Values that Continue to Shine
by Rachel Jackson
Osiyo, nigada! Osi yigawolihisdi. Dagwadoa Rachel Jackson. Tsijalagi. Anigaduwa.
Hello everyone in High Plains Radio land. I hope it is a good day for you all wherever you are and whoever you are. My name is Rachel Jackson. I'm a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. I live in Oklahoma City in the beautiful cross timbers of the Southern Plains. At one time Indian Territory, Oklahoma is now home to 39 tribal nations, many of whom inhabited these lands long before any of us.
Wadoooo to our relatives for sharing it with us today.
It's a joy and a privilege to talk with you a little about one of Oklahoma's most provocative personalities and indeed one of the nation's most prominent celebrities and statesmen during the 19-teens, 20s, and 30s. My own distant and dearly beloved cousin, Will Rogers. Will was born on a Cherokee ranch near Chelsea, Oklahoma. Route 66 runs right through it.
As a young man, Will famously got his start in Wild West shows and then went on to vaudeville, billed as the Cherokee Kid. Joseph Carter's wonderful book, Never Met a Man I Didn't Like, The Life and Times of Will Rogers, gives readers an engaging and entertaining look at a man whose values, insights, and wisdom united Americans in desperate times.
Will was omnipresent in the media of his day, in movies, newspapers, and radio. He was an avid world traveler, too, and from a young age. He also was an early adopter of airplane travel which was, you know, quite risky at the time. And this made him physically omnipresent as well.
He traveled the country and globe, visiting political leaders and entertaining live audiences, writing his observations and opinions for American readers all the while. I can't help but think it's important to consider Roger's Cherokee upbringing, our tribal nation's cultural values, and the ways these values influenced his words both to the public and to the politicians.
Will's down-home dialect, an often-self-effacing humor helped to soften the hard-hitting observations and criticisms he was communicating. All the while Will was making jokes, he was calling for greater equity between the rich and the poor, greater parity between crops and prices, and economic fairness and labor and wages.
Will advocated in Washington in the late 20s and early 30s, that would be the 1920s and 1930s (100 years ago) for public programs that would put unemployed people to work for the good of their communities and for a fair wage, an idea that sounds a whole lot like Roosevelt's New Deal, which came along about two years after Will passed this life.
But at the heart of his advocacy, I see the Cherokee ethic of gadugi. This is an old -- ancient, really -- and still tribally popular belief and practice. Cherokees believe that coming together to work for the good of all naturally benefits everyone in the community. Rather than working only for ourselves and our own families, Cherokee tribal towns traditionally lived and worked with the many in mind. We understand, as Will did, we're all related. So, one family’s struggles impact everyone's well-being, and therefore no one should carry burdens alone.
It's a pretty good idea, isn't it?
Thank goodness for Will Rogers who made the country laugh, think, and take action together and all at once in an otherwise troubled time in our country's history.
We can do it again, y'all.
This is Rachel for High Plains Public Radio.
Wado nigada osi. De-tsa-da-lv-quo-desdi.Thank you everyone for listening and be well out there.
