ᎣᏏᏲ (Osiyo) from Cherokee Nation!

April 24 – May 8, 2022

What a wonderful treat it was to spend a couple of weeks in Tahlequah, Oklahoma!  Honestly, the only thing we knew about Tahlequah before we arrived, was there was a Habitat for Humanity build going on.  Wanting to be a part of the build, we added it to our itinerary.  Soon after arriving, we not only discovered Tahlequah is the capital of the Cherokee Nation, but also the setting for the novel, “Where the Red Fern Grows”, by Wilson Rawls!  

The city had a very sad beginning, as on March 26, 1839, this was where the Trail of Tears finally ended.  Legend has it, shortly following the Trail of Tears, three tribal elders had planned to meet to determine the location of the Cherokee Nation’s permanent capital.  Two elders arrived and waited for the third.  At dusk, they decided “Tahlequah” (translated as “Two is enough”) and went about choosing and naming the location of the capital on their own.  I can’t help but wonder how the third elder felt about this. I bet he wasn’t late for the next meeting!

Many of the government buildings are now museums including the capitol building, courthouse and prison.  In touring the capitol, we learned a Cherokee man, named Sequoyah, spent 12 years in the early 1800’s creating a syllabary.   This syllabary is a set of 85 written symbols, with each symbol representing a syllable in the spoken Cherokee language.  We learned ᎣᏏᏲ (pronounced osiyo) means “hello”!  When listening to the spoken language, it is almost like listening to a song.  The same sound can mean something entirely different, depending on the tone associated with the sound.  No wonder it took Sequoyah 12 years to figure out how to create a written form of this language!  As you drive around Tahlequah, all of the street signs have both the English and Cherokee names on them.  The public buildings also are identified in both English and Cherokee!  It’s obvious there is a strong pride in the community of their Cherokee heritage and their desire to ensure the language continues to survive.  

The prison museum was another interesting visit.  Originally, the Cherokee had “Blood Laws”.  It was similar to the Bible’s Exodus 21:23-27 -- an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.  The big difference being that there was not an intent of retaliation.  It was seen as a way of restoring balance.  The intent was to deal with the crime and move forward.  Typical punishments were lashings of the back, cutting off the tip of the nose, cutting off an ear…  With the white man’s intervention, incarceration was adopted.  The Cherokee word for prison is “many gates”, which was seen as more of a punishment than any of the traditional punishments.  The idea of being separated from your tribe was actually a strong deterrent for committing a crime.  There were gallows behind the prison, but word was that it had been infrequently used.  Interestingly, one crime that resulted in capital punishment was the sale of public land when you were not in the position of authority to do so.  An example of this was the Treaty Group, who signed the treaty relinquishing the Indian land that led to the removal of Indians in the Trail of Tears.  Considering the enormous number of people who lost their life on this “Death March”, one can understand that application of capital punishment. 

Tahlequah has a lot of fun celebrating that “Where the Red Fern Grows” is connected to their community.  In fact, they have an annual Red Fern Festival that coincidentally was going on while we were in the area!  The festival had been canceled the previous two years and the community was thrilled to be able to resurrect their annual celebration!  Of course, part of the festival involved coon dog trials, in which a caged raccoon was hoisted into a treetop, while coon hounds howled at it.  The winner of the trial was the dog with the most barks within a minute.  The winner was counted at 106 barks in that one, short minute!  It seemed a countless number of hounds participated in these trials.  It’s hard to describe the sound all of these excited coon hounds made!  One local man we talked to said he came down to the trials with his son and grandson just “to hear the sound of the coon hounds”.  It’s a big part of the local culture here!

Another trial the hounds could participate in was the “Drag Race”, where the hounds were released a bit up the Town Creek Branch stream and timed for finding the tree with the coon in it.  It was amazing to see the hounds track the coon scent through the water, find the spot on the bank of the river where the racoon came out and go to the correct tree!  Of course, there was the constant howl coming from the entire pack for the duration of the trials!  Definitely, nothing I’d ever witnessed before!  Just when you thought you’d seen everything!

Since Tahlequah was the setting of the novel, “Where the Red Fern Grows”, Tahlequah was also used in the filming of both versions of the movie.  This same local man that came to the hound trials shared he was in the 1974 version of the movie as an extra.  That must have been exciting, as he was still pretty delighted about it!

For the festival, the main streets of downtown were barricaded off and venders where there selling their arts & crafts.  On one of the street corners, the red truck from the opening scene of the original movie was parked alongside the original owners of the truck, Paul and Carol.  Although the movie was filmed in 1974, the truck was an original 1929 Model A Ford!  Paul told the story of how he didn’t allow anyone else, other than himself or his son, to drive the truck.  He was pretty tickled how you can see the driver of the truck had a blue shirt on; however, after the truck was parked, the actor who got out of the truck had a red shirt on.  “No one caught it!”, Paul exclaimed!  It was great to hear these stories nearly 50 years after the movie was filmed!

Our visit to the festival wrapped up at the band stage, where local music was performed most of the time the festival was happening.  Food trucks provided our delicious BBQ and funnel cake dinner, which explains why I had a tummy ache that evening!

Back to the reason we were in Tahlequah in the first place -- Habitat for Humanity!  During our stay in Tahlequah, H4H provided us with a campsite, located just behind their new ReStore!   The facilities could not have been any finer!  Large, level, concrete, full hook-ups, with green fields surrounding the campsites on three of the sides, giving Frankie plenty of room for playing with her frisbee and Chuck-it toys!  We also had access to the ReStore break room, which turned out to be convenient the night the tornado alarms sounded!  



We actually had several storms go through the area during our stay, but only one prompting us to find safer shelter.  The rain did impact our work to some degree.  One day was cancelled, which we turned into lemonade by touring the museum.  Another day was pretty much cancelled, as Ty, our construction supervisor, was trapped at his house when Hwy. 10 flooded!  This was the fourth highest flood level of the Illinois River on record.  Dick and I figured we could paint on our own, so we did get a few hours of “work” in after the sun came out and dried things up a bit.

The house we worked on will belong to Pam, once construction is complete.  Our primary accomplishment while there was exterior painting.  We did a few little things on the interior, but not much.  The interior was receiving some professional attention from insulators and drywallers, so we did our best to stay not only busy, but primarily out of their way! 


When we weren’t able to work at the house, for either reasons of weather or contractors, we tried to make progress on a storage shed that is being built at the ReStore location.  This was actually a lot of fun, as I got to try my hand at using a nail gun and other power tools!  Rosie the Riveter best move on over, as Tool Belt Barb is coming through!  A big “Thank you!” to Ty for your patience with me!





Our last day on the build, I was telling Pam about the pretty bird I had been enjoying watching at the campsite.  It turns the scissor tail fly-catcher is the Oklahoma state bird!  They loved to sit on the wire fence, singing their (rather loud!) song.  Watching that tail open up as it flew away was really cool!

We sure were spoiled by Tahlequah’s H4H group!  In addition to wonderful accommodations and meeting really friendly and knowledgeable people, we were treated to several lunches!  Just saying, I don’t think it is normal to wonder if you are gaining weight while on a H4H build!

While H4H fed our bellies, St. Brigid Catholic Church fed our souls while in Tahlequah.  It is a beautiful little church with a stunning stained glass sacred heart filling the wall behind the alter.  Outdoors, their property has a pond with a beautiful statue of Virgin Mary.  

Our big excursion from Tahlequah took us to Natural Falls State Park, which was about an hour northeast.  There, we hiked a few of the trails.  Dripping Springs Trail was fun, as a scene from “Where the Red Fern Grows” was filmed there.  It is an absolutely beautiful spot! 

“Ghost Coon Trail”, being named after the big coon chase scene from near the end of the movie, was another nice hike.  I’m not sure how Fox Den Trail got its name, but although the trail was a little difficult to follow, it was another pretty one!

We left Tahlequah inspired to do more H4H builds.  Currently, we don’t have one on the schedule, but we sure hope to eventually find many more to help with.  John was another camper on the build with us.  John and his wife had worked on many H4H builds over the years.  Although John lost his wife a few years ago to Alzheimer’s, John continues to build.  This was the 57th build he has helped with.  This 85-year-old man has 13 builds scheduled for this year alone!  Now that’s inspiring!  I can only hope I have the skill, energy and knowledge John has when I’m his age!

God is good and this world is filled with wonderful people!


Up Next:  Kansas City and Des Moines




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