October 1, 2019 issue of the Cherokee Phoenix

REMEMBERING KOREA

For three Cherokee men who fought in the Korean War, the “Forgotten War” will never be forgotten.

PEOPLE, 10

CHEROKEE CHEROKEEPHOENIX.ORG

OCTOBER 1, 2019

PHOENIX 191 YEARS OF JOURNALISM

CNB hikes minimum wage to $11 an hour More than 2,500 employees are expected to get raises in October.

BY CHAD HUNTER Reporter STILWELL – Like Cherokee Nation governmental and health employees, those in the tribe’s business arm will also earn at least $11 an hour beginning in October, it was announced Sept. 18.

The minimum-wage hike from $9.50 to $11 per hour will affect an estimated 2,500-plus of the 7,500 Cherokee Nation Businesses employees who earn $12.50 per hour or less, according to the tribal administration.

“I have a new baby,” two-year Cherokee Nation Industries employee Mariah Hooper, 23, said. “I was barely making it. This is going to help me a lot.”

Ten-year employee Martin Cochran said the new wage is “what we need.”

“A lot of people have families and they can’t make it on minimum wage,” he said. “So this is really good for them. You know, if you pay the people what they’re

CHAD HUNTER/CHEROKEE PHOENIX Employees at Cherokee Nation Industries in Stilwell applaud the Sept. 18 announcement of an increase to the Cherokee Nation Businesses minimum wage. worth, then they’ll want to come to work. It’s as plain and simple as that.”

According to the CN, the increase will affect full-time staff earning between $9.50 and $12.50 per hour, and is

HOG WILD!

scheduled to begin Oct. 5 under the new fiscal year.

“CNB leaders expect more than 2,500 employees, including nearly 60 who work in Stilwell, to see an increase in hourly wages,” a news release states.

Tribal leaders, including Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr., made the announcement to workers at the CNI engineering and manufacturing facility in Stilwell.

“I am so proud we are reinvesting in the people that make this happen,” CNB CEO Chuck Garrett said. “Here we are today, celebrating some real prosperity, some real progress.”

Tribal Councilor Shawn Crittenden, who represents a portion of Adair County, lauded the initiative.

“Like Chief Hoskin said, long before the casinos, long before, you know, the successful diversified businesses, there were Cherokees working every day just like you do here,” Crittenden told employees. To the administration, he said, “Let’s continue good works like this. If we all work together, man, it’s going to be good.”

Hoskin called the Stilwell facility a fitting site for the wage announcement.

SEE CNB, 2

Cherokee Phoenix picks its Seven Feathers recipients

BY TRAVIS SNELL Assistant Editor

TAHLEQUAH – The Cherokee Phoenix staff has selected the recipients for its inaugural Seven Feathers Awards Gala set for 6 p.m. on Nov. 23 in the Cherokee Casino Tahlequah Chota Center.

The winners are Janelle Adair for Culture, Cindy Irwin for Business, Howard Paden for Language, Kaitlyn Pinkerton for Health, Zachary Self for Education, Richard Tyler for Service and Kirby Williams for Community.

Adair, of Tahlequah, is a former Miss Cherokee who

SEE SEVEN, 2

OKLAHOMA CONSERVATION.ORG Feral hogs such as this one have become a destructive invasive force in parts of the United States, including Oklahoma, damaging crops, native wildlife and native plants.

People can contact the Cherokee Nation’s Natural Resources with questions or complaints about feral pigs, which are being seen more often in the state.

BY D. SEAN ROWLEY Senior Reporter TAHLEQUAH – They are simultaneously familiar and infuriating. For all the trouble they cause in the wild, some of their domesticated cousins are kept as pets, and they are among the most intelligent creatures of the animal kingdom.

The feral pig, (ᎩᏯᏗᎭ ᏏᏆ, GiYaDiHa SiQua) razorback or sus scrofa, has successfully expanded its range across the country, including the 14 counties of the Cherokee Nation. Since their introduction to the Western Hemisphere in the 16th century as a domesticated food source, pigs have escaped their pens or been released intentionally, and today they are among the most destructive invasive species.

Pat Gwin, CN environmental resources senior director with the Office of the Secretary of Natural Resources, said he had not heard any direct complaints from CN citizens, but his department has problems with wild pigs during fieldwork.

“They are horrific for native wildlife,” Gwin said.

“They are having some very negative impacts on some of our more sensitive environments. Imagine taking a rototiller through your best flower garden. Imagine some wetland and wetland adjacent environs that have some of our rare cultural plants. (Wild pigs) are really detrimental to those environments, and we have noticed that out in the field.”

Feather Smith-Trevino, cultural biologist with the SNR office, recalled when feral swine were less pervasive in northeast Oklahoma. But their adaptable nature has been a boon to their numbers.

“They are really hard on the ecosystem around them, and that comes from them tearing up their environment,” she said. “They affect all animals and tend to be very territorial. People dislike them because they can be dangerous. They are omnivorous and will eat basically anything, and they can get into just about anything. They are one of our worst invasive species.

They are particularly hard on turkey.”

Wild pigs are proficient egg hunters, and will loot the roosts of wild turkeys and other ground-nesting birds such as quail and whippoorwills. Pigs also eat turkey poults and the young of other large species. There are even reports of pigs killing young deer and livestock.

SEE PIGS, 3

The Cherokee Phoenix has selected its recipients for its Seven Feathers Awards Gala, which is set for Nov. 23.

Outpatient facility to open in phases in October Services including optometry, audiology, physical rehabilitation and behavioral health open Oct. 7.

COURTESY Pat Gwin, environmental resources senior director for the Cherokee Nation’s Office of the Secretary of Natural Resources, says feral pigs and the damage they cause are often seen during work in the field.

OHIO DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES Feral swine are concentrated in the southern United States, but there are isolated populations even in the upper peninsula of Michigan.

BY STAFF REPORTS TAHLEQUAH – The largest tribal outpatient health facility in the country is set to open in phases this October after two years of construction.

According to a Cherokee Nation press release, the tribe’s four-story, 469,000-square-foot outpatient center on the W.W. Hastings Hospital campus will open its optometry, audiology, physical rehabilitation, behavioral health, radiology, lab and pharmacy services on Oct. 7.

It also states the primary care, dental and resident clinic will open to patients on Oct. 21. A grand opening ceremony is being planned for November, officials said.

“The Cherokee Nation is excited to open this beautiful new facility that allows us to serve more of our citizens, and offer more services than they ever had before,” Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said. “This facility is a real game changer that will improve our overall health system and is a huge investment in our local economy. It is a blessing for me to see former Chief Bill John Baker’s vision come to fruition because of what it means for our citizens.”

The CN invested about $200 million of its general fund dollars into the facility’s construction and equipment purchases, the release states. It also states that the Indi-

SEE FACILITY, 2

2

CHEROKEE PHOENIX • OCTOBER 1, 2019

News • ᏗᏕᏃᏣᎸᏍᎩ

CNB: CNB’s starting wage is higher

than the federal $7.25 minimum pay from front page “A lot has changed since CNI was founded decades and decades ago, some 50 years ago,” he said. “Of course, we have casinos now, all sorts of different businesses. But we need to always remember that it all started right here.”

In August, Hoskin and his administration announced a similar wage increase for the tribe’s full-time governmental and health employees also beginning in October.

“You can look at spreadsheets and you can see we’re very prosperous,” Hoskin said. “But if that prosperity is not shared with the men and women who get us there, then it is not the kind of prosperity I’m interested in.”

The governmental wage increase is expected to affect 415 employees earning less than $11 per hour, including 99 earning the existing minimum wage of $9.50 per hour.

The initiative is expected to also

positively impact nearly 1,400 employees earning between $11 and less than $15 per hour.

According to the CN, full-time employees earning $9.50 per hour will make an additional $3,120 annually. The lowest-paid CN employees already earn more than the state’s minimum wage.

Oklahoma is one of 16 states that follow the federal minimum-wage requirement of $7.25 that was enacted in 2009.

CN employees are eligible for health, dental and life insurance; a 401k matching plan; paid vacation and sick leave; and other perks such as educational reimbursement and a holiday bonus.

CNB, the holding company for the tribe’s for-profit businesses, pays a direct dividend of 37 percent of its profits to the tribe for services such as housing, health care, education and social services.

The remaining 63 percent is reinvested into jobs, wages, business development and special projects, according to the tribe.

FACILITY: IHS will fund $100 million

per year for operating and staffing costs from front page an Health Service will fund $100 million per year in staffing and operating costs in a joint-venture agreement with the tribe.

The facility features more than 240 exam rooms, two MRI machines, an ambulatory surgery center, 34 dental chairs, full service optometry and specialty health services, officials said.

“This facility is bringing 850 jobs into Cherokee Nation over the next few years, including 100 physicians. Anytime we can improve infrastructure and boost the economy with new jobs is a win-win for our tribe and Indian Country,” Mary Baker-Shaw, At-Large tribal councilor and Health Committee chairwoman, said.

According to the release, the W.W. Hastings Hospital will remain the inpatient facility on the campus, which will also house the Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine at Cherokee Nation to open in 2020.

The outpatient health facility is located at 19600 N. Ross St. The facility’s main entrance is off Ross Street, but an entrance

from Hastings Hospital will be available Oct. 7.

“The opening of the new Cherokee Nation outpatient health center will allow us to expand services and improve access for our patients,” Dr. Stephen Jones, CN Health Services interim executive director, said. “We will now be able to house a multitude of services under one roof which will not only provide convenience for patients but it will remove some of the challenges to the delivery in health care that our patients have experienced for decades.”

Inside the new facility are more than 600 pieces of Cherokee art, all made by CN citizens, the release states.

“If you come in, we’ve created a cottage industry of Cherokee artists that before wouldn’t have had a venue to sell and display their art,” Gina Olaya, who oversees culture, art and design for Cherokee Nation Businesses, said. “Now that this health center is built, we have provided them a location. It’s literally giving back to the people not in just a dollar amount but in goodwill and community spirit.”

COURTESY Construction crew members work on the exterior of the Cherokee Nation’s 469,000-square-foot outpatient health facility in Tahlequah. Tribal officials say the facility should open in phases in October on the W.W. Hastings Hospital campus.

SEVEN: Tickets for the event are $20 from front page works for Cherokee Nation Businesses as a storyteller and sharing her vast knowledge of the Cherokee culture and history.

Irwin, of Gore, owns Gambinos Pizza and holds an annual Easter egg hunt in which she pays for prizes, eggs and candy for children. She also donates profits from her business to aid local causes and residents.

Paden, of Leach, is the Cherokee Nation’s Cherokee Language Master-Apprentice Program manager. Described as a “language warrior,” Paden perpetuates the Cherokee language by being active in Cherokee communities and promoting its everyday use.

Pinkerton, of Claremore, is a former Junior Miss Cherokee who advocates for mental health issues in Indian Country.

She has presented at national medical conferences about erasing the mental health stigma in Native Americans and plans to attend medical school to study psychology.

Self, of Stilwell, is a prevention specialist with the Chain Breakers Coalition of Adair County. He works in communities to educate youth on the dangers of opioid abuse. He also works with law enforcement, government agencies and businesses to implement community prevention strategies.

Tyler, of Vian, owns Native Oklahoma Aquaponic Harvest, an aquaponic greenhouse that grows chemical-free produce.

Tyler donates produce to his nonprofit food pantry, the Vian Peace Center, and the Northeastern Oklahoma Food Bank.

Williams, of Omaha, Nebraska, is the outreach coordinator of the Legal Aid of Nebraska’s Native American Program.

As coordinator, she raises awareness and promotes prevention of domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking and stalking against Native Americans.

“We received many outstanding nominations in the inaugural year of the Seven Feathers Awards Gala, and it is truly exciting for the Cherokee Phoenix to recognize these seven Cherokee Nation citizens for their work in the areas of language, culture, community, service, education, health and business,” Cherokee Phoenix Interim Executive Editor Tyler Thomas said. “Please join the staff and I in congratulating these seven award recipients and join us as we honor them at a special dinner in November.”

Each recipient will receive a stainedglass feather by Cherokee artist Brandi Hines of Agitsi Stained Glass in Tulsa.

The feathers are approximately a foot long and 3 inches wide.

Each feather is mounted on a cedar plank with a plaque displaying the recipient’s name and award category.

Tickets for the event are $20 each. All proceeds will go to the Cherokee Phoenix’s Elder/Veteran Subscription Fund, which provides free annual subscriptions to CN citizens who are 65 or older, as well as veterans and active military personnel.

For more information about tickets or sponsoring the event, call Samantha Cochran at 918-207-3825 or email samantha-cochran@cherokee.org.

ᏣᎳᎩ ᏧᎴᎯᏌᏅᎯ • ᏚᏂᏃᏗ 1, 2019

News • ᏗᏕᏃᏣᎸᏍᎩ

ᏚᏂᏃᏗ 1, 2019 • ᏣᎳᎩ ᏧᎴᎯᏌᏅᎯ

CNB opens Legends casino storefront in Russellville

BY D. SEAN ROWLEY Senior Reporter

TAHLEQUAH – During his Sept. 19 report to the Tribal Council, Cherokee Nation Businesses CEO Chuck Garrett gave an update on a proposed casino near Russellville, Arkansas.

CNB officials are waiting to see if they receive the go-ahead from local officials and the Arkansas Racing Commission to build a resort and casino.

Garrett said the tribe had already established a presence in Russellville with an office storefront.

“That’s an opportunity for people to come in and learn more about the project, learn more about the Cherokee Nation and Cherokee Nation Businesses, as well as express their interest in potential employment opportunities,” Garrett said. “It’s a big presence in the community and been very well received.”

Sited at 116 S. Commerce Ave., the Russellville office maintains a rotating staff of two to four CNB employees with whom locals can consult.

“The Legends Resort & Casino storefront was opened with the purpose of being a good community partner, and because of

COURTESY The Legends Resort & Casino storefront in Russellville, Arkansas, maintains a rotating staff of two to four employees from other Cherokee Nation Entertainment venues with whom locals can consult. the value we see in having an employee presence in Russellville,” Molly Jarvis, CNB senior vice president, said. “People have a lot of questions about the project, and also about what it is like to work for a new company coming to their community. The office is established to help the community and the Pope County area get to know us.”

Jarvis said connecting with the community involved more than sitting in an office and waiting for the curious to drop by. CNB is doing business with local establishments

and taking part in events.

“It’s anything from getting the office up and established to buying furniture, a vehicle, promotional items from businesses in Pope County,” she said. “There is also philanthropic activity.

We were a sponsor in the River Valley United Way’s ‘Havana Nights’ event. We supported the Downtown Art Walk and participated in the Pope County Fair.”

Since the storefront opened Sept. 5, a common inquiry from locals is the possibility of employment. Jarvis said hiring

PIGS: A state wildlife department refers to the feral pigs as “vermin” from front page Virtually all smaller animals are on the menu. Pigs also eat acorns and compete for resources against deer, bears, opossums, raccoons and squirrels. They root for tubers and wallow, resulting in soil erosion and reduced water quality.

Pigs are also vectors for diseases that can affect animals. Pseudorabies can be passed to pets and livestock, and is usually fatal, but does not affect humans either by contact or consumption of feral pig meat. Wild pigs can transmit brucellosis and leptospirosis to humans. People are usually infected with brucellosis through ingestion of undercooked meat or contact with animal secretions. Leptospirosis is most commonly transmitted through the drinking of water contaminated by animal urine. Both diseases are rarely fatal and usually treated with antibiotics.

The direct danger of wild pigs to people is less severe than for other animals, though there are cave paintings dating back 52,000 years depicting pigs attacking humans. Wild pigs do attack people on rare occasions, and incidence has increased in recent years, but there have been just four documented deaths attributed to feral pig attacks in U.S. history – the most recent in 1996.

Through 2012, there were 412 documented attacks by 427 wild pigs against 665 people worldwide dating to 1825, but 70 percent were recorded after 1999.

The increase could be due to better record-keeping, or the growth of pig and human populations causing increased contact. Attacks are often against hunters. Three of the four recorded U.S. fatalities were hunters attacked by wounded pigs.

Hunting is one method of dealing with wild pigs. It seems to have little effect on numbers, but sometimes changes behavior.

“One of the issues is that the population of hunters declines by about 6 or 7 percent a year,” Gwin said. “There are fewer people out there hunting with guns, so there are fewer hunters to control the population. It is not a recipe for success.

Also, (pigs) are mostly nocturnal, and if they get jacked with, they will go completely nocturnal.”

Some people would rather trap pigs, but those wanting to use a more humane method should be mindful that trapping and releasing merely makes the animal a problem elsewhere. A trapped pig isn’t supposed to be released in Oklahoma unless radio-collared as a “Judas pig” for the purpose of finding and removing its entire “rounder” or group. The tagged pig must be released at the trap site within 24 hours of its capture, otherwise the captor is considered the animal’s owner. Pigs trapped for “removal” can be killed or kept by the landowner. They can only be “released” to licensed sporting, handling or slaughter facilities, or to a location designated by the state veterinarian.

“I see traps and you can buy traps, but I cannot attest to the efficacy of any

of them,” Gwin said. “You can catch a pig, but they run around in groups. It will probably take a far more proactive approach than trapping. Some trapping involves relocating pigs to where they can be hunted. There are some people who are making money off this, because it is unregulated hunting. You can hunt them 365 days a year.”

The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation refers to feral pigs as “vermin,” encourages hunters to kill them and supports trapping, but there are a few regulations.

• Wild pigs may not be taken alive from any wildlife refuge or management area.

• Hunting wild pigs does not require a license, but if hunting during a deer, bear, elk or antelope season, a pig hunter must possess a filled or unfilled license for that season if hunting with shotgun slugs or any caliber larger than .22 rimfire.

• Those hunting boar with a bow, crossbow, spear or knife need a hunting license on public land. Dogs and knives cannot be used during deer, bear, elk or antelope seasons.

• An orange hat or vest must be worn during the big game seasons.

• Landowners can contact their local game wardens for free hog control permits, which allows the taking of pigs on the owners’ property without a license during any season.

• Buckshot, and just about any weapon a hunter might want to use, is legal for pig hunting on private land.

• No license is needed to trap wild pigs.

• There is no “bag limit” – daily or otherwise – for wild pigs, and there are no check stations.

• Night hunting firearm permits for wild pigs are available, but can only be used on private land.

• Only seven of Oklahoma’s 77 counties are without wild pigs, and 10 are designated the state’s “swine free zone.” Transport of live feral pigs into or through Cimarron, Texas, Beaver, Harper, Woods, Ellis, Woodward, Garfield, Grant and Alfalfa counties is prohibited.

Gwin said CN citizens can call Natural Resources special projects officer Dale Glory at 918-453-5333 with questions or concerns about feral swine.

“We have a tribal wildlife program with Dale,” Gwin said. “He can assist people with the hunting of species on tribal lands. They can let us know which tribal unit they are concerned with.”

The ODWC maintains several web pages on feral pig control. Visit wildlifedepartment.com/feral-hogs-in-oklahoma.

Gwin said those wanting to alleviate the wild swine problem in their areas should expect some frustration.

“There is a reason this is an issue. This isn’t an easy problem to solve,” he said.

“The entirety of the southeastern United States is having problems (with feral pigs). They’re everywhere and they can’t get rid of them. This is not an easy fix.

It is far more a conundrum of such vast complexity that it may never be solved.”

is not imminent, but the Legends Resort & Casino office is taking and keeping information provided by potential applicants.

“We have the Legends Arkansas website, where people can give their name, contact information and career interest,” Jarvis said. “We are collecting that information, and when the time comes to hire people for jobs, we will be able to check there and work toward making hires.”

Those wishing to provide information can visit legendsarkansas.com and click on “Careers.”

A casino in Russellville is not a done deal. The application window remains open into November. The CNB application has the support of the Pope County Quorum Court, signed Aug. 13 after a special meeting. Before the meeting, the Choctaw Nation and Tri-Peaks/Hard Rock Cafe claimed they would not submit new casino proposals.

“We have received the exclusive endorsement of the county legislative body,” Garrett told the Tribal Council. “That’s a required endorsement to obtain the license. We are very proud of that. It was hard earned and I think well-earned.”

OCTOBER 1, 2019 • CHEROKEE PHOENIX

3

CN officials seek NCAI seats

Tribal Council Speaker Joe Byrd looks to secure one of four top National Congress of American Indian posts.

BY CHAD HUNTER Reporter TAHLEQUAH – Two Cherokee Nation leaders are running for seats on the National Congress of American Indians’ executive committee.

It was announced on Sept. 16 that Tribal Council Speaker Joe Byrd, who holds the top regional position as vice president of eastern Oklahoma, is seeking a spot on the four-person NCAI executive board as first vice president.

Deputy Chief Bryan Warner plans to run for the regional seat.

“The Cherokee Nation has held that for many, many years,” Diane Kelley, CN Career Services executive director, said. “The very first president of the national congress was a Cherokee (Judge Napoleon B. Johnson).

The Cherokees were very instrumental in starting this organization back in the day. We’ve been one of the big supporters.”

Committee and board members are to be elected during the NCAI’s annual convention Oct. 20-25 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

“There’s probably going to be around 3,000 out there for this year’s conference,” Kelley said. “It’s the 76th annual.”

The NCAI, founded in 1944, describes itself as the “oldest, largest and most representative American Indian and Alaska Native organization serving the broad interests of tribal governments and communities,” according to its website, ncai.org.

“NCAI, a nonprofit organization, advocates for a bright future for generations to come by taking the lead to gain consensus on a constructive and promising vision for Indian Country,” its website states. “The organization’s policy issues and initiatives are driven by the consensus of our diverse membership, which consists of American Indian and Alaska Native tribal governments, tribal citizens, individuals and Native and non-Native organizations.”

4

CHEROKEE PHOENIX • OCTOBER 1, 2019

OPINION • ᏃᎵᏍᎬ

ᏣᎳᎩ ᏧᎴᎯᏌᏅᎯ • ᏚᏂᏃᏗ 1, 2019

Cherokee Phoenix OCTOBER 1, 2019 Volume 43, No. 19

The Cherokee Phoenix is published twice monthly by the Cherokee Nation, PO Box 948, Tahlequah, OK 74465.

Application to mail at Periodicals postage rates is pending at Tahlequah, OK 74464.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Cherokee Phoenix, PO Box 948, Tahlequah, OK 74465

Editorial Staff Tyler Thomas Interim Executive Editor tyler-thomas@cherokee.org 918-453-5000 ext 7258

Travis Snell Assistant Editor travis-snell@cherokee.org 918-453-5358

Will Chavez Assistant Editor will-chavez@cherokee.org 918-207-3961

Mark Dreadfulwater Multimedia Editor mark-dreadfulwater@cherokee.org 918-453-5087

Reporters D. Sean Rowley Senior Reporter david-rowley@cherokee.org 918-453-5560

Lindsey Bark Reporter lindsey-bark@cherokee.org 918-453-5000 ext 4223

Chad Hunter Reporter chad-hunter@cherokee.org 918-453-5000 ext 7256

Administrative Staff Dena Tucker Administrative Officer dena-tucker@cherokee.org 918-453-5324

Joy Rollice Administrative Assistant joy-rollice@cherokee.org 918-453-5269

Samantha Cochran Advertising Specialist samantha-cochran@cherokee.org 918-207-3825

Terris Howard Advertising Representative terris-howard@cherokee.org 918-453-5743

BJ Frogg Distribution Specialist billy-frogg@cherokee.org 918-207-4975

Editorial Board Lauren Jones Cusick Kendra McGeady Brenda Thompson Ceciley Thomason-Murphy Maxie Thompson Cherokee Phoenix P.O. Box 948 Tahlequah, OK 74465 (918) 453-5269 FAX: (918) 207-0049 1-800-256-0671 www.cherokeephoenix.org ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTIONS Within the United States: $15 for one year Please contact us at the number above to subscribe.

Mail subscriptions and changes of address to the Cherokee Phoenix, P.O. Box 948, Tahlequah, OK 74465, phone 918-207-4975. Please include the words “Change of Address” or “Subscription” on the envelope.

Back Issues may be purchased for $2.50 postage and handling. Please inquire to make sure the issues are in stock by writing to Back Issues, Cherokee Phoenix, P.O. Box 948, Tahlequah, OK 74465; or calling 918-207-4975.

Member

Copyright 2019: The entire contents of the Cherokee Phoenix are fully protected by copyright unless otherwise noted and may be reproduced if the copyright is noted and credit is given to the Cherokee Phoenix, the writer and the photographer. Requests to reprint should be directed to the editor at the above address. Material provided through membership with Associated Press NewsFinder, identified by (AP), may not be reproduced without permission of the Associated Press.

Native American Journalists Association

CHAD HUNTER/CHEROKEE PHOENIX Ed Deerinwater, 72, of Shady Grove, takes aim in the annual Cherokee National Holiday cornstalk shoot held Aug. 31 at the Joe Thornton Archery Range in Tahlequah.

Congressional delegate would have voice in Washington

BY CHUCK HOSKIN JR. Principal Chief The Cherokee people have spent generations surviving and persevering through a series of federal policies that conspire to destroy our government, break up our families and relegate our people to the pages of history. As most of us know, it has been going on a long time.

In 1835, the Treaty of New Echota led to the forced removal of the Cherokee Nation from our homelands in the southeast to Indian Territory, while at the same time ceding vast amounts of traditional and prosperous homelands.

Thankfully our leaders, while at the table negotiating with the federal government, had the foresight to insert into the treaty a long-term provision they knew would serve in our best interest for generations to come. They bargained with the federal government, as mutual sovereigns, for the guaranteed right to have a Cherokee Congressional delegate, so that we would always have a voice in Washington, D.C. The CN has done its part to fulfill

the right guaranteed in three separate treaties. It is part of the CN Constitution and as principal chief, I took a vow to defend our sovereign rights and uphold our Constitution. Toward that end, I recently nominated Kim Teehee to be the tribe’s first-ever delegate to the House of Representatives. The Tribal Council unanimously approved. I am sending a Cherokee woman to Washington, D.C., and she deserves her rightful seat as the first CN Delegate to Congress.

As a young man, I was a delegate at the 1999 Cherokee Constitutional Convention and made sure a delegate provision was included in our Constitution, with an eye toward the opportunity we have before us now.

We owe it to our ancestors, who wisely negotiated this guaranteed right not once or twice but three times in treaty negotiations with the U.S. government.

Although the first of those treaties was signed in 1785, more than two centuries ago, they are still in full force and effect.

The rights outlined for us have no expiration date.

We need more champions at the table in Washington and the CN, as the largest tribe in the country, can use this treaty right to better serve all tribal nations.

We expect the federal government to

keep its word. Our country is at its strongest when it fulfills its legal and moral obligations.

We are not reinventing the wheel.

Congress has established a mechanism to seat delegates from multiple U.S. territories, as well as the District of Columbia. While we should look at that framework as a starting point, we should also acknowledge the distinctions. The CN’s delegate is unique in that it is based on a treaty right. Our delegate is representing the sovereign interest of the CN. We know fulfilling this position will take work for it to come into fruition, but the CN is willing to make the investment of time, energy and resources.

Recently, Kim and I visited Capitol Hill and met with numerous members of Congress. I am very encouraged that they agreed with this simple idea: the United States should keep its word to the CN. Today, through self-determination, the CN is stronger than ever. We are finally in a position of strength and have the capacity to hold the U.S. government accountable for the rights it has guaranteed our tribal government. That is exactly what we expect. And that is what the CN is doing for our citizens.

CHEROKEE PHOENIX EDITORIAL SUBMISSIONS POLICY • The content of submissions shall not contain personal attacks or statements denigrating another person’s character either directly or implicitly.

• The content of submissions shall not contain false or unsubstantiated claims or statements that make claims which cannot be independently verified.

• The content of submissions shall not contain political rhetoric intended to advance the political position of a candidate for Cherokee Nation office.

• The Cherokee Phoenix reserves the right to edit any submitted letter or column so that it conforms to this policy. Such changes to submissions shall be made at the discretion of the editorial staff.

• Submissions shall include the name and phone number or email address of the author so the editorial staff may confirm the author. Submissions

without contact information will not be published.

• Submissions shall be received by the 15th of the month prior to the month of publication. Submissions shall not be published anonymously.

Submissions will be attributed by author’s full name and city of residence.

• Letters from Cherokee citizens will be given preference. Letters from non-citizens will be labeled as such.

• Letters shall not exceed 350 words.

• Columns will be published at the invitation of the Executive Editor and shall not exceed 800 words. Columns submitted without invitation shall not be published without specific permission from the Executive Editor.

• Submissions that are deemed to not comply with this policy shall be sent to the Editorial Board for review.

ᏚᏂᏃᏗ 1, 2019 • ᏣᎳᎩ ᏧᎴᎯᏌᏅᎯ

Community • ᎾᎥ ᏄᎾᏓᎸ

OCTOBER 1, 2019 • CHEROKEE PHOENIX

5

In Memoriam Paul H. Adair Oct. 22, 1926 – Sept. 16, 2019

Viola Hutchinson March 25, 1945 – Sept. 6, 2019

Jacqulyn Ann Smith Feb. 2, 1982 – Aug. 31, 2019

Virginia Eliza Entley Jan. 3, 1937 – Sept. 12, 2019

Charlene McWhorter Dec. 16, 1963 – Sept. 5, 2019

Nolan Voris Dec. 23, 1929 – Sept. 7, 2019

Debra Ann Gillihan Sept. 3, 1957 – Sept. 17, 2019

Rodney J. Mouse Jan. 30, 1974 – Sept. 15, 2019

Brian Jefferson Williams Jan. 7, 1975 – Sept. 5, 2019

Wesley Dean Girty Sr. Dec. 24, 1977 – Sept. 12, 2019

Timothy Allen Ragsdale Sr. April 15, 1962 – Sept. 8, 2019

Theron Matthew Winn Jan. 5, 1965 – Sept. 17, 2019

Mike Gourd Aug. 4, 1954 – Sept. 7, 2019

Mary Juanita Richardson Feb. 12, 1929 – Sept. 15, 2019

Community Events Oct. 1 Vian Peace Center 604 W. Schley, 5:30 p.m.

Muldrow Cherokee Community Organization MCCO Building, 6 p.m., 918-427-5440 Brushy Cherokee Action Association 465406 E 1010 Rd, 6 p.m., 918-775-6914 Tulsa Cherokee Community Organization 6:30 p.m., 805-551-6445 tulsacherokees@gmail.com One Fire Association Kenwood Community Building 7 p.m., emmahayes87@yahoo.com Oct. 3 Greasy Fellowship Community Organization Greasy Community Building, 7 p.m.

Washington County Cherokee Association 300 E. Angus Ave., Dewey, 7 p.m.

918-333-5632 Oct. 7 Lost City Community Organization 6 p.m.

Native American Association of Ketchum 280 East Gregory, Ketchum, 6:30 p.m.

Belfonte

6:30 p.m., 918-427-4237 Marble City Community Organization MCCO Building, 7 p.m.

Eucha Indian Fellowship Eucha Community Building, 8 p.m.

Oct. 8 No-We-Ta Cherokee Community 1003 Lenape Drive, Nowata 6:30 p.m., 918-273-5536 Victory Cherokee Organization 1025 N. 12th St. Collinsville, 7 p.m.

918-371-6688, victorycherokee@att.net

Oct. 14 Rocky Mountain Cherokee Community Organization, 6 p.m., 918-696-4965 Brent Community Association 461914 Hwy. 141, Gans, 6 p.m.

918-774-0655, brentcomm@live.com Fairfield Community Organization, Inc. 6:30 p.m., 918-605-0839 Marble City Pantry 7 p.m., 918-775-5975 Oak Hill/Piney 7 p.m., 918-235-2811

Oct. 10 Stilwell Public Library Friends Society 5 N. 6th St., Stilwell, 5 p.m., 918-315-4279

Oct. 17 Tri-County (W.E.B.) Association J.R.’s Country Auction, 6 p.m.

Native American Fellowship Inc. 215 Oklahoma St., South Coffeyville 6 p.m., 620-252-8883

Orchard Road Community Outreach (Stilwell), Turning Point Office, 6 p.m.

Adair County Resource Center 110 S. 2nd St., Stilwell, 6:30 p.m.

Oct. 21 Neighborhood Association of Chewey Chewey Community Building, 7 p.m.

Okay Senior Citizens, Inc. Okay Senior Building, 3701 E. 75th St., 7 p.m.

Lyons Switch 7 p.m., 918-696-2354 Oct. 13 Rogers County Cherokee Association 2 p.m., Youth Choir Presentation/RCCA Choir, 539-777-2898 rogerscountygwys@gmail.com

Oct. 24 Tri-County (W.E.B.) Association J.R.’s Country Auction, 6 p.m.

Oct. 28 Christie, 7 p.m., 918-778-3423 Illinois River Area Community Organization Inc. Illinois River Area Volunteer Fire Department building, 6 p.m.

Oct. 29 Dry Creek, 7 p.m., 918-457-5023 Tuesdays Veterans Affairs representatives Cherokee Nation Veterans Center Tahlequah, 918-772-4166 or 918-453-5695 The Veterans Center will host VA reps for all veterans to speak to from 9 a.m. to 3 pm.

Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays Marble City Nutrition Center 711 N. Main 918-775-2158 The Marble City Nutrition Center serves hot meals at the Marble City Community Center at 11:30 a.m. Meals are free to anyone over 50, but a small donation is suggested to help with expenses. Gather for fellowship and friendship. Volunteers welcome.

First Friday of every month Concho Community Building 405-422-7622 The Indian Art Market invites all Indian artists to come and sell/share their work.

Year Round Will Rogers Memorial Museum Claremore, 918-341-0719 The museum honors the Cherokee cowboy, movie star, writer and humorist from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. with nine galleries, three theaters and a special children’s museum. Closed on Monday and Tuesday from Nov. 11 through February.

cherokeephoenix.org

6

Health • ᎠᏰᎸ ᏄᏍᏛ

CHEROKEE PHOENIX • OCTOBER 1, 2019

Breanna Carlson

Ryan Young

ᏣᎳᎩ ᏧᎴᎯᏌᏅᎯ • ᏚᏂᏃᏗ 1, 2019

Sheridan Evans

3 Cherokee medical students look to serve their people

BY WILL CHAVEZ Assistant Editor

TULSA – Three Cherokee students are among second-year medical students at the Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Breanna Carlson, 24, of Tulsa; Sheridan Evans, 25, of Owasso; and Ryan Young, 22, of Tahlequah, will begin their second year this fall and face a challenging semester.

“The study level was in very immense amounts, more than I ever thought, during first year. I thought undergrad was hard, but the first year of medical school was a mental reality check of what we are getting ourselves into,” Carlson said.

Evans said she took 15 hours a semester while taking undergraduate classes at the University of Oklahoma, mixing science classes and non-science classes.

“In medical school, you’re in 25 hours of just pure, hard science courses, and it’s definitely a shock,” she said. “You can’t really know until you’re in it, what it’s going to be like.”

Young agreed with Carlson and Evans about how surprising it was that medical school requires many science classes and much studying.

They said out of 116 students who started in their class, some dropped out for various reasons, including family and academics.

Carlson and Evans said students must prioritize their studies and have a good support system that understands the students’ priorities are their studies if they are to become medical doctors.

Young said the classes he took as an undergrad student helped prepare him for the rigorous courses he’s taking.

He said he spoke with an OSU medical school graduate who is now a practicing physician (Dr. Doug Nolan), who told him medical school would be difficult but possible.

OSU COM is one of 44 osteopathic

“It turned out shadowing doctors was really exciting and fun, and I just developed a passion to become a doctor.”

Breanna Carlson, Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine student

medical schools in the nation. Twothirds of the graduates practice in primary care (family practice, pediatrics, internal medicine, and obstetrics and gynecology) and onethird practice in specialty areas such as dermatology, neurology, surgery, obstetrics, gynecology, ophthalmology, psychiatry, anesthesiology and gastroenterology.

Evans said an OSU-trained physician saved her father’s life, which is a reason she wanted to attend the school, and OSU COM is the only medical school she applied to attend.

Carlson took a roundabout route to medical school.

“I started out as a music major.

Freshman year (at the University of Tulsa) I started thinking more seriously about my career, and I decided to go into medical because I enjoyed chemistry,” she said. “It turned out shadowing doctors was really exciting and fun, and I just developed a passion to become a doctor. That was my journey.”

Young took science classes while attending Northeastern State University. “Then I decided to shadow a physician. I enjoyed anatomy and physiology classed, loved them, and so that’s what led me here,” Young said.

Carlson is using an Indian Health Service scholarship to attend medical school and will be required to practice medicine for four years in an IHS facility when she graduates.

“I’m currently working at Claremore Indian Hospital this summer, and I’ve shadowed Dr. (Krystina) Beaman. She’s in internal medicine, and that’s a career I never considered, and seeing her work it’s really awesome,” she said.

She said she would like to work at Claremore or at W.W. Hastings Hospital in Tahlequah.

Evans said Dr. Nolan also was her mentor, but she’s undecided about a medical specialty.

“There’s like orthopedics, general surgery, cardio, internal medicine,” she said.

Young said he would like to practice medicine in Tahlequah or at a rural hospital, but he’s not sure on his specialty yet. He said he and his fellow students will have the option to study at the medical school being built by OSU on the Hastings Hospital campus that will open next year. He said students will have the option of doing clinical rotations and residency visits at the hospital as they progress and graduate from medical school.

The OSU facility will be on the hospital’s grounds and will be the first medical school on tribal land, with a tribal affiliation, in the United States.

The facility will include state-of-the-art classrooms, lecture halls and cuttingedge technologies, including medical simulations.

All three students are open to the possibility of working at the 469,000-square-foot Hastings facility, which will open adjacent to the current hospital, or working in the current hospital.

For them, the possibility of working to serve their people as medical professionals goes back to them appreciating their Cherokee heritage.

Carlson, a direct descendant of Sequoyah, participated in the “Remember the Removal” Bike Ride in 2017 and learned much about her ancestry and heritage.

Evans said for her heritage, she knows who her ancestor is on the Dawes Roll, but her great-grandmother, fearing discrimination, told everyone she was Italian to explain her dark skin, which

is why she said her family missed knowing more about their Cherokee heritage.

“So when I was in undergrad, my minor was in Native American studies, and I took Cherokee language courses and tried to find more information about my heritage,” she said.

Evans serves as the vice president of Association of Native American Medical Students at the OSU COM. Young grew up in Tahlequah and took part in Cherokee Nation-sponsored events such as “Camp Cherokee” where he was a counselor and learned more about his culture and heritage.

Since shifting to medicine from music, Carlson said she continues to receive affirmations that she made the correct choice.

“It’s actually been a natural road for me. It hasn’t been super forced. I still stayed in music (at TU), so having to balance my bachelor’s of arts with my pre-med work and taking extra hours with my chemistry minor seemed impossible, but since I made that decision the road has been kind of clear,” she said.

She said shadowing doctors and seeing how things work as well as her parents supporting her as she continues studying also reinforced her decision to study medicine.

Evans said she wants to be a doctor because she had three surgeries by the time she was 17, and during that time her physician was “really comforting” for her and made her “feel secure.”

Young’s mother had a heart condition when he was about 5, and he said talking to her he understands her doctor “took phenomenal care of her.”

“To make that kind of impact he made in my life, I’d like to make that in someone else’s (life),” he said.

U.S. mining sites dump 50M gallons of wastewater daily

That torrent is poisoning aquatic life and tainting drinking water sources in Montana, California, Colorado, Oklahoma and at least five other states RIMINI, Mont. (AP) – Every day many millions of gallons of water loaded with arsenic, lead and other toxic metals flow from some of the most contaminated mining sites in the United States and into surrounding lakes and streams without being treated, The Associated Press has found.

That torrent is poisoning aquatic life and tainting drinking water sources in Montana, California, Colorado, Oklahoma and at least five other states.

The pollution is a legacy of how the mining industry was allowed to operate in the United States for more than a century. Companies that built mines for silver, lead, gold and other “hardrock” minerals could move on once they were no longer profitable, leaving behind tainted water that still leaks out of the mines or is cleaned up at taxpayer expense.

Using data from public records requests and independent researchers, the AP examined 43 mining sites under federal oversight, some containing dozens or even hundreds of individual mines.

The records show that at average flows, more than 50 million gallons (189 million liters) of contaminated wastewater streams daily from the sites.

In many cases, it runs untreated into nearby groundwater, rivers and ponds — a roughly 20-million-gallon (76-millionliter) daily dose of pollution that could fill more than 2,000 tanker trucks.

The remainder of the waste is captured or treated in a costly effort that will need to carry on indefinitely, for perhaps thousands of years, often with little hope for reimbursement.

The volumes vastly exceed the release from Colorado’s Gold King Mine disaster in 2015, when an EPA cleanup crew inadvertently triggered the release of 3 million gallons (11.4 million liters) of mustard-colored mine sludge, fouling rivers in three states.

At many mines, the pollution has continued decades after their enlistment in the federal Superfund cleanup program for the nation’s most hazardous sites, which faces sharp cuts under President Donald Trump.

Federal officials fear that at least six of the sites examined by AP could have blowouts like the one at Gold King.

Some sites feature massive piles or impoundments of mine waste known as tailings. A tailings dam collapse in Brazil last month killed at least 169 people and left 140 missing. A similar 2014 accident in British Columbia swept millions of cubic yards of contaminated mud into a nearby lake, resulting in one of Canada’s worst environmental disasters.

But even short of a calamitous accident, many mines pose the chronic problem of relentless pollution.

TAINTED WELLS In mountains outside the Montana capital of Helena, about 30 households can’t drink their tap water because groundwater was polluted by about 150 abandoned gold, lead and copper mines that operated from the 1870s until 1953.

The community of Rimini was added to the Superfund list in 1999. Contaminated soil in residents’ yards was replaced, and the EPA has provided bottled water for a decade. But polluted water still pours from the mines and into Upper Tenmile Creek.

“The fact that bottled water is provided is great,” said 30-year Rimini resident Catherine Maynard, a natural resources analyst for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “Where it falls short is it’s not piped into our home. Water that’s piped into our home is still contaminated water. Washing dishes and bathing — that metal-laden water is still running through our pipes.”

Estimates of the number of such abandoned mine sites range from 161,000 in 12 western states to as many as 500,000 nationwide. At least 33,000 have degraded the environment, according to the Government Accountability Office, and thousands more are discovered every year.

Officials have yet to complete work including basic risk analyses on about 80 percent of abandoned mining sites on federal lands. Most are controlled by the Bureau of Land Management, which

under Trump is seeking to consolidate mine cleanups with another program and cut their combined 2019 spending from $35 million to $13 million.

PERPETUAL POLLUTION

Problems at some sites are intractable.

Among them: — In eastern Oklahoma’s Tar Creek mining district, waterways are devoid of life and elevated lead levels persist in the blood of children despite a twodecade effort to clean up lead and zinc mines. More than $300 million has been committed since 1983, but only a small fraction of the impacted land has been reclaimed and contaminated water continues to flow.

— At northern California’s Iron Mountain Mine, cleanup teams battle to contain highly acidic water that percolates through a former copper and zinc mine and drains into a Sacramento River tributary. The mine discharged six tons of toxic sludge daily before an EPA cleanup. Authorities now spend $5 million a year to remove poisonous sludge that had caused massive fish kills, and they expect to keep at it forever.

— In Colorado’s San Juan Mountains, site of the Gold King blowout, some 400 abandoned or inactive mine sites contribute an estimated 15 million gallons (57 million liters) of acid mine drainage per day.

This landscape of polluted sites occurred under mining industry rules largely unchanged since the 1872 Mining Act. State and federal laws in recent decades have held companies more accountable than in the past, but critics say huge loopholes all but ensure that some of today’s mines will foul waterways or require perpetual cleanups.

To avoid a catastrophe like Gold King, EPA officials now require advance approval for work on many mining sites. But they acknowledge they’re only dealing with a small portion of the problem.

“We have been trying to play a very careful game of prioritization,” said Dana Stalcup, deputy director of the Superfund program. “We know the Superfund program is not the answer to the hundreds of thousands of mines out there, but the mines we are working on

we want to do them the best we can.”

QUESTIONS OVER WHO SHOULD PAY To date, the EPA has spent an estimated $4 billion on mining cleanups.

Under Trump, the agency has identified a small number of Superfund sites for heightened attention after cleanup efforts stalled or dragged on for years.

They include five mining sites examined

by AP. Former EPA assistant administrator Mathy Stanislaus said more money is needed to address mining pollution on a systematic basis, rather than jumping from one emergency response to another.

“The piecemeal approach is just not working,” said Stanislaus, who oversaw the Superfund program for almost eight years ending in 2017.

Democrats have sought unsuccessfully to create a special cleanup fund for old hardrock mine sites, with fees paid by the mining industry. Such a fund has been in place for coal mines since 1977, with more than $11 billion in fees collected and hundreds of sites reclaimed.

The mining industry has resisted doing the same for hardrock mines, and Republicans in Congress have blocked the Democratic proposals.

Montana Mining Association director Tammy Johnson acknowledged abandoned mines have left a legacy of pollution, but added that companies still in operation should not be forced to pay for those problems.

“Back in the day there really wasn’t a lot known about acid mine drainage,” she said. “I just don’t think that today’s companies bear the responsibility.”

In 2017, the EPA proposed requiring companies still operating mines to post cleanup bonds or offer other financial assurances so taxpayers don’t end up footing cleanup bills. The Trump administration halted the rule, but environmental groups are scheduled to appear in federal court next month in a lawsuit that seeks to revive it.

“When something gets on a Superfund site, that doesn’t mean it instantly and magically gets cleaned up,” said Earthjustice attorney Amanda Goodin.

“Having money immediately available from a responsible party would be a game changer.”

ᏚᏂᏃᏗ 1, 2019 • ᏣᎳᎩ ᏧᎴᎯᏌᏅᎯ

Education • ᏧᎾᏕᎶᏆᏍᏗ

OCTOBER 1, 2019 • CHEROKEE PHOENIX

7

COURTESY Deputy Chief Bryan Warner and Tribal Councilors Keith Austin and Daryl Legg, center, helped celebrate 72 graduates from the tribe’s adult education program during a ceremony held Sept. 19 at the Cherokee Casino Tahlequah Chota Center.

CN graduates 72 from adult education program BY staff reports

TAHLEQUAH – The Cherokee Nation celebrated 72 graduates from its adult education program during a Sept.

19 ceremony at the Cherokee Casino Tahlequah Chota Center.

Participants who completed the program and passed the GED high school equivalency test were awarded diplomas at the reception.

Mark Pritchett, of Tahlequah, was one of the adult education program graduates.

In March, the company where he worked for 23 years went out of business, so he became involved in the program while looking for future job prospects.

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT Joey Rayburn

BY LINDSEY BARK Reporter LOS ANGELES – Cherokee Nation citizen Joey Rayburn has always wanted to be a filmmaker and write scripts for films. Since graduating from the University of Southern California in May, he is getting closer to his goals.

Rayburn earned a bachelor’s degree in writing for screen and television. He said he knew since second grade he wanted to work in the film industry.

Rayburn grew up in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, attending Union Public Schools from elementary until he graduated high school in 2015.

“I had wanted to be a filmmaker ever since I was in second grade. And it was about eighth grade or so I realized I probably need to go to California to some school. So all throughout high school I tried my best to start writing because I knew screenwriting was going to be the way I was going to go. I would watch movies. I would try to read scripts. I would try to do anything I could to prepare myself so that whenever I had to start applying to schools I had some sort of practice so I wasn’t sort of just not knowing how to do the thing that I wanted to apply for,” he said.

His decision to attend USC stemmed from the inspiration of another Oklahoma-bred filmmaker.

“Ron Howard went there and he’s from Oklahoma, and I was like ‘oh OK, he made it so let’s try for that.’ So Ron Howard was the reason I applied to USC,” Rayburn said.

He said he had a great experience at USC in his classes and learning from his professors. He also gained writing experience, such as getting one of his scripts accepted into a film festival and being the editor for a satirical student newspaper.

“Our class sizes were super small so there were only like 20 people. And everyone in my classes were super nice. We built a really great community in that way. We had these professors who are still working.

They’ll come in from a pitch and then come and teach us in a class. So we had a great experience with them,” he said.

He said his family’s support encouraged him to continue his dream to makes films.

“They never told me that I couldn’t do it or that I shouldn’t do it. I think that really made all the difference. If they shut me down when I was in second grade, I wouldn’t have tried for it. But I got really lucky with some good parents,” Rayburn said.

Since graduating, Rayburn plans to stay in California and continue writing. He is working on his portfolio, writing features and TV pilots and submitting them to different contests and for fellowships.

He said he’s a semifinalist in a scriptwriting contest called Scriptapalooza, where producers will see his work, and if he wins, will receive screenwriting software and $10,000.

“Right now, I’m just trying to do the work no matter what, because that’s the thing I like doing the most and that’s the thing I have a lot of fun doing,” he said.

“Nowadays you need a GED for any job,” Pritchett, 41, said. “I’m a truck driver by profession, and even some of those need a GED. I am just so grateful for the program and for the people who work there. They are very helpful and they put you at ease throughout the program.”

The adult education program allows participants to study subjects such as math, reading and writing at their own paces until they are ready to take the high school equivalency test.

The adult education program is administered by the CN Career Services.

The tribe provides GED instruction at multiple locations throughout its 14-county jurisdiction with options for

morning, afternoon and evening classes.

Testing is available at Pryor, Sallisaw, Stilwell and Tahlequah.

“I couldn’t be prouder of the achievements our Cherokee citizens have made,” Career Services Executive Director Diane Kelley said. “Our adult education program is one of the most rewarding opportunities provided by the Cherokee Nation, and it is always the best feeling to see the next group of graduates donning their caps and gowns for this celebration.”

The program serves citizens of federally recognized tribes within the 14-county jurisdiction who are 16 years of age or older.

Deputy Chief Bryan Warner and Tribal Councilors Keith Austin and Daryl Legg helped honor the graduates.

“This is a celebration of what our Cherokee Nation citizens have accomplished,” Warner said. “Education is a lifelong journey, and no matter what road you’ve taken to be where you are today, you should never give up, no matter what your story is. I’m proud of each and every one of our citizens for completing this program, and I look forward to seeing what they will accomplish in the future.”

For information on the adult education program, call the Career Services Learning Center at 918-458-0577.

NSU offers free concurrent enrollment to high school juniors

The program is including qualified juniors for up to nine hours for the academic year.

BY STAFF REPORTS TAHLEQUAH – Northeastern State University is partnering with the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education to offer tuition waivers to high school juniors for concurrent enrollment in fall 2019 and spring 2020 semesters.

As a pilot program, the Concurrent Enrollment Waiver Reimbursement Program is being expanded from high school seniors to include qualified high school juniors for up to nine hours for the academic year, subject to available funds.

This free tuition program will allow more high school students the ability to enroll in college, have a head start on their education and develop the confidence to earn a college degree, a

NSU press release stated.

Provost and Academic Affairs Vice President Dr. Deborah Landry said the program is a great opportunity for students. “Concurrent enrollment provides an opportunity for high school students to explore college classes and earn college credit from NSU, helping students get a head start on their college coursework.”

While tuition is free, students will be responsible for course fees and course textbooks.

To take concurrent classes at NSU, students must have a 3.0 GPA, be in the top 50 percent of their class and have a minimum ACT 20 (composite) score or SAT 1020 (Evidence Based Reading, Writing and Math) score.

For more information, call NSU Admissions and Recruitment at 918-444-

4675 or email admissions@nsuok.edu.

To apply to NSU, visit apply.nsuok.edu.

Cherokee Nation citizens who are high school students and who are concurrently enrolled and receiving college credit may apply for the concurrent scholarship offered by the CN College Resource Center.

Concurrent scholarships are offered to high school juniors and seniors who are taking required general education courses, at a college or university, while still in high school. CN citizens must also have permanent residence within the CN or contiguous areas.

Applications for the CN concurrent scholarship for the spring 2020 semester will open Oct. 1 and must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 29, according to cherokee.org.

Enrollment opportunities available at Talking Leaves Job Corps

BY STAFF REPORTS

TAHLEQUAH – Cherokee Nation officials said that Talking Leaves Job Corps Center has immediate openings for individuals seeking free career training in the nation’s leading industries of construction, finance and business, health care and hospitality.

According to the CN, Job Corps is the largest nationwide residential career technical training and education program in the country and has been operating for more than 50 years. The program helps eligible people ages 16 through 24 complete their high school education, earn college credits, train for meaningful careers and connect with employment, apprenticeship, military

or higher education opportunities, according to the CN. Job Corps centers also provide on-campus housing, nutritious meal options, basic medical care, uniforms and class supplies, and enrichment and recreation activities, according to the CN. “The basic eligibility requirements for entering Job Corps are simple,” said Debra Carr, acting national director of Job Corps. “The applicant must be 16 through 24 years of age, have a low income, and have educational and employment barriers or deficits.

The program strongly encourages any individuals who meet these requirements, and are seeking opportunity to further their education and career pathway, to learn more about

the many benefits Job Corps offers.”

Job Corps is an open-entry and open-exit program that accepts new students on a weekly basis, according to the CN. To obtain information about the specific training programs and educational opportunities offered at the Talking Leaves Job Corps Center, visit jobcorps.gov or call 1-800-733-JOBS. Job Corps is a federal career technical training and education program for young people who aspire to higher-paying careers and higher education, according to the CN. With 123 residential and nonresidential locations nationwide, training is available in the nation’s fastest-growing industries to eligible 16- through 24-year-olds, CN officials said.

Nimmo named NSU Outstanding Young Alumna

BY STAFF REPORTS

TAHLEQUAH – The Northeastern State University Alumni Association board of directors selected Cherokee Nation citizen Chrissi Nimmo as the 2019 Outstanding Young Alumna and honored her on Sept. 28 during homecoming and the Emerald Ball.

According to a NSU press release, Nimmo was selected because she has graduated from NSU within the past 20 years and through personal achievement and service has brought honor and distinction to herself and the university.

“I was surprised and honored when (NSU President) Dr. (Steve) Turner told me I had been chosen as NSU’s Outstanding Young Alumnus,” Nimmo

said. “I have a long history with NSU. I was born there (in the old Hastings hospital), received bachelor and master degrees there, and worked there prior to going Chrissi Nimmo to law school. My husband is also an NSU alum and we got married during my senior year. NSU has played a major role in my professional development and provided an education that prepared me for law school. Higher education has changed my life and I am thankful for the role NSU played and grateful to be recognized.”

Now serving as the deputy attorney general for the CN, she graduated

from NSU with a bachelor’s degree in developmental psychology in 2002, received a master’s degree in business administration in 2005 and holds a law degree from the University of Tulsa.

She was the lead counsel for the CN in the U.S. Supreme Court case “Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl” in 2013.

She also serves on the NSU Foundation and Tahlequah school boards. She has also been named to the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development 40 under 40, Oklahoma Magazine’s 40 under 40 and the Journal Record’s Achiever’s 40 under 40 lists.

Nimmo was formally recognized during NSU’s homecoming weekend at the Alumni Association Honors brunch, halftime of the football game and at the Emerald Ball.

8

CHEROKEE PHOENIX • OCTOBER 1, 2019

Services • ᎾᎾᏛᏁᎲ

ᏣᎳᎩ ᏧᎴᎯᏌᏅᎯ • ᏚᏂᏃᏗ 1, 2019

Customized training to address CN’s needs

BY CHAD HUNTER Reporter

TAHLEQUAH – To benefit the tribe and its citizens, plans are in the works for customized career training programs in fields such as health care and construction.

“We are going to actually be recruiting for what our needs are here at the Cherokee Nation,” Career Services Executive Director Diane Kelley said. “That’s why it’s called specialized training. We’re going to tell them what we actually need for the jobs we’re going to have out here.”

Kelley, who outlined the career-readiness plan for tribal councilors on Sept. 16, said it involves partnerships with vocational technical centers. The first facet ties into Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr.’s $30 million initiative called the Housing Jobs and Sustainable Communities Act of 2019. The bulk of funding will cover the expense to renovate Cherokee homes.

“We made contact with our (Tribal Employment Rights Office) vendors and they sent people through lead-based-paint training,” Kelley said. “We had our first set of graduates that came through that. So, whenever they start the rehab program, we’ll have contractors that have people on board who can actually go in and do the remediation for the rehab of the houses.”

The next phase, Kelley said, will focus on construction trades via the Northeast Tech campuses in Pryor and Afton, then at Indian Capital Technology Center and Tulsa Tech.

“It will have a little bit of blending from masonry, electrical, plumbing and carpentry,” she said. “What we’re trying to do is give these people some information about general construction so that when we start the bidding process for these contractors to get people, we’ll have general laborers that understand how to use a tape measure, how to use a leveler, how to do masonry work or basic electrical.”

Certificates will be earned through the short-term programs.

“If any of them…want to go into one of the facets more than what they gave them, then they can actually go back and go through vocational training, which could be up to a year or half a semester depending on how fast they learn,” Kelley said.

Eventually, customized training will also be offered in the fields of HVAC, health and IT training, she added.

“Those are the areas that we’ve identified. There could be more we identify next year, but right now those are the ones we’re rolling out for this customized training,” Kelley said, adding that applications are being accepted.

“If any of these people qualify for one of our federal programs, they will actually go on that federal program. If they don’t qualify, then we will use the career readiness program.”

Call Career Services at 918-453-5555 for information.

Cherokees in 4 Ark. counties eligible for Section 184 home loans

BY STAFF REPORTS

CHAD HUNTER/CHEROKEE PHOENIX Cherokee Nation Tribal Registration Office employee Tina Yazzie processes a request on Sept. 23 in Tahlequah.

Registration officials offer applicants advice Applicants must have direct Dawes Rolls ancestors and all birth certificates must be properly signed.

BY CHAD HUNTER Reporter

applications on their behalf. They pay us to process them. The bureau processes the other four tribes. Cherokee Nation is TAHLEQUAH – For prospective tribal the only one that processes our own.” citizens, the Cherokee Nation’s registrar Hargis said the waiting period varies has simple advice: be patient. for applicants depending on each case.

“We’re working as hard as we can,” “We don’t like to give a timeline,” she Registrar Frankie Hargis said. said. “But at the moment, we’re processThe Registration Office processes ing as they come in. How long that takes Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood if we have to send for more information, requests, Dawes and tribal citizenship ap- that just varies.” plications, and issues CDIB, citizenship Applications are also submitted for and photo ID cards. all ages. “You would think that it’s just Basic criteria for citizenship requires newborns, but it’s not,” Bolin said. “It’s proof from the applicant of a lineal ancesolder citizens, as well, who are just now tor listed on the Dawes Rolls, also known enrolling.” as the Final Rolls of Citizens and FreedRegistration sees an influx of applicamen of the Five Civilized Tribes, taken tions as school begins, Bolin said, pointbetween 1899 and 1906 in Indian Territoing to one of several potential reasons as ry, now Oklahoma. the federal Johnson-O’Malley Program, “If their parents were enrolled, that which authorizes contracts for the educamakes it go fairly quickly,” Hargis said. tion of eligible Indian students.

“But if they’re a new enrollee, they just “Then we have some 18-year-olds and have to have all the documentation.”

17-year-olds applying for college scholarHargis, a former tribal councilor, has ships,” Bolin said. been on the job as registration boss since For parents, Hargis recommends applyNovember. She said the first step toward ing for a newborn’s citizenship “as soon CN citizenship is completing the proper as they get the child’s birth certificate.” paperwork, either online, by mail or at An estimated 20 of the monthly 1,100 the office. The most common mistake, requests are deemed ineligible, officials she said, is providing a birth certificate said.

“When we determine that someone is ineligible on a CDIB, it goes through the BIA before they are officially Hargis said.

Caleen Bolin, Registration supervisor denied,” “If they get a denial on the citizenship from the without state certification.

BIA, they can appeal to the BIA, but they Registration supervisor Caleen Bolin can also appeal to Cherokee Nation. They noted that birth certificates must be have 30 days to appeal.” signed by the proper state official, a comAdopted applicants may be required to plication that crops up more often from provide additional documentation. states such as Washington, Oregon, Texas The registration page at cherokee.org and California. includes a link to downloadable forms, “Those four are the worst ones,” she answers to frequently asked questions, said. “That’s fine if it has a state seal, but genealogy information and more. There it must be signed by the state registrar. is no registration fee.

It cannot be signed by the county regisTribal citizenship stands “unless they trar.” withdraw it or relinquish it,” Hargis said.

There is no blood quantum restriction The Registration Office has 30-plus for citizens: citizenship includes a range employees. Bolin, a 23-year CN employee, between full-blood Cherokees and “one has been with the office for five years. that’s one over eight thousand one hun“I really, truly enjoy working over dred ninety-two,” Bolin said. here,” she said. “Coming over here, it Of the tribe’s estimated 378,000 citizens, makes me feel better about myself. We 142,201 reside within the jurisdiction, acknow where we’ve helped people.” cording to the Registration Office, which Hargis urges citizens to keep her office receives an average of 1,100 applications updated on changes of address. She added monthly. that new citizens are not automatically “Probably the larger percentage comes registered to vote in CN elections. from at-large,” Hargis said. “But we get “You have to register with the Eleclots from in district, as well.” tion Commission,” she said. “Receiving The office follows application guidecitizenship does not register you to vote. lines set by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, That’s something a lot of people don’t which reviews the findings. understand.”

“The BIA is the one we have the comCall 918-458-6980 for information. For pact with,” Bolin said. “We process the the EC, call 918-458-5899.

“You would think that it’s just newborns, but it’s not. It’s older citizens, as well, who are just now enrolling.”

TAHLEQUAH – Cherokee Nation citizens living in four Arkansas counties now qualify to use the Section 184 Home Loan Guarantee Program after the tribe’s request to expand the program received federal approval.

According to a CN press release, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development notified Principal Chief Bill John Baker’s office that the home mortgage program designed for American Indian and Alaska Native families is now available to qualifying residents of Benton, Crawford, Sebastian and Washington counties in Arkansas. The expansion was effective July 11, the release states.

The release also states Baker’s office worked with the Tribal Council and the Inter-Tribal Council of the Five Civilized Tribes to propose the Section 184 program expansion.

“I believe expansion of the Section 184 home loan program into these four Arkansas counties will be life-changing for many Cherokee families,” former At-Large Tribal Councilor Wanda Hatfield stated in the release. “I appreciate the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for working with the Cherokee Nation to approve this expansion.”

According to the release, Hatfield and At-Large Tribal Councilor Mary Baker Shaw previously traveled to Washington, D.C., to advocate for expansion of the Section 184 program.

“We have many Cherokee citizens who are living in northwest Arkansas furthering their education by attending the University of Arkansas, or who are living there and commuting to work for the Cherokee Nation, our health

facilities or our tribal businesses in Oklahoma,” Shaw stated in the release.

“It’s fitting that they now have access to Section 184 home loans. This program has the potential to change their lives.”

Nearly 8,000 CN citizens live in the four Arkansas counties affected by the home loan program’s expansion, the release states.

“The expansion of the Section 184 loan guarantee program into Northwest Arkansas is an opportunity for all Native Americans to be able to achieve the American dream of homeownership,” Gary Cooper, Housing Authority of the Cherokee Nation executive director, stated in the release. “More importantly, our Cherokee citizens living in these four counties have an opportunity that has not existed before. We have seen the impact of this program for our citizens across Oklahoma and a lot of the country, and now our citizens in these counties will have the same opportunities.”

With Section 184 financing, qualifying Native Americans can obtain loans for new construction, rehabilitation, refinancing or for the purchase of an existing home with low down payments and flexible underwriting, according to the release.

“The Section 184 program is synonymous with homeownership in tribal areas across the country,” R. Hunter Kurtz, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Public and Indian Housing assistant secretary, stated in the release. “With this expansion of the program into Arkansas, we will be able to help more Cherokee families achieve their dreams of owning safe, decent and affordable housing.”

For more information, visit hud.gov/ program_offices/public_indian_housing/ih/homeownership/184.

Environmental Programs aims to increase recycling

BY STAFF REPORTS

TAHLEQUAH – According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, as much as 45 percent of the 250 million tons of municipal waste generated in 2010 was from businesses, government offices, retail establishments, schools and hospitals.

To this end, Cherokee Nation Environmental Programs has committed to reducing waste and making recycling a priority at work sites. Through a grant from the U.S. EPA Region 6, staff members initiated an office-recycling program for the 25-person CNEP staff.

“Having the recycling program at the office has led to employees making more sustainable choices when using office supplies so that less waste is generated and the waste we do have is recyclable,” Shaun West, CNEP environmental manager and recycling coordinator, said.

Staff members attended a meeting and presentation on how, what, when and where recycling would take place at the office. Each person was given a recycling container for his or her desk area that he or she could use to collect recyclables and then transfer the materials to larger bins in the office storage area.

Once a week, CN Facilities employees collected the paper and cardboard while glass, aluminum and plastics were taken to the city’s recycling facility.

Audits of the waste stream were conducted before and after the program was in place for six months. Results of the audit showed that staff was indeed recycling and only a few non-recyclable items such as Styrofoam and paper towels were going into the waste stream.

For only one CN office some of the ma-

COURTESY Recycling bins sit in the Cherokee Nation Environmental Programs office to collect paper, plastic, aluminum, glass and cardboard for recycling. terial amounts collected were impressive, West said. Materials collected (in pounds) for fiscal year 2019 were glass, 94; plastic, 220; aluminum, 115; paper, 1,440; and cardboard, 583.

“Increasing recycling rates translates into measurable benefits, including waste reduction, energy savings, natural resource conservation and job creation,” West said. “Also, starting an office recycling program can lead to other offices adopting the program and to employees starting their own program at home.”

For information on starting a recycling program in your office or for any questions, email Shaun West at swest@ cherokee.org or call 918-453-5363.

ᏚᏂᏃᏗ 1, 2019 • ᏣᎳᎩ ᏧᎴᎯᏌᏅᎯ

Money • ᎠᏕᎳ

OCTOBER 1, 2019 • CHEROKEE PHOENIX

Young tech pro running repair, gaming shop Mikah Walters, a 21-year-old, owns and operates MTech Cave in Stilwell.

BY CHAD HUNTER Reporter

STILWELL – Budding entrepreneur Mikah Walters is earning a reputation around Stilwell as a tech-savvy problem-solver.

The 21-year-old opened his electronics repair and gaming shop called MTech Cave in January. Since then, a growing customer base has been doling out glowing reviews.

“If you’re looking for tech knowledge, this is the place you should go,” customer Joshua James said. “Mikah knows how to solve all of your tech problems.”

Walters, a Cherokee Nation citizen and 2016 Sequoyah High School graduate, attended the Indian Capital Technology Center with an IT emphasis.

The lifelong tech enthusiast now spends his days and evenings at his MTech PHOTOS BY CHAD HUNTER/CHEROKEE PHOENIX Cave in downtown Stilwell repairing cell Cherokee Nation citizen Mikah Walters, 21, opened MTech Cave in Stilwell this year. He phones, computers and other electronics repairs and sells various electronics plus offers a gaming lounge. while also hosting a lounge for gamers.

Walters views the blossoming business as an investment. that will come play just to get away. Some “My grandparents gave me part of my will come here to play on lunch instead inheritance early, and I spent it on this,” of going home. Some come here to play he said. “I wanted to invest it instead of because the internet at home is too slow, spend it and actually make more than but they have a console. Then some come they gave me. I fix things like iPhones all to play because they don’t have a console. the time. It took me about six months of It’s really a mix of everything. I want the tinkering to finally get an understanding gaming to pick up, but it’s going to be slow of how it all worked. But if it’s anything in this town. I know that.” board-related that needs to be soldered, I MTech Cave also has a room for board can do that. I’ve done probably 200 to 300 and card games such as Dungeons & Dragdifferent computers and phones.” ons and Magic the Gathering.

Walters offers a list of repairs for “I’ve got a friend who is going to help electronics, but iPhones are his favorite me get more in depth with the Magic stuff fix. “The most fun part about fixing stuff pretty soon,” Walters said. “Four to six is fixing iPhones,” he said. “If I could come every Saturday. Once I get sancdo iPhones all the time, I would be, like, tioned, which I’m trying to, they’re going Daniel Christie, 12, of Stilwell, plays the online video game Fortnite on July 31 at ecstatic.” to have a bunch more people.”

MTech’s gaming lounge features a pair Walters said he is also an electronics-re- MTech Cave in Stilwell. of Xbox consoles, two PlayStation concycling advocate who accepts and properly soles, a Nintendo Switch and four highdisposes of unwanted televisions and MTech Cave is at 11 N. First St. Hours end PCs for online gaming. In his downother outdated gadgets. are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through time at the shop, Walters tests new games MTech Cave is a CN Tribal Employment Saturday. Gaming rates are $5 an hour, for consideration.

Rights Office-certified business. It is also $20 for five hours and $30 for all day. For “I play them to see if they’re cool,” he a member of the Stilwell Area Chamber more information, call 918-218-2039, email said. “If I like the game, I’ll install them of Commerce, which used Walters for mikah@mtechcave.com or visit mtechon these (computers). There are some website design. cave.com.

9

Study shows tribes’ impact on economy

BY STAFF REPORTS

OKLAHOMA CITY – The 38 federally recognized tribes in Oklahoma had a $12.9 billion impact on the state in 2017, according to a recent study.

It found the tribes directly employ more than 50,000 people and support more than 96,000 jobs to tribal citizens and non-citizens, accounting for more than $4.6 billion in wages and benefits to Oklahoma workers in 2017.

“This study shows that Oklahoma tribes are providing valuable jobs and employment to Oklahomans throughout the state,” Oklahoma Native American Affairs Secretary Lisa Johnson Billy. “We look forward to continued growth and cooperation that benefits all Oklahomans.”

Neal McCaleb, Chickasaw Nation ambassador at-large to the United States, said unlike corporations that move based on the economy and population migration, tribal nations are permanent and invested in the longterm growth of their jurisdictions and the state.

Thirteen percent of Oklahoma’s population is Native American.

In health care, tribes paid $213 million in Medicaid expenditures at tribal health care facilities, saving the state $88 million in 2018 by requiring no state matching funds.

The tribes have also invested $200 million in transportation infrastructure, with nearly 27,000 miles of highways and roads supported. Oklahoma is first in the nation for federal dollars contributed through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Tribal Transportation Program.

“Oklahoma tribes have invested greatly in the state, and we are proud that our investments are benefiting all Oklahomans in a variety of service areas, such as public transportation, cross-deputization with law enforcement and community centers,” Elijah McIntosh, secretary of the Nation and Commerce for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and chairman of the OTFC board, said.

Through gaming compacts between tribes and the state, Oklahoma tribes have paid more than $1.5 billion in exclusivity fees since 2006.

10

CHEROKEE PHOENIX • OCTOBER 1, 2019

People • ᏴᏫ

ᏣᎳᎩ ᏧᎴᎯᏌᏅᎯ • ᏚᏂᏃᏗ 1, 2019

3 Korean War vets recall time in service

BY WILL CHAVEZ Assistant Editor

WASHINGTON – The Korean War fought from June 1950 to July 1953 is sometimes called the “Forgotten War.” The war was between North Korea (with the support of China and the Soviet Union) and South Korea (with the support of the United Nations). The war began on June 25, 1950, when North Korea invaded South Korea following clashes along the border or 38th Parallel.

Twenty-one countries of the U.N. contributed to the U.N. force, with the U.S. providing about 90% of the military personnel.

For three Cherokee men who fought in the war, it will never be forgotten.

Charles Brave, 86, of Hulbert; George Green, 85, of Claremore; and Selbert Taylor, 88, of Pryor, recently visited the Korean War Memorial in Washington, D.C., and other war memorials as part of the annual Cherokee Warrior Flight.

Brave, who served in the Army with Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, said he would never forget the cold.

“It was 37 degrees below zero. Gen. Douglas MacArthur told us he didn’t know it got that cold over there. About 80% of the guys that left there had frostbit hands and frostbit feet. I, myself, have got bad circulation in my feet,” he said. “I think the Korean Memorial really gives the boys honor who fought in Korea.

They had hard times. Most of them paid the price for being there. Myself, I spent time on Old Baldy, and I tell you what, if I had to do it again, I would volunteer and go back.”

The Battle of Old Baldy refers to five engagements for Hill 266 in west-central Korea. The battles occurred during a 10-month period in 1952–53, though fighting continued in that area after March 1953.

Brave was drafted in February 1953.

He spent 16 weeks training at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, and trained to be a heavy equipment operator, bridge builder and demolition man and landmine sweeper.

In June 1953, he was deployed to Korea where spent the next 18 months. He was honorably discharged from the Army at Fort Carson, Colorado, in December 1954 and then completed eight more years of service in the Army Reserves.

He earned the Korean Service Medal, National Defense Medal, U.N. Service Medal and the Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation.

Green was drafted in 1953, trained in Washington state and was sent to South Korea. He served with the Army’s 13th Field Artillery Battalion, 24th Division and said he thought the Korean War Memorial was the most “outstanding” memorial he saw at the nation’s capital, but “they’re all sad.” Seeing the Korean War Memorial with its statues of soldiers walking across an open field “brought back memories” of his service.

“My last assignment was on the 38th Parallel. We had 24, 105 (mm) howitzers and that’s the reason I got these (pointing to hearing aides). We were shooting over big mountains, and trying to bust the troops up so our infantry could penetrate and go in there. I was up on the hill one time. I had to take batteries and rations up to the outpost that called in the fire commands, and you look through those scopes up there. It was like a cemetery up there, all white uniforms of the enemy.”

He said the enemy who was firing artillery at that time was Chinese soldiers.

“The thing that got me the worst was the cold weather. I don’t draw disability on my feet, but I do on my hearing,” he said.

Green served one year in Korea and returned to Washington where he was discharged as a private first class in 1955.

For his service, he earned the Korean Service Medal, U.N. Service Medal, Good Conduct Medal and the National Defense Medal.

Taylor said seeing the Korean War Memorial “touched him.” He got up from his wheelchair when he arrived at it so he could walk next to the statues of infantrymen. He said the statues were “really realistic” to him – “the weapons and everything.”

He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1951 and received basic training in San Diego. After graduating as an infantryman, he was stationed at Camp Pendleton until he was transferred to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. He volunteered for combat duty in Korea.

Taylor said the memorial reminded him of a rice paddy he saw in Korea that he and his fellow Marines had to cross at night.

“I’ll never forget. We started laughing, and they were shooting a flare up,” he said. “I don’t know why we was laughing, but we had this colored guy, I think he was from Mayfield, Kentucky, and he kept saying, “y’all keep laughing. You’re going to get our names in the paper and our asses in the ground. I never will forget that.”

Cpl. Taylor was wounded in action on Aug. 16, 1952. After recovering, he

PHOTOS BY WILL CHAVEZ/CHEROKEE PHOENIX Three Cherokee veterans who fought in the Korean War visit the Korean War Memorial in Washington, D.C., in September as part of the Cherokee Warrior Flight. Charles Brave, left, Selbert Taylor and George Green stand in front of statues of soldiers at the memorial.

A stone marker at the Korean War Memorial notes the number of deaths suffered by United States and United Nations forces during the Korean War. returned home to the Marine Corps Supply Annex in Barstow, California.

For his service he earned the Korean Service Medal with one star, U.N. Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal, U.S. Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal and the Purple Heart.

The fighting in Korea ended on July 27, 1953, when the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed. It created the Korean Demilitarized Zone that separates North and South Korea and allowed for the return of prisoners. The two Koreas are technically still at war because no peace treaty was ever signed.

At the Korean War Memorial in Washington, D.C., statues of infantrymen walk in a V formation out of woods into an open field. For three Cherokee veterans who visited the memorial, the statues were a “moving” symbol of the war they fought in during the early 1950s.

ᏚᏂᏃᏗ 1, 2019 • ᏣᎳᎩ ᏧᎴᎯᏌᏅᎯ

Culture • ᎢᏳᎾᏛᏁᎵᏓᏍᏗ

OCTOBER 1, 2019 • CHEROKEE PHOENIX

11

LANGUAGE LESSON TELEPHONE

ditlinohedii

ᏗᏟᏃᎮᏗᎢ

TO SPONSOR A LANGAUGE LESSON, CALL 918-207-3828 OR EMAIL samantha-cochran@cherokee.org

Oklahoma, Snowbird Cherokees speak language alike

BY WILL CHAVEZ Assistant Editor

ROBBINSVILLE, N.C. – The Cherokee community of Snowbird is deep in the western mountains of North Carolina.

Its isolation helped the Cherokee people when federal soldiers began rounding them up to be moved west in the spring of 1838. Many Snowbird Cherokees hid from soldiers in the mountains and months later returned to their homes.

They were also isolated from their Cherokee kin who live in state on the Qualla Boundary in Cherokee, about 45 miles east of Snowbird.

The community’s proximity to other Cherokee people west of them in eastern Tennessee and northern Georgia when the old Cherokee Nation existed also created a difference in how Snowbird Cherokees speak the language in comparison to the Qualla Cherokees.

It’s believed Snowbird Cherokees speak more like Oklahoma Cherokees, who are descended from Cherokees who lived in western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, northeastern Alabama and northern Georgia.

Hartwell Francis, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ Kituwah Preservation and Education Program education curriculum developer, said there was always a closer “affinity” between the two groups.

“They had a much closer relationship, I think, because of the geography.

They (Snowbird Cherokees) were more closely associated with the old Cherokee Nation,” he said. “I think the Cherokee in the Qualla Boundary area were even more isolated than this area over here (Snowbird).”

Hartwell added that some Cherokees returned to the Snowbird area after being removed in 1838, such as Cherokee leader Junaluska, and that may also contribute to the Cherokee language in Oklahoma

WILL CHAVEZ/CHEROKEE PHOENIX Hartwell Francis, education curriculum developer for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ Kituwah Preservation and Education Program, works on translating English words for salamanders into Cherokee with the Cherokee Language Consortium during a March meeting in North Carolina. and in Snowbird being similar.

Francis said a big difference between what is spoken in Snowbird and Oklahoma versus what is spoken on the Qualla Boundary is the “tl” sound and “tla or “tlo” sounds. Qualla speakers use a “ts” sound while speakers in Snowbird and Oklahoma used a “tl” sound, which, Francis said, indicates the Cherokee language is changing in the Qualla Boundary.

“Technically you could say that the Qualla Boundary Cherokee is innovative and that the old Cherokee Nation language, which includes Snowbird, is a

more conservative Cherokee language,” he said.

Dennis Sixkiller – a Cherokee speaker and Cherokee Language Consortium member, which is comprised of speakers from the CN, EBCI and United Keetoowah Band – said he believes the Snowbird people speak Cherokee like those in Oklahoma.

“I do believe that the people that live in Snowbird talk more like we do here, and more so than the people in the town of Cherokee,” the CN citizen said. “There are some differences. An example would be the word we use for where. We say

ha-tlv, and there (Snowbird) they say ga-tsv. The word for watermelon here is gv-gis-di and there they say kv-gis-di.

If they are asking you to ride with them in their vehicle they make it sound as if they are asking you if you want to ride on top of their vehicle, I suppose like a stagecoach.”

After earning a doctorate in theoretical linguistics at the University of Colorado, in 2006 Francis applied to become the Cherokee Language Program director at Western Carolina University and developed a language program at the university, which is in Cullowhee.

He enlisted the help of CN citizen and Cherokee speaker Tom Belt. He said he and Belt worked closely with Cherokee speakers in the area to develop the program.

“I was reaching out to those speakers to bring them to the university to work with us and develop the Cherokee language material and help us learn about the language,” he said.

After serving as CLP director at WCU from 2006-16, Francis worked with the EBCI to help revitalize the language.

Sixkiller and consortium members also work with Francis to expand the number of Cherokee translations from English.

Members from Oklahoma will travel to Cherokee, and members from Cherokee will travel to Oklahoma for quarterly meetings.

Even with frequent meetings between western and eastern Cherokees, Sixkiller said he sometimes has difficulty understanding Cherokee speakers from the Qualla Boundary.

“The people in the town Cherokee and the surrounding communities talk a little like those in Snowbird, but some things they say I can’t understand,” he said.

“I think they talk quite a bit differently there than we do here because I have to listen pretty closely when they talk. I think personally it’s because they don’t use the ‘tl’ sounds from the syllabary as much as we do.”

Cherokee translations growing 1 word at a time

Language experts from the three Cherokee tribes gather quarterly to compose words for objects or concepts historically unknown to Cherokees.

BY CHAD HUNTER Reporter

CHEROKEE, N.C. – Cherokee language custodians from the Cherokee Nation, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and United Keetoowah Band are preserving and broadening their vocabularies one word at a time.

“You’ve got to keep coming up with new words,” EBCI citizen Lou Jackson said.

Language experts from the three tribes gather four times annually to compose words for objects or concepts historically unknown to Cherokees.

During a Cherokee Speakers Consortium held March 27-30, dozens of experts spent time wrestling with music-related terms and other words and phrases such as vitamin, skateboard, trick or treat, artificial intelligence and Bigfoot. They also translated into Cherokee from English various salamanders, which are an abundant and diverse inhabitant of the local terrain, biologist Caleb Hickman said.

“I think because I described them, it was easier to come up with the names,” he said. “But words take a long time. People argue about it. There are different dialects. Slight changes in one sound can change the meaning.”

Since forming in 2007, consortium members have agreed upon 4,000-plus new Cherokee words. Hartwell

Francis, EBCI Kituwah Preservation and Education Program education curriculum developer, said the goal is to “keep people in the Cherokee language.”

“Part of language preservation and continued health is the kind of work we did with the salamanders, where maybe the words for all those animals have been lost, forgotten or need to be reinvigorated in some way,” Francis said. “So the speakers will come together here and discuss those things they know about in the environment and name them so the children in the school systems around here and in Oklahoma can study those things in nature.”

Sometimes, Francis said, “It will be more technical stuff, like how to say ‘drone’ in Cherokee, for example.”

“We could of course just borrow it,” he said. “But a lot of times it just makes more sense to say it in the Cherokee language.”

As far as salamanders go, Jackson said she “was amazed at how many we had locally.”

“If you’re not paying attention, you’d think there was just one lizard,” she said jokingly.

Francis said there are “little sound differences” for first-language speakers of the eastern and western tribes.

“Sometimes there are some word differences because it’s almost 200 years of separation of the two groups now,” he said. “It was important to get the word for angry or mad from the group today because the word is different in the Oklahoma speaking groups than it is from the eastern groups. This group brings those speakers together in a more formal fashion than has happened a lot of times over the 170 or 180 years the groups have been apart.”

One of the original consortium members, EBCI

WILL CHAVEZ/CHEROKEE PHOENIX Hartwell Francis, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Kituwah Preservation and Education Program education curriculum developer, helps create a Cherokee word with fluent speakers on March 27 at a language consortium in Cherokee, North Carolina. citizen Myrtle Driver, 75, said Cherokee speakers first united “because we were losing our language.”

“That’s why we called it a revitalization initiative,” she said.

New words are ultimately agreed upon by a show of hands.

“It’s a safe space where everybody votes, and we want everything to be unanimous,” Francis said. “But if you don’t vote, you can always say, ‘I didn’t vote for that.’

So it’s kind of this combination of individuality and consensus.”

12

CHEROKEE PHOENIX • OCTOBER 1, 2019

ᏣᎳᎩ ᏧᎴᎯᏌᏅᎯ • ᏚᏂᏃᏗ 1, 2019