Monthly writings on important issues for Tribal Child Protection and Community Safety.
Read. Reflect. Respond.
I am fortunate to have the opportunity to work with tribes across this nation. Traveling from tribe to tribe and speaking with community members, tribal leaders and others, I am often asked what I see as the greatest threats that expose Native children to the risks of abduction and victimization. I always tell people that […]
This past May 25th I was honored to attend National Missing Children’s Day ceremony in Washington D.C. I was also honored by hosting a victim family from Indian Country. Their personal loss has given purpose and meaning to what you and I strive to do every day – keep our children safe. I have attended many […]
Hastings Shade was a very good friend of mine. He was a full blood Cherokee who spoke English as a second language. He taught his native language and was a very interesting and insightful man. One day as we were speaking Cherokee to each other I asked him a question about a word in our […]
How did you spend your weekends as a kid? The norm for our family was to go to the Cherokee Stomp dance on Saturday night, then the next morning we would go to Sunday school at church. My mother was Cherokee; however, my father was not, and he was a Baptist preacher. I lived in […]
Image: “Still Dancing” by Jonathan Labillois, a member of the Ljonpaintistuguj Migmaq First Nation Band in Gaspe Quebec O Si Yo, (Oh See Yo) ‘Hello’ in my mother’s language of Cherokee and welcome to this month’s blog.What if I told you there was an epidemic in Indian County? Would you believe me? Probably not unless I […]
O SI YO! (Oh See Yo) ‘Hello’ in my mother’s language of Cherokee.Over the years I have flown literally hundreds, if not thousands, of hours to and from hundreds of Native American tribal lands. I remember many times flying at 40,000 feet above sea level and visualizing the land below the airplane. Sometimes it would […]
O Si Yo! (Oh See Yo) That is how we say Hello in my mother’s language of Cherokee. I was raised in the Cherokee way by my Cherokee mother and grandmother. Grandmother ‘Mom’ as everyone called her taught me much about our native traditions, medicines, stories, and ways of surviving. One day as Mom and […]