Local Environmental Action Demanded
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Tar Creek Conferences
    • 2022 Conference
    • 2020 Conference >
      • 2020 Speakers and Panelists
    • 2019 Conference >
      • Poetry Slam and Cartoon Contest
    • 2018 Conference >
      • Registration
      • Science & the Arts
      • Lodging & Accommodations
    • 2017 Conference >
      • Speakers & Agenda
      • Science & the Arts
      • Lodging & Accommodations
    • 2016 Conference >
      • Speakers & Agenda
    • 2015 Conference
  • Grand Riverkeeper
  • Tar Creekkeeper
  • Contact Us
  • Scholarship
  • Partners
  • Camp

Keep the Old

8/1/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
The last chief of the Cherokees before statehood lived in Vinita, IT (Indian Territory) and I knew his last living daughter, Margarette Buffington Garner as my old friend. I mean she was old when she allowed me to become her friend.

What a gift she gave, of herself, of the old ways, and an example I hope to pass on to the young people in my life who allow me to be their friend. She used to call me out of the blue, once saying she wanted to give me something. I went to visit and she regretfully stated she had something that had come over the Trail of Tears, but had broken it that morning. She had placed the blue and white pitcher and bowl. She had put the bowl in the sink to wash it and the temperature of the water had broken it, into 3 pieces. She explained it's history, first the trip from the Cherokee homeland, then how it was buried packed with hay along with many of the other family treasures in their backyard during the Civil War. It glued back together and the set has been a joy now for over 50 years.

Generations of separation begin not to matter when we simply take the time to talk through them and understand the significance and pass them on.

Evans Ray Satepahoodle, say that fast, was a great big full blood Kiowa who remembered all the old songs, and created many for his tribal family members. He would call late at night and tell me the story of how a song was created, where and who was there, and why and then sing it. He was desperate to pass these on. He called me one evening and said he was in the 4th quarter, and as a former football player, he meant he had made it to 75 weaving in his football heritage. I would try desperately to take notes of the story and try writing the Kiowa words by how they sounded. But thankfully Huge Foley at Rogers State University learned of Evans Ray and recorded many of his stories and the accompanying songs. You can find them on YouTube, honest.

Evans Ray had been an Indian Counselor during many of the same years I had been, so we knew each other well enough, if he had had a bad day at work, serious issues lay on us as counselors, he would call and say simply, "The counselor needs counseling," as a signal it had been one of those heavy days. As a counselor, sometimes having a listener made all the difference.

We were connected even before I ever heard of him. One of my distant Cherokee cousins Sparlin Norwood had told a story about meeting ER as we called him, when life was not going so well for him. What Sparlin  did after listening was to reach over and tap him on his chest and say simply, "There is a good man in there." Those words made all the difference to him and he spent the rest of his life being that good man. Sparlin was known to speak up and out for cause.

These elders allowed me into the tail end of their lives and have given that generational sharing gift I intend to pass right along.

And this week, a young woman who I had come to know after she knocked on the front door at LEAD Agency as a freshman at NEO College, Maddie Geiger came to visit, bringing her love and her loved one with her. We talked of the past, only slightly, but on to the lives we live now. One of my questions was how to have a Poetry Slam at this year's National Environmental Conference at Tar Creek Sept. 17-18. Did I learn a lot? Oh, yes, so get to thinking now about the poetry, or the story you want to share with the broad topics we will cover this year: Tar Creek, of course, BF Goodrich, lake level flooding, Poultry and by golly climate change.

Are friendships only with people? Not so to me, this land, this piece of the earth I live upon and the earth that stretches beneath all of our feet, leaving still room for others. We have not filled each spot, we have room, and all of it needs our care, our, if you would dare to say, it needs our love.

Our earth, much of the solid ground we have been counting for the future will be going under, as the ice melts at the poles, in the glaciers around the world, our seas will cover more of our ground. There will be less ground to share and peoples along the coasts, and our island people will be heading for higher ground. As Sally Whitebird said 25 years ago, "We have only one mother." She meant our mother earth and all of her children are going to be scrambling to stay dry.

That Sparlin Norwood, I spoke of earlier had a great deal to do with the establishment of the National Indian Education Association and they had a conference in Alaska that I won a trip in a raffle to attend. And while there was able to visit briefly a glacier. Peering into the ice was a blue I will never forget. Old ice. Our old friends are passing on, our old ice is melting away adding daily to the steady rise of the oceans.

I'd like to keep my old friends longer and keep our glaciers and poles frozen longer.
One is silver and the other blue...  Friends are warm and the ice caps cold, (my new versions of that song about friends sung by the Brownies/Girl Scouts).

Respectfully Submitted ~ Rebecca Jim


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Rebecca Jim

    Rebecca is the Executive Director of LEAD Agency and one of its founding members. She also serves as the Tar Creekkeeper with the Waterkeeper Alliance.

    Contact Rebecca

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Built Environments
    Children
    Gardening
    Other Endangered Waters
    Tar Creek Conference
    Toxic Tour
    Yard Remediation

Local Environmental Action Demanded Agency, Inc.
Miami Office:                                Vinita Office:
223 A Street SE                             19289 South 4403 Drive
Miami, Oklahoma 74354             Vinita, Oklahoma 74301
(918) 542-9399
Follow us on Facebook