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Jonny’s Gifts
When I met Jonny Skye , the Peoria tribal citizen, she allowed LEAD to choose one of her paintings to visually represent this year’s Tar Creek Conference, only to discover the title “It is in the Water” would also serve as our theme. The other paintings needed to be seen and I was pleased when she agreed to allowing us to host an art show for the public. Downtown Miami came to life one night this week at the time most towns close up. LEAD Agency held space open to the public
leadagency
7 days ago3 min read
Reflecting on the 27th Tar Creek Conference
Earlier this month, LEAD Agency held our 27th National Environmental Tar Creek Conference on Oct. 7, 8 and 9 at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College in Miami.
To kick off this year’s conference, on October 4 we co-hosted an inaugural disc golf tournament, the Tar Creek Open, at the Veterans Memorial Disc Golf Course, located near Tar Creek in what used to be a residential neighborhood before residents were forced to move due to repeated flooding. It’s been our dream for many
Kim Barker
Oct 223 min read
The Project: What’s in the Air in Your House
The investigation of what’s in the air inside homes in Miami, OK in the far NE corner of Oklahoma is based on a discovery made 28 years ago.
A family moved into a home in a nice neighborhood, moving from a state that required childhood blood lead testing, both testing negative. After living in their home only 6 months 2 of the children tested positive. Upon investigating the playroom, the air vent cover was lifted and the HVAC duct had deteriorated and what seemed like gr
Rebecca Jim
Oct 123 min read
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Jonny’s Gifts
When I met Jonny Skye , the Peoria tribal citizen, she allowed LEAD to choose one of her paintings to visually represent this year’s Tar Creek Conference, only to discover the title “It is in the Water” would also serve as our theme. The other paintings needed to be seen and I was pleased when she agreed to allowing us to host an art show for the public. Downtown Miami came to life one night this week at the time most towns close up. LEAD Agency held space open to the public
leadagency
7 days ago3 min read
Reflecting on the 27th Tar Creek Conference
Earlier this month, LEAD Agency held our 27th National Environmental Tar Creek Conference on Oct. 7, 8 and 9 at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College in Miami.
To kick off this year’s conference, on October 4 we co-hosted an inaugural disc golf tournament, the Tar Creek Open, at the Veterans Memorial Disc Golf Course, located near Tar Creek in what used to be a residential neighborhood before residents were forced to move due to repeated flooding. It’s been our dream for many
Kim Barker
Oct 223 min read
The Project: What’s in the Air in Your House
The investigation of what’s in the air inside homes in Miami, OK in the far NE corner of Oklahoma is based on a discovery made 28 years ago.
A family moved into a home in a nice neighborhood, moving from a state that required childhood blood lead testing, both testing negative. After living in their home only 6 months 2 of the children tested positive. Upon investigating the playroom, the air vent cover was lifted and the HVAC duct had deteriorated and what seemed like gr
Rebecca Jim
Oct 123 min read
Native American Designs
A gift from a friend is always special. But when I peered into the little flowered bag, and pulled the single item up to the light and held it in my hand, I was transformed. Going back decades to the event held each May, the Gilcrease Rendezvous. Each year for maybe twenty years, I would load many of Miami’s Indian Club dancers and all of our regalia into a school bus and head out of Tulsa straight to The Gilcrease Museum. With our dresses, shawls, bustles and suitcases, we w
Rebecca Jim
Sep 123 min read
Over
Over has been one of my “go to” words through the decades.
The only real loan I took out with my home as collateral, when the last payment was made and I burned the papers, that over was sweet.
Driving home down the long dirt road with my signed divorce papers after an eleven-year long marriage, wrong from the start, gave me a great feeling of over. So much so, I began to laugh.
Over was more than a word, it became a feeling. The word could explain feelings that ranged
Rebecca Jim
Sep 63 min read
Heavy Metal Heron
I work surrounded by art, encouraged by artists who see this damaged place, mourn with us and lift up the hope for a better tomorrow through the art that challenges reality with their mockingly clever creations.
While at the LEAD Agency office just this week, a gentleman who I had never met walked in with a sack and was about to leave when I stopped him to introduce myself, while another man hollered out his name in great familiarity. The gentleman stopped and handed me the s
Rebecca Jim
Aug 123 min read
Murderland
When you live in the country not all your mail is in the mailbox. Laying flung into the tall grass was a book I had ordered just a few days ago. The timing couldn’t have been better. I was experiencing a great deal of shoulder pain and the PA instructed me to rest to not further complicate the injury. So, with those instructions, I dove into Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers by Caroline Fraser. It’s been a long time since I picked up a book and too
Rebecca Jim
Aug 54 min read
Just Down Past the Rock Pond
Just down past the Rock Pond, and across the field, the lake appears to the south. It had been a lake once before.
My dad inherited the land where I live when his father died in 1929. He was just eighteen years old. His older brother received the land across the fence, but chose to sell it to go into business. But my dad held on to his, paid the taxes for decades before he returned to the land to retire. When he and my mother arrived for keeps, the first thing he told her
Rebecca Jim
Jul 213 min read
Last Chances
Meredith Garvin called me and I missed talking to her. I had tried calling her number for the last year and leaving messages, and she had called the office and I had not been there to take the call.
I was left remembering the last time she came to our office. Don, her husband was with her in the car. I missed saying thank you to her for all the kindness and good work she had done and letting Don know that working with him at Will Rogers was a highlight in my school career. B
Rebecca Jim
Jun 292 min read
Those Electrolytes
A while back there was a man standing in the middle of the narrow part of Highway 10 between Welch and Miami was the first sign it wasn’t going to be a normal morning. An old navy-blue pickup truck had taken out a utility pole and with the pole gone, the live wires were pulled across the road in a dangerous way. Both the car behind me and mine turned around to find an alternate route, when a man approached my passenger side window. He said his phone was dead and wondered if I
Rebecca Jim
May 293 min read
Meet Don Ackerman
Don Ackerman is a legend in Ottawa County, OK and you haven’t known it. What he did has cost EPA millions of dollars and will cost even more in the decades to come. Those dollars all spent to protect our children from lead poisoning. The lead was found in school yards, parks and residential front and backyards, all being dug up and removed and replaced with clean lead-free soil. Don put this action into motion. We will be forever grateful and will continue to tell this story
Rebecca Jim
Apr 284 min read
What Could Have Been
Random. I attended the Wild and Scenic Film Festival this weekend that was held at the Circle
Cinema in Tulsa, OK. After hauling bags packed with LEAD Agency schmuck in from the rain I
quickly began laying information out on the last available table. Handouts, flyers, a box of PINS,
newsletters and the print we are selling chances on for Gary & Kimie Calcagno who lost their
home in Stillwater to the fire recently. The first person to stop as I was laying things out looked
Rebecca Jim
Apr 203 min read
Leaders Standing for Justice
All these years later, we are still waiting for it, for the cleanup you all deserve. The environment waits. The water waits...
Rebecca Jim
Apr 83 min read
I'm Driving for Real
I grew up in west Texas. In a city where it took 6 driving hours to get to El Paso, 6 hours to Dallas. There in between those two large...
Rebecca Jim
Apr 13 min read
The Great Conjunction
“Justice is calling people to action,”
Rebecca Jim
Feb 183 min read
Having Humility
My parents made some life-long friends on a bus trip back to the Cherokee Homelands in the 1970’s. The trip took the group to see some of...
Rebecca Jim
Feb 63 min read
You Did It
Let’s use your new found skills and ask DEQ to demand a public meeting on the efforts to protect us from the toxins that have been lying ben
Rebecca Jim
Jan 273 min read
A Cold January Day
Carter will be remembered that he waged peace not war. And that he added solar panels to the White House and wore a sweater if the...
Rebecca Jim
Jan 123 min read
My friend, too
The magic Jill created, I bet she did it for you, and I would imagine we will be telling “Jill” stories for years to come.
Rebecca Jim
Dec 27, 20244 min read
Wood for the fire
We always heard that wood warms you 3 times, to cut it, stack it and then to finally burn it
Rebecca Jim
Dec 16, 20243 min read
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