Oct. 15, 2018 -Vol. 14, Issue 19www.c-a-tribes.org/tribal-newsFollow us on Twitter #CATribalTribune

Indigenous Peoples’ DayOklahoma City Oct. 8

El Reno Oct. 8

City of El Reno Mayor Matt White presents Cheyenne and Arapaho Gov. Reggie Wassana with a Proclamation declaring El Reno’s first Indigenous Peoples’ Day on Oct. 8 at the Our Glass restaurant in El Reno, Okla. White also presented Wassana with a key to the city during the celebration. (Photo / Rosemary Stephens)

Oklahoma City Mayor Holt was gifted with a Pendleton blanket following his reading of the Proclamation declaring the second Monday of October as Indigenous People’s Day on the campus of Oklahoma City University. (Photo / Latoya Lonelodge)

On Monday, Oct. 8 the City of El Reno hosted a double-header cele-bration at the Our Glass restaurant in El Reno, Okla. Indigenous Peo-ples’ Day and the honoring of Chey-enne Chief and artist Harvey Pratt.

In a unanimous vote, the El Reno City Council voted to recognize Oct. 8 as Indigenous Peoples’ Day. A celebration that was taking place all across Oklahoma and the United States.

“We are here to honor two things, we want to honor Harvey and I told Jeannine it would be really neat to do Indigenous Day. The city council of El Reno voted 5-0 in favor of this and I think the reason why is be-cause of how far we have all came in understanding.,” El Reno Mayor Matt Whte said. “I always joke, but I never see Christopher Columbus in church or at the United Grocery

store or anywhere else, but it’s im-portant that we recognize our neigh-bors and our citizens of this commu-nity. The people we grew up with, played ball with, went to church with and it’s important to remem-ber it’s their land and we’re here, El Reno is in the middle of Cheyenne and Arapaho Nation.”

The second celebration was to honor Tribal citizen Harvey Pratt. Pratt was born and raised in El Reno for most of his life.

The celebration was to recognize Pratt’s design, ‘Warriors’ Circle of Honor,’ being chosen by the Smith-sonian National Museum for the National Native American Veterans Memorial to be built on the grounds of the National Mall. One of the last memorials to be placed on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. (See more photos pg. 8 )

On Oct. 8, marking the second Monday of October, the sounds of beating drums, dancers in regalia and crowds of people could be heard far and wide from Oklahoma City Uni-versity (OCU) campus. It was a day of celebration as Indigenous Peoples’ Day is now declared an official holi-day in Oklahoma City after years of being rejected by the city council.

“There’s been Indigenous peo-ple working to establish this day for many years and we have a mayor in office now that’s supportive, a mayor who’s a member of the Osage Nation which is also my Nation. I’m particu-larly proud that he was able to see this through and we can all be here to see it come to fruition here on Oklaho-ma City University’s campus,” Russ Tallchief, OCU director of student diversity and inclusion said.

Tallchief said OCU has been rec-ognizing Indigenous Peoples’ Day on the OCU campus since 2015 when OCU President Robert Henry

established the celebration. The cel-ebration now extends to the city and community.

“I think this is emblematic of some of the opportunities we’re going to have now with our mayor in office, I think we’ve got some good momen-tum now in our city council as well and I look around the state and there are a lot of Indigenous women that are starting to run for office and take on formal leadership roles that can actually impact change and impact progress for the state,” Tallchief said.

As many gathered around the Chickasaw Sculpture Garden on OCU’s campus, Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt, an enrolled Osage Nation citizen, read the proclama-tion declaring the second Monday of October as Indigenous Peoples’ Day. With Holt officially taking of-fice in April 2018 and bypassing the council’s decision against Indigenous

Latoya Loneloge, Staff Reporter

Rosemary Stephens, Editor-in-Chief

Indigenous Peoples’ Day / pg. 8

The 10th annual AARP Oklahoma Indian Elder Awards continue their tradi-tion of recognizing and hon-oring the lives of Oklahoma’s Native American elders. This year’s event was held Oct. 2 at the National Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.

Honorees included 50 Na-tive American elders from 29 of the 39 Native American tribes located in the state of Oklahoma.

“We started the AARP OK Indian Elder Honors 10 years ago because we saw so many accomplished Oklahoma Na-tive American Elders who are truly making a difference in their local communities and nationwide. These are stories that need to be told for all generations to see and to be inspired by,” Mashell Sourjohn, Oklahoma AARP Asso-ciate State Director said.

AARP Oklahoma State Director Sean Voskuhl said the Oklahoma Indian Elder

has honored 500 elders from all 39-feder-ally recognized tribes and nations in Okla-homa since its inception in 2009.

“It is the largest gathering of its kind in the sate and, perhaps, in the nation,” Vo-skuhl said.

He said Oklahoma continues to expand

its work on issues affecting Native Amer-icans in the state, particularly working to address health disparities, transportation needs and cultural preservation.

Honorees from the Cheyenne and Arap-aho Tribes of Oklahoma were Wanda Whiteman and Matheson Hamilton.

Whiteman was recognized for her kind heart, caring na-ture and devotion to assisting tribal citizens in ther pursuit of higher education. She be-gan her 25-year career with the tribes in 1977.

Throughout her career Whiteman worked in various departments such as the John-son O’Malley (JOM) program, which provides enrolled Na-tive American students with support to encourage success in school and foster participa-tion in school related activi-ties. She also supported the tribal nation’s employment and training program.

Ultimately Whiteman found her home in higher education, where she has been the coordinator since 1994.

Her love of knowledge led her to pursue two associate degrees, a bachelor’s degree, and she recently received her master’s de-

AARP Oklahoma continues tradition of recognizing Native American elders

Cheyenne and Arapaho elders, Wanda Whiteman and Matheson Hamilton were honored at this year’s 10th annual AARP Indian Elder Awards banquet Oct. 2 at the National Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.

Rosemary Stephens, Editor-in-Chief

Indian Elder Awards / pg. 8

Tsistsistas & HinonoeiPAGE 2 Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribal Tribune

Rosemary Stephens, Editor-in-Chief405-422-7446 / rmstephens@c-a-tribes.org

With the general elections right around the corner in the vote to appoint Oklahoma’s next governor, the future of Oklahoma will be in the hands of voters once the polls open up.

On Sept. 26 gubernatorial governor candi-date Drew Edmondson visited the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes for a meet and greet event and discussed his future plans if elected as Oklahoma’s governor.

Edmondson is a democrat who grew up in Muskogee, Okla., graduated from Muskogee Central High School and attended North-eastern State College in Tahlequah, Okla., Edmondson served in the U.S. Navy and returned to his hometown as a speech and debate teacher at Muskogee High School. Elected in 1978 to the state legislature, Ed-mondson went on to graduate from the Uni-versity of Tulsa School of Law. In 1982, he was elected District Attorney and was elected Attorney General in 1994 where he served for 16 years.

With beliefs surrounding education, health care, leadership and transparency, Ed-mondson hopes to be the state of Oklahoma’s next governor.

Cheyenne and Arapaho Gov. Reggie Was-sana vouched for the Edmondson campaign and looks forward to working together if elected.

“This time of year is critical for us as a Tribe because from when we was at a cam-paign event this last weekend, a lot of people were talking about the 2020 compact negoti-ation … one of the representatives said no-body really understands how much the Tribes donate or how much we give to the state for their funding, to the educators and other needs, and it’s never been discussed or nev-er talked about so I think it’s critical that we put somebody in office that’s going to help us and work with us and Drew’s the only can-didate that we met that’s really interesting to me,” Wassana said.

The meet and greet event was not Ed-mondson’s first time to C-A territory as he has previously met with Wassana and visited Tribal territory before.

“He came out here before, we met in the small conference room and one of the first things he said was ‘what do the tribes need, what do the tribes want,’ so that was really interesting that a candidate for governor was taking our needs and our wants into consider-ation,” Wassana said.

Edmondson discussed some of the press-ing issues many tribes across Oklahoma face.

“The issue of the compacts has come up in a number of meetings that I’ve attended across the state of Oklahoma and there is a shortage of how the compacts work and the relationship between the state of Oklahoma

and the sovereign Indian nations that reside within our boarders and I spent a lot of time explaining that the state of Oklahoma has no right to any of the proceeds from Indian gam-ing,” Edmondson said.

Edmondson vowed for mutual agreements between Tribal and state governments.

“I look forward to visiting with your gov-ernor and tribal leaders from the other tribes across the state of Oklahoma to talk about those things and I have committed on more than one occasion that those discussions will be on a government to government basis where we’re talking as equals along how this is going to work for our mutual benefit,” Ed-mondson said.

Edmondson said through his experience he’s very impressed with how wisely tribal nations have been spending gaming proceeds in every corner of the state.

“The state of Oklahoma, when it gets a little bit ahead has a bad habit of just cutting taxes then cutting budget state agencies, what I observed is when the Tribes in the nation get a little bit ahead they build a clinic, they send their people to college with scholarships, they build housing, they use the means that benefit the people of their Tribes and by do-ing so they benefit the state of Oklahoma and I have said on more than one occasion that my observation is that the Indian Tribes and Nations have been spending their proceeds a lot more wisely than the state of Oklahoma has,” Edmondson said.

In observing and watching the tribes, Ed-mondson said that he has learned by example and looks forward to using what he learned in his future endeavors as governor, if elected.

“I have learned from your example and I will do my best to spend the revenue coming in from the state of Oklahoma in the same wise manner to educate our children, to take care of the health needs of our people, to take care of mental health, drug addiction, alcohol addiction and the other plagues that bother us all. To take care of these in order to reduce prison population because most of the people in prison have an underlying drug, alcohol or mental health problem. So by solving them we either reconcile another problem at the same time. I have learned a lot from you and from other tribes across the state and I will take what I have learned with me if and when I’m elected governor of the state of Oklaho-ma,” Edmondson said.

With a number of issues yet to be resolved in Oklahoma, Edmondson looks to dive head first into the issues of education.

“Well the biggest issue right now in the governor’s race is education and I’ve pro-posed some funding mechanisms to try to get more money into our classrooms, more pay

for our teachers, start reduc-ing class sizes and increasing the number of teachers that are available so all of those things are necessary and not just in common schools but we also need to help our col-leges and universities and our career techs in relationship to tribal governments I intend to work on a government to gov-ernment relationship to im-prove all the lives of our cit-izens, we share our citizens, citizens of the C-A tribes are citizens of the state of Okla-homa. What’s good for your people is good for my people and I’ll be working with the tribes to make sure education-al opportunities, healthcare, housing and all of those needs are met,” Ed-mondson said.

In the final race to the polls, Edmondson will be in the race against Republican Kevin Stitt and Libertarian Chris Powell. Edmond-son and Stitt set the tone for the Nov. 6 gen-eral election for governor, as they are two opposing rivalries supporting very different causes.

“Another area that we disagree on is in the area of health care, I have said the state of Oklahoma needs to opt into the Medicaid ex-

pansion to provide medical coverage to about 153,000 of our citizens who work full time, earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to opt into the insurance pool or purchase private insurance and they end up being a drain on local hospitals because they wait until the last minute when they’re really sick and then show up in the ER, we need to provide them with basic health care cover-age so they can practice preventive medicine, don’t get as sick as they might otherwise and get their medical needs cared for,” Edmond-son said.

Oklahoma governor candidate Drew Edmondson visits Cheyenne and Arapaho country

Drew Edmondson, Oklahoma governor candidate, was gifted with a Pendleton blanket from Cheyenne and Arapaho Gov. Reggie Wassana on behalf of the tribes and a coffee mug by Chief Larry RomanNose. (Photos / Latoya Lonelodge)

Latoya Lonelodge, Staff Reporter

Along with Oklahoma governor candidate Drew Edmon-son, Ashley McCray, Oklahoma Corporation Commission candidate also attended the meet and greet. Pictured l-r: Cheyenne and Arapaho Gov. Reggie Wassana, Ashley Mc-Cray and Drew Edmondson.

PAGE 3Tsistsistas & Hinonoei Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribal Tribune

Cheyenne and ArapahoT r i b a l T r i b u n e Latoya Lonelodge, Reporter/Advertising Sales

405-422-7608 / llonelodge@c-a-tribes.org1600 E. Hwy 66, Suite 8, El Reno OK / P. O. Box 38, Concho, OK 73022 Fax: 405-422-8204

2010-2018 NATIVE AMERICAN JOURNALIST ASSOCIATION MEDIA AWARD WINNER & 2012-2017 AWARD WINNER OF THE OPA BETTER NEWSPAPER CONTEST

DISCLAIMER: Letters to the editor, opinions and commentaries do not reflect the views of the Tribune unless specified. Correspondence must be signed and include a return address and telephone number for ver-ification, otherwise it will not be published. The Tribune reserves the right to edit letters for clarity and length. Submission of a letter does not guarantee its publication. Photographs, news stories or other materials in this publication may not be reprinted without prior permission. Printed by Lindsay Web Press, Lindsay, Okla.

Oklahoma Press Association member Native American Journalist Association member

Rosemary Stephens, Editor-in-Chief405-422-7446 / rmstephens@c-a-tribes.org

Society of Professional Journalists members

(CONCHO, OK) The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes’ annual Tribal Council meeting was held Saturday, Oct. 6 in the usual manner.

What wasn’t usual was the live streaming of the meeting via Facebook Live by CATV.

For the first time the an-nual council meeting be-came accessible to all tribal citizens to view with access to Facebook. A welcomed change for thousands of cit-izens who live out of state or are not able to attend the an-nual meetings. Though only those present can vote.

With over 1,800 views of the video, it is obvious live streaming was a successful addition and will be contin-ued in the years to come.

The 75-member quorum, constitutionally mandated, was reached at 10:13 a.m.

Albert Old Crow was elected meeting chairman and Roberta Hamilton was elected secretary.

Ten items were on the agenda as follows:

A tribal council resolution to approve the 2019 annual budget for the tribal govern-ment.

A tribal council resolution for the 2019 election com-mission budget.

A tribal council resolution for rules of order and pro-cedure for the tribal council and terms and condition for the tribal council coordina-tor.

A tribal council resolution to increase the salary of the tribal council coordinator.

A tribal council resolution to establish a veteran’s board/committee and funding.

A tribal council resolution to modify the GRAP.

A tribal council resolution requesting legal assistance for NARF.

A tribal council resolution authorizing the hiring of ex-perienced attorney or firm.

A tribal council resolution for attorney contract to go through BIA.

A tribal council resolution to approve/establish a tribal council blood quantum com-mittee.

Item one, a resolution to approve the 2019 annual budget for the tribal govern-ment, passed with a vote of 112 for and 43 against.

Item two, a resolution for the 2019 election com-mission budget, did not pass with a vote of 54 for, 106 against and 8 abstaining.

Item three, a resolution for rules of order and pro-cedure for the tribal council and terms and condition, was

tabled.Item four, a resolution

to increase the salary of the tribal council coordinator, did not pass with a vote of 60 for, 102 against and 7 ab-staining.

Item five, a resolution to establish a veteran’s board/committee and funding, was withdrawn as Cheyenne and Arapaho Gov. Reggie Was-sana agreed to establish a veteran’s commission.

Item six, a resolution to modify the GRAP, did not pass with a vote of 39 for, 128 against and 10 abstain-ing.

Item seven, a resolution requesting legal assistance for NARF, passed with a vote of 69 for, 2 against and 25 abstaining. An amendment made by Alden Whiteman passed for the C-A tribes to request legal assistance from

the tribes legal department.Item eight, a resolution

authorizing the hiring of ex-perienced attorney or firm, did not pass with a vote of 33 for, 53 against and 11 ab-staining.

Item nine, a resolution for attorney contract to go

through BIA, was removed.Item ten, a resolution to

approve/establish a tribal council blood quantum com-mittee, passed with a vote of 59 for, 16 against and 22 ab-staining.

The meeting adjourned at 2:46 p.m.

Annual Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal Council meeting live streams on Facebook

Tribal citizen Kenny Ray Williams assists elder Betty Ro-mannose off the transit bus to attend the annual Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal Council meeting Oct. 6 in Concho, Okla. (Photo / Latoya Lonelodge)

Latoya LonelodgeStaff Reporter

Election season is in full swing as candidates are working vigorously to im-prove and create change in the state of Oklahoma. Looking to the community for support, some candidates made it a priority to discuss differing opinions and issues with Tribal communities, including the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes.

On Oct. 2 Republican lieutenant governor candi-date Matt Pinnell, visited with the Tribes to discuss the improvements and vows he will adhere to as Oklahoma’s next lieutenant governor.

From Tulsa, Okla., Pin-nell was a graduate of Oral Roberts University. He served as chairman of the Oklahoma Republican Party from 2010 to 2013 and has worked for the Republican National Committee. Pinnell upholds the belief in market-ing Oklahoma more with its historical roots for tourism.

“Oklahoma is Native America so we should be do-ing a much better job of pro-moting the historical lands across the state from a tour-ism perspective than we are right now in Oklahoma and so that’s one of the reasons I’m out here today, it’s one of the reasons I go across 77 counties meeting with every tribe that I can, every nation that I can to make sure that they know they’re going to have a partner with me as Lt. Governor of the state of Oklahoma to make sure that people around this country and around the world know that Oklahoma is a great place to come visit from an historical perspective and really promoting Native American again as state,” Pinnell said.

In promoting tourism for the state of Oklahoma, Pin-

nell said he looks forward to a working partnership and sitting down with Tribes to put a plan together through a promotional perspective.

“The department of tour-ism in Oklahoma has been literally cut in half the last few years with budget defi-cits down at the state capitol and that has to change, one of the things certainly that I talk about is we have to fully fund the department of tour-ism so that we can help pro-mote, the Tribes are already doing a pretty good job of promoting themselves, they have the I-35 corridor which is kind of the adventure road now that the Chickasaws are promoting but we have so much more than that, it shouldn’t just be the I-35 corridor, for example you (the Tribes) have the largest Tribal buffalo herd in the entire state of Oklahoma. I think the state of Oklahoma should be helping promote that much more and I cer-tainly will as lieutenant gov-ernor,” Pinnell said.

Along with tourism, Pin-nell advocates for education and teacher pay raise, small businesses, government ac-countability and foster care. Pinnell said that him and his wife served as foster care parents for a number of years and look forward to fostering again.

“We have way too many kids in state custody … from a funding perspective I want to make sure that we have money budgeted with the de-partment of human services to recruit more families to stand in the gap but also for money that can be there to help restore some of those families so that they’re not losing custody of their chil-dren, that obviously is pri-ority number one is making sure that we can rebuild and help restore some of those families so that we don’t need more foster parents but

right now we do, we have about 8500 kids in state cus-tody, we want to make sure that we have good families that are going to stand in the gap as families are restored, for me it’s a two problem approach, we want to make sure that the state is being a partner with the Tribes to make sure from a substance abuse perspective, from is-sues that Nations deal with, that the state can be help-ful with in repaying from a funding perspective,” Pin-nell said.

On Oct. 3 Democrat-ic nominee for Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner, Ashley Nicole McCray, vis-ited the tribes and highlight-ed some of the goals she will oversee in environmental issues if elected as the next Corporation Commissioner.

“The corporation com-mission is the regulatory agency responsible for over-seeing oil, gas, utility and transportation and they’re responsible for protecting our environment and our water, I think that having a Tribal member in there who cares about Tribal concerns and understands Tribal sov-ereignty is a good thing be-cause a lot of these projects are popping up on Indian land without out permission, without notifying our people and it’s impacting our land, our communities, our futures and our right to self govern, I think that one of my goals is making sure that the corpo-ration commission is actual-ly consulting with the Tribes whose land the projects will be upon,” McCray said.

As an enrolled mem-ber of the Shawnee Absen-tee Tribes, McCray stands strong in her Native roots and in her beliefs in protect-ing the environment. From Shawnee, Okla., McCray received her B.A. from the University of Central Okla-homa in Psychology, an

M.A. from the University of Oklahoma in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, an M.A. from the University of Central Okla-homa from the department of History and Geography. McCray focuses on political economy, industrialization and the environment.

“The water and envi-ronment are one of the top major issues but I’m also seeing republicans who are concerned about their prop-erty values being decreased because nobody wants to buy a house next to a giant fracking well and so these people have saved their en-tire life savings to buy these homes that are really expen-sive and now they can’t even sell them at the same value because of these projects, they’re also worried about property damage, if anything does happen to these proj-ects and their houses are in really close proximately to those projects, it can impact them and the earthquakes are also impacting our property too because nobody likes

their land being stolen, peo-ple don’t like being told that they have to give up part of their land for these corpora-tions to come and build on and so I think that those are some of the major ones and also not notifying the peo-ple who are actually being impacted by the projects so they don’t even have a voice in the actual decision mak-ing process and that’s really frustrating to a lot of Okla-homans,” McCray said.

McCray is an activist who speaks on behalf of communities and Tribal cit-izens who have faced issues relating to political and envi-ronmental issues.

“One of my favorite quotes is, ‘if you’re not at the table then you’re going to be on the menu’ and I think that’s what we’re seeing done to a lot of Indigenous people in Oklahoma, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t have majority power in the state because we do have so much Tribal jurisdiction and there are 39 federally recognized Tribes here that

all have their own unique governmental powers and I think we need to acknowl-edge and recognize that we have always had this power and this leadership ability and just go ahead and exert that, I think we’ll do a lot for not just our Indigenous peo-ple but all Oklahomans be-cause Indigenous people do have more respect for life, longevity and sustainability, I think that’s a good thing for all people and not just Natives,” McCray said.

Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes host Oklahoma candidates giving citizens opportunity to meet the candidates for upcoming Nov. 6 elections

Gov. Reggie Wassana introduces Matt Pinnell, Oklahoma lieutenant governor candidate to guests at a candidates’ meet and greet held Oct. 2. (Photo / Latoya Lonelodge)

Ashley Nicole McCray is a Democratic candidate for Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner and an en-rolled member of the Absen-tee Shawnee Tribe.

PAGE 4 Tsistsistas & HinonoeiCheyenne & Arapaho Tribal Tribune

BRIEFS AT A GLANCEThe annual National

Congress of American In-dian Convention & Mar-ketplace

Oct. 21-26, 2018 in Den-ver, Colo. For more informa-tion or to register visit www.ncai.org.

Tribal Payroll Manage-ment

Oct. 23-24, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nev. For more infor-mation or to register visit www.falmouthinstitute.com.

Responding to the Opi-oid Crisis in Indian Coun-try

Oct. 25-26, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nev. Tribal commu-nities are grappling with one of the worst ever drug crises. Examine the epidemic and community based solutions. For more information or to register visit www.falmouth-institute.com.

Tribal Cultural and His-toric Preservation

Nov. 5-6, 2018 at the Em-

bassy Suites in Las Vegas, Nev. For more information or to register visit www.fal-mouthinstitute.com.

Wellness Strategies for Community Health Repre-sentatives

Nov. 13-14, 2018 in Albu-querque, N.M. For more in-formation or to register visit www.falmouthinstitute.com.

Native American Con-tractor Association’s Fed-eral Contracting Policy &

Advocacy ConferenceNov. 13-15, 2018 in

Washton, D.C. To register or for more information visit www.nativecontractors.org.

Intertribal Transpor-tation Association Annual Meeting

Dec. 6-7, 2018 at the Tropicana Casino and Resort in Las Vegas, Nev. For more information or to register visit www.tribaltranspora-tion.org.

Developing Tribal Youth Summer Camps and Pro-grams

Nov. 15-16, 2018 in Albu-querque, N.M. For more in-formation or to register visit www.falmouthinstitute.com.

Land into Federal Trust: An Introduction to the Rule, Process and Issues

Dec. 3-4, 2018 in Anchor-age, AK. For more informa-tion or to register visit www.falmouthinstitute.com.

Indirect Costs Basics for Tribal Organizations

Dec. 6-7, 2018 at the Tropicana Resort in Las Ve-gas, Nev. For more informa-tion visit www.falmouthin-stitute.com.

Tribal Administrative Assistance Certification Program

Dec. 10-12, 2018 at the Tropicana Resort in Las Ve-gas, Nev. For more informa-tion or to register visit www.falmouthinstitute.com.

AISES / pg. 8

Latoya Lonelodge, Staff Reporter

Students, professionals and educators alike, are pursuing interest in the world of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) as various tribal attendees across the nation came together to take part in a one-of-a-kind event.

Oct. 4-6 the annual American Indian Sci-ence and Engineering Society (AISES) Na-tional Conference was held at the Cox Con-vention Center in Oklahoma City.

With the convention attracting over 2,000 American Indian STEM students, educators and professionals, AISES focused on inspira-tion, networking and creating an interactive atmosphere for students to engage.

Groups of students and attendees made it a priority to support and embrace the fun and energetic environment of AISES, specifical-ly held for students to engage in educational, professional and workforce development.

“AISES is a phenomenal organization, we started some 41 years ago right here in Okla-homa. Our founding fathers really focused on how do we help the transition for those living on reservations to get an education in STEM so they’re able to go back home or go be successful in whatever they want to do with a great educational background. Native American students really struggle sometimes because family is such an important part of who we are, in fact the elders play an im-portant role here, it’s one of the only orga-nizations where elders play such an import-ant part because it’s all about relationships, our engagement, we learn from those who walk before us so with that as a foundation we have a great program for our youngsters to be engaged from pre college, college and professionals,” Rick Stephens, AISES vice-chair said.

When AISES first began in 1978, the or-ganization had a hard time creating aware-ness due to the idea of Indian scientists and engineers being an actual profession among

Native Americans.“Being an Indian scientist engineer is the

most natural thing for our people because that’s something who we’ve been for thou-sand of years, we shouldn’t be looked at as some kind of academic person but rather a natural person who has natural ways with the mother earth and awareness. I’m a physicist but that enabled me to study the earth and all the lessons here in a different way than other people because of my attachment to the earth and her ways. So we, for thousands of years in this country, have been scientists and engineers we just never went to school for it but many of our people, through medicines, through healing and all kinds of things, we contributed a lot to this society even the tee-pee’s an amazing engineering design, it’s the geometrical shape that the wind can’t topple over, it’s particle and keeps our people warm and safe. The arrow is truly aerodynamics,” J.C. Elliott High Eagle, AISES founder said.

High Eagle said native people have a place in society and in the world.

“I want the world to know more about our people, more than just a Hollywood im-age that we’ve been portrayed for so many years,” High Eagle said.

With particular challenges in the field of STEM, High Eagle said he’d like to see more American Indians, especially women, in-volved in technical careers.

“For a long time there’s been a connotation that if you’re a woman then you shouldn’t be in these kind of professions and I’d like to see that grow for the benefit and participation of women. Science and engineering don’t care if you’re a man or woman, it cares about your mind, how your mind thinks so there’s lots of opportunities for women in the future and I’d like to see more involved in technical ca-reers and in management, get involved and it’s not a competitive thing, it’s just allowing more diversity and thought in what we do and women have also a way of thinking that men don’t have sometimes so it’s good to include

that,” High Eagle said. In expanding AISES over time, the con-

ference looks to grow in educational oppor-tunities and provide those opportunities to its members.

“I’d like to see more AISES members, I’d like to see more companies getting involved with AISES and supporting us and most im-portantly making scholarship opportunities available, education opportunities available for our people because some of our people come from very traditional families and very low income and sometimes it’s difficult for people who want to advance in science and engineering to do so because of the cause so that’s another major accomplishment of AISES they’ve been able to get scholarships but I’d like to see that continue and grow in the future,” High Eagle said.

The AISES conference holds true to its board members and employees who stand be-

hind the conference’s goals. John Herrington, retired naval aviator, test pilot and astronaut, is on the board of directors and was a keynote speaker for AISES.

“The idea is to try to increase the number of representation of Native Americans in sci-ence and engineering communities because we’re the least represented minority and it’s not because we’re incapable, it’s because you got to find things people are passionate about and get them motivated to want to learn and once you find that trigger, there are people that can help you, that’s what AISES is, a place for mentors and professionals to work with students and say ‘hey this is what you can do, this is what I did, you can do the same,’ and hopefully they’ll follow in that same path and lead a successful career in communities and for themselves,” Herrington said.

No dream is too big: Annual AISES National Conference returns to Oklahoma

AISES attracts students, professionals and educators from across the country, to the three-day conference to learn and engage in the field of STEM. Pictured is Genevieve McGeshic, 19, and Austyn Dagen, 20, from the University of Minnesota. (Photo / Latoya Lonelodge)

Latoya LonelodgeStaff Reporter

Overcoming a history of cultural abuse and assimila-tion of Native Americans that were once forcibly stripped of their Native identities to be educated accordingly to European customs has been a long and painful journey.

Today, the need for a multicultural curriculum in education across Tribal na-tions and communities has become a large topic. With Oklahoma as one of the top states in the U.S. with a large Native population, a new and innovative approach to sov-ereignty in education grap-ples the opportunity to teach an Indigenized curriculum to students.

In the fall of 2019 the very first of its kind, Sov-ereign Community School (SCS) will officially open its doors. The SCS project first started out as part of a larger effort led by Phil Gover, Founder of SCS, and fellow colleagues who were inspired by the Native Amer-ican Community Academy (NACA) in Albuquerque, N.M.

In the spring of 2015, Oklahoma legislature changed the charter school

law in Oklahoma to allow Tribes the ability to authorize schools directly.

“Authorizing a charter school basically means a Tribe, through its main gov-erning authority or Tribal Council, can effectively cre-ate a public school and start getting state money for the students that enroll at that school. There’s no other state in the country that lets Tribes do that and so I left my job in the summer of 2016 to basically see if I can get any Tribes or anyone interested in building schools that were more centered around our people, Indigenous peoples, experiences, ideas and just education overall and I real-ly saw it as the last frontier,” Gover said.

Gover said Tribes have not actively played a role in education, due to how edu-cation is funded as education funding comes mostly from the state and local govern-ment.

“Tribes don’t have a lot of influence or ability to in-fluence state and local gov-ernment unless they’re pretty wealthy so Tribes don’t play a really big role in local edu-cation,” Gover said.

The new Oklahoma char-ter school law will ultimately

change the way Tribes ac-tively interact in Indian edu-cation. Gover said he started conversations about having a school in Oklahoma City after working different proj-ects in Tulsa, Ardmore and Shawnee. It was then that Gover started to look for a school leader to lead the SCS project.

“Someone with an edu-cational background that I could give the job to and they would be the ones to create the school, design it and be the face of the effort but I couldn’t find the right per-son and so last year I kind of just thought well I’ve helped with all these other efforts in Ardmore and Tulsa and so I have a good feel for what this needs to be, I’ll just do it my-self,” Gover said.

In Gover’s vision, he did not want to play the leading role for just himself but to make the effort in engaging a community of people to lead SCS.

“We needed to enlist a community of people to re-ally engage in this project in a broad base way and that it couldn’t just be an effort led by just me, I suspected that the school district wouldn’t be terribly receptive to some of the ideas and things that

we cared about … I knew that we would need a lot of support from our community here in Oklahoma City in or-der to stand a chance of get-ting approved at the end of the day,” Gover said.

With statistics of high drop out rates and low col-lege enrollment among Na-tive American students in Oklahoma, SCS looks to combat specific challenges that students may face.

“The challenges our par-ents see that their kids face in schools are the things that the school are going to tack-

le specifically. This isn’t just a school, the school doesn’t exist just to close achieve-ment gaps and be just a sort of different option from the school district. We have to be very different than any oth-er option in the city or else this isn’t even worth doing,” Gover said.

The mission of SCS will be unlike any other school, as it will be primarily built from the ideas given from community outreaches.

“SCS is a school built to impact our students and families overall through

wellness and well being and when we say that we also mean holistically, it’s not that we just want healthier kids and healthier families, we do want that, but we’re not just talking about phys-ical wellbeing, we’re also talking about mental wellbe-ing, spiritual wellbeing, so-cial wellbeing and academic wellbeing,” Gover said.

With an outpour of com-munity input, the majority of concern among Native Americans was health and wellness. The crisis children

First ever community-driven Native American Charter School to launch in Oklahoma City

Site for the first Native American Charter School in Oklahoma City

Charter school / pg. 6

PAGE 5Tsistsistas & Hinonoei Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribal Tribune

The Constitution of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes requires the Legislature to convene in Concho for Regular Sessions. Article VI, Section 6, subsection (a) reads in part: “The Legislature shall convene in Concho for twelve Reg-ular Sessions of up to two consecutive days beginning on the second Saturday of each month beginning at 9:00 am..."

In addition, Article VI, Section 5, subsection (a) of the Tribe’s Constitution reads in part “the Legislature shall have the power to make laws and resolutions in accordance with the Constitution which are necessary and proper for the good of the Tribes.”

The Legislative Process requires: "All Bills shall be pub-lished in a Legislative Calendar for at least thirty days prior to action on the Bill. All Bills shall be made the subject of a public Legislative Hearing prior to action on the Bill." Article VI, Section 7, sub-section (a) (ii).

The Deadline to introduce New BILLS/ RESOLU-TIONS for the 12th Regular Session to be held on Dec. 8, 2018 is 4 p.m., Nov. 5, 2018.

PLEASE READ1. Legislative Action Request form filled out completely

and signed- off by the Executive/ Legal Counsel Office.2. An ORIGINAL hard copy of Resolution a.) ALL Supporting Documents b.) Identify funding source and amount(s).3. A digital copy emailed in Word format to jmor-

sette@c-a-tribes.org.All due dates for submission for working Session and

Public Hearings are established in the 2018 annual legisla-tive calendar.

Thank you for your attention and timely submissions.Any Branch, District/ Department/Program submitting

new bills or resolutions are requested by the Legislators to be PRESENT at the working session and Public Hearings.

For more information call 405-422-7597 or 405-422-7780.

Legislature AnnouncementCall for New Bills /

Resolutions forDecember 2018

Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal members have until Fri-day, Nov. 9, 2018 to turn in an Adult Change of Address Form and/or a Minor Change of Address Form to the Dept. of Enrollment in order to receive their 2018 December per capita payment on time.

Please note that you ONLY HAVE to submit a Change of Address Form if uour current mailing address on file with the Dept. of Enrollment is NO LONGER VALID or if you have MOVED.

Parents/Legal Guardians, be sure to update your chil-dren’s mailing address as well. Please remember that the “care of” listed in our database is the only person(s) who can change a child’s address. For further information con-tact the Dept. of Enrollment and we will be happy to ex-plain this to you.

It is the tribal members responsibility to make sure that their mailing address is current and correct with the Dept. of Enrollment.

For questions or concerns about the 2018 December per capita checks, please contact the Per Capita Office at 405-422-7725.

For inquiries about your mailing address, questions, concerns or requests for Change of Address Forms, please contact the Dept. of Enrollment at 405-422-7600.

Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes Dept. of Enrollment

Address Notice for 2018 December Per Capita

Payment

The newly established Department of Labor, would like to announce the opening of the Department of Labor Sat-ellite office in Watonga expected to open Nov. 5 2018. The satellite office will be located at 209 W. Main St., Suite C in Watonga, Okla.

The office will provide Adult Education and Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) services throughout each week and oc-casional outreach services from Employment Training and Office of Veteran Affairs.

For immediate assistance, the Adult Education is pro-viding GED services in Watonga on Wednesdays from 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. at 109 N. Noble Avenue (current VR Office).

Other arrangements can be made by calling the Adult Ed counselor at 580-331-2412, or the Adult Education Director at 405-274-2982.

AnnouncementDept. of Labor Satellite

Office in Watonga

( P H I L A D E L P H I A , PA) Edgar Heap of Birds, Cheyenne-Arapaho artist, educator, advocate for In-digenous communities and distinguished alumnus of Temple University’s Tyler School of Art, is returning to Tyler for a public lecture, an exhibition of his work and his induction into Temple’s Gallery of Success on Oct. 17-18, 2018.

The celebration of Ed-gar Heap of Birds, MFA ‘79, begins on Wednesday, Oct. 17, with a free public lecture, Influences, Men-tors, Colleagues and Our Homage to This Earth, at Temple Contemporary, Ty-ler’s exhibitions and pub-lic programs space (6 p.m., 2001 N. 13th St., Philadel-phia). The lecture is part of the Critical Dialogue se-ries, a long-standing core component of Tyler’s MFA program in Painting, Draw-ing and Sculpture. Temple Contemporary will display his powerful work, Not Your Coyote Stories until Dec. 8.

On Oct. 18, Heap of Birds will be honored in a private Gallery of Success ceremony in historic Mitten Hall at Temple’s Main Cam-pus. Now in its 21st year, the Gallery of Success is Tem-ple’s annual celebration of the outstanding professional achievements of its alum-ni. Each year, one alumnus from each of Temple’s 17 schools and colleges is hon-ored. Their portraits and bi-

ographies are put on display in Mitten Hall, where they serve as an inspiration to current students.

“We are thrilled to honor Edgar Heap of Birds,” said Susan E. Cahn, dean of the Tyler School of Art. “The Tyler community is proud of his long record of artistic achievement, his willingness to tackle society’s most vex-ing challenges and his tire-less commitment to improv-ing the lives of indigenous peoples and the health of the planet. Edgar represents the best of the Tyler spirit.”

Heap of Birds is a multi-media artist whose works range from drawings and paintings to monumen-tal outdoor sculpture. Best known for his use of the written language, his piec-es often incorporate short, sharp, painted messages. He “wields words like weap-ons,” wrote Art in America in a 2017 cover story about his life and his work. “The pithy phrases he scrawls on paintings and monoprints are searing indictments, calling out state violence against indigenous people.”

In 2007, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Mu-seum of the American In-dian invited Heap of Birds to participate in the Venice Biennale. His “Most Serene Republics” project includ-ed installations throughout Venice honoring the war-riors who were coerced into performing in Buffalo Bill’s

Wild West show, particular-ly those who died while the show toured Europe. Heap of Birds’ work also has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Mu-seum of American Art, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Na-tional Gallery of Canada, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Contempo-rary Art Australia and docu-menta in Kassel, Germany. He has received grants and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Louis Comfort Tiffa-ny Foundation, the Wal-

lace Foundation, the Bon-fils-Stanton Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts. He was named a USA Ford Fellow in 2012. Currently professor emeritus in the De-partment of Native Ameri-can Studies at the University of Oklahoma, Heap of Birds also has taught as a visiting professor at Yale University, the Rhode Island School of Design and the Michaelis School of Fine Art in South Africa. Before attending the Tyler School of Art, he earned a BFA degree from the University of Kansas in 1976 and attended the Royal College of Art in London.

Temple University inductsCheyenne-Arapaho artist Edgar Heap of Birds into Gallery of Success

Edgar Heap of Birds

(CONCHO, OK) The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes receive notification they have been awarded eight grants totaling over $5.9 million. They are as fol-lows:

FY 2018 Office for Vic-tims of Crime (OVC) Tribal Set-Aside Program – The C&A Domestic Violence Program was awarded, Sept. 28, $718,505.00. Pending Phase II application.

FY 2018 Native Youth Community Project (NYCP) – The C&A Dept. of Educa-tion was awarded on Sept. 28, 2018 a total of $2.67 mil-lion dollars for a 4-year per-formance period 10/01/2018 – 09/30/2022.

FY 2018 Tribal Opioid Response Grant (TOR) – The C&A Dept. of Health was awarded on Sept. 26 for a total amount of $610,802.00

FY 2018 Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 106 – awarded on Oct. 1, 2018 for $65,000.00

FY 2018 Indian Environ-mental General Assistance Program (GAP) – award-ed on Oct. 1, 2018 for $115,000.00

FY 2018 OVC CTAS Purpose Area 7: Compre-hensive Tribal Victim Assis-tance Program – The C&A Domestic Violence Program was awarded $450,000.00

FY 2018 OVW Tribal Sexual Assault Services Pro-gram – The C&A Domes-tic Violence Program was awarded $325,000.00

FY 2018 CTAS Purpose Area 4: Tribal Justice Sys-tems Infrastructure Program – The C&A Dept. of Justice was awarded $1,000,129.00

On Sept. 28 the Cheyenne and Arapaho Domestic Vio-lence Program was awarded $718,505.00 from the U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime (OVC),

pending Phase II application. They also received for the year 2018 the OVC Compre-hensive Tribal Victim Assis-tance Program grant in the amount of $450,000.00, and the OVW Tribal Sexual As-sault Services Program grant in the amount of $325,000.

The Office for Victims of Crime’s (OVC) mission is to enhance the nation’s capaci-ty to assist crime victims and provide leadership in chang-ing attitudes, policies, and practices to promote justice and healing for all victims of crime. OVC achieves this mission, in part, by adminis-tering award programs sup-ported by the federal Crime Victims Fund to develop in-novative training and techni-cal assistance, and to provide direct services to improve the overall quality of victim assistance.

On March 23, 2018, Con-gress passed and the Presi-dent signed the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Relat-ed Agencies Appropriations Act, 2018, into law. Section 510 includes the following language in reference to the annual obligation of the Crime Victims Fund (CVF), “3 percent shall be available to the Office for Victims of Crime for grants, consistent with the requirements of the Victims of Crime Act, to In-dian tribes to improve ser-vices for victims of crime.” Under this solicitation, OVC will award eligible tribes, tribal consortia, and tribal designees grants to support allowable services for vic-tims of crime.

The OVW Comprehen-sive Tribal Victim Assistance Program’s missions is to en-hance the Nation’s capacity to assist crime victims and to provide leadership in chang-ing attitudes, policies, and practices in ways that will

promote justice and healing for all victims. OVC is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, within the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

Established in 1988 through an amendment to the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) of 1984, OVC is charged by Congress with administering the Crime Vic-tims Fund, a major source of funding for

victim services through-out the Nation. The Fund consists primarily of fines, special assessments, and bond forfeitures from con-victed federal offenders. Without relying on Ameri-can tax dollars, the Fund sup-ports thousands of programs annually that represent mil-lions of dollars invested in victim compensation and assistance in every U.S. state and territory, as well as training and demonstration projects designed to enhance the skills of those who pro-vide services to victims. The Fund provides state victim compensation and assistance formula grants; support for victim-witness coordinators in U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, FBI victim specialists, and the Federal Victim Notifica-tion System; formula grants to states through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as man-dated by the Children’s Jus-tice Act; and discretionary grants, including the Com-prehensive Tribal Victim As-sistance Program.

The OVW Tribal Sexual Assault Services Program is to support programs or proj-ects in Indian tribal lands and Alaska native villages that increase intervention, advocacy, accompaniment, support services, and related assistance for adult, youth, and child victims of sexual

assault; family and house-hold members of such vic-tims; and those collaterally affected by the victimization, except for the perpetrator of such victimization.

The Dept. of Education has received $2.7 million for a four-year performance period for the Native Youth Community Project (NYCP). The NYCP is centered on the goal of ensuring that Indian students are prepared for col-lege and careers by promot-ing partnerships in American Indian tribal communities. The NYCP allows the local community to choose a proj-ect focus based on a needs assessment or other data analysis as well as the areas the community identifies as having the biggest impact on improving outcomes for AI youth. Through a collab-orative partnership between the United Houma Nation, the Point-Au-Chien Indian Tribe, the Biloxi-Chitima-cha Confederation of Musk-ogee Indians, the Terrebonne Parish School District, Lou-isiana Indian Education Association, Fletcher Tech-nical Community College, Nicholls State University and the Houma- Terrebonne Chamber of Commerce, the purpose of the Native Youth Community Project is to im-prove the college and career readiness of American Indi-an students through a com-munity- led project.

The Dept. of Health has received $610,802.00 from the U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services (DHS) for the Tribal Opioid Response Grant (TOR). The program supplements current activi-ties focused on reducing the impact of opioids and will contribute to a comprehen-sive response to the opioid

Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes receive over 5.9 million dollars in grants

Grants / pg. 6

PAGE 6 Tsistsistas & HinonoeiCheyenne & Arapaho Tribal Tribune

face in Native American communities was at the forefront of discussions.

“The first topic that came up was this sense that our kids and our families are un-healthy and our kids experience so much, there’s a lot of emotional trauma and physical trauma, there’s a lot of addiction and abuse in our communities that we don’t confront and we don’t have the language to confront. Our kids suffer from higher instances of bullying and higher incidents of being put in special education, of being put in alternative schools, of being exposed to sexual and substance abuse, all of these sort of vices and ills affect our kids more than other people’s kids and our kids are invisible,” Gover said.

Although SCS will primarily be focused on an Indigenized education, the school will accept students from all backgrounds, in-cluding non-Tribal. With wellness playing a big role in part of SCS’s core missions, other goals will be based more on the experiences of being Native American in Oklahoma.

“The first is this general sense that our kids, when you grow up in the city you’re not as connected to who you are, where you come from, your ancestors and that’s your culture, language, your traditions and cere-monies. You get a lot less of it and you have to be much more purposeful about it and there are lots of kids and lots of families who lose that over time. SCS can be a safe place for our kids and our families to make stronger connections, reconnect in some cases and in other cases I think be who they’re going to be or be who they are,” Gover said.

Gover said one of the pushbacks SCS re-ceived from education boards and other feed-back was the misunderstood notion of segre-gating schools.

“Segregation is a system of oppression, our parents and our kids are choosing to go to this school, we are not oppressing them into this school where it’s like we’re going to abuse them, it’s the opposite of segregation. I think that point of view completely misun-derstands what it is to have an Indigenous identity in this state of all states,” Gover said.

Gover said there is a need for being radi-cally inclusive in how Indigenous communi-ties are thought of in the school in order to be successful.

“There are 80 different Tribes represented with just the kids that are in Oklahoma City Public Schools (OKCPS) alone, so we’re go-ing to have dozens of different identities and we know that we can’t be all things to every-one but we can be a little bit of everything to everybody and create something that’s much more Intertribal and inclusive,” Gover said.

The initial SCS plan was submitted to the OKCPS board and was denied on a 7-1 vote, due to financial concerns. OKCPS board member Henry Charles solely provided the

yes vote on the plan. The pro-posed plan was denied twice by the OKCPS board. SCS was then appealed and brought to the Oklahoma State Board of Education (OSBE) where it was ultimately authorized on a vote of 5-2, making OSBE their official sponsor.

“Anytime we’re able to provide a high quality and sol-id choice for families I think it’s a good day and we’re able to do that at the state school board, the charter was not accepted by the local school district (OKCPS) and so then after that application was re-jected it came up to the state school board. We got support from the school board to sup-port it because we know how important it is to offer this very unique experience for our Native American families and community and we know that they’re going to work so hard to make the school a great success, they have support from the Native American Tribes and so many in the com-munity that as a state school board member I was very pleased to see the outpouring sup-port and knew that the school was going to be a great success,” Bob Ross, OSBE board member said.

Ross said that for him, he was so impressed with the amount of community support from families and Tribal citizens over the school that he wanted to vote in favor of the school.

“Anytime you can offer up something special and unique like SCS, where students can really succeed and they can be better sit-uated for the future, I’m all for it and I think providing these type of options for parents is important and we need to continue providing more high quality options for parents, not just Oklahoma City but across the state,” Ross said.

Like a chain reaction, in promoting the au-thorization of SCS, Gover said other Tribes are looking to also launch charter schools in the upcoming year. The Comanche Tribe will plan to launch an elementary school in Law-ton, Okla., the same year SCS will open.

“My biggest hope is that when SCS opens, this process we’re going to go through over the next year of opening the school is going to be the flagship of the SCS project and any Tribe and Tribal community across the state that’s interested in what we’re doing in Okla-homa City can come and learn from us and we can teach you how to open schools the same way we opened SCS using a commu-nity led design process, that’s what we do,” Gover said.

With the school first being formed from community discussions and unraveling to become a living dream within the upcoming year, there are many reasons to be excited.

Sarah Adams-Cornell, SCS board mem-ber, said she’s most excited about indigeniz-ing the curriculum at SCS.

“I was very sad that Oklahoma City Pub-lic Schools didn’t embrace this opportunity to really turn things around for their Native students who aren’t graduating but I’m real-ly excited to get started. I think it’s going to be a pivotal point in the native community in Oklahoma City when this school is up and running and I’m really excited to see other communities outside Oklahoma City, but within Oklahoma start to really stretch their words of sovereignty to embrace this respon-sibility and honor that we have to educate our own children, it’s so important and I hope that we see the success of those schools soon to get their charters approved within their tribes so they can start too,” Cornell said.

Cornell said that in Oklahoma Native youth have a lot of mental health care crisis situations and a lot of that is not ever ad-dressed in educational institutions.

“We will be able to offer them tools and teaching and talking circles to really build that knowledge and those tools so that they’re able to understand what they’re feeling, have coping skills, know appropriate pathways to wellness and really be able to save them-selves and hopefully see some of these rates with our kids decrease and see their educa-tional, mental and physical wellness all in-crease,” Cornell said.

The newly proposed and upcoming SCS will move into the former Mayfair Center lo-cated at 3200 NW 48th St, Oklahoma City. The school plans to launch in the fall of 2019

for sixth and ninth grades, with more grades to come in the future.

“We’re taking applications for enrollment now, you can get our pre-enrollment appli-cations for enrollment now on our Facebook page, if you search Sovereign Community School. We are proposing to start with 75 sixth graders and 75 ninth graders and then each year we will add grades, so our sec-ond year we’ll have sixth, seventh, ninth, 10th and then our third year we’ll have sixth through 11th and our fourth year we’ll have sixth through 12th grade,” Gover said.

In the event that SCS hits maximum en-rollment, there will be a waiting list, as the state contract will only allow 75 kids per grade. Kids will be chosen at random to fill the 75-seat quantum.

Although the deadline for resume and ap-plication submission for SCS’s principle was Oct. 15, applications for enrollment will be open. Teachers will not be hired until a prin-ciple is hired and faculty and staff positions will be hired in late fall.

“It’s kind of a complicated process but we would be lucky if we get there next spring, we have to run a lottery if we have that much interest in the school but if parents have fifth or eighth graders right now in this school year and they’re in the Oklahoma city met-ro area they can totally come to our school and you do not have to be an OKCPS student to enroll at our school. You can go to school anywhere and enroll at our school, we will only be offering transportation to families within OKCPS boundaries,” Gover said.

For pre-enrollment applications visit www.kwiksurveys.com/s/ruX7PLEP#!/0

For more information about Sovereign Community School, visit www.sover-eign-community-school.webflow.io.

Charter schoolcontinued from pg. 4

Phil Gover, Sovereignty Community School (SCS) founder, led the community effort for the school project. SCS will officially open in the fall of 2019 for sixth and ninth grades. (Photos / Latoya Lonelodge)

epidemic. Tribes will use the results of a current needs assessment if available to the tribe (or carry out a stra-tegic planning process to conduct needs and capaci-ty assessments) to identify gaps and resources from which to build prevention, treatment and/or communi-ty-based recovery support services. Grantees will be re-quired to describe how they will expand access to treat-ment and recovery support services as well as advance substance misuse prevention in coordination with other federally-supported efforts. Grantees must use funding to supplement and not sup-plant existing opioid preven-tion, treatment, and/or re-covery activities. Grantees are required to describe how they will improve retention in care, using a chronic care model or other innovative model that has been shown to improve retention in care.

The Dept. of Justice has received the Tribal Justice Systems Infrastructure Pro-gram award in the amount of $1,000,129.00 for Phase II of the Tribal Justice Center.

In addition, the tribes have also been awarded the Environmental Protec-tion Agency’s (EPA) Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 106 grant in the amount of $65,000 and the General As-sistance Program (GAP) in the amount of $115,000.00.

The CWA provides finan-cial assistance to establish

and administer programs for the prevention, reduction, and elimination of water. Since 1987, EPA has provid-ed technical assistance and funding under the Section 106 program to assist tribes and intertribal consortia to understand, assess, and pre-serve water resources on their lands. For tribes, Sec-tion 106 grants are a crucial, dedicated source of funds for developing, maintaining, and expanding water quality programs. These programs are designed to control, pre-vent, and eliminate water pollution as well as to edu-cate tribal members and the general public.

In 1992, Congress passed the Indian Environmental General Assistance Program Act. This act authorized the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide General Assistance Program (GAP) grants to federally recognized tribes and tribal consortia for planning, de-veloping and establishing environmental protection programs in Indian country, and for developing and im-plementing solid and haz-ardous waste programs on tribal lands

The Tribal Environ-mental Agreement with the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes and Region 6 EPA be-gan in 1997. The GAP grant is for capacity building the GIS/GPS activities, solid waste activities, educational awareness and staff training.

Grantscontinued from pg. 5

Kimberly Burk, CATT Correspondent

It’s hard to believe the Indian agent was not trying to be funny.

The letter is neatly typed on Department of the Interior let-terhead, dated Aug. 2, 1907, from Superintendent J.R. Eddy of the Tongue River Agency in Montana to Superintendent Charles E. Shell of the Darlington Agency in Oklahoma.

“Sir,” Eddy addresses Shell, “Turkeylegs of this agency has a brother named Turkeylegs at your agency who recently wrote me requesting that I request of you that he Turkeylegs (Southern Cheyenne) be allowed to forward to our Turkey-legs $100, as part proceeds as I understand it of land of your Turkeylegs’ daughter which was recently leased.”

Eddy continues.“If Turkeylegs desires to send this money to our Turkey-

legs, and you have no objection … I will not object to the money being forwarded to Turkeylegs. Please get the matter straight from your Indians and advise me as to your conclu-sions.”

The communication that could rightly be considered a forerunner to Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s on First?” is filed in one of the more than 1,000 boxes that make up the Chey-enne and Arapaho archives stored at the Oklahoma History Center. Federal legislation sought by the Oklahoma Histori-cal Society and approved in 1934 placed many Indian records in the custody of the state.

The collection includes allotment records, tribal member’s bank records, copies of treaties, lease agreements, photo-graphs, maps, diaries, prisoner rolls, information about Na-tive veterans’ organizations and letters from Indian school superintendents to parents and agents and law officers.

“The Cheyenne and Arapaho is one of the biggest col-lections that we have here,” said Mallory Covington, man-uscripts department supervisor for the Oklahoma Historical Society. “The U.S. government kept these records.”

Tribal members and Native American researchers have also contributed to the archives, Covington said.

Most of it is not digitized and cannot be accessed on the Oklahoma Historical Society website, so people who are searching for their ancestors or just interested in tribal history must travel to the OHC and don white cotton gloves before perusing the records.

The paperwork is heavy with names, because the gov-

ernment was very much into the personal business of the people who lived on the res-ervation created in the 1860s. If the C-A people obtained money from land leases and other sources, the agents like-ly knew about it, as evidenced in the “Turkeylegs” letter.

The letters written by Indi-an agents in the early 1900s run the gamut from sympa-thetic to patronizing to down-right mean. Some made no bones about their desires to “civilize” their charges.

“I have established a rule at this agency,” a Shosho-ne agent in Wyoming wrote to Darlington agent George W.H. Stouch in 1902, “that hereafter no passes to visit other reservations will be giv-en (to) any longhaired male Indians or one wearing paint or feathers. Should any such Indians come to your agency from this reservation I will be very thankful if you will at once have your police or some employee cut the hair of any such male Indian and take from him his paint and feathers.”

The agent in Wyoming, where many Northern Cheyenne had gone to live, said he would “gladly return the favor should opportunity arise.”

In July of 1910, another Darlington agent quibbled with Chilocco Indian School student Van Horn Flyingman over his $5 a month vacation allowance. The youth was entitled to the money, the agent acknowledged in a letter, but the Commis-sioner of Indian Affairs would not want him to use it to do any traveling during the summer.

“Would it not be a good idea for you to get out in the fields

A glimpse into the Cheyenne Arapahoarchives at the Oklahoma History Center

History archives / pg. 9

PAGE 7Tsistsistas & Hinonoei Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribal Tribune

Grantscontinued from pg. 5

Rosemary Stephens, Editor-in-Chief

Brianna Bighorse is a name I will not for-get. Not because of the name itself, but be-cause of the young woman who possesses the name.

At 19-years-old, Bighorse is a 2018 grad-uate of Northwest Classen High school in Oklahoma City, where she was the football homecoming queen just one year ago. But that seems like a long time ago for the now U.S. Marine.

Bighorse recently completed her 13 week boot camp at the Marine Corps Recruiting Depot, Parris Island, S.C., where she not only earned the Honor Graduate award for Platoon 4036 Oscar Company, 4th Recruit Training Battalion, but she also received the Molly Marine award, was top 10 percent in her class and her platoon’s highest shooter.

Not knowing what to expect, I arrived at her mother’s home in Oklahoma City and as I was setting up for the interview in bounced this energetic, smiling, confident young woman. I can only compare her presence to being stuck in a hot, stale space until some-one opens a window and a blast of fresh clean air hits you … it was that kind of feeling.

Not knowing her prior to this meeting, I could immediately sense this young lady had never felt fear, or if she had, she had conquered that feeling and was no longer plagued by such an inconvenience as fear.

Settling in, my first question to this long hair, beautiful girl was her reasoning behind joining, what some people call, one of the most challenging military branch of service there is.

“I thought about going to college, but school really wasn’t my thing but I had al-ways had thoughts of being in the military when I was younger … just didn’t really take it serious,” Bighorse said. But when it came closer to graduation she said she felt she needed to make a decision and chose the U.S. Marine Corps.

“I am the first member of my family to join the military … and why the Marines? I get asked that a lot. I wanted a challenge because I am a really competitive person and I needed a challenge and there are very few Native women in the Marines,” Bighorse said.

She said she immediately met a drill in-structor that called out, ‘whose Big Horse?’

“I yelled out, ‘I am,’ and this instructor looked at me and said, ‘I have been in the Marines for 20 years now and you’re only the second Native American woman I’ve ran across,’ so I am hoping to change that … even just a little,” Bighorse said.

Her decision made, she signed the pa-pers in March 2018, with a scheduled date to leave in October 2018. But as is the case in life, plans changed.

“I signed in March and had to wait until after I graduated, so I was supposed to leave in October, but then my recruiter thought I was ready, though I wasn’t sure if I was ready physically, but I just decided to go ahead and go and I shipped out June 25 for South Car-olina.”

Her mother, Rose Bighorse, thought she was crazy and didn’t think she would go through with it, but then at the last minute at the end she decided she was going, “but I knew she could do it, but I still thought she was crazy.”

And Bighorse’s journey to a world she never knew existed began. First time on an airplane, she said she was really nervous at first, but then it wasn’t so bad. Arriving in Charleston, S.C. her and other recruits were loaded on a bus, told to put their heads down and away they went.

“We had to put our head’s down so we couldn’t see where we were going. We get there and there was this drill sergeant screaming at us to get off the bus, everything was chaotic. We got to make one phone call to our parents, but we had to read a script and then just hang up and the whole time they are yelling at you and there were girls cry-ing,” Bighorse said, and admittedly said she thought to herself several times, ‘Who does this? Who signs up to come do this … why did I do this?’

But she followed up by saying she didn’t understand at the time that everything they do has a purpose behind it and later on she said she viewed it as a pretty smart strategy.

“The hardest part for me was I was so tired, getting up at 4 a.m. everyday being on your feet all day, in the heat up until 8 p.m. at night and then still not getting to go to bed be-

cause we had to get ready for the next day and then back up at 4 a.m. and start again,” she said, laughing about it now as it all seemed like a dream.

Soon she would find her-self experiencing the gas chamber, rifle range, repel tower and the swim crawl … all events designed to mold and build her into a U.S. Ma-rine.

“I didn’t like the repel tow-er, because I almost fell off of it, but the thing I liked the best was the gas chamber,” Big-horse said explaining the pro-cess of entering a room filled with gas chemicals, wearing a gas mask and having to re-move the mask at different times without freaking out. Which for some in her platoon was impossible.

“You just have to stay calm and it becomes mind over matter. The thing with boot camp, I came to believe,

Homecoming queen yesterday, U.S. Marine today

Pvt. First Class Brianna Bighorse, U.S. Marine Corps

Brianna Bighorse spends time with her mother, Rose Bighorse in Oklahoma City while on leave. Brianna reported to Camp Pendleton in San Diego, Calif. on Oct. 8. (Photo / Rosemary Stephens)Bighorse / pg. 9

(CONCHO, OK) The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes host the Native American Church State of Oklahoma 100 Year Commemoration Oct. 9-10.

On day one the com-memoration began with an invocation, raising of the colors by the Chey-enne Arapaho American Legion Post 401 and a flag song.

Next, the Oklahoma Secretary of State and

Native American Affairs, Chris Benge presented the state proclamation, by Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, proclaiming Oct. 10, 2018 as “Native Amer-ican Church Day.”

After the proclamation was read, Cheyenne and Arapaho Gov. Reggie Wassana welcomed the at-tendees to Concho saying he was happy the Tribes could support the Native American Church and the 100 Year Commemoration celebration.

Brunch was served and the program continued

with recognition Tribes and Tribal leaders, followed by presentations by the Apache Native American Church, Native American Church Cheyenne Chap-ter 1, Comanche Native American Church 1918 Chapter, Kiowa Native American Church, Otoe Na-tive American Church and the Ponca Native Amer-ican Church. Followed by a timeline presentation by Linda Benally, Indigenous Peyote Conservation Initiative and Commemoration Committee.

Cheyenne Arapaho Tribes host 100 Year NAC Commemoration

Gov. Reggie Wassana welcomes guests to the 100th Year Native American Church Commemoration held at the Con-cho Community Center in Concho, Okla. (Photos / Christo-pher Roman Nose)

PAGE 8 Tsistsistas & HinonoeiCheyenne & Arapaho Tribal Tribune

Peoples’ Day, new opportu-nities opened for the future of Oklahoma City and its Native communities.

“This is a celebratory day and it’s certainly appropriate and perhaps a bit overdue. I’m the city’s first Native mayor. We have tremendous history going back many centuries, long before the founding of Oklahoma City, we have Indigenous history here in the city and today we still have a thriving Indige-nous Native community here in Oklahoma City, we’re the soon to be home of the American Indian Cultural Center, we’re the soon to be home of the Sovereign Com-munity School, we are the

home of Red Earth and Sov-ereignty Symposium, we are the capitol city of a state that has 39 Native Tribes and it’s so very important that we value that and as a candidate for mayor I talked about valuing all the people of our city and certainly today we are following through on that promise,” Holt said.

Holt said people will take Indigenous Peoples’ Day as an opportunity to celebrate the history, heritage and cul-ture of Native peoples.

“This is overwhelming, the size of the crowd, the excitement and emotion was tremendous and it was won-derful to be a part of it,” Holt said.

Indigenous Peoples’ Day

was part of a four-year proj-ect that many worked tire-lessly to get passed through the city council. One activ-ist, Sarah Adams-Cornell, member of Live Indigenous OK and citizen to the Choc-taw Nation, made it a prior-ity to continuously work on getting Indigenous Peoples’ Day recognized apart from Columbus Day.

“We found out that the former mayor (Mick Cor-nett) was not going to run for re-election that he was ac-tually running for governor and so we took that opportu-nity to really talk to all the candidates that were running for that office,

to say how do you feel about this, so that we could be in-formed voters when we went to the polls to vote on our next mayor. When we sat down with Mayor Holt, we were so excited, he’s Osage and we were real excited to have a Native representa-tion and the highest office in the city and so he really helped us come about this in a simple way, we had been going before council to get the votes, we knew we prob-ably didn’t have the votes to change that this year, there wasn’t enough turn-over in the council and so we worked together to come up with a proclamation so that he could simply just

make the proclamation him-self and it was a completely different feeling and experi-ence to work with somebody that wasn’t working against us, he was working with us,” Cornell said.

In working with Mayor Holt, Cornell said commu-nity effort is what initially pushed Indigenous Peoples’ Day to be recognized as an official holiday.

“Even through all the lan-guage to what we were go-ing to call it, to talking about things like making sure we mentioned Missing and Murdered Indigenous Wom-en, that’s huge, I’ve never seen that in another procla-mation so there was some really great things that we got to do with Indigenous Peoples’ Day in Oklahoma City that I’m really excited about,” Cornell said.

In closing, once the proc-lamation was read, a sense of joy and happiness spread across the crowd as they clapped in agreement and dancers continued to cele-brate the mark of Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

“Oklahoma Fancy Danc-ers just added that explana-tion point to the event be-cause they are such amazing dancers and dancing is such an important part of what we do so we wanted this to be a celebratory event. There’s some sublimity to Indige-nous Peoples’ Day and we have to acknowledge that and we also have to take that step forward and contin-ue to move in a celebratory way celebrating Indigenous-ness,” Tallchief said.

Indigenous Peoples’ Day-OKCcontinued from pg. 1

Indigenous Peoples’Day-El Reno continued from pg. 1

Above: Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt reads the proclamation declaring Indigenous People’s Day as an of-ficial holiday for Okla-homa City.

(Right) Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma Chief Gary Batton was honored with a Pend-leton blanket in his support of Indigenous People’s Day.

Cheyenne and Arapaho Gov. Reggie Wassana and City of El Reno Mayor Matt White on Oct. 8 in El Reno, Okla.

Harvey Pratt with his family, l-r: son Nathan Pratt, Harvey Pratt, wife Gina Pratt and son Judson Pratt.

Harvey Pratt was presented with a key to the City of El Reno and a copy of the Proclamation declaring El Reno’s first Indigenous Peoples’ Day by El Reno Mayor Matt White.

Indian Elder Awardscontinued from pg. 1

Tribal elder Wanda Whiteman (center) is presented with the elder’s medal as she poses for a photo with staff members of AARP. (Photos / Rosemary Stephens)

Matheson Hamilton awaits the calling of his name as one of the 50 elder honorees at the 10th annual AARP Indian Elder awards in Oklahoma City.

While AISES aims to in-crease its participation and interest for STEM, AISES Director of Marketing and Communications, Montoya Whiteman said it’s import-ant to reach younger audi-ences in the K-12 grades, and even before then.

“It’s to plant that seed of curiosity and discovery and link it to our Indigenous her-itage because we are Indige-nous scientists, our ancestors are Indigenous scientists, we were the first geologists, we were the first environmen-talists, we were the first earth sciences and so we have that expertise and its genetic, it’s in our genes and it’s in our spirit, it makes up who we are. It’s our genetic makeup and so that’s what gets me passionate about working with AISES is that I’m able to return to my own communities and to Native students and those are go-ing to be the scientists of to-morrow, we could have the second Native American as-tronaut in this room, that’s a really tough and high dream but that doesn’t mean that it’s impossible,” Whiteman said.

And Whiteman believes

through AISES, no dream is too big and the opportuni-ties in the field of STEM are endless for native youth.

“STEM jobs are the high-est paid, they’re the highest sought after and so we want to get in on that, those are the jobs of the future and so what’s important for us and the challenge is that we want to be able to get stu-dents into that work force, get them in that pipeline and to be interested in science, work on their grades, have good grades, really have the chance to dream big and strategize and have a plan as they’re going through that pipeline and be able to achieve what they want to and it all really comes down to exposure … That’s what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to increase that ex-posure to STEM and what STEM can offer an individ-ual and their families and part of that is there’s good paying jobs out there for STEM,” Whiteman said.

As the conference over-flowed with enthusiasm for growth in academics, the challenges most often as-sociated with pursuing a STEM curriculum seemed

to diminish as attendees ap-plauded one another in each individual’s success.

“A word to the Indian students is never give up, it’s always been my motto no matter how difficult these things are, never give up because we can and we al-ways have, that’s why we’re still here, we never gave up. We’re still a people that ac-cepts challenges and today we’re accepting an academ-ic challenge, for the past we had our challenges to sur-vive with our people being here so our priorities have switched now to different challenges and I always say you can do it, you can make it happen,” High Eagle said.

AISEScontinued from pg. 4

Chance Rush, comedian, entertains the audience and served as a spokesperson for the AISES conference.

El Reno High School stu-dents in Indian Education attended and participated in activities for the AISES STEM day on Oct. 3.

gree.Hamilton is a

decorated U.S. Army veteran and advocates for others. He is described as a man that any-one would be proud to call their brother.

As a member of the Post 401 American Le-gion, the Chey-enne and Arapaho Color Guard, U.S. Veterans Affairs Native American Elders and the Veterans Affairs Warriors, Hamilton has helped countless Native and non-Native veterans.

Every Memorial Day Hamilton takes flags to all the Cheyenne and Arapaho cem-eteries throughout western Oklahoma and plants an American flag on the final resting place of each veteran. He has also won the national Gold Medal honors at the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival with Albert GrayEagle in performing arts and creative writing. Hamilton also enjoys being a sun dancer as a part of the traditional Cheyenne sun dance, offering prayers for the welfare of the people and for the increase of their resources.

“We wanted to spotlight local Native American heroes that are making positive social change, helping other citizens live their best lives and all the while challenging the stereotypes and narrative of aging while they are doing it. Our honored elders have been recognized for their contributions from tribal leaders, tribal judges, lawyers, cultur-al preservationist, traditional bow makers, artists, Olympians, to elders who address food insecurity, education on traditional foods and even ten time world female arm wrestler champion,” Sourjohn said.

A relatively new addition to the OK In-dian Elders event is the Dr. John Edwards Leadership Memorial award in honor of AARP’s former executive council member, Dr. John Edwards. Winning this year’s John Edwards Leadership Memorial award was Chickasaw Nation citizen Dr. Judy Goforth Parker.

Parker currently serves as a commission-er of health policy of the Chickasaw Nation Division of Health (CNDH). She is an ad-vanced practice registered nurse (APRN) at the CNDH women’s clinic. She was in-

strumental in starting the hep-atitis C clinic at the Chickasaw Nation Medical Center as well as the virtu-al visit service in the CNMC emergency de-partment and pediatric clinic. Parker is also a published au-thor with her book, Dynamic

Chickasaw Women, which was on the Okla-homa Book Awards finalist list and earned the Gold Medal for Independent Publisher award.

The evening opened with a dance presen-tation by the Oklahoma Fancy Dancers and an invocation by Dr. Steven Pratt. With over 800 guests in attendance, Sourjohn said this year’s event marked the largest attendance to date.

To read the bios of all 50 Native Ameri-can elder honorees visit www.aarp.org.

To learn more about nominating a Native American elder for next year’s event email MSourjohn@aarp.org or call toll free 866-295-7277.

PAGE 9Tsistsistas & Hinonoei Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribal Tribune

and harden your muscles and earn a little spending money at the same time while the harvest is going on?” the agent suggested.

Some people searching for their an-cestors might find them on a truant list.

“I understand that two of my school boys have gone to your agency,” the Seger Indian Training School superin-tendent wrote to the Cantonment agent in 1904. “Their names are Mistamiha Wolfchief and James Badteeth, and Mi-hate Blackwolf may be with them.”

The OHC also houses examples of Cheyenne and Arapaho beadwork and other craftmanship in its archives and in the ONEOK, Inc. Gallery. Most of it was donated to the history center.

Jeffrey Briley, deputy director, said people who want to view the artifacts in the basement storage area should ar-range it in advance. There they will find dozens of drawers filled with moccasins in all sizes including doll moccasins, cradleboards, feather bonnets, pipe bags, tools, gourd rattles, powder horns, bridle rosettes, jewelry and leather clothing.

What they won’t see is pottery.The Plains Indians were practical, Briley said.“They used baskets or gourds as water containers,” he said. “And they liked to trade for

cooking implements. A brass bucket works better and is more durable than a lot of other options.”

Upstairs in the gallery, Briley’s eyes sparkle when he shows off a beaded buckskin dress made in 1915 by Bear Woman, who was Cheyenne, for her 6-year-old granddaughter, Vida Roman Nose.

Staffers knew about the dress long before it was donated to the OHC, Briley said, because there was a photo in the ar-chives of the girl wearing the striking piece of clothing. But they had no idea who owned the dress or if it still existed.

Other pieces by Cheyenne and Arapaho artisans on dis-play in the gallery include a shawl, a fan made from the white feathers of a bald ea-gle, a bolo tie, an 1890 hair-pipe breastplate and a whet-stone and case, circa 1870.

Another favorite of Bri-ley’s is a piece of Cheyenne ledger art done in 1870 with colored pencils. It’s a self-portrait of a man named Buffalo Meat seated on a horse, rendered in a manner that makes the rider promi-nent in the drawing without sacrificing the form of the animal.

“Until then horses were depicted from the side,” Bri-ley explained. “It had never been done in Native Ameri-can art, the way he shortened the perspective. In a Cubist way he turned the horse.”

History archivescontinued from pg. 6

Cheyenne and Arapaho moccasins were often beaded to resemble the shape of a deer hoof. (Pho-to / Kimberly Burk)

was that it was a lot of mind over matter because a lot of it comes from freaking your own self out, not the event itself,” she said.

As the days turned into weeks, the weeks started to turn into months and surpris-ingly enough Bighorse said she was at the end … with 62 starting and finishing with 57 … she graduated on Sept. 21, 2018 and was officially Pvt. 1st Class Brianna Bighorse, United States Marine Corps.

“I’ve always had con-fidence, but I have more self-confidence than I have ever had. My emotions were off the wall graduating, it was bitter sweet because I had gone through this for three months with girls who were, at first, strangers, who became really close friends … it’s a big accomplish-ment,” Bighorse said.

On Oct. 8 Bighorse de-parted for Camp Pendleton in San Diego, Calif., where she will be in Marine Com-bat Training for 29 days. Afterwards she will travel to Missouri for six weeks of training for her job as a Mo-tor T, working on big vehi-cles.

“It was one of my job options and I chose that be-cause I love working on trucks and cars,” she said, and if you met her this would not surprise you at all.

On the day of our inter-view Bighorse was going to be getting dressed in her dress blues and would be crowning the 2018 North-west Classen High School

homecoming queen, a title she held just a year ago.

“I would tell anyone in high school to go for it, join the military, it’s a big deci-sion but it’s going to change your life. It’s changed my life. In the end you learn so many things in boot camp and you will have so many opportunities with a lot of doors opening up for you. It may be hard during boot camp but all the hard work is going to pay off. I feel like an adult now, a lot more ma-ture,” Bighorse said.

So if you are in school and one day you find your-self about to graduate high school with no plans and no direction … perhaps the U.S. Marine Corps will be the answer for you as it was for Bighorse.

“I would like to see a lot more Native American wom-en in the Marines because I was like the only one. Every time someone heard my last

name, they would ask me, ‘is that really your last name?’ I would laugh and tell them yes, it’s really my last name, why would I kid about that. Some of them acted like I was a foreigner,” she laughed and as she laughed she picked up her Honor Graduate award, signifying being first in her class and her Molly Marine award, you could see the pride in her eyes, in every movement of her being and I got the sense her decision to join the U.S. Marines was the best decision Bighorse ever made.

Brianna Bighorse is the daughter of Rose Bighorse and Christopher Billingsley. She has three older siblings, two sisters, Valencia and Brittany Bighorse, and one brother Julius Billingsley. Her maternal grandmother is Carol Shawnee, and her paternal grandparents are Tim and Barbara Billingsley.

Bighorsecontinued from pg. 7

Brianna Bighorse proudly displays her Honor Graduate award for Oscar Company and her Molly Marine award.

PAGE 10 Tsistsistas & HinonoeiCheyenne & Arapaho Tribal Tribune

CalendarArapaho District 2 and Cheyenne District 2 Date

Night6 p.m. Oct. 18 meeting at Chelinos in Bricktown, with

movie to follow. Must be a registered voter of either district between the ages of 18-54.

Domestic Violence Awareness Month Outreach Events

1 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. Oct. 19 at the Geary Community Center in Geary, Okla.

1 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. Oct. 26 at the Watonga Community Center in Watonga, Okla. Sponsored by the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes’ Domestic Violence Program.

Homer Wassana Memorial DanceSaturday, Oct. 20 at the Clinton Community Center in

Clinton, Okla. Gourd dance begins at 2 p.m., supper at 5 p.m.MC Burl Buffalomeat, HS Jimmy Anquoe, Honored Vet-

eran Gerald Panana, HM Orville Whiteskunk, HL Angie Littleman, AD Jerry Romannose, Contest Coordinator Isaac Rhoads and Honored Family Duck and Margaret Anquoe. For more information call 405-538-5330.

Cheyenne and Arapaho R.E.Sp.E.C.T. Program’s annual Halloween Carnival

6 p.m. - 9 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2018 at the Con-cho Powwow grounds in Concho, Okla., and the Clinton R.E.Sp.E.C.T. Gym in Clinton, Okla.

Inflatables, carnival games and petting zoo from 6-8 p.m., costume contest and pumpkin contest from 8-9 p.m. For more information call 405-422-7570.

Career Fair10 a.m. - 3 p.m., Oct. 26, 2018 at the R.E.SP.E.C.T. gym in

Clinton, Okla., and Nov. 9 at the El Reno Fairgrounds educa-tion building in El Reno, Okla.

For more information contact Chris Sindone at 405-422-7494.

Cheyenne and Arapaho Labor Day Powwow Committee’s Halloween Dance / Masquerade

Oct. 27, 2018 at the Clinton Community Center in Clinton, Okla. Gourd dance at 2 p.m., supper at 5 p.m. and constume contest and masquerade at 8 p.m.

Costume contests for 0-5 year olds and 6-17 year olds. Masquerade contest for 17 years and older.

MC Max Watan, HS Evan Ortiz, HM Jordan Roque, HL Sarah Kauley, HB Levi Porras, HG Ra-Kayah Davis and AD Alonzo Salcido.

Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes American Legion Post 401 Bingo

1 p.m. - 5 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018 at the Clinton Com-munity Center in Clinton, Okla. Meal served at noon sharp. Good prizes, good food, good fun.

Oklahoma City Community Thanksgiving Dinner6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018 at the Centennial building,

State Fairgrounds in Oklahoma City. Hosted by Gov. Reggie Wassana and Lt. Gov. Gib Miles. For more information call 405-422-7734.

Career Fair - Cheyenne and Arapaho Dept. of La-bor, Employment & Training Administration

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Nov. 9, 2018 at the El Reno Fairgrounds, Education building in El Reno, Okla. Lunch will be provided. For more information call 405-422-7494.

The 16th annual Elders Conference / Diabetes Wellness Program

9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Nov. 9, 2018 at the Frisco Center in Clin-ton, Okla. Open to all tribal elders 55 and older. Breakfast and lunch will be served. Registration closes at 10:30 a.m. No children allowed.

Native American College & Career Fair10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 13 2018 at the Redlands

Conference Center, Redlands Community College in El Reno, Okla. Free and open to all Native American students. For more information call 405-422-1494 or email jessie.bot-one@redlandscc.edu.

E a t i n ghealthy

for DIABETES Tara Conway, MS, RD, LD, CDEC&A Diabetes Wellness Program

Happy and Health Halloween

OBITS

Halloween is just around the corner and candy will be of abundance. The trick is to enjoy your treats without being spooked. It is a time to talk to your kids about sa-voring their treats and help them be mindful of how they feel when they overeat on candy and too much sug-ar. Explain to them that you are going to spread out the candy over time. That they can pick out their favorites and then look at donating the rest to local shelters or make care packages to send overseas or to family and friends.

There are many options for healthier treats at Hal-loween. Grocery stores ae are stocked with kid-friend-ly favorites containing whole gran, extra vitamin C,

100-percent fruit juice and added fiber.

This year try mixing up the candy bowl with some of these items that kids will enjoy and you can feel good about serving. Here is a list of items that are available in easy to distribute single snack size packages.

Whole grain cheddar fla-vored crackers

Fruit snack made with 100-percent fruit with added vitamin C

Fruit leathers made with 100-percnt fruit

Sugar-free gumAnimal shaped graham

crackers made without trans fat

Mini rice cereal treatsCereal bars made with

real fruitIndividual fruit cups

Mini 100-percent fruit juice boxes

Low-fat puddings (great source of dairy)

Mini bags of pretzelsYou should try and avoid

snacks that contain nuts so children with nut allergies can enjoy Halloween. In-stead of providing food at Halloween have you con-sidered non-food items such as Halloween pencils, pens, stickers, tattoos, glow balls, bubbles or super rings?

Food borne illnesses can ruin your Halloween, remember to stay safe only enjoy factory wrapped treats. If you know the per-son who is making home-made treats, make sure you talk with your parents be-fore eating the homemade treats. If you have a party

make sure your perishable food isn’t out more than two hours at room temperature. To keep food cold, fill bowls with ice and place dishes on top. Avoid harmful bacteria that may contain Salmonel-la, always serve pasteurized products and avoid unpas-teurized juice or apple cider. When preparing treats, don’t eat any dough or batter that contains uncooked eggs.

For more information and tips on wellness contact Tara Conway at the Diabetes Wellness Program 405-422-7685 or email tconway@c-a-tribes.org.

Source:https://www.eat-right.org/homefoodsafety-tips/holiday/halloween, www.eat-right.org/health/lifestyle/holi-day/enjoy-a-healthy-and-hap-py-halloween.

Thank you

We would like to say thank you to Gov. Reggie Wassana and all the support we received this year for our Warrior’s Cel-ebration in Canton, Okla. Pictured l-r: Gov. Wassana, Ruben Watan, Lena Nells, Norene Starr and Dale Hamilton.

Norene Starr, Dale Hamilton, Lena Nells, Ruben Watan

If anyone is missing these from the Warrior’s Cele-bration in Canton, come by the Language and Culture Program Office in Building One to claim them or call 405-422-7433.

LOST AND FOUND

Dancers in feathers and bright teal and pink regalia whirled to the beat of a drum in the center of Boulder High School’s gym as four generations of the Arapaho tribes sang a victory song in their ancestral home.

Hundreds of people gathered Sunday afternoon in the gym to welcome more than 100 mem-bers of the Northern and Southern Arapaho tribes back to land they inhabited for generations. In the 1850s, the Arapaho tribes were forced from Boulder Valley by white settlers and sent to reserva-tions in other states.

The day-long celebration of their return was the product of more than a year of collaboration between the tribes, local govern-

Members of the Arapaho Tribes return to their home in the Boulder Valley

By Elise Schmelzer, The Denver Post

Arapaho tribes / pg. 13

Opening ceremony of Indigenous Peoples’ Day on Oct. 7 at the Boulder High School in Boulder, Colo. The event is a recognition of the Arapaho Tribe, their culture, and the importance of their history in Boulder County. (Photo / Chet Strange)

PAGE 11Tsistsistas & Hinonoei Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribal Tribune

OBITS

Pause for the cause, because 8 is great! Happy 8th Birth-

day to Princess Aleigha Raquel LittleThunder! We

love you!Love mommy, daddy, Gabe,

CiCi, Mia, Kobe, aunt Monica & Sidney

Happy BirthdayErwin Pahmahmie Jr.

Oct. 19 (I won’t put the year)

We are proud of everything you’ve accomplished.With love from Anne,

Ronnie, Mary Ella, DJ, Jocilyn, Colton and Kyle

Happy 10th Birthday(Oct. 29) to our Hockets baby girl- Mary Skye

Curtis!You’re so special to us. We love you very much ~mom, gma Mary, Ben, Laney, Caelen & Kenna.

Oct. 19Happy BirthdayRachel Mowatt!

(I won’t put the year)We are so grateful to

have you.With love from Anne, Ronnie, Mary Ella, DJ, Jocilyn, Colton and

Kyle!

Oct. 29You put the Sweet in Sweet

16!We Love you bunches

Ryan Baylen!Happy Birthday

Love all of your family

Congratulations Summer Pippen!

Summer Pippen placed third in the Cross Country for Ketchum in Wyandotte, Okla. Pictured is Summer (r) and her mother Robin-

Ann Winfrey.

Congratulations to Punkin Blackowl

On Monday Sept. 17, 2018 Punkin Blackowl, 3 years old, won first place in the 2018 Comanche Nation

Fair Beautiful Indian Baby Contest in the 3-4 year old

boys division. Punkin is the son of Bridget Blackowl.

Congratulations to the success of the C&A Warrior Celebration held in Canton, Ok on Sept. 29, 2018.

Singing Challenge winners are “Southern Boyz”Pictured are: Powwow committee, Gov. Reggie

Wassana and Southern Boyz

Katherine Ann (Fishing-hawk) Humphrey was born on March 15, 1954 in Clin-ton, Okla., to Ann Louise LittleHead and Jesse Fish-inghawk, Sr. She passed away surrounded by her hus-band, children, family and friends on Sept. 22, 2018 at the age of 64.

Katherine was raised in the Canton, Watonga and Clinton communities. She graduated high school at Chilocco Indian School. Katherine married Tim Humphrey on May 12, 1996 and they made their home in Oakwood, Okla., for the past 25 years. Katherine worked for the tribal food distribu-tion center in Watonga and

became a homemaker. She and her husband Tim en-joyed their country home, and love of country music together. She loved spending time with her children and grandchildren. Kathy was a very spiritual lady, close to her Great Creator and her Native American ways. She was a member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribes of America.

Kathy was preceded in death by her parents; son Johnathan Fishinghawk; grandparents Frank Little-Head and Pauline Little-Head; sister Dorthy Dotsy Heenan; Survivors include her husband Tim Humphrey; three children, daughter Ste-

fanie James Sheldon and husband Trey of Oklahoma City, Okla., daughter Ran-di Lynn Smith and husband Rusty of Leedey, Okla., and son Paul “P.R.” Owens of Oakwood, Okla.; grandchil-dren Kyler Owens of Leed-ey, Kayla Anne Pollock of Woodward, Kolby Smith of Leedey, Johnathan Ow-ens of Fairview, Karly Jean Owens of Wisconsin and Cash Owens of Oakwood; great-grandchildren Braylee Anne Hinkle and Cooper Baker of Canton and Venus Owens of Fairview; four brothers, Curtis Fishing-hawk, Jesse Fishinghawk, Jr., Sonny Fishinghawk and Leroy Fishinghawk; one

sister, Sue Fishinghawk; ex-tended adopted kids are Byrd Roy Nightwalker and Sherri Berrong.

Wake services were held Sept. 25 at the Canton Na-tive American Gymnasium. Funeral services were held Sept. 26 at the same venue with Pastor Ezra Randall of-ficiating.

Marla Jean Big HorseSept. 7, 1961Sept. 28, 2018

An all-night wake service was held Oct. 2, 2018 at Elk City Indian Baptist Church. Funeral services were held Oct. 3 at the Clinton Com-munity Building. Interment followed at Clinton City Cemetery.

Kirkland Lee Black Bear

Feb. 28, 1976Sept. 1, 2018

Wake services were held Sept. 25, 2018 at the Concho Community Building. Funer-al services were held Sept. 26 at the same venue.

Ahinawake NibbsFeb. 9, 1935

Sept. 22, 2018

Wake services were held Sept. 26, 2018 at Concho Community Building. Funer-al services were held Sept. 27 at the same venue. Interment followed at Concho Indian Cemetery.

Margaret PollockFeb. 10, 1926Sept. 21, 2018

An all-night wake service was held Sept. 24 at the Con-cho Community Building. Funeral services were held Sept. 25 at the same venue. Interment followed at Con-cho Indian Cemetery.

Happy 25th birthday to my baby Jeffrey Allen Baggett!! I'm so happy to have you in my life! We been thru so much in just the short amount of time we been together! Just makes us stronger! I love you with all my heart! May God bless you with many more birthdays to come! Love always Nova

H A P P Y B I RT HD A Y

I want to thank Russell Willey with theCheyenne and Arapaho Veterans office for helping me with gas money to go to my aunt Ina Parker’s funeral in Lawton

on Sept. 7, 2018, who was my last living auntie. She lived to be 96 years old.

Sue Whiteshield

Thank You

PAGE 12 Tsistsistas & HinonoeiCheyenne & Arapaho Tribal Tribune

Interview by Latoya Lonelodge

LEGAL NOTICES

Qualifications:Associates degree from

an accredited college. Five years of experience in Chey-enne traditional activities and project management. Supervisory experience may substitute for educational requirements. Familiar with the culture, history and tra-ditions of the Arapaho. Must be familiar with the C&A former reservation and ser-vice area. Must demonstrate professional conduct. Must have valid Oklahoma’s driv-er’s license. Must be insur-able for government fleet insurance. Cheyenne pref-erence. Must be available to work nights and weekends as required by planned activi-ties. Must have good writing and communicative skills.

SALARY: Negotiable

Arapaho Project Manager

C&A Language & Culture Program

Closing: Until Filled

Qualifications:Must possess CPR and

First Aid Certification or be willing to attend vari-ous training programs to obtain certification. Must pass pre-employment drug screening process and be subject to random drug test-ing. Should be able to lift, at a minimum, 50 lbs. with no physical barriers from doing so. Must possess the ability to communicate effectively to patrons and superiors any findings, incidents, activities and daily responsibilities. Must possess a high school diploma and possible com-pletion of a commercial driv-ing raining program and/or defensive driving program. Must have an accept able driving record and if selected for the position, must pro-vide a current Motor Vehicle Report (MVR) from the Sate Department of Public Safety.

SALARY: Negotiable

Transit Drive II – FTTribal Transit Program

Closing: Until Filled

Qualifications:Valid Oklahoma driver’s

license. Must be insurable for government fleet insur-ance. High School graduate or equivalent. Five years of experience in Arapaho tra-ditional activities and proj-ect management experience. Supervisory experience mat substitute for educational requirements. Familiar with the culture, history and tra-ditions of the Arapaho. Must be familiar with the C&A former reservation and ser-vice area. Must demonstrate professional conduct. Must be available to work nights and weekends as required by planned activities. Must have good writing, communica-tive skills and organizational skills with attention to detail.

SALARY: Negotiable

Arapaho Cultural Specialist

C&A Language & Culture Program

Closing: Until Filled

Qualifications:Required to be 18 years or

older and possess an AA/AS degree or higher with ECE/CD credit hours. Oklahoma Certificate of Mastery in Ear-ly Childhood Development. Current Child Developmenbt Associate Credential or Cur-rent Certified Childcare Pro-fessional Credential. Must have valid Oklahoma driv-er’s license, pass a physi-cal exam and be able to lift 50 lbs. Must pass drug test, criminal background check and submit to random drug screenings.

SALARY: Negotiable

Master TeacherChild Care Program

ConchoClosing: Until filled

Qualifications:Required to be 18 years or

older and have a high school diploma or G.E.D. certifi-cation. Must obtain CDA or Mastery Certification to maintain employment. Must have valid Oklahoma driv-er’s license, pass a physical exam and lift up to 50 lbs. Must pass a background check, mandatory drug and alcohol test, work flexible work schedule and have ad-quate transportation. Chey-enne and Arapaho prefer-ence.

SALARY: Negotiable

TeacherChild Care Program

ConchoClosing: Until filled

VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENTSTo apply please submit a tribal application, resume, diploma(s), transcripts, valid copy of

driver’s license and a copy of CDIB (if applicable) to the Personnel Department, PO Box 38, Concho, OK 73022 or call 405-422-7498 or email atisdale@c-a-tribes.org.

Qualifications:Bachelor’s degree in ear-

ly childhood education and a minimum of one year ex-perience working with adults in a supervisory capacity or an associate’s degree with minimum of three year’s ex-perience working in a super-visory capacity. Must have a Tier I or higher training in center administration and management. Must be fa-miliar with federal, regional, state and local tribal regu-lations as they apply to the specific area of program op-erations. Must submit man-datory criminal background check prior to employment. Mandatory reporting of all suspected incidents of child abuse and neglect. Oversee the day to day operation of the center.

SALARY: Negotiable

Concho Head Start Center

SupervisorClosing: Until Filled

Qualifications:High school diploma or

G.E.D. required. One year’s experience in custodial work desirable. Must know meth-ods, materials and equipment used in custodial work. Abil-ity to follow oral and written directions. Indian Prefer-ence.

SALARY: Negotiable

Custodial/Maintenance On Call

Hammon Community Center

Closing: Until filled

The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes Child Development Program announces its participation in the Child and Adult

Care Food Program (CACFP.) All participants in atten-dance are served meals, at no extra charge to the parents. The United States Department of Agricultural (USDA) prohibits discrimination against its customers, employ-

ees, and applicants for employment on the bases of race, color, national origin, age, disability, sex, gender identity, religion, reprisal, and where applicable, political beliefs, marital status familial or parental status, sexual orienta-tion, or all or part of an individual’s income is derived

from any public assistance program, or protected genetic information in employment or in any program or activity conducted or funded by USDA. (Not all prohibited bases

will apply to all programs and/or activities.)

If you wish to file a Civil Rights program complaint of discrimination, complete the USDA Program Discrimi-

nation Complaint Form, found online at http://www.ascr.usda.gov/compliant_filing_cust.html, or at any USDA

office, or call 866-632-9992 to request the form. You may also write a letter containing all of the information request-

ed in the form. Send your completed complaint form or letter to USDA by mail at U.S. Department of Agriculture, Director, Office of Adjudication, 1400 Independence Av-enue, SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410, by fax 202-690-

7442, or email at program.intake@usda.gov.

Individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have speech disabilities may contact USDA through the Federal Relay Service at 800-877-8339 or 800-845-6136(Spanish).

USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

This statement applies to the centers listed here: Con-cho Child Development Center and Clinton Child Devel-

opment Center

Qualifications:High school diploma or

G.E.D. required preference given to post secondary training in the following re-lated fields: child develop-ment, nutrition, culinary arts or psychology. One year’s experience working in sitatu-ions related to children. Must be able and willinto work alternating shifts on week-ends, nights and holidays. Must retain a valid Oklaho-ma driver’s license and have a clean driving record. Must pass criminal record check and have a telephone or cell phone at place of residence. Three current letters of ref-erences required. Current TB skin test or chest x-ray and pass complete physical ex-amination.

SALARY: Negotiable

House ParentEmergency Youth

Shelter-PT / On CallClosing: Until filled

Qualifications:Current college student

(2-4 year higher education institution) majoring in ed-ucation, American Indian Studies, social work or re-lated field. One to two years related experience3 working with students and/or tribes preferred. Must possess a valid driver’s license and be currently insured. Must have reliable transportation. Basic understanding of tribal sov-ereignty, Oklahoma Native culture and experience to increase participation by the individuals and tribes to be served. Possess interperson-al skills to handle sensitive and confidential information if necessary, ability to work in a fast paced environment. Must be familiar with com-puters, specifically Micro-soft Office, PDF formats and Google Documents.

SALARY: Negotiable

Internship-Temp/PTTEDNA / Education

Closing: Until filled

Qualifications:High school diploma and

associate’s degree, with two years of documented experi-ence as a domestic violence/sexual assault advocate. Sub-stitute of experience for edu-cation may be made only for the associate’s degree. Abili-ty to work flexible hours and willing to attend in state and out of state training relevant to job position. Ability to be on ‘on call’ status. Abili-ty to maintain high level of confidentiality on all client matters and other matters protected by the Privacy act as well as other confidenti-ality regulations. Possess a current Oklahoma driver’s license. OSBI and criminal background checks required. Cheyenne and Arapaho pref-erence.

SALARY: Negotiable

Victims AdvocateDomestic Violence

Closing: Until filled

The following applicants need to complete a 2018 UP-DATE FORM by Oct. 31, 2018

If an update form is not received by this date, they will be removed from the Mutual-Help waiting list for FAIL-URE TO UPDATE-NO EXCEPTIONS!!

For questions or more information please contact Ei-leen Salcido at 580-331-2400.

Paris GoodbearMichael KodaseetNorma SmithCathy Yellow Eagle

Department of HousingWaiting List Report

Mutual Help Program

Charles HarrisonSara JohnsonLehomahte WassanaCornelius Bates

PAGE 13Tsistsistas & Hinonoei Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribal Tribune

Interview by Latoya Lonelodge

Silas Miles, El Reno High SchoolBorn and raised in El

Reno, Okla., Silas Miles, 18, confident and self-assured in demeanor, looks to make a final impression as a high school student on the foot-ball field. Standing at 6’4, Silas is a senior who plays right guard and offensive line for the El Reno Football Team.

When did you first begin playing and how?

I began playing my freshman year, I never even thought about playing until people started telling me to try out and stuff because of my weight and height and size and I’ve just been play-ing since then.

What is it about the sport that you love the best?

It can teach you life les-sons like when not to quit, like when times get tough throughout life it helps out in the long run.

What has been your big-gest accomplishment in the sport so far?

Recently, SNU has been talking to me lately asking if I’m interested I told them yeah I’d be interested, basi-cally I’m trying to get schol-arship offers for this sport.

What is your biggest ac-complishment in the class-

room so far?Just keeping my grades

up, trying to get A’s and B’s.What is your GPA (if

known)?3.3What goals have you

set for yourself in sports, school?

Try to get some scholar-ships and do good and do a deadlift max, most I deadlift-ed so far is 500. For school, to graduate.

What actions are you tak-ing to reach these goals?

Show up on time and try to do good in class and out in the field.

What has been the most exciting game you have played in?

When we played Noble last week, because we was down at the beginning of the game and the first half and we came back and won. They only scored once in the second half, we won by like 8 points, if they didn’t score the last two minutes of the game we would’ve won by like 15 points.

What is the best advice you have ever been given and who gave you that ad-vice?

Be mad dog mean, one of my coaches, coach Bak-

er told me that. Try to get a personal foul just from playing dirty, not playing dirty but just playing phys-ical.

Do you have a saying or motto that you live your life by?

Just do it.Who or what inspires

you the most?My dad inspires me be-

cause when I first started this sport, I didn’t know what to expect but he told me how it’s going to go down, how it’s gonna be a lot of hitting, he told me stick with it no matter what.

What does your routine workout consist of to stay fit for your sport? How often?

I got first hour weight lifting in the morning, when I practice we got condition-ing and running every school day.

What are one or two things in your training, that you feel are keys to you be-ing successful in your sport?

Cardio and strength.What is your favorite

meal before or after a game?SteakWho has had the biggest

impact on your life?My dad because he

showed me how, what’s right

and wrong, he raised me. What are some of your

hobbies (what do you like to do when not playing sports)?

I like to hangout with my friends, sleep and workout.

What kinds of music do you enjoy listening to?

Classic hip-hopWhat is one thing about

you that no one else knows?I’m making moccasins

and have an upcoming proj-ect.

Were you ever bullied in school? What steps do you feel should be taken to pro-tect those being bullied in schools today?

To let people know and let me know and see what happens from there.

How do you combat drug & alcohol use by peer pres-sure?

Just say no, walk off.If you could change one

thing in the world, what would it be?

Make everybody get along with each other.

What would be a dream come true for you in your life?

To make the NFL or make the UFC.

Who is your favorite ath-lete of all time?

Carter L Thomas, he’s not in college yet but he’s a LSU commit, he’s graduating this year, same year as me, but he’s number one in the nation right now for offen-sive line. He’s from Baton Rouge, L.A.

Which team is your favor-ite team?

OUWhat are your immediate

plans after graduating high school?

Go to whatever college I decide to go to, whatever college gives me the best of-fer. I’d probably go for busi-ness, start my own, because I weld and start a welding business or something like that.

What would be your ad-vice to younger kids coming up behind you?

Whatever sports you’re playing in, whatever you do in life, just be positive and be cool with everybody and stick with it.

Silas’s parents are Emil Miles and Sonya Orange. His grandparents are Clif-ford and Elizabeth Reeder. He has three siblings, Mar-shal, Matt and Courtney.

ment officials and local or-ganizations.

It was a bittersweet mo-ment; simultaneously a joy-ous homecoming and a re-minder of past and present trauma.

“We always have a sen-sation, a feeling, here in this area where our ancestors left their moccasin prints,” said William C’Hair, eagle chair of the Northern Arap-aho.

“We can still hear the echoes of the songs of our ancestors in the wind,” he said.

Elders and tribal lead-ers explained the history of the Arapaho in the Boulder area, where the tribe win-tered for hundreds of years until white miners discov-ered gold in the foothills in the late 1850s and settled there, despite a previous treaty that preserved that land for the tribe. The Arap-aho split into two and the approximate 12,000 current members of the tribes now live on reservations in Wyo-ming and Oklahoma, which they share with other tribes. The Arapaho are the only tribes in the U.S. without a reservation of their own.

Members of Right Rela-tionship Boulder, a volun-teer organization working to help Boulder Valley resi-dents learn about native cul-tures, first reached out to the Arapaho tribes about a year and a half ago, volunteer Paula Palmer said. Three members of the group trav-eled to the reservations in Wyoming and Oklahoma to meet with tribe members and discuss what kind of re-lationship the tribes would want with the people now living in their homelands.

“For us, it’s more than

just an event,” Palmer said. “It’s relationship building.”

Organizers hope that the celebration Sunday, ahead of Monday’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day, will serve as the beginning of an ongoing relationship between Boul-der leaders and the Arapa-ho. The school district also hopes to collaborate with the Arapaho tribes in im-proving how the tribes’ his-tory and current culture is taught.

“We noticed that it’s not necessarily the history the people it’s represent-ing want to be told or how they want it to be told,” said Kyle Addington, director of health and culture for the Boulder Valley School Dis-trict.

There’s still work to be done, said Ava Hamilton, a member of Right Relation-ship who is Arapaho. In the future, the group and the tribes hope to work with city and county leaders to set land aside for the Arapa-ho people so that they have a place to stay when they travel through the area and a place to teach their chil-dren about their home.

“It’s really important to be able to have a relation-ship with our home,” Ham-ilton said.

Many of the members of the tribes said words failed them when trying to de-scribe the feeling of return-ing home. Despite decades of separation, a special con-nection with the land and water remains.

“Our houses may be in Wyoming,” said Roy Brown, chairman of the Northern Arapaho Business Council. “But our hearts and our spirits are here. It feels so good to be home.”

Arapaho Tribescontinued from pg. 10

Photo / Chet Strange(AUSTIN, TX) In time for Domestic Violence Awareness

Month, the StrongHearts Native Helpline (1-844-7NATIVE) announced 1,000 callers have now reached out to the helpline for safe, confidential support and resources for domestic violence and dating violence, shining a light on the deep-rooted issues of violence plaguing Tribal communities across the United States.

Since March 2017, the StrongHearts Native Helpline has offered a culturally-ap-propriate space for vic-tims, survivors, their families and friends, ser-vice providers and abu-sive partners to reach out for help. As a partnered effort, StrongHearts combines the technolo-gy and infrastructure of the National Domestic Violence Hotline with the National Indige-nous Women’s Resource Center’s policy and pro-grammatic expertise and community connections.

“This is a key milestone in our work to support those fac-ing intimate partner violence, though we recognize these calls are only beginning to scratch the surface of violence in Trib-al communities,” said StrongHearts Assistant Director Lori Jump (Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians). “Every call speaks to the bravery of our people in breaking the si-lence of violence in our homes, families and communities. For those reaching out to StrongHearts, we hear you, and we are here for you, no matter what.”

Steeped in Native cultures and traditions, advocates navi-gate each caller’s abuse situation with safety, compassion and respect. Created by and for Native American communities, StrongHearts is uniquely designed to serve a population fac-ing some of the highest rates of domestic violence in the Unit-ed States. Tribes, even as sovereign nations, face significant jurisdictional hurdles when addressing domestic violence in

their communities. Gaps in culturally based supportive ser-vices create unique barriers for Native victims seeking help.

According to StrongHearts’ data from its first 19 months of operations, the severity of victims’ experiences is telling: more than 7 out of 10 victim-survivor callers reported expe-riencing more than one type of abuse (71 percent), includ-ing physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, financial abuse, digital abuse, cultural abuse, and other complex sit-

uations. Nearly half of callers experiencing vi-olence reported a child being involved in their situation (46 percent). The top service referral requested by victims, survivors were shelters and legal advocacy.

“Because more than four in five Native Americans experience violence in their life-time, there is a clear need for a national, confiden-

tial and tailored resource like StrongHearts to support Native victims,” said Jump. “However, we cannot do this work with-out the help of our relatives; every call to the helpline speaks to the need for more resources for tribally-run services for victims in Indian Country and Alaska Native communities.”

In 2016, the National Institute of Justice released a study indicating more than one in three American Indian and Alaska Native women and men had experienced violence within the past year. Of those who had experienced violence, a third of Native women and one in six Native men were unable to access the supportive services they needed.

“Our advocates take calls from victims, survivors, family members and friends, service providers, youth and elders—anyone who is impacted by violence and needs help,” said Jump. “Domestic violence affects everyone in our communi-ties and each generation. We encourage anyone who needs to talk to reach out to us. Every story matters.”

StrongHearts Native Helpline receives 1,000th call from those affected by Domestic Violence and Dating Violence Across Indian Country

Calls received at helpline paint a picture of Native victims’ experience and critical need for culturally-based supportive services for American Indians and Alaska Natives

PAGE 14 Tsistsistas & HinonoeiCheyenne & Arapaho Tribal Tribune

Cheyenne-Arapaho Domestic Violence Program brings education, awareness to communities in recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness Month

Dept. of Social Services Executive Director Winnie White-tail addresses the audience during the kick off outreach in recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness Month. (Photos / Rosemary Stephens)

Rosemary StephensEditor-in-Chief

They wear purple … for survivors of Domestic Violence, who have been wounded physically, men-tally and emotionally, the color is meant to be a symbol of peace, courage, survival, honor and dedication to end-ing the violence.

And stopping domes-tic violence was the key message at the Domestic Violence Awareness kick off event held Oct. 4 at the Concho Community Center in Concho, Okla. The event was the first of four planned community events hosted by the Cheyenne and Arapaho Domestic Violence (CADV) program.

“I believe it all stems back to our Cheyenne and Arapa-ho families. If we teach our children and our young peo-ple the proper roles of our people and how to treat our

women, how to treat our men and how to treat our children, if we will do that, our com-munities will begin to heal and be healthy again,” Win-nie Whitetail, Dept. of Social Services executive director said.

Domestic Violence Awareness month was ob-served in 1981 as a national day of unity. It was estab-lished by the National Coa-lition Against Domestic Vi-olence (NCADV) to ensure the victims knew there was help available.

Domestic violence is a serious violent crime that in-cludes physical, mental and emotional abuse. It is often hidden from public view, even from extended family members. Many victims suf-fer in silence, afraid to seek help or not knowing where to turn. The traumatic effects of domestic violence also extend beyond the abused person, impacting immediate

family members and com-munities. Children who often witness the violence become victims themselves later in life, or worse, perpetrators of violence.

According to the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) Na-tive American women are at a significantly higher risk for domestic violence than oth-er populations with 84 per-cent of American Indian and Alaska Native women ex-periencing violence in their lifetime and more than half have endured the violence at the hands of an intimate part-ner. More than two-thirds of the women, or 66 percent, say they have been the vic-tims of psychological ag-gression by a partner, more than half of the Native wom-en have endured sexual as-sault and another 48 percent have been stalked. In com-parison, roughly 35 percent of non-Native women and 28 percent of non-Native men in the U.S. have experienced rape, physical violence and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their entire life-time.

With those staggering sta-tistics ever present in one’s mind, Whitetail said she has learned three things over the years.

“If you want to curb, say substance abuse, and I will transfer these over to apply to domestic violence, but there are three things that have to be present to create a substance or drug user. One, they have to have someone that models the behavior for them, shows them how to do it. Two, the substance is present and three it becomes acceptable behavior within the family,” Whitetail said.

“So if I want to not create a substance abuser it would be, one, don’t model that behavior for anyone, two remove the substance from your home, and three make it unacceptable in your home and in your community … unacceptable to use alcohol or drugs.”

Whitetail expanded on her thoughts by applying the same principles to domestic violence. She said first of all do no harm to others, do not batter your wife or batter your husband in front of your children. Second make it an unaccepted behavior not al-lowed in homes and in com-munities.

“If we remove the domes-tic violence then we are go-ing to have healthy commu-nities. We are going to have healthy children. We are go-ing to have healthy partner-ships,” she said.

Whitetail said a story had come to her while driving to the event of a time when she was just a teenager living in Thomas, Okla. She said she remembered watching her cousin beating his wife.

“It made me sick to my stomach. I didn’t live in that home, but it just made me sick. I ran clear across town to one of my aunties, who was a positive person, and I could just go in and say to her, ‘auntie guess what I just saw … guess what happen?’ and she said, ‘oh we better call the police,” Whitetail said. “It had an emotional ef-fect on me, on my spirit and on my well-being.”

One thing Whitetail knows for sure is domestic violence and substance abuse has become a behavior with-in the tribes’ communities

that has become accepted, turning a blind eye, but that it needs to be made unaccept-able with the tribes and with-in tribal homes. Breaking the cycle … much along the same thinking as Gov. Reg-gie Wassana in his remarks.

“Most of you know about domestic violence because it has hit most of our fami-lies. Domestic violence is a cycle and we have to break that cycle. As you lose your traditions and culture you lose your ability to see what is right and what is wrong,” Wassana said.

Culture and traditions are the solutions both Whitetail and Wassana see as the an-swer in combatting, not only domestic violence, but sub-stance abuse, child abuse and child removal.

“Child abuse, child re-moval, substance abuse and domestic violence are all on an equal plane. One influenc-es the other. We as Cheyenne and Arapaho people have the culture and the traditions as tools. We have to put the culture and traditions out here (in the communities) and then we can see them, acknowledge and appreciate them. Our women deserve

better. Our men deserve bet-ter. Our children deserve bet-ter,” Whitetail said.

And in educating and pro-moting domestic violence prevention, Wassana said it best when he said, “We have to teach and educate peo-ple about domestic violence awareness not monthly or weekly, but daily. As parents we need to teach our children how to respect women and how to respect themselves. We have to break the cycle generation to generation, we have to teach and we have to remember who we are. As Indian people domestic vio-lence is not who we are.”

The Domestic Violence Program will be hosting awareness events 1-2:30 p.m., Oct. 19 at the Geary Community Center in Geary, Okla., and 1-2:30 p.m. Oct. 26 at the Watonga Communi-ty Center in Watonga, Okla.

If you or someone you know is in a domestic vio-lence relationship, and needs help, call the Cheyenne Arapaho Domestic Violence 24 Hour Hotline at 405-620-6395 or 405-538-5590 or call StrongHearts Native Helpline toll free at 844-762-8483.