BAIO- Beale American Indian Organization

When I returned home from Iraq in 2004 I attended a Pow Wow at Yuba College in Linda, CA. I had waited so long it seemed to attend a Pow Wow, being in Iraq and all. Actually there was a Pow Wow near where I was stationed but, I found out about it after it had already taken place. It turns out I was working during it anyways. While at the gathering in Linda, I saw several people I knew from previous gatherings and from church (Mary Roach). During the gathering there was a young woman who was being honored because she was being deployed soon to Iraq with the Air Force. In interst I went to talk to her about her future deployment and to wish her the best. It turns out that she belonged to a Native American Organization at Beale Air Force Base named BAIO. The organization had a drum named Yona Sdi Gi Da (I may get this wrong but if memory serves me right, the name is sort of slang for "Little bit of Bear" or "Little Bitty Bear") that belongs to the Honeycutt family. Le Honeycutt, BAIO's Elder, approached me and asked if I would like to join BAIO and be a part of the Drum. I immediately said yes.

I have always loved the sound of the drum and singers at Pow Wows.While serving a portion of an LDS mission in Philadelphia, MS (close to the MS Band of Choctaw Indians), I had a companion (Christopher Slack) who is Dine'. We instantly hit it off and had a mutual love of native things. He had sung with a drum group and taught me some of the songs he remembered. I loved it and ate it up. He even invited me to come out to NV (his home) and be a part of the drum group he grew up with. I was excited but never believed it would happen. Yet I still craved to drum and sing. Chris definitely helped me in making this become a reality.

Yona met almost every week at the Honeycutt's home in Lake Wildwood, CA to drum, sing and visit. When Le and Seth (Le's daughter) felt we were ready we went to Pow Wow's and drummed and sang. Actually my first time in public with the group was at the Annual Beale AFB, Native American appreciation month celebration. Yona had performed many times before I had come to the group, I am just telling the story from my point. Anikai and my daughters even came to practices sometimes and sang. They even came to a couple of Pow Wows. Those were the most fun. I even made the girls shawls for them to dance with at gatherings. We had lots of fun. I learned so much and gained great friends.

Sadly, our small but tight group started to break up. Mellisa and Jacob moved. Mellisa got married and Jacob was sent to Japan. Around late 2006, early 2007 the Honeycutt's and P.D. (Puppy Dog), moved to Oklahoma. Shortly after that Pat retired from the Air Force and moved back north east closer to home. Tawodi (Nick) came to practices when he could but always showed at the gatherings to help drum and sing. Tawodi also pursued his dream of becoming a lawyer while attending practices and gathering with Yona. That left Christine and myself to try to patch BAIO back together and get a group together that would be interested in drumming. Chris did most of the recruiting on base. A good number of people showed up to the meetings but, as always schedules conflicted and it was hard to get everyone together at the same time. In November of 2007 I moved off base and stopped attending BAIO meetings due to the little time I had already. Christine still works at Beale and lives in Wheatland and is the heart of BAIO. They are earning money in fundraisers on base and have plussed up their treasury of $5.00 that we horded for so long. Pat has become the expert drum maker and has connected more than ever to his culture. One of his recent drum he made, he gave to his brothers drum group. Their drum recently won a big contest at a gathering. I recently reconnected with Jacob on the Internet. He is still overseas and doing good. Tawodi has finished his schooling to become a lawyer. He is currently waiting to pass the Bar exam. Most of us still keep in touch through email every Friday, and the occasional telephone call.

I have been promoted to E-7 and given the position of Platoon SGT. Between family, job and the Guard, I keep very busy. I still drum and sing at home, although in odd places (the shower, bathroom, ect.).I will never forget the things I learned, friends I made or the fun I had, being a part of BAIO and Yona.

Lassen National Park

While working in Shasta County, we ended work early one day. We had been working fairly close to the Lassen National Park. I decided if we were working close enough and had the time that I wanted to visit the park and hike up to Lassen peak. From where we were working it was only about an hour drive. It was a cooler day to start with but, when we got to the trailhead it was only about 63 degrees F. Luckily I had brought a windbreaker. It was still clear and sunny and the views were beautiful. You could see most of the valleys in the surrounding valleys as far as the eye could see. In previous months in Shasta Co you could not even see a 1/4 of a mile due to the smoke from the fires. The trailhead started at a parking lot at 8,500 ft and my GPS read 10,036 ft at the peak. It was a great trip! I hope to take my family there, like many other beautiful places and maybe hike the Pacific Crest Trail through the park. If you are leaving the park and are hungry there is a great pizza place called "Gold Pan Pizza and Subs" 6 miles west of Shingletown.

IRAQ Flashback

So what's the difference between the port-a-john on the top and the ones on the bottom? Only about 7,300 miles. The top one is in the US and the bottom ones in Iraq. One late evening I decided I needed to go running. So I set off around urban Redding CA. It was about 100 degrees at 8:00 PM and dark. I was running near some road construction and all of a sudden I caught a whiff of a familiar smell. Not my favorite but, how could I forget the smell of a rotting port-a-john in sweltering heat. I could not see it but, the smell was unmistakable. You would sweat so much, and gag sometimes when you had to use the latrine in Iraq. Most soldiers who have been to combat have flashbacks of intense combat situations. Me, a port-a-john!

Mt Whitney Oct 2005

In September of 2005 my Dad and I made a trip to hike Mt. Whitney near Lone Pine, CA. We took three days. The first day we drove about 7 hours from Loomis to the Whitney portal. When we arrived we were supposed to link up with the scouts from Loomis troop 20(?). We learned they had opted not to go because there was still quite a bit of snow above 13,000 ft. Needless to say we decided to continue. We hiked from 8,000 to 10,000 ft for the night. I had just gotten over being sick the past 2 weeks and had sinus congestion. So I woke up with an amazing headache. We made it up to just above 13,000 ft and decided to turn back due to snow, lack of proper equipment and most of all my headache. While at Whitney we met a lot of people. One of them was a guy who just hiked from the Kings Canyon/ Tulare County area on the John Muir Trail (If I remember correctly). He had a small pack and a walking stick he picked up on the trail. He had no crampons or ice axe like us. He had strapped climbing rope to his boots to give him traction on the snow and ice over the passes. We returned to the parking lot late in the day and headed to Bishop to stay the night in a hotel. On the way to Bishop my 4-runner's muffler came apart making it sound like we were driving a muscle car with the power of a tortoise. We had a nice relaxing night at the hotel hot tub, nursing our sore legs from the approximate 18 mile hike and delicious meal at a local restaurant. Day three we drove home and told ourselves we would try to summit Mt. Whitney again. It was very beautiful and I have to agree with my Dad, there is something very spiritual and personal about being on top of your portion of the world. Dad reached the summit in late 2007 with some friends but, I have yet to return. This year looks to be promising with the lack of rain and snow we have been having. In the event that I do I will post my next Whitney trip. Dad, thanks for a memorable trip.

Native Ancestry

One year, when I was real young I remember getting a bow and suction cup arrow with a Sioux style feather headdress for my birthday. I also remember one of the older neighbor kids getting stuck in the eye with one of the suction cups. It's funny the things we remember.

When I was in high school I remember having a certain lack of motivation and purpose most of the time. I don't remember what year it was but my Dad talked with me one day and he asked me if I knew that we had Native American ancestry in our family. I was surprised but excited. Dad gave me an old book that he had when he was a young man. It was a book of Native American arts and crafts book by Ben C. Hunt. I occupied most of my free time and too much of the time I was supposed to be doing homework, with this book and other activities with my friends, Travis, Clint, Micah, Dave, Loren, Jason and Byron. We learned all we could with the resources we had at hand and from others about Native Americans and their culture. Our talents and knowledge grew overtime but, that is another story. Since then I have always had a big interest in any native culture.

I have not done much research to find exactly where the Native ancestral line lies on my Dad's side of the family. Good thing is, I have started working on my families genealogy. Slowly but surely. Other family members have done much more work on our family tree than I have. The word from Grandma Tiger (Medlar/Perry) is that our Native ancestry came from the Cherokee Nation.

My interest in native cultures continues still today.