker 3: of Cooperative Prayer Union stuff. Had a nice little thermal
Speaker 3: lunch pail in it, and a sun visor and some
Speaker 3: other things and some pens and just some great things
Speaker 3: in it. I was kind of surprised the more stuff
Speaker 3: I was pulling out of the bag and all the
Speaker 3: stuff I was seeing. So today we're gonna have a
Speaker 3: little drawing for one of those on today's show. In
Speaker 3: the comments section on Facebook. If you watch today's show,
Speaker 3: I want you to put the CCCU phrase it's where
Speaker 3: you belong, and make sure you put that emphasis on
Speaker 3: the word you. That's very important. That's where cccs use
Speaker 3: focuses and that's providing you the services that you need.
Speaker 3: So call Field Cooperative Credit Union, It's where you belong.
Speaker 3: Insured by NCUA and check out their web page at
Speaker 3: Cooperative CU dot com. Native Beat would also like to
Speaker 3: thank you are listeners for your continued support and tuning in.
Speaker 3: I get complimented all the time from people I run
Speaker 3: into in the community, They're like, hey, really like the show,
Speaker 3: really like what you're doing. So that's some of the
Speaker 3: best feedback I can get. And I just always love
Speaker 3: running into these folks that know they are actually people
Speaker 3: out there listening and listening to K one, which is great.
Speaker 3: You know, I always listening to K one, especially when
Speaker 3: it comes time for weather reports. You know, I know
Speaker 3: the last tornado we had, I was glued to this
Speaker 3: radio station and heard that you guys are all going
Speaker 3: to the basement, and I thought to myself, you know,
Speaker 3: it might be time to take cover. If people at
Speaker 3: the radio station are going to the basement, I think
Speaker 3: it's time I go take cover too. It's quite a trick, yeah, exactly. So,
Speaker 3: as I mentioned at the top of the show, we're
Speaker 3: facing snow mcgeddon or the snow apocalypse. I'm sure as
Speaker 3: people will start calling it. But that really got me
Speaker 3: to thinking, you know, what were some of the ways
Speaker 3: that our native cultures could predict the weather or whether
Speaker 3: or not we were going to have a harsh winter.
Speaker 3: So I did a little research on it, and what's
Speaker 3: really interesting is there were some scientists, I'm sure there
Speaker 3: were anthropology students. They actually wrote a paper about this
Speaker 3: very topic, and I was really surprised because one of
Speaker 3: the sources they used was Senator Robert Kerr, because in
Speaker 3: nineteen fifty he sent out letters to Native leaders and said,
Speaker 3: how do you guys predict whether or not we're going
Speaker 3: to have a marsh? Exactly right? Yeah. So Senator Robert Kerr,
Speaker 3: he's perhaps one of Oklahoma's most famous senators. He is
Speaker 3: an extremely influential Oklahoma and oil Oklahoma oil man, and
Speaker 3: like I said, nineteen fifty sent out these letters to
Speaker 3: Native leaders across the nation, challenging them with this he said,
Speaker 3: make some determination with regard to whether or not we
Speaker 3: are going to have an early winter and whether or
Speaker 3: not we may expect a hard winter. So Senator Kerr,
Speaker 3: like I said, it was an interesting figure in his
Speaker 3: own right. He was born in a log cabin in
Speaker 3: eighteen ninety six in Ponatac County, which is the Chickasaw Nation.
Speaker 3: He was elected governor twice and senator three times, and
Speaker 3: he was the first governor of Oklahoma who was actually
Speaker 3: born here in Oklahoma territory. So I thought that was
Speaker 3: kind of a neat little fact about him. But anyway,
Speaker 3: he helped usher in space exploration. As a Senator, he
Speaker 3: pushed through legislation to found the Marshall Space Flight Center
Speaker 3: in nineteen sixty one. In fact, Werner Braun Braun, who
Speaker 3: was head of our American rocket program, to help get
Speaker 3: the Saturn five rockets that went to the Moon. He
Speaker 3: actually broke brown with him at that space Flight Center,
Speaker 3: which I thought was just an amazing picture, which I
Speaker 3: just think that's really cool. But Oklahoma has some impact
Speaker 3: on the space program, you know, and I just think
Speaker 3: that's really neat. But of course he was also associated
Speaker 3: with the projects like the Kerr McClellan dam, you know,
Speaker 3: which we all know about. You drive across Oklahoma, you
Speaker 3: you're gonnactually run into something named Kerr. So anyway, he
Speaker 3: had a very interesting life and career, very successful and
Speaker 3: given his personal and professional successes, though, one of the
Speaker 3: things I found interesting was that he still held high
Speaker 3: regard for Native cultures and traditions, you know. And it's
Speaker 3: kind of interesting. I feel like sometimes I'm coming in
Speaker 3: that same mode because i feel like I've got one
Speaker 3: foot in the old traditional world of Native customs and
Speaker 3: cultures and trying to understand our traditions and carry them on.
Speaker 3: But ye, at the same time, I have a degree
Speaker 3: in molecular biology of analyzed DNA. I have isolated proteins,
Speaker 3: done protein essays, you know, Western blot interactions, things like that.
Speaker 3: And so it's like I very much have a foot
Speaker 3: in both the modern world and the traditional world.
Speaker 1: And not really a bad place to be.
Speaker 3: It really isn't you know. And like I said, he
Speaker 3: had a high regard and he called it this for
Speaker 3: old Indian ways and determining such things as the weather,
Speaker 3: because they're practical and have always been able to make
Speaker 3: some very accurate predictions. And it's like, I think that's
Speaker 3: a very smart thing. I know, a lot of the
Speaker 3: predictions are based on empirical evidence, you know, it's just
Speaker 3: what you observe. But some of the responses he got
Speaker 3: back from native leaders after sending out his letter to
Speaker 3: them in nineteen fifty asked for predictions of the winter,
Speaker 3: and they were very interesting. In fact, one was the
Speaker 3: chief of the Muscogee Creek Nation. He responded back, when
Speaker 3: lots of spiderwebs are in the air, and lots of
Speaker 3: trees such as we see now, it means we still
Speaker 3: have a hard cold winter. Also, when the cornshuck is
Speaker 3: thick and heavy as it is here in Oklahoma, it's
Speaker 3: a sign of a hard cold winter. So you know,
Speaker 3: it's just observing nature, observing animals, observing insects, I guess,
Speaker 3: you know. And I was I felt like I was
Speaker 3: been a little teased that spring was going to be
Speaker 3: around the corner because i was walking through the yard
Speaker 3: the other day and I'm starting to see the daffodils
Speaker 3: peak above the ground, and I'm like, I can feel it. Spring,
Speaker 3: It's almost here. Warmer weather is almost here, so hold on,
Speaker 3: you know. So the puebl Indians they actually responded back
Speaker 3: from Mexico and they said, whereever there is any out
Speaker 3: of drought before winter, the usually a hard winter will
Speaker 3: follow us. That's kind of how they predicted it. I know.
Speaker 3: The Lakota Sue would actually look at the colouration of
Speaker 3: the sky, and of course, you know, like in Oklahoma,
Speaker 3: when you see a tornadic weather or severe weather coming,
Speaker 3: those are the sky has an odd orange or a green,
Speaker 3: eerie glow to it, you know, And I've noticed that before.
Speaker 3: But it's you know, it's just one of those things.
Speaker 3: It's just look with your eyes, you know, and also
Speaker 3: observe the animals, you know, growing up, I grew up
Speaker 3: on a ranch and we always knew what it was
Speaker 3: going to rain because of the cattle. They exactly the
Speaker 3: one direction. A lot of times they would gather up
Speaker 3: near the fence line.
Speaker 1: You know what they call that when they start lining
Speaker 1: up like that?
Speaker 3: What's that?
Speaker 1: The early bovine warning system.
Speaker 3: The early bowvine warning system. That's good. I'm gonna have
Speaker 3: to use that one. Yeah. I'll be driving out there
Speaker 3: and I'll see that. I'll be like, hey, early bovine
Speaker 3: warning system. Yeah yeah, but yeah, the the crow Indians
Speaker 3: which were up in Montana. There was a seventy year
Speaker 3: old up there named Sidney black Hair, and he learned
Speaker 3: a four cast from his father, who is a crow chieftain.
Speaker 3: And mister black Hair predicted a mild winter for southeast
Speaker 3: Montana and northern Wyoming based on observations such as the
Speaker 3: occurrence of early Midsummer snowfall, frequent rains during the fall,
Speaker 3: ants not having gone into the ground yet, which I
Speaker 3: mean if the insects they're going to freeze, they know
Speaker 3: to go below ground. So I mean, just observe in
Speaker 3: your environment, it tells you everything. Also, snake still being
Speaker 3: out and the absence of frogs. You know, of course
Speaker 3: frogs they're going to freeze if those ponds did below
Speaker 3: a certain temperature, so yeah, they're gonna burrow below ground.
Speaker 3: But the Minnesota Chippewa tribe responded by saying that we're
Speaker 3: looking forward with dis may to a long and hard winter,
Speaker 3: and the signs for forecasting outlook for the coming winter
Speaker 3: included if the muskrat or the beaver build an unusually
Speaker 3: high and large house, the winter will be severe. Other
Speaker 3: signs of a hard winter for them included if the
Speaker 3: fur of wild animals is unusually thick, if the bark
Speaker 3: of the tree is thicker, and if the field corn
Speaker 3: is heavily covered with shell. You know, because it's kind
Speaker 3: to predict itself. So those are all sort of interesting observations.
Speaker 3: One of the things that we don't overseee which they
Speaker 3: see out in Scottsdale, Arizona, was the heal monster they
Speaker 3: had out there was brilliantly colored, and they said that
Speaker 3: that was a sign from Americopa Indian girl who lived
Speaker 3: on the salt or A river reservation, that it pretends
Speaker 3: a long and very cold winter. So I don't know
Speaker 3: if there's any truth to that, but the coloration might
Speaker 3: have something to do with it. So I just thought
Speaker 3: that was a very interesting thing that she noted. Well. Anyway,
Speaker 3: as you can see, there's a lot of reliance and observation.
Speaker 3: Observe the sky, observe animals, and observe vegetation, and those
Speaker 3: are some of the best indicators. And I think technology
Speaker 3: is great just as long as we don't lose our
Speaker 3: traditional ways or our humanity and the process, you know,
Speaker 3: And I know that some people are kind of afraid
Speaker 3: with AI when it comes to that. So here in
Speaker 3: Washington County, we've been very busy to our community building.
Speaker 3: We're looking forward to having our renovations completed at WCCA.
Speaker 3: A couple of saturdays ago, we began the process of
Speaker 3: distributing meat from the eighteen thirty nine cheroy Meat Company
Speaker 3: through our new food Sovereignty program. And just to be clear,
Speaker 3: here are a few requirements for being served by their program.
Speaker 3: You must be a Cherokee tribal member, live within the
Speaker 3: Cherokee Reservation and that's the fourteen kind of jurisdictional boundaries,
Speaker 3: and not be receiving snap benefits or commodities, and we
Speaker 3: have preference for elders, veterans, Cherokee speakers, but also families
Speaker 3: who need of assistance, but those who are not receiving
Speaker 3: SNAP benefits or or Indian commodities. So anyway, before we
Speaker 3: leave today, I just want to mention that those who
Speaker 3: are interested in participating participating in the program can reach
Speaker 3: me at WCCA pres at gmail dot com. And I
Speaker 3: want to say, if you don't have a Cherokee community,
Speaker 3: go ahead and find one. We have several Facebook pages
Speaker 3: you can follow. Also, to be sure to check out
Speaker 3: Fibred Journeys on the mighty six ninety KGGF. You can
Speaker 3: catch Native Beat on the Barcel Radio Facebook page or
Speaker 3: on demand to the Barssel Radio app available in the
Speaker 3: Apple Store. A big wadu, as we say in Cherokee,
Speaker 3: wanishe is, the Delaware would say, wanzi is the Osage
Speaker 3: would say. And to all of you listening, do to
Speaker 3: to goha e until we meet again.