Lots of our children were discovered to be lead poisoned in Ottawa County in the 1990's. Enough to get the attention of the Environmental Protection Agency to begin funding blood lead screening of children age 6 and younger. EPA also began funding to remove lead contaminated soils from school grounds, parks, daycares and residential yards. Both the lead screening of children and the soil removal efforts are still being funded by EPA with the goals to remove lead contaminated yards from all residences in Ottawa County.

 The lead poisoning urgency pushed Ottawa County Health Department employees Ramie Tirres and Susan Waldron (What a team they were) to do all they could to find children, test their lead levels and teach very young children what they could do for their own selves to reduce their lead exposures.

Thousands of Ottawa County children who are now grown men and women learned how to wash their hands to protect themselves from lead poisoning. They all sang a song as they washed with their very own bucket, towel and soap. These children learned to accept being "stung" by Lead-Free the Bee, when they got their blood tested for lead. Ramie was right in there with the bee antennas, working along Susan and the other nurses and educators who followed her. They went to Head Starts and Kindergartens and kept our children engaged in learning how to live in a superfund site and thrive.

The Ottawa County Health Department is facing cuts, like every other county and state agency, school and college. One of the ways to deal with those cuts is to reduce staff. Ramie and so many others have chosen to retire now to give younger employees the chance to keep their jobs at least for now. Our state will be lean and services many had come to count on will be gone.  We will manage, but those left keeping the lights on and providing the services must wonder how they will be able to do it all without the institutional memories and people-skilled colleagues they will be losing. The Ottawa County Health Department will continue to provide important services and one of them will be to provide lead testing for children. They may not be able to go out to community events to find children like they once did, but blood lead testing will be available at the health department.

The only way to know if a child is lead poisoned is to do a blood lead test. It is important to remember that lead poisoning is preventable, and to prevent it we have to do everything we can to remove lead from our environment. Old lead paint in homes must be dealt with safely, best by those trained  in the Renovate, Repair, Paint Program RRP and in the shadow of the Tar Creek Superfund site with legacy lead mining tailings, we call chat used commonly as gravel and fill for the last one hundred years, this stuff has got to be dug up and moved out.

The Ottawa County Health Department, the Indian Clinic, now known as  Northeastern Tribal Health System, the Cherokee Volunteer Society members at Miami High School, LEAD Agency and the Tribal Efforts Against Lead lay health advisors, called Clanmothers and fathers worked together for a number of years to help educate our communities about lead poisoning and all the prevention techniques a family could do to protect their children. The efforts were successful and fewer and fewer children were found to be lead poisoned. To make sure those numbers stay down, we need to remind parents to get their children tested and their yards.

The real celebration is for the futures of so many children. The community never really said a great big thank you for all these people did, or even a big thank you for all the truck loads of contaminated soil that has been and continues to be hauled out of our neighborhoods by EPA and soon by DEQ. As an individual I am grateful for all that has been done. But I got the chance to thank Ramie for the enthusiasm she has shown throughout these years of helping our children live longer healthier lives before she walked out the door.

I have been impressed with Integris Baptist Regional Health Center this week. Their doctors and staff deal with life and death and installing parts like new knees and bringing babies into expanding families. All human emotions are experienced within those walls, often with only rooms of separation.

While waiting during those visiting hours when blessed sleep eased away my partner's pain, I started reading Rock with Wings by Anne Hillerman, a Leaphorn, Chee and Manuelito novel and I don't want to stop and I don't want it to end. Tony Hillerman's daughter picked up the characters her dad had created and they live again. This novel is placed in the Navajo Nation, and much in Monument Valley.

The summer I turned 10 my family spent in Arizona and New Mexico where my dad was working. During the late afternoons and weekends we explored the desert and found the beauty of it. I studied the Disappearing West website and the acres lost to all kinds of development including oil and gas exploration grows every year, grows every day. The West I saw may be very different on the next visit, since I learned only a small percentage of lands are actually protected in those states.

Several offers arrived in the mail this spring asking such things as: Got Land? and announcing: We've got buyers! Looking into many of these brokers and the slick postcards and slicker websites left me wondering who really is buying land and what is happening to it. One neighbor of mine sold a very small tract of land not knowing the buyer would sign a contract and build 2 huge chicken houses on it, 3 miles from Vinita. The issue throughout Oklahoma may get ever more complicated if the SQ 777 Right to Farm passes in the fall. Land ownership has great responsibilities attached to this moment and into the future.

Reading the Hillerman novel took me back to the desert with the descriptions of the formations and the names given by the tribes native to the area, names based on their creation stories. The Cherokee had stories and named our sacred sites in our ancestral homeland and in a perfect world we would all go back to our past lands, like the many millions who follow the tradition of going to Mecca. I have had the opportunity to visit some old Cherokee sites but have also walked Fraser historic sites in Scotland and must encourage everyone to go root searching and find these origin places, connect with them and know in that space how related we are to our ancestors and how they struggled to allow us these moments on our earth. These sacred places need to be protected not so much for our ancestors but for the future and the connections our grandchildren need to discover.

Follow roots where-ever they take you. We needed all of these to be who we are. And thinking of roots took me to plants and gardens and farmers' markets! How connected we are to the growers in our past when we begin to truly experience it as we simply dig in our own soil. In-town Gardening, 'the movement' may not furnish all the fruits and vegetables a community may need and that is ok, but it can give the motivation to eat healthier foods and give us a real appreciation of the hard work growing food can be, and how inaccessible good foods are to some people. Community gardens can grow a neighborhood together and revitalize small towns. Plant a few seeds, enjoy what happens next and we'll be seeing you at a Farmer's Market soon.

Traveling on Highway 2 this spring, there are swaths of old fashion white daisies and beautiful orchid-like purple spiderwort, both sides of the highway are lush and green. Almost immediately after turning  toward Bluejacket a white pickup truck pulled over to the side of the road with warning lights activated. I pulled over to see if they needed what little help I might be able to offer. As it turned out two friendly Department of Transportation workers were spraying the roadside on the short span of highway between 4 corners and Bluejacket with herbicides. I didn't yell. They politely listened to my many concerns about the health and safety issues to the workers, the watershed and the great regret that in the times of a state bewildered by massive budget cuts to every state agency, public schools and colleges, how could the spraying program continue? Other states in hard times had begun using the roadways as a source of income to hay and sell the bales.

The workers kindly gave me their supervisor's name in Tulsa for this region and contact information and the number actually worked and people talked to me. They gave me more numbers to call and I did. People listened, and I appreciate that, but real recourse was not suggested. The herbicide is recommended as safe to humans by OSU. That must be a great relief to the workers since they had no protective gear  to use as a barrier if any of it blew back on to their skin or respiratory system. I was told they would never use it before a rain. But it rained this week.I stopped later by the white truck to thank them for giving me a working number. They had run out of chemical and I left them with great hope they would protect themselves from exposure as they carried out the work plan I failed as yet to find the avenue for substantial input.

This year's Miami Leadership Class added a visit to LEAD Agency on their environmental day and it was a real treat to meet them and have an opportunity to talk about our organization and issues we have been following for years, and the new ones on our plate.The room was filled with people who are already leaders involved in the community and tagged by their employees to participate or edged on internally to seek opportunities to learn more about leadership. There were a couple of greatly familiar faces, including a former student, and the rest refreshingly new to me. What I know from the Leadership Class experience is, for sure they are already leaders, they just realize the strength in the "s" at the end of leaders and the power when many stand together.

It does not take many to make a difference, as I believe we have shown with LEAD Agency efforts. It is the standing together and as our motto, the Cherokee term "Ga Du Gi" the working together that changes the world.As the only environmental justice organization in northeast Oklahoma, health and the environmental issues would have to include the hard stuff you would expect Tar Creek, Grand Lake, air quality, heavy metal and other toxic exposures, add fracking, bomb trains, climate change, bee collapse and the celebration of the rights we already have to farm. Then it is easier to understand why we work to include the arts to teach but also uplift our spirits with hope, gardening to pass along to youth the power we have to grow our own food and biking to get us up and doing, a phrase my mother often used from the line:

 Let us then be up and doing with the heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait. 
- "A Psalm of Life" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

There is much to be done and we have patience, but there comes time for justice. As the Quapaws work with the state and EPA  on the Tar Creek Superfund Site and restore lands by clearing chat piles and their footprints, we will continue to advocate for the complete cleanup of the site and as the superfund law states, for "as far as the contaminants have come to  reside," which could be in the yard next to you, the property at the lake with chat for a driveway, including the chat we know is beneath foundations and should be dealt with to be protective to human health and in Tar Creek, Spring and the Neosho Rivers and in the lake we have loved. We want answers so we will continue to ask questions.

It isn't rude to want to know. It is environmental justice in action. It is stopping to ask the question of the sprayer along the road and making those calls.

In a "science take out" lesson at the Welch Skills Center this week on the Antimicrobial  (antibacterial) agent Triclosan, we learned Triclosan use can kill some bacteria, but  over use of the product  may promote the evolution of resistant bacteria. It can interfere with the function of the endocrine system, immune and reproductive system in animals. It can be found on the label of some products we use, but does not have to be listed on many other items we may be in contact every day.

The evolution of resistant bacteria is happening and creating what are commonly called "superbugs" effectively becoming drug-resistant due to overuse of Triclosan and other antimicrobials. The students understood the lesson, though we all left with even bigger questions, and little  we can do about the expanded presence than to use plain soap with effort as we wash and hope the general public will do the same and discourage the use of products containing antibacterial agents. My dad died with a drug resistant strain of TB and many others are and will die from diseases we used to have antibiotics to treat.

Children from the Boys and Girls Club joined Kelda and her daughter Gela at the LEAD Agency garden. They sowed lettuce seeds this week, poppy seeds and mustard last week. They planted potatoes and added more soil to the potato box plants. The children took turns with shovels and small tools. They loosened the soil, learned the difference between grass and onions while weeding the onion patch and found WORMS, glorious worms, they even found a real worm hole! They celebrated every roly poly and what I always called grubs they found "gross." They left happy with their experiences and so was I. What a joy to be outside with children as they learn to enjoy experiencing life in the garden.

One hundred years ago a marvelous bridge was built in Washington, D.C. to honor the bison which at that time had been hunted to the brink of extinction in America, and to allow people to see the size and stature of these animals, four bronze cast buffalo sculptures by artist Alexander Phimister Proctor stand on the Dumbarton Bridge, so we might never forget them. The bison are making a comeback and with the stewardship of tribes in our area,  we are able to see them grazing on the prairie in Ottawa County.

Years ago after a visit at the Wheelwright Museum in Santa Fe, we were gifted with an old bison hide which I kept until it began to deteriorate, as in dust into dust. I carried it outside and laid it upon the ground in a field I am sure he or his compadres had once run. I know this since on a portion of my land, we have a buffalo wallow, one of the few permanent markings on the tall grass prairie the buffalo left behind.

This spring Congress has passed  the National Bison Legacy Act, naming the bison as a “historical symbol of the United States” and establishes it as the nation’s landmark mammal, on a par with the bald eagle as a symbol of the nation.

I thought back about those sculptures on the bridge and their purpose so we would never forget the majesty and size of the once prolific creatures. In the future will we have bridges with robins and their worms, frogs or others now on the endangered species list? Will we have deer statues lining the bridges posed to leap out into traffic so we will remember? Will committing their images to bridges ensure they too may come back like the bison?

Bridges will continue to be important links from our past to what our future brings. Much  like the Recycle Tar Creek Bike Ride took us across bridges for the two mile and for the 25 mile rides. Last week brought riders, volunteers, site interpreters together. Those bridges will be our link to the future Tar Creek. We are grateful to all who rode and all who made it possible. We will cross those bridges again, you can bet on it.

Reflecting on the week and notice of the new status of the bison and knowing we need children to love what's left in this world if we hope they will rise up to protect it,  made me think of the marvelous moment when the worms were found in the soil in the LEAD Agency's garden and the gentle way they were moved and returned to the soil. These children who found those worms may remember that moment, too. And with that, perhaps the hope of the world.

Earth Day had its beginnings in 1970 with the Clean Air Act and John Muir’s birthday and is celebrated as an "annual-versary" on or near that day in April, with the celebrations generally planned for a Saturday for the general public, so the date can be fluid and the term every day is Earth Day coined. John Muir_ is credited for “creating the contagious enthusiasm for nature in mainstream consciousness of American society.”  He founded the Sierra Club; helped save Yosemite to make the “mountains glad”- went camping with Theodore Roosevelt for three days and adventured to Africa and the Amazon in South America when he was 74. He was an advocate for preserving wilderness and much of what we know as our National Parks have been saved for all people because of him.
 
Muir believed, “There is a love of wild nature in everybody” and that "Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike."

Now there is proof he was right and that living around nature is better for your health, and as the new research suggests — and may even extend your life. According to the journal Environmental Health Perspectives a study found people who live in “greener” areas, with more vegetation around, live longer likely thanks to factors such as improved mental health, social engagement and physical activity that come with living near green spaces.

Over 100,000 female registered nurses in the U.S. since 1976 have participated in the National Institutes of Health Nurse’s Health Study. This study’s researchers actually used satellite data to assess the amount of green vegetation surrounding each participant’s home during the study. Those who had the most vegetation within 800 feet of their home suggested greenness can affect health. Places with more vegetation are generally thought to be less polluted, and the presence of vegetation, itself, can help keep air cleaner. And green spaces like parks can help encourage people to get outside, exercise and engage with other people — all factors that can improve overall health. The effects on mental health may be important, as this study suggested.

“If we had a medication that did this — a medication that prolonged life, that addressed very different unconnected causes of disease, that did it at no cost and with no side effects — that would be the best medication of the decade,” dean of the school of public health at the University of Washington, Howard Frumkin said. “But we don’t have a medication like that except for this ‘Vitamin N’ — nature.”

I am thinking by making sure the green space around your home is really not polluted with lead from the mine waste used so commonly in Ottawa County by calling to have your yard and gravel driveways sampled would help with your own mental health by reducing stress knowing if it tests safe, what a relief, if it tests high, having it removed at no cost to you! Larry Gatewood told me this week he was really pleased with the work that had to be done at his place. Two people called to get that number in one afternoon, so let me give it again: 1-800-533-3508, leave a message, repeat it and call and leave it again when you think of it. If you are pleased with the work that has been done by EPA on your property, we have Lead Free Yard signs we would love for you to post in your yard to encourage your neighbors to do their part for the neighborhood and the green space next to you.