Photography and Text by Terry “Travels with Terry” Zinn  t4z@aol.com

Preceding the Red Earth Festival in Oklahoma City is the informative, entertaining and thought provoking Sovereignty Symposium. Being established in 1988 the Symposium is about to celebrate its thirtieth anniversary in the historic Skiving Hotel. For two days, June 7 and 8 the most prestigious speakers from the Judicial and Native American Leaders and artist gather to share their knowledge and expertise.
The mission statement of the Sovereignty Symposium states: “The Sovereignty Symposium was established to provide a forum in which ideas concerning common legal issues can be exchanged in a scholarly, non-adversarial environment. “
Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Yvonne Kauger has coordinated the Sovereignty Symposium since its inception. About its formation Justice Kauger says, “We did it because John Doolin kept going to the National Association of Chief Justices and they have an Indian law committee, but he went three times and came back and said, “They’re never going to do anything. They talk about it, they say they’re going to
have a seminar, they say they’re going to do this. They haven’t done anything and they’re not going to do anything.” And they still haven’t.
So he said, “We’ll just do our own.”
“Governor Bellmon was very instrumental in helping us, and Ed Edmondson, and we did it. And now we’ve been doing it, and no one gets anything for doing this, they pay
their own way. We have the best legal scholars in the world and they pay their own way and they get a T-shirt for coming and our thanks.”
Of particular interest and creativity is: SIGNS, SYMBOLS AND SOUNDS, moderated by the talented, WINSTON SCAMBLER, Student of Native American Art, who has gathered for his seminar: FRITZ KIERSCH, Assistant Vice President, Point Park University, Pennsylvania; ERIC TIPPECONNIC, (Comanche), Historian, Artist, and Professor, California State University, Fullerton; JASON MURRAY, (Chickasaw), Independent Scholar & Professor, Formerly of the University of South Dakota; POTEET VICTORY, (Cherokee/Choctaw), Artist; BRENT GREENWOOD, (Ponca/Chickasaw), Artist and Musician; JOSHUA HINSON, (Chickasaw), Chickasaw Language Revitalization Program and GORDON YELLOWMAN, (Cheyenne), Peace Chief, Assistant Executive Director of Education, Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes.
Winston Scambler is the youngest moderator, as he is an upcoming senior at Heritage Hall and wise beyond his years. Scambler continues the seminar “Signs, Symbols and Sounds,” he began last year.
“I attribute my initial interest to my grandmother, Justice Kauger. She was adopted into the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribe and is called the Mother of the Red Earth Powwow.,” Scambler proclaims. “Through her Influence I’ve grown up with Native American Art and really love it.”
With the guidance of photograph Neil Chapman, Scambler educated himself in art with assistance from the archives at the Oklahoma History Center, before forming his seminars.
One of his favorite artists and speakers this year is Eric Tippeconnic. “Eric likes to talk about the symbols he uses, as it means something different to everyone. You’ll see a lot of hand prints and horses,” says Scambler. “This year he is doing something really contemporary with his series called, Briefcase Warriors.”

Other sessions with their moderators include:
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT with JAMES C. COLLARD, Director of Planning and Economic Development, Citizen Potawatomi Nation;
LAND, WIND AND WATER with PATRICK WYRICK, Justice, Oklahoma Supreme Court;
TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION: GENERATIONAL/HISTORICAL TRAUMA AND HEALING with NOMA GURICH, Vice Chief Justice, Oklahoma Supreme Court;
ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION WITH FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARIES OF THE INTERIOR FOR INDIAN AFFAIRS, with JOHN REIF, Justice, Oklahoma Supreme Court.
Since its inception in 1988, the Sovereignty Symposium has award the status of “Honored One” to unique individuals whose life time contribution to the world, the United States, the State of Oklahoma and their personal communities are without peer. Past recipients include Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman appointed to the United States Supreme Court; former Attorney General Janet Reno, Astronaut Commander John Harrington and Cherokee Chief Wilma Mankiller.
This years Honored Ones, are Former Assistant Secretaries of the Interior for Indian Affairs: Thomas W. Fredricks, Ada E. Deer, Neal McCaleb, Carl Artman and Larry Echo Hawk..
The Friend of the Court for this year goes to Kris Steele. The Ralph B. Hodges-Robert E Lavender Award for Judicial Excellence Award goes to Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Seven Taylor (Retired).
Benjamin Harjo, Jr. (Seminole & Shawnee), designed and donated the logo for the Sovereignty Symposium. The Lighthorseman depicts an Indian policeman framed in a star. In Indian Territory, the Five Civilized Tribes had a body of men, the Lighthorsemen, who served as a mounted police force. The Lighthorsemen helped the United States Army to keep peace in Indian Territory and to drive out white intruders. Considerable latitude was given to the Lighthorsemen in enforcing the judgments of the courts. Harjo has won many awards in major Native American art shows in the United States. His generosity is appreciated in designing and in donating the logo.
General Admission of $300 for both days may be found with your registration at, www.thesovereigntysymposium.com or sovereignty.symposium@oscn.net
You may want to add on to your cultural entertainment, the Red Earth Festival and Powwow June 8 and 9th at the Cox Convention Center near the Skirvin Hotel in downtown Oklahoma City The festival includes dance competitions and a high quality Native American art show and sale. https://www.redearth.org/

On Tuesday, November 7, 2017, Oklahoma City’s Brightmusic Chamber Ensemble will present its second concert of the 2017-18 season, “Masterworks for Three,” featuring chamber works by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century composers, all of whom wrote extensively in the genre. The Ensemble will present trios by Mozart, Mendelssohn and Brahms. The Mendelssohn trio is one of his most popular chamber works and is recognized as one of his greatest. The sweetly-melancholic Brahms trio commemorates the death of his mother earlier that year and was the last chamber work he would write for the next eight years. All three compositions on the program of this Jeannette Sias Memorial Concert are masterworks by three of classical music’s greatest masters. The works on the program are: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Piano Trio in G Major, K. 564 (for violin, cello and piano) Felix Mendelssohn, Piano Trio No. 1 in D Minor, op. 49 (for violin cello and piano) Johannes Brahms, Horn Trio in E-flat Major, op. 40 (for horn, violin and piano).
Brightmusic musicians performing are: Gregory Lee (violin), Meredith Blecha-Wells (cello), Kate Pritchett (horn) and Amy I-Lin Cheng (piano)
The performance will take place at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, November 7 at St. Paul’s Cathedral, 127 NW 7th Street (at Robinson). Individual concert admission is $20 per ticket. Children, students and active-duty military personnel are admitted free with ID. More information about this concert is available on Brightmusic’s website at http://www.brightmusic.org.

by Bobby Anderson,
Staff Writer

Christine Weigel, RN, arguably has one of the best nursing jobs in Oklahoma City.
Not only is she vice president of clinical services and system chief nurse officer for Community Hospital, but she recently opened the metro’s newest hospital.
Community Hospital North opened in early June and it’s already poised to be a high-volume facility patients are eager to utilize.
“I think we wanted patients to understand they are the center here and that they’ve got a nurse that is right there at the bedside,” Weigel said, taking a break from her busy schedule to offer a tour of the new facility. “We have an all-RN staff and truly all that was for the patient to be in the center of it all. That has made a huge difference in how it was designed. Everything was a touch that was easy for nursing which makes it that much easier for the patient.”
The look and the feel of the two-story facility is not only elegant but efficient. Rich wood flooring is complimented by large amounts of natural light.
“We really went for that high-tech but soft touch,” Weigel said. “We really wanted it to look more like a five-star hotel so it’s nice and comfortable. There’s a lot of high-technology and everything is integrated.”
Technology accents along the way all the way from the information screens in the front lobby to the advanced robots in the OR.
But it all blends seamlessly to give an atmosphere of a smaller, boutique hospital.
“Patients get to the point where they are already so anxious just when they come in the building so what we were trying to do is every piece of their experience was something that should be calming for them,” Weigel said. “Nothing should be frustrating. Nothing should be more tension to a patient. We want that quality of care that makes them get comfortable and feel comfortable in the environment.”
The hospital’s concierge service takes family and visitors directly to a patient’s room when it’s time. Patients are also tracked during every step of the way to allow both physicians and families to know at what stage and location they are in their procedure and recovery.
Family consultation rooms allow physicians and families to meet and discuss how a procedure went and what the next step in a patient’s recovery will be.
The patient rooms themselves are large and feature separate nooks for family members to pull out and sleep or check emails at the built-in desk. A curtain allows easy separation so family members can get sleep at night and not be woken by staff rounding.
“The patients are thrilled with the amount of room they’ve got,” Weigel said, noting each room has bedside computers for nursing.
Community Hospital’s north campus is located on the east side of the Broadway Extension, just north of Britton Rd in north Oklahoma City.
The Community Hospital north campus features 14 inpatient beds and eight operating suites, each equipped with the latest technology for orthopedic, plastic, pain management, ENT, endoscopic and general surgical procedures.
The expectation is that orthopedic and spine surgeries will account for much of the facility’s volume as well as pain management but Weigel says there is plenty of room for more general surgery.
“It’s more of a generalist type of facility even though in the past we’ve been more ortho-spine but I think it’s growing,” Weigel said. “We’re almost out of OR space already so the growth is just incredible.”
The hospital shares a license with the original 49-bed location in south Oklahoma City and Weigel said it compliments the existing facility in every way.
“The patient experience is the same. We’re very blessed with very high patient satisfaction,” Weigel said. “We’re beating Oklahoma City and we’re beating the nation. It’s not really an offshoot (location) but a world unto itself.”
Located right off of Broadway Extension, the new hospital offers easy access from north of Edmond to down south into Norman.
Weigel said some surgeons are drawing patients from as far away as Kansas. The addition of more younger surgeons specializing in shorter hospital times (one doing a total hip with a next day discharge) is already increasing word of mouth.
“The outcomes are incredible,” Weigel said. “Low to no infection rates which is huge and low complications … they’re doing a really good job.”
The hospital has recently earned several honors including a center of leadership distinction in pain control.
Weigel notes that some of the hospital’s post-operative successes can be attributed to mandatory education courses required before the patient even comes to the hospital.
“It’s all in advance,” Weigel said. “Ninety-nine percent of the time we get someone to come with them that’s going to be their caregiver so they understand the exercises and they know what the expectations are.”
The new facility is impressive but Weigel knows buildings don’t heal people.
“I don’t have to go looking for nurses or any staff,” Weigel said. “They come looking for us. We’ve got the knowledge that if we take really good care of our employees they take great care of our patients.”

by Bobby Anderson, Staff Writer

As AllianceHealth Seminole’s Chief Executive Officer, Debbie Hancock, RN, MSN has learned to always carry a set of scrubs with her just in case.
High heels, slacks and pearls are generally the order of the day but then again, like every nurse knows, things tend to hit the fan when you least expect it.
But it’s not a big deal for the 17-year nursing veteran who feels as comfortable in the boardroom as she does in the emergency room.
“It’s a smaller hospital than the one I came from … and there’s really a family atmosphere. Most of the people that work here have worked here forever and that’s dedication right there,” Hancock said. “They want to work here. They want to be here.”
“The people here just make it,” Hancock continued. “They’re proud of their hospital. They’re proud of their community. They could go anywhere but they choose to be here.”
Hancock has served the Seminole population as AllianceHealth Chief Nursing Executive for more than half a year.
She came from a similar role in Texas at Hill Regional Hospital.
Looking to make a move to get closer to her grandchildren, Hancock was able to move from a seven-hour-drive to her grandkids in Wichita, Kansas to just three hours.
WEARING LOTS OF HATS
The experience of a rural hospital is a new one for Hancock, who leads a facility licensed for 32 beds. Her last hospital in Texas had more than a 130-bed capacity.
“With it there’s more challenges here because you wear more hats. You’re responsible for more because you don’t have the people,” says Hancock, who’s worked a couple days each week on the floor for the past few weeks.
On given days, Hancock has found herself serving as the emergency room director or the medical-surgical director.
There’s no flex pool or staffing office to call up when someone is sick.
And the small town of Seminole isn’t one that’s attracting a lot of medical professionals.
“We try to breed them from within,” said Hancock, whose hospital sits a stone’s throw away from Seminole State College. “You have to have people with a different mindset.”
That means showing people that they have ownership of the hospital and their individual unit. After all, they are there to make a difference and stepping up to a leadership role can often be the best and fastest way to improve outcomes.
So far, Hancock has been amazed by staff that have shared leadership roles among them.
“In a bigger hospital you have so many other people you can lean on to take care of things,” Hancock said. “Here you have to lean on nurses that you have.”
That’s why, on occasion, she ditches her desk, puts on her scrubs and hits the floor.
“I see what they’re going through and the struggles that they do have,” Hancock said. “When they tell me we can’t do that … when I work down there with them I find out why.”
THE VISION AHEAD
The wheels are already in motion at AllianceHealth Seminole, which is working to expand offerings.
“I want to see it grow. We have new programs, a sleep lab that’s opening and we’re working on chest pain accreditation,” Hancock said.
February is the expected chest pain accreditation timeline. Soon after the hospital will pursue stroke certification.
“All of AllianceHealth is working towards the same goals and initiatives,” Hancock explained. “It’s important for us to be able to meet our goals. It makes it easier on our nurses when we transfer. When we have the same chest pain and stroke protocols it’s an easy transfer.”
“I just want to see us grow and get the people in place that need to be here.”
She has a feeling most of the pieces are already in place. A couple more hires and she expects a full staff.
Mentoring and moving up within are the order of the day as is Hancock’s willingness to accept suggestions from staff.
“Our goals are the same, it’s just how we get there,” Hancock said. “We’re excited. Good things are happening here.”
AllianceHealth Seminole currently serves more than 30,000 residents in Seminole County and the surrounding area. Seminole is a licensed acute care hospital with two large operating suites, one endoscopy suite, one post anesthesia recovery room, and 32 private rooms. AllianceHealth Seminole began serving the community in October 2007.

Local produce abounds at markets

by Bobby Anderson
Staff Writer

It’s a late summer Thursday afternoon at the Farmer’s Market at Central Park in Moore and Dale Roath is defending his honor.
“Is the old boy from Dibble still lying to us?” a customer playfully teases as he walks up to inspect Roath’s vegetable stand.
“He’s hoarding all those tomatoes,” fellow vender Jerry Smith calls out from the next booth.
“Don’t listen to this guy here,” Roath shoots back.
It’s all part of the summertime fun that goes with the farmer’s market.
“I think it’s important to buy local,” Roath said, counting out change from a cucumber sale with the man who had supplied the earlier ribbing. “You get stuff fresh, right out of the garden. Lot of times you go down to the grocery store and you get stuff that’s been shipped from all over the country and a lot of times it’s not the quality you get down here.”
Everything on Roath’s table was planted from seed and raised by him and his wife.
Roath taught science, social studies, coached and was a principal during his 34 years at Dibble Public Schools.
He says the market is a great hobby and truth be known he gives as much ribbing as he gets from vendors and customers who see the value in shopping local.
Next to Roath, Smith is tending to his novelty plants.
“I’ve been doing this so long I had to do something to make some money,” Smith explains of his assortment. “If I sell the same thing everybody else does I can’t sell this time of year. I’ve got something I can sell year-round.
“My stuff is unusual – shrimp plants and plants from all over the world,” Smith said.
Miniature pepper plants, African milk trees – all grown in one of three greenhouses on his five acres.
Smith lives by Lake Thunderbird and says there’s something that just draws people to markets like these.
“The people mostly. I feel it’s like a family out here,” Smith said of the reason he keeps coming back. “It’s something that’s local that brings people out.”
The market runs this year until Sept. 2.
Central Park Special Events Coordinator Teresa Smith says the market tries to stay flexible and affordable to attract local vendors. Rental for a space under the Farmer’s Market Pavilion is just $15 and a discount is given for those who want to pay in advance.
Bathrooms are a stone’s throw away and customers can pull their cars up to within just feet of the vendors.
The pavilion is next to a newly constructed aquatic center that draws hundreds of families daily. Most agree that doesn’t hurt either.
Roath has been coming to the Moore Farmer’s Market for six years. A regular at the Bethany market until it closed, Roath was looking for a good place to land to showcase his wares.
“I’ve really liked it,” Roath said. “I live 35 miles out but it’s easy to get to. It’s a nice facility with this canopy and you don’t have to set up a tent in a parking lot like we did over there. The bathrooms are right here and people can pull right up to the front.
“Over the last six years I’ve met a lot of people and I have the same customers that come back over the last five years.”
A few booths down Bob Sirpless is handing out free tastings from his local Legends Vineyard and Winery.
It’s his second year at Moore.
“It’s value-added,” Sirpless said. “We grown our own grapes and put it into wine. We also do the Norman market and we have some good sales here. It’s not too long and it’s not like going to one of the other shows and spending the whole day driving.”
Like Roath, Sirpless makes the drive on Thursday afternoons and Saturday mornings.
Moore Assistant City Manager Todd Jenson says the city has offered a farmer’s market for 12 years and it’s become a vital part of the community as it’s passed through six different locations.
“It’s very important. It adds to the quality of life,” Jenson said. “It’s one more event where people get out and meet their neighbors and meet new people.
“Each vendor has its own loyal customers and if they don’t they’ll develop it over time. This is (the farmer’s market’s) home.”
Home’s a good word.
“The people are friendly up here,” Roath said. “I don’t have any problem with competition. Everybody tries to get along and nobody is trying to cut each other’s throat like some markets I’ve seen.”

January typically begins with the best of intentions. Shed a few pounds. Hit the gym religiously. Sound familiar?
But while many make resolutions, most fail to follow through, with fewer than one in 10 achieving their goals. The key to being one of those who succeeds, says Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation President Stephen Prescott, M.D., is to make goals that are both reasonable and quantifiable.
“People often say, ‘I want to lose 25 pounds,’ or ‘I want to eat better.’ Those are both laudable aims,” said Prescott. “The problem is, one is awfully ambitious, and the other is almost terminally vague.”
If you overreach with your goals—like trying to drop 25 pounds—an early misstep or bump in the road can derail you quickly. “Then the task will feel impossible, and the natural reaction is to give up,” said Prescott.
For a better shot at a healthy 2017, he suggests mapping out smaller, achievable goals to get the ball rolling.
So instead of pledging to lose 25 pounds, said Prescott, set a goal to lose two pounds in January. “When you succeed, you’ll feel great and have the motivation to keep going with two more pounds in February, then March and so on,” he said. “After 12 months, you could end up dropping those 25 pounds by tackling the goal in increments. Short-term markers can translate to long-term success.”
When it comes to improving your diet, Prescott suggests a similar approach.
Start with a specific, manageable goal, like giving up sugary drinks for a month. If you achieve this, then build on it in February by also pledging to add a green vegetable to your plate every day. Over time, these small adjustments can lead to big changes.
For the best chance of success, Prescott recommends taking on a single resolution at a time. It’s a lesson he learned from personal experience.
“When I resolved to lose weight and improve my fitness level a few years ago, I found it was really difficult to exercise while I was also dieting,” said Prescott. “It worked much better when I shifted my focus to losing weight alone. Then, after I dropped 15 pounds, I got serious about fitness.”
“You only have so much willpower and self-discipline, so don’t stretch yourself too thin,” he said. “Choose the resolution that is most important to you and focus on that one.”