Nov. 15, 2019 issue of the Cherokee Phoenix

SEVEN FEATHERS AWARDS 2019

The Cherokee Phoenix will honor seven Cherokees who work to make the world a better place in the categories of Health, Education, Community, Service and Business, as well as advance the tribe’s Language and Culture. Join us at 6 p.m. in the Cherokee Casino Tahlequah’s Chota Conference Center to celebrate their contributions.

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CHEROKEE PHOENIX • NOVEMBER 15, 2019

SEVEN FEATHERS AWARD

CINDY IRWIN

BUSINESS

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indy Irwin jokingly refers to herself as “a little pizza operator in Gore,” but the impact she’s made in her community and beyond hasn’t gone unnoticed.

For her efforts to establish Gore’s annual Easter egg hunt and help locals in times of need, the longtime owner and operator of Gambino’s Pizza will receive the Business Award at this year’s inaugural Seven Feathers Award Gala presented by the Cherokee Phoenix.

“I feel that if the community has been as supportive as my communities have been of my business all these years, that’s what you’re supposed to do,” Irwin said. “You’re supposed to give back.”

Irwin, a Cherokee Nation citizen, opened her pizza shop in November 1994.

“When I was 16, I went to work in pizza and for whatever reason, loved it,” she said. “I stuck with it, so when I was 31, I moved to Gore and opened my restaurant. When I first opened this store, I knew it was important for me to be involved in the community.”

Her initiation into community service began immediately with the creation of a town Easter egg hunt, a tradition that’s since taken on a life of its own.

“The first spring, Easter was coming up and I said, ‘Where does everybody have the Easter egg hunt?’

They said, ‘Well we don’t do an Easter egg hunt.’

This spring will be 26 Easters ago, and I’ve done the Easter egg hunt ever since,” Irwin said. “The city supports it now. Back in the early days, me and whoever I could round up would go get donations from different businesses.”

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Irwin remains involved with the event, and will “until I’m too old.”

This spring, Irwin and many others rallied to assist victims of historic flooding in Webbers Falls and surrounding communities.

“I couldn’t even tell you how many pizzas we donated to either churches or fire departments,” she said. “Once we took a bunch of pizzas, and the driver met a boat on the road. The boat turned around and took it back to town. That’s how flooded it was.”

For the past six months, Irwin has donated 50 percent of the first Tuesday and Wednesday buffet profits to flooding victims.

“I would say probably 80 percent of the homes in Webbers had water damage,” she said.

“So many people that lived in Webbers were renting. They didn’t have flood insurance.

If the owner of the place had flood insurance, it certainly wasn’t going to help the people

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that were renting. That was a sad time. It still is for a lot of people. You drive through town and see the devastation that’s still there.”

Gambino’s marked 25 years in business on Nov. 7.

“Everyone was so excited to have a pizza place in Gore,” one customer recalled on Facebook. “Thank you for being a part of our communities.”

Two years ago, Irwin opened her second Gambino’s, this time in the nearby town of Checotah.

In addition to running the two restaurants, for nearly 22 years Irwin has periodically worked at the site of a former uranium processing plant near Gore. The Sequoyah Fuels Corporation plant ceased operation in 1993, but a crew was later tasked with decommissioning the site, Irwin said.

CHAD HUNTER Reporter

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COMMUNITY

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SEVEN FEATHERS AWARD

NOVEMBER 15, 2019 • CHEROKEE PHOENIX

KIRBY WILLIAMS

he results of a 2016 study by the National Institute of Justice suggested that 84 percent of Native American women experience violence in their lives, with more than half being subjected to violence by a spouse or intimate partner. Two-thirds reported being the targets of psychological aggression. By comparison, the rates of violence, rape and stalking suffered by the general population amounts to about 35 percent of women and 28 percent of men.

More than 90 percent of Natives report at least one experience of violence committed by non-Natives.

It’s a combination of personal experience and the data that drew Kirby Williams into the struggle against violence within the Native community.

“I am personally a survivor of domestic violence and sexual assault,” Williams said. “I always wanted to give back to the Native populations. Part of the healing was to give back any way I could. When I moved to Nebraska, I was surprised to find a prominent tribal population up here. I’ve found a passion for not letting this happen to other people, and I don’t want them to feel as lost as I was when navigating the resources and agencies.”

Williams, the Legal Aid of Nebraska’s Native American Program outreach coordinator, raises awareness and promotes prevention of domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking and stalking against Natives. She is also the recipient of the Cherokee Phoenix Seven Feathers Award for Community.

Williams said the toughest work is done by the direct services advocates, who deal daily with those in need of help.

“I work to raise awareness and prevention of

violence, stalking and sexual assault against Native Americans in Nebraska and at the national level,” she said. “I organize training, education events. I travel to talk with state and federal agencies – looking at cultural and historical trauma, the history of violence against Native people, and working to support Indigenous people.”

Most of the Seven Feathers honorees live within the Cherokee Nation’s jurisdiction, while Williams lives in Nebraska. She makes it home frequently to visit family in the Grove area, and tries to visit annually for the Cherokee National Holiday.

Williams said her heritage is instrumental in her work, and helped her heal.

“I’m glad to have grown up with access to the Cherokee culture. I’m also trying to learn as much of the language as I can,” she said. “I was instilled with a sense of pride and my parents raised us to be proud of who we are, and to be involved with the tribe. When healing from my trauma – when my healing really took off was when I went back to those foundational teachings. Women are sacred. We are a matriarchal tribe. Women are to be held in respect. When I work with women in other tribes, I know that our culture is our strength and we are a resilient people.”

Williams also expressed her appreciation for her work being noticed.

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“When I got the email, I started to tear up,” she said. “It’s an honor to be nominated – someone feels like the work I am doing is important and deserves recognition. I am also humbled because we are the largest tribe in the U.S., and it’s important to be recognized by your own people, and to make them proud. I am very honored, thankful and grateful for everything the Nation has given me, and the fight continues. We will continue to work to raise awareness.”

D. SEAN ROWLEY Senior Reporter

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CHEROKEE PHOENIX • NOVEMBER 15, 2019

CULTURE

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SEVEN FEATHERS AWARD

JANELLE ADAIR

mong the cultural arts the Cherokee Nation is working to protect is the rich tradition of storytelling.

Storytelling is intertwined with the heritage of many tribes. The Native American-style stories can entertain and use the theatrics of stage performance, convey lessons and wisdom, and in the days before writing, they often passed along historical knowledge and taught skills.

Janelle Adair, winner of the Cherokee Phoenix Seven Feathers Award for Culture, is a Tahlequah resident and former Miss Cherokee who works for Cherokee Nation Businesses as a storyteller – sharing her knowledge of tribal culture and history.

“When I ran for Miss Cherokee, I needed a traditional talent, and my mom and I didn’t know what I was going to do,” Adair said. “She said to tell a story. I cut one down to the time limit and won the talent portion in 1999.

I was really proud because I hadn’t known how I was going to do that. As Miss Cherokee, I got to perform my talent around the U.S.” Adair said Native storytelling has its artistic attributes. It isn’t the equivalent of standing at a mic and reciting “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” A more apt analogy might be the Broadway “triple threat” of acting, song and dance.

While leading Cherokee Nation Cultural Tourism’s “Stories on the Square” series each year in downtown Tahlequah,

Adair dons traditional dress and tells stories in a manner consistent with Cherokee storytelling. The series is a cultural outreach effort, and the gazebo on the Cherokee National History Museum often can’t accommodate the crowd, which collects around it to hear Adair. She also serves as a CNB interpretive guide.

“When you see a storyteller, they are different from someone who just recites a story,” she said. “When you tell a story, you’re spent, but you’ve taken people somewhere else. (Stories on the Square) has helped reach an audience we wouldn’t reach. We’ve had other high-quality storytellers who have donated their time.”

Adair credits her storytelling skills to the traditional upbringing provided by her parents and wisdom shared from some of the most seasoned Cherokee storytellers.

“Sammy Still, Sequoyah Guess, Hastings Shade, Woody Hansen – that was the circle of men who, even if I’d known them peripherally, I gained acceptance as a storyteller,” Adair said.

“I wasn’t a public storyteller before I met them.”

Now, Adair is often paid for the time she devotes to storytelling – and that the willingness to compensate arises from a wish among the public to learn more about Cherokee culture. But Adair’s devotion to storytelling has never been about the money.

“I didn’t know you could get paid just to tell people a little about your culture,” Adair said. “I’d grown up in my culture. I didn’t need to look it up in a book. Still, I have become very selfish in why I share culture – it is because of my family and it comes back to them. I have to know it is there for my kids and grandkids. I have a son, and if he decides not to share (through storytelling), that is OK, but I want him to know who he is, and be able to tell his kids who they are. I don’t want him to have to look in a book to find out how Cherokees used to be, what they used to do, and how they used to speak.”

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Cherokee Phoenix NOVEMBER 15, 2019 Volume 43, No. 22

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

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

HOMETOWN: TAHLEQUAH OCCUPATION: STORYTELLER TRIBE: UNITED KEETOOWAH BAND

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

PHOTO BY WILL CHAVEZ

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

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

Editorial Board Lauren Jones Cusick Kendra McGeady Brenda Thompson Ceciley Thomason-Murphy 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.

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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.

Member

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Native American Journalists Association

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EDUCATION

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SEVEN FEATHERS AWARD

ZACHARY SELF

achary Self is determined to enlighten students about the dangers of abusing prescription drugs and alcohol until they’re “too smart to start.”

Self, 35, of Stilwell, is the prevention specialist for Chain Breakers Coalition of Adair County, an organization created to help end prescription drug and alcohol abuse in teenagers and children. Self visits schools and with youth organizations to reach students “before they start experimenting with the substances.”

“We educate on the dangers of opioid and drug abuse, as well as alcohol abuse,” Self said.

Chain Breakers was launched in 2017 with state grant funding through Cherokee Nation Behavioral Health. To help relay the coalition’s anti-drug and alcohol message, Self partnered with 13 schools, including Stilwell High School, law enforcement agencies, cities and businesses.

“I really like what I do,” Self said. “I really like helping the people of Adair County. I’ve partnered with some great organizations, and we’re slowly starting to see a change from where we were two years ago to where we are now. It’s a positive change. The city council and the mayors of Stilwell and Westville are getting on board with what we’re doing. We’re starting to pass city ordinances for tobacco, drug abuse and alcohol abuse.”

The coalition, managed by Self and his assistant, Caroline Thurman, is an extension of the Stilwell-based, nonprofit organization Orchard Road

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NOVEMBER 15, 2019 • CHEROKEE PHOENIX

Community Outreach. Self’s message to youth warns of abusing prescribed medications.

“Chocolate is great and it’s not bad for you in small portions,” he said. “But if you eat too much of it, then you’ve got obesity, diabetes, things like that.

It’s the same way with an opioid. You are prescribed that because you had surgery, you broke something or you’re in pain. So I say it’s safe if you use it correctly. But if you misuse it or abuse it, just like with any kind of food or sugar, then it can be harmful to you.”

To help prevent abuse of prescription drugs, the coalition partners with local pharmacies to offer free lockboxes.

“Our biggest drug dealer right now is grandma,” Self said. “Like any grandma, they always keep their pills on the kitchen table. That’s where they go and take their medications.

So who I want to hit is grandma with the lockbox. The adult can be responsible and not abuse the prescription. But they still have them, and the kids grab them.”

In addition to his work with youth, Self helps train local law enforcement and EMS agencies how to use certain agents that reverse an opioid overdose.

On Nov. 23, Self will receive an inaugural Seven Feathers Award

for Education presented by the Cherokee Phoenix.

“I think it’s an honor to be nominated because what I do, I don’t look at as a job,” Self said. “I just enjoy it. I really enjoy talking to the kids at the middle school to the high school.”

Self, a Cherokee Nation citizen, is a 2003 Westville High School graduate. He attended Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College in Miami, Oklahoma, and then earned his associate’s degree at Carl Albert State College.

He is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in physical education at Northeastern State University.

He and his wife, Shelly, have two children, Keaton, 9, and Kylee, 7.

CHAD HUNTER Reporter

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CHEROKEE PHOENIX • NOVEMBER 15, 2019

HEALTH

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SEVEN FEATHERS AWARD

ᏣᎳᎩ ᏧᎴᎯᏌᏅᎯ • ᏅᏓᏕᏆ 15, 2019

KAITLYN PINKERTON

herokee Nation citizen and former Junior Miss Cherokee Kaitlyn Pinkerton has been recognized with an inaugural Cherokee Phoenix Seven Feathers Award in the health category for her work in mental health awareness and suicide prevention.

Pinkerton suffers from mental health issues and uses her battles as a platform to help others.

“I have depression and anxiety and I was suicidal, self-harming, and then I went to therapy and I got help. It’s a daily battle. It’s not something that will ever go away, it’s not something that can ever go away. But it is a struggle, and it’s worth talking about it because if I can help somebody then that makes me feel better,” Pinkerton said.

During her run for Junior Miss Cherokee in 2017, Pinkerton talked about the stigma on mental health and suicide prevention, sparking interest from people wanting to help her continue to speak and advocate on the topic across the United States.

After making connections with sponsors to help with travel expenses and supplying information, during the next year Pinkerton was able to speak at the National Council for Urban Indian Health Conference in Washington, D.C.; the United National Indian Tribal Youth Conference in San Diego; with the National Indian Health Board; and at the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Conference.

In 2018, she was named Junior Miss Cherokee and continued to advocate for mental health.

“Being Junior Miss Cherokee was absolutely

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PHOTO BY WILL CHAVEZ

amazing. I got to talk about mental health in Washington, D.C. I got to talk about it at the community meetings more. There was a fundraiser for a mental health treatment facility in Kansas that I got to speak at. It was such as amazing experience and being able to speak about mental health on a grander scale was just great,” she said.

Through her presentations, she said she’s received a lot of positive feedback from people who deal with mental health issues or know someone who has.

“There’s been people coming up to me saying ‘If I would have had you when I was younger,’ ‘If I would have seen you speak when I was younger,’ ‘If I had somebody like you when I was younger I would’ve understood that what I was going through was OK and that I

wasn’t really alone,’” she said.

Pinkerton, a Claremore High School junior, plans to attend college to obtain a Ph.D., in psychology and work for the Cherokee Nation or Indian Health Service. She is also a member of the Cherokee National Youth choir.

“I’m very proud of the work that she’s done. I’m very proud of the fact that she puts herself out there as an advocate for mental health when she still struggles with it herself,” Amy Pinkerton, Kaitlyn’s mother and Seven Feathers Award nominator, said. “I think she sets a good example for people her age and older, and I think others need to see it. If she’s open and honest about it then maybe somebody else will see that there’s no shame. They will feel like they can get help as well.”

In addition to her Seven Feathers Award, the National Indian Health Board also recognized her in September for Outstanding Service for her advocacy work on mental health awareness.

LINDSEY BARK Reporter

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LANGUAGE

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SEVEN FEATHERS AWARD

NOVEMBER 15, 2019 • CHEROKEE PHOENIX

HOWARD PADEN

he Cherokee Nation’s Master-Apprentice Program Manager Howard Paden is being presented the Cherokee Phoenix Seven Feathers Award for Language on Nov. 23.

A “language warrior,” Paden encourages the use of the Cherokee language every chance he gets. The tribe’s MAP pairs adult Cherokee students wanting to learn the language with master Cherokee speakers, usually elders. During two years of being immersed in the language, the students learn to speak, read and write the language.

This summer, Paden and MAP staff organized and hosted community events in the CN to gather signatures of first-language Cherokee speakers in an archival Cherokee Speaker Roll Book. Staff also traveled to communities and sought speakers in their homes and visited Cherokee communities in western North Carolina for signatures.

Regarding the Seven Feathers Award, Paden said he’s glad there’s a language category.

“I’m glad the language is getting recognized, but I’m more honored that we are giving awards out to folks that are trying to save our language,” he said.

He said he’s been interested in learning the language since he was a boy, when he “hung around elders” to hear them speak Cherokee. He also took language classes in high school.

“My dad would try to teach us what he knew, which wasn’t a lot. Back then we didn’t have a lot of resources,” he said. “I had some neighbors down the

road that I would pester (about the language).”

He said when he was younger he worked at a grocery store in Vian, and he would seek Cherokee elders who he could speak to in Cherokee.

“I would try to speak as much Cherokee as I could to the speakers. There were still people who shopped there back then who couldn’t speak English. I told the boss, ‘I want to learn how to check because some of the people don’t speak English,’” he said. “When I would see them come into the store, I would wait and then I would open up my cashier station to check them out. Then I would carry their groceries out for them. I learned to say ‘paper or plastic?’ I would say, ‘do you want paper or do you want something really soft?’ That’s how it translated.”

He said that’s when he started becoming known in Vian as the “kid trying to learn Cherokee.”

In college, he took classes to learn the language and assisted with a CN employee language program and community language classes. He also enrolled his three children in the tribe’s Cherokee Immersion Charter School.

“A lot of times us second-language learners would just get together to meet and pray and try to brainstorm what to do next,” he said.

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“At this time, I was working at Indian Child Welfare, and I wasn’t as deep in the trenches with them (second-language learners).”

Six years ago, he began to help develop the MAP to allow second-language learners to learn from master speakers.

He attributes his dedication to help perpetuate and save the language to God. “So, I remember having three goals,” he said.

“One of them was to have a relationship with God, another one was to have a family and the third one was to learn Cherokee.

I don’t know that there’s ever been a time that I can recall that wasn’t something that I wanted to do. It hasn’t been easy, and still don’t have it all down. So, this award, I look around to all of the people who have done so much, it could go to a lot of different people.”

WILL CHAVEZ Assistant Editor

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SERVICE

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RICHARD TYLER

herokee Nation citizen Richard Tyler is one of seven recipients of the Cherokee Phoenix’s inaugural Seven Feathers Awards. He received the service award for work within his community.

In 2013, after seeing people struggle to have enough to eat, Tyler felt it was his duty to help his fellow community members and start the Vian Peace Center, a food pantry that served around 100 families monthly.

Later that year, the area suffered job losses and the center was serving up to 780 families a month.

At the end of the year, 265 families were able to have Christmas dinner and gifts, but helping others depleted his finances and by March 2014, he was sleeping in his truck at the pantry.

“It was like 5,000 pounds of food a day was going out the door. I was going through my savings like crazy.

I realized that I had ran out of money because I had been so involved in just trying to feed people. I lost my home. I lost everything. I was sleeping in my truck at the pantry. It was kind of a hard deal. And I wouldn’t tell anybody. Everybody thought I was just working.

They didn’t know,” Tyler said.

After getting help from a stranger who gave him a place to stay, Tyler said he had a vision to start a hoop house that would help grow healthy foods to continue feeding people.

From there, he was able to build and operate a commercial aquaponics farm. Aquaponics is the

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marriage of aquaculture and hydroponics, a combination of raising fish and soilless plant growth in an integrated system.

Starting Native Oklahoma Aquaponic Harvest, or NOAH, with his wife, Jacqueline Tyler, in 2015 has allowed Tyler to give 30% of chemical-free, healthy produce back to the community, which includes the Vian Peace Center and the Vian Public School’s backpack program.

NOAH also donates to the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma.

“Now we have close to $7 million worth of assets.

Our company just took off.

Aquaponics just took off. We had the first aquaponics commercial greenhouse of its size, large scale, in Oklahoma. We gave out a million and a half pounds of food last year

through our pantry,” Tyler said.

He said his business also operates a library, home -schools children and works with a Native American elder program to take groceries to elders twice a month.

“I’m just trying to promote the project, not me. The Lord gave it to me and the Lord blessed it. It’s taught me a lot about people and what you can endure. It’s given me a bridge because if somebody comes in (the pantry) and says ‘I’m hungry and I’m homeless,’ I understand. Not from a perspective of looking in, I was actually there. So I understand what the emotions are and the feelings. I feel like I have more compassion for them because I know what they’re going through,” he said.

Nominated for the award by his wife, she stated all of the things he’s done for others.

“Richard is a dedicated servant to his people and is a great inspiration for young people to follow his lead of giving and lending a hand to people who truly need it,” Jacqueline said in the nomination form.

Tyler will be recognized on Nov. 23 at the Cherokee Phoenix Seven Feathers Award Gala in Tahlequah.

LINDSEY BARK Reporter

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CHEROKEE PHOENIX • NOVEMBER 15, 2019

SEVEN FEATHERS AWARD

ᏣᎳᎩ ᏧᎴᎯᏌᏅᎯ • ᏅᏓᏕᏆ 15, 2019