(Theme music) JENNIFER LOREN>> Coming up..... KELSEY SAMUELS>> Women are such an important and pivotal part in both the Tribe and in the family system.

And increasing the Tribe's ability to keep women safe within Cherokee jurisdiction is so important.

JENNIFER>> Lean how Kelsey Samuels is making a difference in northeastern Oklahoma and creating safe spaces for survivors of domestic violence.

And, carrying plant knowledge forward we root in with Cherokee Medicine Keepers as they teach future generations the fundamental of plants and their cultural use.

CLINT CARROLL>> This knowledge is not something you can find in a book often.

It's something that's passed down from person to person, usually within a family.

JENNIFER>> Plus... JOHN GUTHRIE>> I know two things in my life; I know horses and art, and not much else.

JENNIFER>> Ride along with artist John Guthrie as he gives back to his community with mini-horse therapy.

(Theme music begins) MAN 1>> The Cherokees.

WOMAN 1>> A thriving American Indian tribe.

MAN 2>> Our history... WOMAN 2>> our culture... WOMAN 3>> our people... MAN 1>> our future.

MAN 3>> The principles of a historic nation MAN 1>> sewn into the fabric of the modern world.

WOMAN 2>> Hundreds of thousands strong... WOMAN 3>> learning... WOMAN 1>> growing... MAN 1>> succeeding... MAN 3>> and steadfast.

WOMAN 1>> In the past, we have persevered through struggle, WOMAN 2>> but the future is ours to write.

MAN 1>> Osiyo!

WOMAN 2>> Osiyo.

WOMAN 1>> Osiyo!

MAN 1>> These are the voices of the Cherokee people.

(Theme music fades out) CHUCK HOSKIN JR.>> Osiyo.

Welcome to the Cherokee Nation.

I'm Principal Chief, Chuck Hoskin, Jr.

For generations others have told the Cherokee story.

But now, through this groundbreaking series, we're taking ownership of our own story and telling it as authentically and beautifully as possible.

I hope you enjoy these profiles of Cherokee people, language, history, and culture.

Wado.

JENNIFER>> Osiyo.

It's how we say 'Hello' in Cherokee.

I'm your host, Jennifer Loren, at the Cherokee National History Museum in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, where you can learn about Cherokee Freedmen and their fight for recognition.

In this episode, you'll learn about one particular Cherokee Freedman, Joseph 'Stick' Ross, and the civic legacy he left within the Cherokee Nation.

SHERELENE PRATT>> Joseph 'Stick' Ross was one of the first Cherokee Freedmens for councilman for Cherokee Nation.

JENNIFER>> We'll have more on this later in our Cherokee Almanac.

But first.... (Upbeat music ends) Domestic violence is a serious issue that can wreak havoc on the lives of Cherokee families.

Kelsey Samuels is a Cherokee Nation citizen serving domestic violence and abuse victims, which is often difficult, but can be a source of comfort and healing in dark times.

(Slow music plays) KELSEY>> People often think that domestic violence is just physical abuse.

And a lot of times, people will say, I'm not a victim of domestic violence because I've never been hit.

Domestic violence is all about power and control, and that doesn't have to include physical violence.

It's creating an unsafe environment for you in any way.

(Slow music ends) My name is Kelsey Samuels.

I am a proud Cherokee citizen, and I am the Executive Director of the Community Crisis Center, which is a non-profit in northeastern Oklahoma, that serves victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking.

I have lived in northeastern Oklahoma the majority of my life.

I moved out of state after college and worked for a few years, and then came back home to the job that I have now.

So, to get to come to work every day in Reservation and to serve citizens of Cherokee Nation.

A partner with Cherokee Nation is huge to me.

It feels like coming home.

Oklahoma is now Number 2 in the nation for women murdered by men.

That's the highest that we've ever been in the state.

And it shows that domestic violence and violence against women in our state is at crisis.

We're Number 2 in the entire nation.

And then violence against Native women is disproportionate.

And a recent study showed that 4 out of 5 Native American women have experienced some form of violence in their lifetime.

So, if you think about 5 Cherokee women that you know, the reality is that 4 of those women have faced some form of domestic violence, intimate partner violence, sexual assault.

And that number is astonishing.

(Slow music ends) (Upbeat music plays) VAWA stands for the Violence Against Women Act.

It was first authorized in 1994, and it was authored by then Senator Joe Biden.

And it was the first comprehensive legislation packet that really looked at violence against women.

It brought attention to domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking and dating violence, and looked at how can we prevent violence?

How can we respond to violence?

And how can we fund services?

All that addressed the gaps involving gender-based violence.

VAWA was recently re-authorized in 2022.

And in that re-authorization, it actually reinforced Tribal sovereignty and re-instated the jurisdiction that tribes had to hold offenders that were non-Native accountable in Tribal jurisdictions.

So, women are such an important and pivotal part in both the Tribe and in the family system.

And increasing the Tribe's ability to keep women safe within Cherokee jurisdiction is so important.

And not only does it keep our community safer, but it shows honor to the women in our lives.

We now know that the effects of trauma are far reaching and they're generational.

With violence against women, not only is it the violence that's perpetrated against the victim, but often times there's children growing up in the home that witness it.

So then, we have these generational cycles of people that have experienced or witnessed abuse and trauma, the effects of trauma.

We can provide counseling and other services to really help address, Okay, I've experienced this traumatic event.

How do I process it?

How do I begin the road of healing?

How can I be a parent in the midst of trauma?

And learning skills so that they can hopefully parent from a trauma-informed perspective that my children have witnessed trauma.

I've experienced trauma.

And we're looking at the best way for us to move forward as a family.

We have a team of over twenty staff, ranging from advocates, to administration, to prevention specialists that covers our three-county service area.

And on average we work with over 500 victims a year within our agency.

I have family and friends that are survivors, and it's just something that's really near and dear to my heart.

But it's just really important as a community that we continue talking about it.

I think that the Me-Too movement and some of these other movements that have come out the last few years have really normalized, hey, these are problems and they're not these situations that have to be hidden anymore; it's okay to talk about.

We're saying, Hey, we wanna live in a safe community.

My family is so important to me.

Family structure is so important to me.

And my kids are a huge part of what I do.

I want them to grow up in a community that's safe.

I want them to be in relationships that are safe and healthy.

So, I feel like the work that I do now is hopefully creating a better tomorrow.

And that when they reach that age and they're in relationships and they get married, that they'll remember some of what I talked about when they were this age.

And that hopefully, the community looks different; there's more services available, there's been more training available.

And that hopefully I can help prevent violence in my family just by the work that I'm doing.

I think it is so meaningful for me to get to come back home and do this work in Cherokee Reservation every day.

Cherokee Nation has been a huge part of my life, and my family's from this area.

But I genuinely love what I do and it's an honor in knowing that every day that I come up and I go to work that it is hopefully making a difference for someone in the community.

It makes it worthwhile for me.

There are so many people in our communities that have been abused and hurt, and children growing up in homes that are unsafe.

And I just honestly feel like it is a privilege that I get to wake up every day and use my talents and my skills to play a part in that, and use my voice to speak up for victims and survivors in the community.

So, my hope is that the work that I do today creates a safer future.

And I think that's the mentality that we all should have; that women are sacred and families are sacred.

(Slow music ends) (Theme music) JENNIFER>> Here in the Cherokee Nation, a small group of fluent-speaking Cherokee elders are embarking upon a rescue mission.

Their generation holds traditional knowledge of flora, fauna, and sacred Cherokee sites.

And now they're making a concerted effort to pass this knowledge on to younger Cherokees, seeding hope that their knowledge will continue to live on for many more generations.

(Upbeat music plays) PAT GWIN>> I want that [INAUDIBLE].

You can use the roots as dyes, and there's a few ceremonies that are performed with them, as well.

It's called snake tongue.

And a lot of folks will use the, use this in some of their heart medications.

We had a request from an elder to collect a little bit of it.

So,..... CLINT CARROLL>> This knowledge is not something that you can find if a book often, and something that's passed down from person to person, usually within a family.

(Upbeat music ends) (Slow music plays) ANNA SIXKILLER>> (Speaking Cherokee language) JOE BYRD>> (Speaking Cherokee language) ANNA>> (Speaking Cherokee language) JOHN ROSS>> (Speaking Cherokee language) JOE> (Speaking Cherokee language) ANNA>> (Speaking Cherokee language) CLINT>> The Cherokee Medicine Keepers are a group of about ten elders and knowledge keepers, most of whom are first-language Cherokee speakers.

And all of whom bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to the work that we do.

Their mission is two-fold; One, to perpetuate Cherokee knowledge and life ways around the plants and other beings in the woods that bring us medicine; and Two, to provide a voice for the land from that perspective and really a voice of protection and conservation to our lands within the reservation and beyond.

So, that's a part of, of their work in teaching younger generations, younger people what they know.

And it really is a bold move.

And the most recent, you know, project that we have together is this program the Cherokee Environmental Leadership Program.

And that was a way to answer their call to pass this knowledge down.

Their mission is to perpetuate this knowledge.

And so, we have a group of five Cherokee students.

And this is a pilot program.

SAMMY STILL>> Because if we lose all of this, we lose our crafts, we lose our language.

We won't be able to identify ourselves as Cherokee people.

It's given to us by a Creator.

This is what He gave to us to, to work with.

So, it's real, real important that we realize what we have even in our backyard.

CLINT>> I started out working for the Tribe back in 2004.

And I was tasked to develop a data base of sorts to record Cherokee traditional knowledge.

And so, as a result of that, that work and in collaboration with my long-time friend and co-worker, Pat Gwin, we brought a lot of these people together in 2008.

And that launched the Medicine Keepers.

PAT>> There's a saying, Number 1, no Cherokee would ever be without a corn patch, which has nothing to do with corn.

It's a metaphor for life.

And there's similar metaphors that state like, you know, Without Cherokee plants there can be no Cherokees.

My name is Pat Gwin.

I work for the Cherokee Nation Secretary of Natural Resources.

I also have been, I guess, one of the lead liaisons for the Cherokee Nation Medicine Keepers.

And today we are down here on CMS83, Candy Mink Springs, Unit 83, the Tribe's conservations unit for all things Cherokee medicine.

CMS83, it's, it existed for a long time, almost untrodden by Cherokees.

You know, it's a piece of trust land, so it was, it was re-purchased for the Tribe by the U.S.

government in the 1940's.

And the, the Medicine Keepers were looking for their home.

We were able to bring them down here.

There's a list of plants here that are really hard to find.

You know, there's been a somewhat of a equal or similar paradigm with the loss of the language.

Some of the more traditional Cherokees were seeing a loss of the culture as far as how they interacted with the environment.

The goal of the Medicine Keepers is to continue their, the Cherokee cultural customs dealing with plants.

CLINT>> They're using medicine and keeping the medicine alive, as they say, (Speaking Cherokee language), keeping the medicine going.

They're using that as a platform for really environmental protection and conservation among the Cherokee Nation; you know, what is traditional medicine.

It's all of that and it's included, what, what's included in that is the spirituality that enables that medicine to actually be effective.

PAT>> We are in Adair County on some Tribal Trust property.

And we have a red root plant that is in peril based upon being in a utility line right-of-way.

It's getting sprayed every year, and the road is expanding to take out its root system.

So, we are going to remove this plant and take it to our new Immersion School.

A red root is (Speaking Cherokee language), and it is one of the seven sacred plants on the Cherokee.

(Baskground noises) SAVANNAH ANDERSON>> The program was presented in a way where it was connecting us as Cherokee culture through language, and holistic medicine, and food practices that are part of the Cherokee culture.

I felt like this was an opportunity for me to gain connection to the land and to, back to my people.

CLINT>> Just as it's difficult to understand ourselves as Cherokee without our language, I think it's equally difficult to understand ourselves without a connection to land.

(Sound of running water) The language is connected to the land in that it is describing a living place.

And so, certain words that we might have for plants are describing what they do in that place and how they relate to other beings; whether they're eaten by certain beings, whether they provide a bed for, you know, certain animals, how they help people through medicine.

And so, all of that is, is a part of our knowledge and it's related to the language.

It's, it's not training them how to be medicine people.

That's something that is, for Cherokee people, that's, that's more of a interpersonal thing.

And also we say that the Creator chooses, you know, medicine people.

It's, it's not us as, as human beings.

One of our spiritual advisor to the Medicine Keepers is Crosslin Smith.

He's told us we have to honor the spirit of this land.

And to me, that spoke volumes as to our responsibilities here in the Cherokee Nation in northeastern Oklahoma, as Cherokee people, as Indigenous people to continue those relationships in a good way.

It's the foundation of our health.

It's the foundation of our education.

It's the foundation of our language; that relationship to place.

JOHN>> (Speaking Cherokee language) JOE>> (Speaking Cherokee language) (Others agreeing in Cherokee language) (Slow music ends) (Theme music) JENNIFER>> In this Cherokee Almanac, we explore the life of Joseph 'Stick' Ross, a Cherokee Freedman and civic leader in the capitol of the Cherokee Nation during the late 19th century.

We recognize and admire the legacy of Stick Ross and his contributions to his nation.

(Upbeat music plays) Too often overlooked when discussing Cherokee history are Cherokee Freedmen and their descendants.

One Freedmen in particular who left an indelible mark on our Nation is Joseph 'Stick' Ross.

KRYSTAN MOSER>> Cherokee Freedmen were the former enslaved people of Cherokee Nation who were granted freedom with the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation.

They were further granted full citizenship rights with the Treaty of 1866.

JENNIFER>> Joseph Ross was born around 1855, in the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory.

SHERELENE PRATT>> Well he was born into slavery at birth.

And of course, he was enslaved by Chief John Ross.

Many of the enslaved people, they had to take on the slave master's last name.

That's how they identified who was who.

KRYSTAN>> There's not a lot known about his childhood.

According to an article I read in the Cherokee Phoenix several years ago, he went by the name Stick Ross, because he was a tall, thin man.

JENNIFER>> After the abolishment of slavery and the passing of the Treaty of 1866, Stick Ross became a free citizen of the Cherokee Nation.

Despite racial segregation, Stick Ross actively participated in the reconstruction of the Cherokee Nation after the devastation of the Civil War.

SHERELENE>> Joseph 'Stick' Ross was the one that was head over the brick making and laying of the capitol of Cherokee Nation.

JENNIFER>> Through his efforts, Stick Ross emerged as a community leader.

He was a member of Tahlequah's first business club, and was elected to the Cherokee Tribal Council in 1893.

SHERELENE> Joseph 'Stick' Ross was one of the first Cherokee Freedmens for councilman of Cherokee Nation.

KRYSTAN>> Stick Ross was very much an advocate for citizenship for Cherokee Freedmen.

He assisted people who were looking to either establish their citizenship or to re-establish their citizenship with Cherokee Nation.

JENNIFER>> During this same time, the U.S.

began priming Indian Territory to be absorbed into the state of Oklahoma.

This process included breaking up Tribal land into individual allotments and making official lists of Cherokee Nation citizens known today as the Dawes Roles.

KRYSTAN>> When he was enrolling with the Dawes Commission, he requested that his family's allotments be located near each other.

And those were assigned just south of Tahlequah, which is now known as Stick Ross Mountain.

JENNIFER>> Stick Ross continued to live and work in Tahlequah into his mid-70's, until his death in 1930.

KRYSTAN>> Stick Ross' exact burial location is unknown, but his descendants did install a marker at Ross Cemetery.

He actually donated the land that Ross Cemetery now sits on as a burial place for other Cherokee Freedmen.

JENNIFER>> Stick Ross' contributions are sewn into the fabric of the Cherokee Nation.

His memory serves as a reminder of the diverse influences that have made our nation what it is today.

(Upbeat music ends) (Language segment music begins) ALI>> (Speaking Cherokee language) SINASD>> (Speaking Cherokee language) ALI (Speaking Cherokee language) SINASD>> (Speaking Cherokee language) ALI>> (Speaking Cherokee language) SINASD>> (Speaking Cherokee language) ALI>> (Speaking Cherokee language) SINASD>> (Speaking Cherokee language) ALI>> (Speaking Cherokee language) SINASD>> (Speaking Cherokee language) (Language segment music) (Theme music) JENNIFER>> John Guthrie is an artist and owner of Little Cherokee Horses, a mini horse ranch offering equine therapy.

Despite suffering from dystonia, a neurological condition similar to Parkinson's disease, John remains an active artist and continues to give back to his community.

(Upbeat music plays) (Sound of horses neighing) (Upbeat music plays) JOHN GUTHRIE>> My name's John Guthrie.

I'm a Cherokee artist.

We are in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

My wife, Connie, and I have lived in Tahlequah since 1986.

I know two things in my life; I know horses and art, and not much else.

The earliest memories I have in life have horses in 'em.

I grew up where I watched track horse races.

And unlike the horse races that you watch on TV, there aren't quite as many rules when you go ride in the bushes.

I have a neurological condition called dystonia that was caused by a traumatic brain injury in 1968.

It affects my speech, my walk.

My hands will open up for no reason.

I, they'll clamp down for no reason.

When it first came, I had lost my ability to speak.

I couldn't walk.

I couldn't do anything with my hands and I had probably between 20-35 seizures a day.

I kinda fought this off and on all my life.

And then we went with our daughter to Fort Sam Houston in Texas.

We wound up at a horse ranch that raised miniature horses.

And I came from race horses, so I, I never had really been exposed to the little guys.

But I just fell in love with 'em.

Now we have 16.

The horses brought me to where I am now.

And without 'em, I don't think I would have gotten here.

It is unbelievable the effect that the little guys have on people, and not like big horses.

I've ridden some really, really good horses in my life, but the little guys are so much different than the big guys.

Hard to even describe how I really feel about them, I guess.

They were like all the horses of my past.

They were just in a compact package.

What we have is Little Cherokee Miniature Therapy Horses.

We've had 'em to vacation Bible schools.

We've taken 'em to little kids' birthday parties.

We've taken 'em to most of the area nursing homes and assisted living centers.

When you go and you take one of these little guys, and you go to a nursing home, and you come upon someone who is an Alzheimer's patient, and suddenly there's a twinkle that wasn't there until you arrived.

That makes all of what we do worthwhile.

Come on, show off for her.

Come on.

(Applause) There it is.

There it is.

There it is.

For the most part, all horses, they're like a companion animal.

We've had such a long, long history of domestication with, with horses.

They're definitely a part of human culture as far back as it goes.

The Arabs said that the horse is God's gift to man.

And there's probably a lot of truth to that.

I started in art in the 80's when I had been training some horses down at Sallisaw.

My idea of art is that it should evoke a feeling.

Any artist worth their salt can take a photograph and reproduce it.

But to take and to tell a story with your art and to cause someone to feel something emotionally, whether, whether it's happy, or sad, or good, or bad, or whatever, but it needs to have some kind of a feeling to it.

That's what I try to do with my art.

This picture behind me is called Tears for Mother.

The Cherokee lived above the sky vault.

And so, that's where the stars came from, and when they descended down and they came down to live on earth.

And now we're destroying the earth.

And so, that's the essence of the painting.

The raven that's flying away in the background is the raven mocker.

And the raven mocker is one of the scariest of the Cherokee witches.

When a death is unattended, the raven mocker comes in and will steal the soul.

And that's where the missing heart is in mother earth.

I enjoy seeing my art in public rather than private collections.

I think that that's where our art should be.

It needs to be viewed rather than hoarded.

Art's been good to me.

I can't complain.

It's taken me places where I might not have gone otherwise.

(Music ends) JENNIFER LOREN>> We hope you enjoyed our show.

And remember, you can always watch entire episodes and share your favorite stories online at Osiyo.TV.

There is no Cherokee word for goodbye because we know we'll see you again.

We say, Dodadagohv'I, Wado.

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