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The Winds of Change podcast is centered on the people, places, history, and stories of Wyoming. We talk about identity, community, land, change and what it means to thrive in the state. How does someone identify with wide spaces and big personalities in small towns? Listen to folks from across our state share their connection to Wyoming and home. Or others who are pining for opportunities to invite change. And still, there are many voices who welcome the challenge. Making a life here means persistence. Some families have been here for generations and stay true, heads held high, through the blustery winters. Others are newcomers making sense of the unfamiliar winds the world continually blows in.
[00:00:00] Emy Digrappa: Welcome to Winds of Change. I'm your host, Emy Digrappa. Winds of Change is brought to you by Wyoming Humanities. In this series, we are talking to Native American leaders, thinkers, and storytellers. Tellers, Join us as we celebrate the rich histories, cultures, and voices of Native Americans.
[00:00:19] In this episode, my special guest is Jhane Myers
[00:00:23] Jhane is a member of the Comanche and Blackfeet nations. She's an Emmy award-winning filmmaker, producer and artist who is recognized for her passion to preserve the culture and legacies of Native American communities. She is a traditional doll maker, a jeweler, a regalia maker, and a fashion designer.
[00:00:44] When it comes to craftsmanship, performance, family tradition, historical research and advancement of native causes, Jhane projects the complex beauty of the Native American way of life. Welcome, Jhane.
[00:00:59] Jhane Myers: Thank you. Thank you. It's my pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me.
[00:01:03] Emy Digrappa: Yes. I have so many fun, wonderful things I wanna ask of you and talk to you about.
[00:01:08] But first I wanna hear, um, where you were raised.
[00:01:12] Jhane Myers: I was raised all over kind of. I, uh, I'm originally from Oklahoma I lived like Oklahoma La Santa Fe, but I make my home now in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I've been here since 2007.
[00:01:25] Emy Digrappa: Oh, wow. Okay. did you grow up on a reservation because you have a Comanche and Blackfeet, you're, you're a member of both tribes, or you can, or you can only be one.
[00:01:35] No.
[00:01:35] Jhane Myers: you can only be enrolled in one tribe, So I'm enrolled in the Comanche Nation and, uh, there are no reservations in Oklahoma because at one time, Oklahoma was all one big reservation. Until everybody else decided they wanted this land. So we do have tribal homelands and instead of a reservation, we each got, well, not me, because I wasn't an original, uh, allottee, but let's say my great grandparents or great-great grandparents were original allottee.
[00:02:04] So they were awarded, uh, on the Comanche side, uh, 160 acres. So all of that gets passed down, you know, through lineage Which is good. So you can sell your land or you can retain your land, but your land is still under, uh, if you still have your land, then it's, you know, still under federal like kind of regulation if you, if you choose to keep it.
[00:02:26] Emy Digrappa: Oh, okay. It's called trust. Trust land. Trust land, okay. Mm-hmm. So is most of your family still in Oklahoma or have they moved around too?
[00:02:35] Jhane Myers: pretty much, I went to college in Texas, so I lived in Texas for a while. It just kind of, no, no one ever asked me that question, so kudos to you for asking me questions that make me think, so I appreciate that.
[00:02:46] no, the majority of my family, you know, is in, I guess in, uh, Oklahoma and New Mexico.
[00:02:53] Emy Digrappa: So how do you hold on to your Native American roots and culture and traditions?
[00:03:00] Jhane Myers: Because it's something that's instilled in you when you're raised, uh, in our, in our tradition. And you're, uh, you're raised traditionally.
[00:03:07] It's something that you pass on to your children. It's something that we share with other tribes, you know, because working on this Leonard Peltier project, I've been able to go to several ceremonies, you know, up in, in South Dakota, you know, Lakota ceremonies, and there was a ceremony for him when he came home, which is great.
[00:03:25] I guess it's just second nature, you know, it's part, it's part of you, so it's, it's not a chance of like holding onto it or losing it. If you're raised that way, you'll always have it.
[00:03:34] Emy Digrappa: Oh, that's beautiful. I guess my next question is, why Texas? Why did you choose to go to school in Texas?
[00:03:42] Oh my
[00:03:42] Jhane Myers: gosh. Because I looked, I, I thought I just wanna get out of Oklahoma and see more, you know, and that was the closest place. And I did go to Texas and, uh, that's how I got into the fashion industry, you know, working as, uh, an executive for different brands and different lines right after school.
[00:03:59] And, I just want to go to Texas, just. That's great.
[00:04:06] Emy Digrappa: obviously you're adventurous and you're not afraid and you wanna try new things. I think when I was reading your bio and, and thinking about the fact that you went right outta school, so your degree must have been a fashion designer or something because you went right to work for Yves St. Laurent. Was that
[00:04:22] Jhane Myers: No, no.
[00:04:23] I was studying, Fashion. Okay. You know, and then I decided, well, maybe I should go into marketing. So my degree is, you know, in marketing and merchandising. And then actually, my first job was for Ocean Pacific, which is now known as Pac Sun. But, uh, later I was able to work for Ralph Lauren.
[00:04:42] I worked for Ralph Lauren for nine years, which is kind of nice because Ralph Lauren goes full circle. But, uh, what you said about me not being afraid to do things and, and, so I'm a Plains Indian, right? I'm, uh, Comanche is Southern Plains. Blackfeet is Northern Plains. But Comanches were known to be nomadic.
[00:04:59] We were one of the first tribes to have horses. So we had a huge area, uh, we, we ranged from the Yucatan Peninsula all the way up through Idaho, so we had a huge trade route and, uh, we traveled all the time. So I always just chalk it up to, you know, part of my, you know, my blood memory, I guess being nomadic and being able to, you know, not be afraid to go in different places.
[00:05:22] Emy Digrappa: I think that's, that's so great. And I think there is, so I've been reading, um, a lot about that, about your. What's in your blood that you carry forward genetically, that your children would carry forward? And they used to have this idea that, you know, a, a child was born and they were a blank slate, but that is not true.
[00:05:40] There's so much that they carry forward, from their past and it's been just truly an interesting study And I love, I love that you got into, regalia making that's its whole other thing because marketing's one thing. But then starting on this artistry journey that you've been on, what was the first sign that you, you were gonna take that path to become an artist?
[00:06:07] Jhane Myers: I think, I think it's just something that we always. Have because like our clothing, our traditional clothing, you can't go to a store and buy it. You can't go to a mall or you can't go to a store, you can't order it online. Everything has to be handmade. So my grandmother was like phenomenal. She was a phenomenal seamstress, but she also knew how to make traditional wear, which we called traditional arts.
[00:06:29] And I started just watching her. I started watching her make moccasins. I made little moccasins for my dolls. I made little outfits for my dolls, you know, or for my stuffed animals. I mean, I think that we just. I mean, because that's how, that's how you learn. Then as I got older and I learned how to sew, it got a little better.
[00:06:47] And then when I, uh, took some fashion classes and I, of course you have to know how to sew to do that, and you're on these big, uh, industrial machines. I kind of was able to add some things to my traditional wear because I'm a competitor. I don't know if he told you that, but I compete at powwows and so I added some things.
[00:07:07] I guess fashion wise or added some little extra things because I knew how to do that, which was kind of cool. So it's a little different. You know, I kind of customized my, my own outfit, even though they are own, they are already customed. so yeah, I just started, started doing that. We learned from each other.
[00:07:23] I've been able to study in various, like the first fellowship I ever got was. To, uh, the Field Museum in Chicago. So I was able to go there and study in collections and you can just look at everything, see how it was made, touch it, feel it. How did they sew it? Was it sewed with Sinu? Was it sewed with thread?
[00:07:41] Depending on, you know, where that came from. And, I guess it just, developed and it just moved on. I had children, so then I was making things for my children. And then, you know, making their outfits and entering them. And my, my children are all competitive dancers as well.
[00:07:57] then I started entering in art shows when I, uh, I was married to a full-time artist and I had never, I made things for museums, so I never really, had to do the art show circuit. So I started doing that, which was pretty fun. And, uh, on the collaborative piece. I won best of show at the herd market, and that's pretty prestigious down in, uh, Phoenix at the Herd Museum.
[00:08:17] Emy Digrappa: What did you, what did you win best of show in, because I've read that you're a doll maker. You,
[00:08:22] Jhane Myers: so that those would go under diverse arts. They're usually not everybody has traditional art categories, so that was under a diverse art category.
[00:08:30] Emy Digrappa: Okay. Okay. I think it's so interesting.
[00:08:33] Because, yeah, I, I grew up sewing. my oldest sister is a wonderful seamstress. and she just recently sold her home in, um, Albuquerque, actually, and moved back to Colorado. 'cause my parents are in their nineties now, Deborah, she never even had to follow a pattern. She could just look at something and sew it and decide what it was gonna be.
[00:08:57] And you know, I know the Native American way, is to use the word regalia, but, um, I grew up dancing. But we always use the word costume, so
[00:09:09] Jhane Myers: Like think about Halloween, we wear costumes, right? To be something that we're not. Mm-hmm. And so when we, it's a more dignified thing because this is our traditional clothing.
[00:09:18] Mm-hmm. So it's not really a costume. You know, it's, it's your traditional clothing and all of our native things. We don't have patterns as well. You know, we just, uh, when we cut hides and square hides and, mark the grain, you know, we, we don't have patterns either. We just like, we just hand cut it and once you cut it in buck skin, if you make a mistake, that's gonna be a terrible, costly mistake because hides are really expensive.
[00:09:41] Emy Digrappa: Well,
[00:09:42] Jhane Myers: it's
[00:09:42] Emy Digrappa: gonna be a costly mistake. Yes.
[00:09:45] Jhane Myers: In don't make a mistake. Think about it before you,
[00:09:48] Emy Digrappa: yeah.
[00:09:49] Jhane Myers: Before you do it.
[00:09:50] Emy Digrappa: yeah, I think it's, I think it's so interesting 'cause Deborah used to sew all of our, um, our dresses and everything. 'cause we did traditional Mexican dance
[00:09:59] Jhane Myers: mm-hmm.
[00:09:59] Emy Digrappa: And Spanish dance.
[00:10:01] And, flamenco was my favorite. But Deborah played the castanets so beautifully, just Aw, it was fantastic. Anyway, I just love that, that you're a dancer and that you compete and what, what, what is your dance that you do?
[00:10:19] Jhane Myers: Southern buckskin, but it's called like Southern Women's Traditional.
[00:10:22] I just saw Dave, uh, weekend before last in Denver, and I won first place in Denver.
[00:10:28] Emy Digrappa: You did?
[00:10:30] Jhane Myers: Yeah. Oh my gosh. Congratulations. I was gonna show you. I have a jacket over here. I've got like my little, when you win, usually the first place winner gets a jacket to go with the prize money. So hang on, I'll grab it.
[00:10:42] It's the best aerobics possible. So see, this is, this is the, this year's jacket from Denver, March powwow. Oh my gosh. And on the front it says Denver March. champion, dancer. Champion dancer. So all the, then on the back, it has their big logo.
[00:11:00] Emy Digrappa: Oh my God. That is beautiful.
[00:11:04] Jhane Myers: That's always kind of cool for those.
[00:11:05] Excited
[00:11:06] Emy Digrappa: to see you at the powwow. Yeah, it'd be
[00:11:09] Jhane Myers: great. It'll be real exciting.
[00:11:11] Emy Digrappa: So you're also, a doll maker and it says you're a jewelry maker.
[00:11:16] Jhane Myers: Yes.
[00:11:17] Emy Digrappa: And so what, what kind of jewelry do you make and what are you, what is the traditional doll style that you are,
[00:11:23] Jhane Myers: So, the jewelry I do silversmithing, my great aunt that helped raise me, uh, was, Josephine Myers Watp, WATP, and she was a founding faculty at the Institute of American Indian Arts here in Santa Fe.
[00:11:36] So she kind of always raised me around the arts and, uh, to be in the arts, and she said, anywhere that you go, you should try to learn, some of like, whatever art, you know, that they, they do, the native people do in that region. So I took two and a half years of silversmithing at the pose center. Here in Santa Fe and I learned to silversmith, so I make, uh, bracelets.
[00:11:58] But you know, since I've been producing I don't really have much time to do that. But it was really nice to, you know, to make jewelry and to make silver work. So I just learned to, um, to do that, which was fun. And then dolls, I just make this, uh, traditional soft body dolls, you know, and sew the hair on. And then they're, dressed in little, uh, Comanche or Blackfeet outfits.
[00:12:20] I do two different kinds, but I haven't, you know, made the dolls in a while either.
[00:12:24] Emy Digrappa: Oh my gosh. Well. you've been on a, an artistic journey.
[00:12:28] Jhane Myers: very much so, and I think that's what helps me as a producer, because I can draw from all these different things. I'm kind of like a one stop shop where I don't have to just be like, oh, you know, we'll have to find who to contact.
[00:12:41] And if I do have to contact somebody, since I've worked with museums, I have everybody on my text and I just, we can be in a meeting and I'll text somebody and ask a question that we need to answer to, and I immediately get a response and people are like. How did you get an answer that quick? And I'm like, because I just texted the head curator and they said this and this, and everybody's always surprised.
[00:13:01] They're like, oh my God. Like you just texted them. I'm like, yeah,
[00:13:04] Emy Digrappa: that is great. Oh my gosh. So I wanna hear about that journey 'cause that's a whole nother journey in, um, how you got into filmmaking and film production.
[00:13:14] Jhane Myers: I initially started, uh, in a marketing department. so I worked like, well, kind of like, kind of go way back.
[00:13:21] So I guess I should say I worked for the state of Oklahoma. I worked for the governor's office for a centennial, and I was over American Indian projects for the centennial. And every time I would go meet with tribes, there are 39 tribally federally recognized tribes in Oklahoma, 39. Over a hundred casinos, may I say.
[00:13:40] So when I would go visit tribes, they would always try to hire me for their projects and I would say, I can't because I work for the state and you're my constituency. So I eventually, after the centennial planning was over, I started my. Own little thing, Jhane Meyers and Associates. And, uh, I became a private PR company, so I was, uh, engaged by many tribes to work with large companies or to, you know, help them flush out their ideas.
[00:14:05] And, um, that, that was pretty fun. So I started handling, because we have so many casinos, I had, Larry Gatlin was my first big music client. You know, I hadn't, I never had a music client before. and then my first, actual film client or movie star client was Mel Gibson. I. So I worked on Apocalypto with Mel Gibson, and I was hired by Disney.
[00:14:27] And so I, I think at the time I was probably the only Native American PR company in the United States. So anytime they had something that had native content, they always hired me. So I got to see from, you know, like when the films were finished and I got to see how people worked. I got to meet producers, directors, actors, lots of people, and I thought.
[00:14:49] Oh my gosh, this is almost kind of like what I'm doing, planning these events and doing things in pr. I bet I could do a film. So I started out doing documentaries well I worked on Apocalypto, was my first, PR project. And then I started doing, uh, associate directing and I worked on, LaDonna Harris, Indian 1 0 1.
[00:15:08] And I also did the PR for it because PR was my background and, Just went from there, you know, one project to another, to another. You may know, being Hispanic, you may know, uh, Kaaren Ochoa. K and it's two a's A-A-R-E-N Ochoa. She lives here in, and she's like a, a, a very well known, producer a woman producer because you don't see a lot of women producers.
[00:15:31] And she was my mentor. So I asked her early on, you know. I wanna be a producer. How can I do this? And I wanna be successful? She said, go to work. Just go to work, take whatever producing job they offer you. If it's line producing, if it's associate producing, if it's executive producing, if it's creative producing.
[00:15:49] So now I'm a creative producer and I prefer to do that, you know, within jobs because I've done everything else. but I, I prefer to be a creative producer, but she's an amazing mentor. And, uh, look her up if you, if you can. She's got an amazing body at work.
[00:16:02] And she's an amazing mentor.
[00:16:04] Emy Digrappa: You have just been on this road of discovery. It's been great. It's been great. Yeah, not afraid. Just try the next thing. Try a new thing. Never be bored. I think I can do this. Lemme try this.
[00:16:18] Jhane Myers: what?
[00:16:18] What
[00:16:18] Emy Digrappa: do
[00:16:18] Jhane Myers: your kids think about that?
[00:16:20] It's funny. They think I can do anything, which, you know, which is kind of cute when kids are growing up because they think, oh, you know, I mean all, all children think their parents are invincible and can do anything. But you know, now that they're adults, my children are adults now, um, they're all just like.
[00:16:36] Oh my gosh, how did you do this? And then you raised us too, and you traveled and did this and that. I mean, they were, and when I had my PR company, they came to a lot of my, um, I would have them at my events or have them, so they always knew and saw me working. So, um, they all have really good work ethics, which I'm grateful for, you know, and, um, because they always saw me working.
[00:16:58] Emy Digrappa: Isn't that true? When a mom, works and. I, I know my, my kids are grateful for that because, well, first of all, they used to gimme such a hard time because I was a working mom and I was a single mom, and so I had a list of chores that had to be done. dinner was. Every kind of quesadilla you can imagine, or It was easy, it was quick, you know, all this stuff. A pot of beans, and chili and rice, you know, that's, that's what you're eating all the time.
[00:17:29] Jhane Myers: We lived by a Luby's and I used to call Luby's my kitchen because we would just go by there and eat really quick.
[00:17:37] 'cause everybody, the girls were in Girl Scouts, you know, Philip was in basketball. I mean, everybody had schedules, right. So I was like, oh my God. And I would be working as well. So I get it. Totally. Oh,
[00:17:47] Emy Digrappa: I know, when I see moms that struggle. I know that they have to get home and their kids want a hot meal.
[00:17:57] you know, that's why fast food became a thing because you know, no matter how horrible it is, which, ugh, I would never let my kids go to fast food. They used to, they used to tease me about that. But, You know, you, you, you've gotta get something in their tummies like now.
[00:18:16] Jhane Myers: Absolutely. Absolutely.
[00:18:18] I was thinking about that because I used the word hodge hodgepodge the other day, and my kids used to say that was Friday, because we would have hodgepodge and. Uh, they could pick from the fridge, whatever they wanted to eat, and they'd warm up all these different things. They'd be eating spaghetti and something else, and, you know, I mean, just, uh, different whatever we had leftovers, you know, so, uh, they like that hodgepodge word.
[00:18:40] Emy Digrappa: So, Jhane, tell me, tell me about the film you're working on right now, the production you're doing right now.
[00:18:47] Jhane Myers: So right now we just finished, well actually we're adding a new ending to Free Leonard Peltier, the Leonard Peltier film. Okay. And so that, that was something that was really important to me because it's a story that has crossed so many generations of native people.
[00:19:02] He was the longest serving, political prisoner in the United States, and he just got a commutation from President, uh, Joe Biden. Thank you, Joe Biden. And that happened in the 11th hour. That's my new 11th hour story because Biden, Push that through 16 minutes before they have the peaceful transfer of power.
[00:19:21] When one president gives the other president the keys to the castle. That's called a peaceful transfer of power. And that paperwork for peltier got pushed through with 16 minutes to spare before that noon deadline in the East coast time. So that was, Pretty amazing. Um, I worked on that viewed at Sundance and, our premiere was the Monday after the Monday of, uh. Biden's commutation. So we basically, we already had an email ready to go to Sundance to ask them if we, because of this new thing, could we possibly add, you know, some footage on the end.
[00:19:57] And, and they said, of course. So we're probably like, we probably have the record for the latest film that has been ready for Sundance because we completed, that ending 36 hours before the, the premiere. So that was pretty, pretty busy. But when he actually, walked out of prison and because like when they have a commutation, it was, uh, another month before he could get out of prison.
[00:20:19] we had a film crew there and then I was up in North Dakota when he landed and, he went into his home for the first time in over 50 years. it's a heavy story, but it's a pretty huge story for native people.
[00:20:30] Yeah. I'm sure for decades you've seen signs and bumper stickers and everything.
[00:20:35] Free Leonard Peltier.
[00:20:36] Emy Digrappa: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So what was your inspiration to produce prey? The film that you produced in 1983? That was, was that your first film that you produced?
[00:20:46] Jhane Myers: pre wasn't in 1983. Prey was in 1919. God, now Pray was in 2022. I worked on 1883, which was, I think I was
[00:20:56] Emy Digrappa: getting your bio mixed up.
[00:20:58] I just lost a decade. Sorry.
[00:21:00] Jhane Myers: Yes. I was like, wait a minute. I've been in this longer than what I think. Oh, I, I wish I would've started film earlier, but I, I am grateful for the journey that I had because it gave me such a diverse background.
[00:21:10] Mm-hmm. Uh. Able to do the work that I'm doing now. You know, I have like a diverse, very diverse background. so Pray. Mm-hmm. Which came out in 1920. Now you got me 19, 20, 20, 22. we shot it during the pandemic. we, we started in, early 21. well actually we started in 20, I should say. Yeah. November.
[00:21:34] Yeah, like November, I think I, I got the job and we started working then, and then we, we moved, I, uh, because the borders were closed in Canada, I had to live for six and a half months up in Calgary, in Canada while the borders were closed during the pandemic. That was interesting. I've never made a film that way and probably won't unless we have another pandemic.
[00:21:54] You know, let's hope that we don't. but it, it was pretty interesting. It launched the career of Amber Mid Thunder, who now has two movies in the theaters right now. She has Opus and she has Novocaine To me it was great because we had been on lockdown because of the pandemic for a while, and I don't, um, I like to be outdoors.
[00:22:13] I don't like to be indoors. And so, it allowed me to be outside every day and to be working and shooting and putting what I know our Comanche culture and all of our Comanche nuances into a film. I wanted to make something that, um, was inspiring for young, Comanche youth. I wanted to because kids are so impressed on by what's on television or what's in the movies or, you know, they're so impressed by that.
[00:22:39] You know, I wanted to show our culture because being a Comanche, what do you think when you hear Comanche or just Google? Comanche we're fierce warriors. You know, we rode in, took what we wanted, burned everything, rode back out. You know, nobody ever really knew us as a people and the culture and how we relate to people as family.
[00:22:57] So I wanted to really show that and I wanted to show the language component because, uh, nobody realizes every tribe has their own language. So you have 562 tribes, and so it's 562 languages and you know, no one has ever heard like. In movies, I guess the real, like what our real language and what it sounds like when we're talking to each other.
[00:23:20] And um, to me that was a huge coup. You know, that's one of the beauties of being on streaming because if you can listen to it in German or French or Spanish, you know, I think you should have a option to listen to it in a tribal language.
[00:23:34] Emy Digrappa: Oh, absolutely. so Wyoming humanities worked with Disney, and I think it was around that time, not 2003, but probably more like 1983 that they created the, the Bambi in the Arapaho language. they took the Disney movie and they, um, created it in the Arapaho language.
[00:23:58] So I showed that last year at the Center for the Arts in Jackson Hole. it was great because to see, the animals talking in Arapaho was absolutely wonderful.
[00:24:12] Jhane Myers: 1994.
[00:24:13] Emy Digrappa: 1994. Okay. Yeah, I'm just making dates up, Jhane. But
[00:24:17] Jhane Myers: anyway, that's okay. But here, here's the, here's the cool thing. So when that dubbing was done, did you work on that?
[00:24:25] Emy Digrappa: No, I wasn't with the humanities at that time. Okay.
[00:24:27] Jhane Myers: so at the time, the movie had already been finished, right? Mm-hmm. So, I think Navajos did the same thing with, star Wars and with Finding Nemo, those films had already been completed. So now a new precedent has been set with prey that a brand new movie can be in the native language at the time of release. And since then, we've had others. We've had, res Ball was dubbed into on Netflix. it was dubbed, into Navajo at the time of release.
[00:24:58] If you give me a project that's already been done that's picture locked and then give me six months or whatever to do it, that's, that's easy. But to do it at the same time that you're actually, uh, doing a profil, I mean, a film is, is difficult. I mean, there I can do it easier now, but that was my first time to ever do something like that.
[00:25:18] Emy Digrappa: That's amazing. So you were actually filming. the movie in Comanche? No,
[00:25:25] Jhane Myers: we dubbed it in Comanche.
[00:25:26] Emy Digrappa: Oh, you dubbed it in Comanche. Oh, okay.
[00:25:28] Jhane Myers: Yes.
[00:25:29] Emy Digrappa: Okay. Yes, it's been dubbed. So, here's my last question 'cause I think this is really important, how are your people passing on. their language to the young people.
[00:25:40] How are the elders passing on the Comanche language?
[00:25:44] Jhane Myers: Sure. You can go to our website and we do have a Comanche language program. We have dictionaries, we have classes. Uh, we're training new speakers. I mean, as you know, as you and I are doing this, uh, there are new speakers in training. We have a, a Comanche, immersive school for our children.
[00:26:02] it's called the Comanche Nation Charter School. And actually I was a producer on, a fundraising film that we have, for the Comanche Nation Charter School. And now because of prey in my 'cause, I grew up in my Comanche homelands.
[00:26:17] In, in my homelands, like we never, you know, in our schools never talked about language or Comanche history. Now it's taught, uh, K through 12 in the Lawton, Oklahoma, county area.
[00:26:30] Emy Digrappa: Wow. So, I mean,
[00:26:32] Jhane Myers: I, I think it, it's going pretty well.
[00:26:35] Emy Digrappa: Yes. That is excellent and wonderful. Yes. So important, so important to teach the language and.
[00:26:44] I, I know the Shoshone and Arapaho people are really working on that ' a lot of the Shoshone language has been lost and the Arapaho, people are really working to preserve and teach their language and really not let the elders pass on without passing it on.
[00:27:04] Jhane Myers: Yes, the Shoshones have dictionaries at one time.
[00:27:06] Shoshones and Comanches were the same tribe. Mm-hmm. So we have the same, um, very similar language. It's Uto Aztecan, uh, based language, which also goes with the Ute tribes as well. They have similar words, but we're, we're very close. We're Sister Tribe to the, um, the Shoshones. So every year we have a Shoshone and Comanche reunion, and it bounces back from year to year.
[00:27:29] So either they go down to, uh, our Comanche homelands. And spend that long weekend or spend that week with us, or we take a group up and we, uh, spend a week there. So it kind of goes back and forth. Shoshone Comanche reunion.
[00:27:43] Emy Digrappa: Oh, that's really interesting. do you know Lynette St.
[00:27:46] Clair? Yes, I do.
[00:27:48] Jhane Myers: we haven't met, but she worked with my daughter Peon Bread because she did some language translations for, oh, a couple of films. I think one of them was American Prime Evil and another, uh, I can't remember what the, maybe outer range, because my daughter Haw was a producer on the outer range.
[00:28:06] Okay. And she worked with Lynette. So she connected us and we've like texted and briefly spoke and, uh. talked about different ways on how to do this because she was new to doing this in, like, there's, there's no like, well, well now we, we do have our ways to do it, but before, like if you're a linguist coming from a tribe, how do you know and how fast do you have to work in order to get things translated and to, you know, do things for film, right?
[00:28:30] but yeah, she was really great to meet, I mean, to talk to, and she was here in Santa Fe for a while. so she knows, uh, my daughter Haw Brad.
[00:28:40] Emy Digrappa: Okay. yeah.
[00:28:41] So I'm gonna be talking to Lynette later on, uh, in the week, which, oh, she's done some amazing work. She really has. Yes.
[00:28:49] Jhane Myers: hope I get to meet her because I think I'm coming up there. When I come up there, I get to spend a day.
[00:28:54] Emy Digrappa: So thank you so much, Jhane. I really, really appreciate your time. It's been so sure talking to you.
[00:29:00] Jhane Myers: It's been nice to talk to you.