WEBVTT

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(engaging music)

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- You never knew what you were gonna face.

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You were with a bunch of women that could handle anything.

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- This whole concept of having women

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was rather taboo to this local area.

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The society here heavily depends

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on the menfolk in having the jobs.

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(chainsaw buzzes)

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- I worked with the Helitack and

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that\'s part of the air operations department.

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We did have the helicopter going up and we had

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two fatalities: the pilot and one of our crew members.

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(engaging music)

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- The wildfires in the west, at least 30 major wildfires

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are burning including a 6,000 acre fire

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in Arizona\'s Fort Apache Reservation.

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- There\'s no way you can stop that fire

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\'cause it was really running like crazy.

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- [Patricia] The wind was so strong.

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I don\'t how many miles per hour it was.

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It just went down and our vehicles shook.

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- We ran into a couple of crews from Montana

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and they go: man we hear a lot of stuff about how just

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nothing but ladies can outwork some of these men

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and we\'re like yeah, pretty much can.

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- We bypass everybody on that crew, up that mountain,

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down, back up, and then we got there everybody

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was asking who are you, who are you,

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and we\'re like White Mountain Apache, Apache 8.

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Thank you very much.

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- [Presenter] Major funding for Apache 8

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was provided by Native American Public Telecommunications

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through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

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Additional funding was provided

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by the French American Charitable Trust,

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Hanson Film Institute of the University of Arizona,

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and the National Geographic All Roads Film Project.

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(fire burns)

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(dramatic engaging music)

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- [Tom Brokaw] Some encouraging reports tonight

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from the western wildfire zone.

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Firefighters say they are gaining ground

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on the giant Show Low fire in Arizona

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thanks in part to a remarkable team of firefighters.

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- [Chip Reid] A phone call in the middle of the night

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is routine for 51 year old Cheryl Bones.

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Since 1976, Bones has been crew boss for Apache number eight

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and that means travel, often for weeks at a time,

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21 days without a break, 90 hours a week on the line.

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They have a reputation for killing the toughest of fire.

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By reservation standards where jobs

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are scarce the pay is good.

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- We went off and we left our families behind.

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I had three kids that I left behind: five,

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two, and one years old when I started.

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That was pretty tough.

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- [Chip Reid] Chip Reid, NBC News, Show Low, Arizona.

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(dramatic music)

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- [Cheryl] You never knew what you were gonna face.

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You were with a bunch of women that could handle anything.

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- My people respect me because I\'m putting my life

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on the line to protect what is ours,

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the beauty of the reservation.

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(inspiring music)

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- [Robert] When they first started they were probably

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the only all-women\'s firefighting crew that was out there.

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This all-male firefighting camp would be becoming organized,

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the camp setting up, then all of a sudden, there\'s

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these ladies that come into camp

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and everybody\'s wondering exactly what\'s going on here.

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All heads would turn.

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- We ran into a couple crews from Montana and they go: man

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we hear a lot of stuff about how just nothing but ladies

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can outwork some of these men,

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and we\'re like yeah, pretty much can.

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- Their original title was Apache 6.

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In 74 or 75 they were looking for dependable individuals

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and they found out that they women were

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very dependable over the men crews that they had.

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The gentleman who thought about pulling together

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a woman\'s firefighting crew, he went ahead and took

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that thought over to the Tribal Council.

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- It was an uphill battle.

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The public was not open to women firefighters.

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We had to fight for the right to fight fires.

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I mean as women.

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Since I was like outspoken and really aggressive

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they made me the Apache 6 crew leader.

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We did not know if they were going to even issue

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us the proper equipment, like yeah right,

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I don\'t think so attitude, you know?

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- This whole concept of having women was

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rather taboo to this local area.

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The society here heavily depends on the menfolk

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in having the jobs, could have really presented

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a potential issue of strife between the men and women,

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but it turned out totally different.

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From what I could tell the women were

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fully accepted as a firefighting crew.

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They were basically segregated from the men.

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The men had their own crews

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and the women had their own crew.

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They recognize they\'re out there competing

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in a man\'s world and they actually can come back

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and say they\'ve outperformed the men.

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- The Summer of 74 I think it was my sister came up

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and said you know what there are ladies working

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at being a firefighter, you should go up there and join up

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and I said okay, I\'ll give it a try.

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(uptempo music)

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- I felt sort of like scared knowing that the job

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that she had, was gonna be getting into was dangerous

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and that is was a lot of work,

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and hard work that she was getting herself into

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and I think we got real good teaching from my mom

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that when we were little kids, she made sure

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that we all got up early and that we did our chores

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and we did everything we were supposed

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to do before we went out and played.

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And today you see her work, you know she\'s still doing it.

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(inspiring music)

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(people chatter)

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- Our supervisor in force development came up to me

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and says, well get ready to take on Apache 6 crew

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and I said me, and he goes yeah, I think you\'re qualified,

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you had the training, the experience,

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then I said, okay I\'ll give it a try.

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And so 1981 I took over the Apache 6 women\'s crew

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to be squad boss of 45 ladies, but it was just still

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the same crew, but we just changed the name to Apache 8.

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So from there Apache 8, the all-women\'s crew was formed.

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We did the same thing the male firefighters are doing,

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working all day long, in the smoke, in the heat,

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in the rain, in the snow, climbing up ridges,

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climbing on ridges, chasing after hot spots.

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I think to become a firefighter that you have to take

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a look at yourself first and see can I do this job.

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I heard it\'s a very hard job.

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Can I go out there 10 to 12, 14 hours a day

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and be in the smoke, which was very hard.

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Can I really do it?

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(engaging music)

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- When I was about 21 years old I already had two children

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and I went to the local trading store just down the street

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from us, I saw some women dressed in forestry clothing

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and I said well what exactly do you do?

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And they told me: we\'re firefighters.

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That winter when they were signing up I went down there

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and I asked if I could join and Chris Lyle

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was the director at the time of forestry

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and he told me, he said you know, with all the equipment

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on you, once you get all the equipment on you,

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he said that equipment\'s gonna weigh more than you,

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and he said you\'re too small, you\'re too thin,

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you can\'t do it, you won\'t be able to handle the job.

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You don\'t say that to me.

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You can\'t tell me I can\'t handle a job.

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And so when said that to me I was more determined

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than ever to go work for Apache 8.

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I worked for forestry from the time that my daughter

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was only one years old until she was about seven years old

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and the reason I know that is because her birthday is

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in July and I was at her very first birthday party

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and after that I never made another birthday

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until she was seven years old.

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(smoke whirs)

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So here we are working and on the middle of the day

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we got this fire call, we grabbed all our tools

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and we were walking and the man that was leading us

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was you know, this big white man.

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And so we\'re all walking, we\'re walking, we\'re walking

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after him, he said you ladies can rest

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and we\'re like we just got here,

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what\'s there to rest about, you know, let\'s go,

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and so nobody says anything we\'re all quiet,

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we\'re very respectful, we started going again.

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We go, we probably go another mile and rests us again

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and we are like what is up with resting bit here you know,

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I thought we were supposed to be doing the fire

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and so by this time there\'s mumbling among us.

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What\'s going on?

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What\'s he doing?

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Why is that white man resting?

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You know all of us in the Apache of course

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we don\'t want him to hear what we\'re saying.

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Cheryl says all right, lets go.

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We bypassed everybody on that crew up that mountain,

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down, back up, and then when we got there,

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everybody was asking who are you, who are you?

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And we\'re like White Mountain Apache, Apache 8,

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thank you very much, get out of our way.

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We\'ve got a job to do here.

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(engaging music)

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- Apache 8, they\'ve traveled all over and been recognized

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as one of the top firefighters in the world if you will

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and they have been trained to protect

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our land here on the reservation,

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very sacred to us are these mountains,

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the rivers, the trees, the wind, the clouds.

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We are one with the land.

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(Apache chanting)

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- Our reservation is 1.6 million acres.

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We have 14,000 tribal members that live here.

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Our job is to protect our land from fires

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and we\'re on call to fight fires throughout the country.

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Do you copy, just go ahead and leave

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all the trees out in that area.

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(muffled radio chatter)

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But we go out everyday out in field and we\'ve been,

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everybody runs the saw all day long.

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And we thin out trees.

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(chainsaw whirs)

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And it\'s a seasonal job.

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(tree crunches)

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When we first started we didn\'t have any saws.

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We had double bit axe that we just cut trees.

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One day our supervisors came up with four saws

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and says okay I\'m gonna show you once,

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you guys have to catch on real fast.

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So he showed us how to take it apart, put the blade on,

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put the chain on, and how to fill up the gas and oil,

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and where the choke was and how

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to start it and how to hold it.

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(chainsaw buzzes)

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The four of us we looked at each other and say okay,

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I can do this, and we did, we all got up

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standing there really gunning the saw.

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(chainsaw buzzes)

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To tell you the truth it\'s hard work.

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- We were very disciplined we had

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to get up and be at work on time.

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You weren\'t allowed to come at 7:01 and say oh well, a.m.,

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I woke up late, there was no such thing.

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You learned that discipline, that determination

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to get things done, to get it right

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the first time and you never got

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a second chance to go back and redo a fire.

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(dramatic music)

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- During the times that they are in a state of readiness

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in between the fires they are primarily doing thinning

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and fire protection, but then they also do

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what they call wildland hazard fuel reductions.

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They\'re reducing the natural fuel oilings within the forest.

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(chainsaw buzzes)

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(tree crashes)

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(engaging lively music)

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(tools clink)

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- You know it\'s nice to get away from everything,

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come out here, work, where it\'s nice and quiet.

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I just like working outdoors and this is the only job

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I really had, besides that you know there\'s no other job

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on the reservation too, because unemployment is high

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and you know this is what I like to do, working outdoors.

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- We\'re actually waiting for a fire call so whenever we get

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called in for a fire call we just get in say

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in Cheryl\'s truck and she\'ll take us back down

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there and we\'re all ready to go into a fire.

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I started really back in 83 in that area

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and Cheryl was also my co-boss too.

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- Some of them are already dead so we just leave it.

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- There was this guy, \'cause I remember we went on a fire,

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Apache 8 ladies, and you know what Apache 8 you\'re all

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stuck up, you guys don\'t talk to anybody, you\'re just all

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in a line, and all organized and everything, and I was like

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we don\'t go to talk to guys and meet guys.

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The only thing we had on our mind was to fight fire.

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That\'s how we were trained by Cheryl.

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I kept turning \'round looking behind me

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waiting for her to yell at me,

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saying get to work, just don\'t stand there.

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She got crew boss of the year all the time

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and it\'s because she worked us.

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You know if we don\'t cut so much and do our job

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then it makes her look bad, so we had to work

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and we made her look good \'cause we were the laborers

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that she was pushing; she was like a drill sergeant.

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When she walked through that front gate in the morning

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I would look up standing back in the crew cab and just

00:16:37.100 --> 00:16:39.250
the look on her face and I said okay,

00:16:39.250 --> 00:16:41.100
we\'re not gonna have a good day tody.

00:16:43.770 --> 00:16:45.180
She was really mean.

00:16:46.560 --> 00:16:48.510
- The crews all said I was pretty tough

00:16:49.650 --> 00:16:54.150
\'cause I wanted things done right the first time.

00:16:54.150 --> 00:16:55.893
I kept my crew in line.

00:16:57.540 --> 00:17:01.830
I said okay we\'re going out as a crew, we\'re gonna act

00:17:01.830 --> 00:17:03.983
like a crew, we\'re gonna stay together,

00:17:03.983 --> 00:17:06.980
when we go eat, we go eat, when we say

00:17:06.980 --> 00:17:08.863
let\'s go to bed, everybody be in bed.

00:17:11.160 --> 00:17:13.310
I know they didn\'t like it but--

00:17:13.310 --> 00:17:15.210
- If she sees there\'s a lazy bone

00:17:15.210 --> 00:17:17.210
in you she\'ll work it out of you, believe me,

00:17:17.210 --> 00:17:20.290
she\'s did that to me a lot of times and there\'s no

00:17:20.290 --> 00:17:22.880
lazy bone in me, to this day I\'m not lazy.

00:17:22.880 --> 00:17:26.640
I pull my weight and I\'m 43 and I can

00:17:26.640 --> 00:17:29.180
still work harder than these young guys

00:17:29.180 --> 00:17:30.950
and I think it was through Cheryl\'s leadership

00:17:30.950 --> 00:17:34.903
that we did get recognized even out of state, on the res,

00:17:35.810 --> 00:17:38.973
off the reservation and it was through her.

00:17:50.505 --> 00:17:52.560
- All right I just wanna go over the qualifications

00:17:52.560 --> 00:17:54.450
and the requirements real quick.

00:17:54.450 --> 00:17:57.660
Again the pack test is intended for those individuals

00:17:57.660 --> 00:18:01.170
in arduous duty, you can only do a fast walk,

00:18:01.170 --> 00:18:04.020
no running, so both feet on the ground,

00:18:04.020 --> 00:18:06.810
and nothing off the ground while we\'re going through.

00:18:06.810 --> 00:18:08.170
Everybody good with that?

00:18:08.170 --> 00:18:09.003
- [Group] Yes.

00:18:09.003 --> 00:18:10.980
- Okay let\'s get your packs on and get ready.

00:18:16.680 --> 00:18:21.003
- You hold a pack, it\'s 45 pounds for 45 minutes,

00:18:21.840 --> 00:18:25.400
three miles, and you can\'t run, you have to walk,

00:18:25.400 --> 00:18:28.813
like a fast-pace, if not you\'re gonna get disqualified.

00:18:30.480 --> 00:18:33.310
You have to do your physical first and then once

00:18:33.310 --> 00:18:35.590
that\'s cleared you do your pack test

00:18:35.590 --> 00:18:37.060
and if you don\'t do any of that

00:18:37.060 --> 00:18:38.653
then you don\'t go to any fires.

00:18:42.640 --> 00:18:45.863
You only get three chances to do the pack test.

00:18:47.015 --> 00:18:49.765
(engaging music)

00:18:53.340 --> 00:18:54.690
I actually did pretty good.

00:18:59.070 --> 00:19:01.490
My first time it was working with the Apache 8

00:19:01.490 --> 00:19:06.320
for 14 days and the ladies did tell me a lot

00:19:06.320 --> 00:19:08.803
of like fire and where they\'ve all gone.

00:19:10.637 --> 00:19:13.470
(inspiring music)

00:19:22.550 --> 00:19:26.363
We got here and it was just smoldering.

00:19:34.810 --> 00:19:36.670
It was struck by lightning.

00:19:36.670 --> 00:19:39.630
Usually we call \'em sleepers \'cause

00:19:39.630 --> 00:19:41.630
they pop up like a couple of days later.

00:19:44.058 --> 00:19:46.450
(engaging music)

00:19:46.450 --> 00:19:48.630
You know it could\'ve took off too

00:19:48.630 --> 00:19:50.683
because of the winds but it didn\'t.

00:19:53.890 --> 00:19:57.890
Once we complete everything they call into dispatch.

00:19:57.890 --> 00:20:00.960
They\'ll bring more water but this time

00:20:00.960 --> 00:20:04.610
it was just only us, they didn\'t need anybody else.

00:20:04.610 --> 00:20:06.410
- It seems that everything is out so

00:20:07.530 --> 00:20:10.773
we\'re ready to call it in and go to another fire.

00:20:11.830 --> 00:20:15.310
- And we have handed some of the tools, modern tools,

00:20:15.310 --> 00:20:18.040
to the women, and then can swing the hacksaw

00:20:18.040 --> 00:20:21.410
just as well as any strong man could,

00:20:21.410 --> 00:20:24.130
and they can climb the highest mountain,

00:20:24.130 --> 00:20:26.530
and carry the heaviest burden on their back

00:20:26.530 --> 00:20:30.370
and still put out the fire, and we\'re so proud of them,

00:20:30.370 --> 00:20:32.120
and we have recognition because of that

00:20:32.120 --> 00:20:34.796
in this modern day of firefighters.

00:20:34.796 --> 00:20:37.290
(inspiring music)

00:20:37.290 --> 00:20:39.930
And our people, White Mountain Apache tribe,

00:20:39.930 --> 00:20:44.090
our lady folks, young ones, just take natural to it.

00:20:44.090 --> 00:20:49.090
Look what surrounds us, trees, forests, mountains,

00:20:49.420 --> 00:20:54.420
rivers, lakes, we don\'t wanna lose any of that.

00:20:54.839 --> 00:20:57.080
This is a beautiful country, God\'s country

00:20:58.060 --> 00:21:01.500
and that\'s where our firefighters come from.

00:21:01.500 --> 00:21:04.860
- And I know for these ladies they didn\'t think about

00:21:04.860 --> 00:21:09.860
the hot fire or the miles they had to walk up

00:21:09.940 --> 00:21:12.770
on that mountain to get to that fire.

00:21:12.770 --> 00:21:16.980
Us Apache women, you know we do a lot, we take a lot

00:21:16.980 --> 00:21:21.130
and we\'re very strong, strong spiritually,

00:21:21.130 --> 00:21:26.130
strong emotionally, and we have very unconditional love.

00:21:28.560 --> 00:21:32.830
- Everybody that is clan related, you know everybody,

00:21:32.830 --> 00:21:34.550
they\'re all part of my family.

00:21:34.550 --> 00:21:38.490
If anything should happen, we\'ll all get together,

00:21:38.490 --> 00:21:41.910
we all support each other, when I need them,

00:21:41.910 --> 00:21:46.184
they\'re there for me, we\'re very, very close.

00:21:46.184 --> 00:21:48.851
(festive music)

00:21:51.650 --> 00:21:56.200
- A lot of the older Apache families have big families.

00:21:56.200 --> 00:22:01.200
My mom and my dad had 11 girls.

00:22:01.540 --> 00:22:06.240
When I was a little girl we didn\'t have running water.

00:22:06.240 --> 00:22:08.270
We didn\'t have electricity.

00:22:08.270 --> 00:22:10.900
We were raised in a three room house,

00:22:10.900 --> 00:22:14.080
not three bedroom, three room house.

00:22:14.080 --> 00:22:17.390
My dad, he never said oh my gosh I have 11 girls

00:22:17.390 --> 00:22:19.200
what the hell am I gonna do, you know?

00:22:19.200 --> 00:22:20.815
And he never said that.

00:22:20.815 --> 00:22:24.530
He was just like all right I have 11 girls you guys are

00:22:24.530 --> 00:22:28.090
gonna learn how to hunt, you guys will learn how to fish,

00:22:28.090 --> 00:22:31.490
you will go camping, I spoke nothing but Apache.

00:22:31.490 --> 00:22:33.160
I was a wild Apache.

00:22:33.160 --> 00:22:36.880
I mean if my dad wanted a boy I was a boy that he never had.

00:22:36.880 --> 00:22:39.750
I get up early in the morning, I\'m only six, seven years old

00:22:39.750 --> 00:22:42.690
and off I go, my mom would be so mad because she didn\'t know

00:22:42.690 --> 00:22:44.480
where I was, I\'m off riding a horse,

00:22:44.480 --> 00:22:47.500
I\'m off crossing the river all by myself.

00:22:47.500 --> 00:22:50.240
My dad was like let her be, let her be, you know,

00:22:50.240 --> 00:22:53.400
and because my dad had been off the reservation

00:22:53.400 --> 00:22:56.530
he would come back and he would say it is

00:22:56.530 --> 00:23:00.860
so important you learn to speak English.

00:23:00.860 --> 00:23:03.790
It\'s good that guys can speak Apache but you\'ve got

00:23:03.790 --> 00:23:06.690
to learn English, you have to got to get an education.

00:23:06.690 --> 00:23:09.173
You\'ve got to be able to walk in both worlds.

00:23:15.540 --> 00:23:19.280
Back then different churches were coming on the reservation.

00:23:19.280 --> 00:23:21.420
One of the churches that came on the reservation

00:23:21.420 --> 00:23:23.480
was the LDS Church, the Church

00:23:23.480 --> 00:23:26.073
of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the Mormons.

00:23:27.173 --> 00:23:29.923
(engaging music)

00:23:30.770 --> 00:23:33.180
All us girls, when we turned eight years old,

00:23:33.180 --> 00:23:36.290
not only were we baptized but that summer

00:23:36.290 --> 00:23:40.090
this big old bus came into town and off we went.

00:23:40.090 --> 00:23:43.660
Some went to Utah, some went to Colorado,

00:23:43.660 --> 00:23:47.350
some went to California, and we were given to other

00:23:47.350 --> 00:23:50.140
white people, LDS people, and then

00:23:50.140 --> 00:23:53.250
there we were supposed to go to school.

00:23:53.250 --> 00:23:55.976
So I was all excited, I\'m gonna go, I\'m gonna go!

00:23:55.976 --> 00:24:00.770
And then I realized, it dawned on me, I\'m eight years old

00:24:00.770 --> 00:24:05.450
and I\'m going on this bus, and I\'m going to go to California

00:24:05.450 --> 00:24:08.490
and I\'m going to live with a family I don\'t even know,

00:24:08.490 --> 00:24:12.373
and what, and then I changed my mind.

00:24:13.986 --> 00:24:16.050
I was like: no, I don\'t want to go

00:24:16.050 --> 00:24:18.240
and I was promising all sorts of things.

00:24:18.240 --> 00:24:19.410
I promise I\'ll be good.

00:24:19.410 --> 00:24:20.780
I promise I won\'t run away.

00:24:20.780 --> 00:24:22.610
I promise I won\'t cross the river.

00:24:22.610 --> 00:24:24.560
I\'ll haul the water; I\'ll chop the wood.

00:24:24.560 --> 00:24:25.990
I\'ll do all these things.

00:24:25.990 --> 00:24:28.853
Just don\'t send me, dad, don\'t send me.

00:24:30.240 --> 00:24:33.573
He said, Katy, you are my wild one,

00:24:35.820 --> 00:24:39.030
he said nobody can break you, he said I need you

00:24:39.030 --> 00:24:41.310
to go because I need you to learn.

00:24:41.310 --> 00:24:43.660
He said I need you to speak English.

00:24:43.660 --> 00:24:47.690
I need you to come back here and be the voice of the people.

00:24:47.690 --> 00:24:50.550
You get on that bus and you will not cry

00:24:50.550 --> 00:24:52.100
and you will not cause a scene.

00:24:53.130 --> 00:24:55.990
When I got to California I tried to run away.

00:24:55.990 --> 00:24:58.640
They took us to the LDS Temple, the Oakland Temple,

00:24:58.640 --> 00:25:01.200
and I ran away in the temple until they found me

00:25:01.200 --> 00:25:04.350
and then they dragged me to my foster family.

00:25:04.350 --> 00:25:06.360
They are the family I lived with from the time

00:25:06.360 --> 00:25:08.700
I was eight years old until the time

00:25:08.700 --> 00:25:10.610
I graduated from high school.

00:25:10.610 --> 00:25:13.690
(engaging music)

00:25:13.690 --> 00:25:16.720
When my daughter turned eight years old I cried,

00:25:16.720 --> 00:25:18.930
I was like oh my God, I could not do that,

00:25:18.930 --> 00:25:21.860
I could not do that, the strength and the courage

00:25:21.860 --> 00:25:25.200
it took for my mom and dad, especially my dad,

00:25:25.200 --> 00:25:28.310
to foresee that the education was

00:25:28.310 --> 00:25:32.178
that important, I had to get an education.

00:25:32.178 --> 00:25:35.682
(engaging music)

00:25:35.682 --> 00:25:38.599
(helicopter whirs)

00:25:42.250 --> 00:25:45.930
- The wildfires in the west, at least 30 major wildfires

00:25:45.930 --> 00:25:48.650
are burning, including a 6,000 acre fire

00:25:48.650 --> 00:25:51.631
in Arizona\'s Fort Apache Reservation.

00:25:51.631 --> 00:25:54.088
(dramatic music)

00:25:54.088 --> 00:25:56.130
- There is no way you can stop that fire

00:25:56.130 --> 00:25:57.760
\'cause it was really running like crazy

00:25:57.760 --> 00:26:00.160
and the fire was ahead of us up there.

00:26:00.160 --> 00:26:04.480
Somehow that fire turned around, it came back at us

00:26:04.480 --> 00:26:07.530
and it\'s like you guys get out of there.

00:26:07.530 --> 00:26:10.490
And I mean we were just running like crazy.

00:26:10.490 --> 00:26:12.950
Some of us were like falling down that hill.

00:26:12.950 --> 00:26:15.987
Some of us were sliding down.

00:26:15.987 --> 00:26:18.280
You could hear that fire coming down that hill

00:26:18.280 --> 00:26:21.287
and you could hear the houses blowing up

00:26:21.287 --> 00:26:24.260
and it sounded like a freight train coming.

00:26:24.260 --> 00:26:26.510
- [Katy] The wind was so strong I don\'t know how many

00:26:26.510 --> 00:26:29.840
miles per hour it was, it just went down

00:26:29.840 --> 00:26:33.727
and our vehicles shook, that was something, oh.

00:26:35.656 --> 00:26:37.980
- And then after that fire started, I think it was two

00:26:37.980 --> 00:26:41.620
to three days later another fire was started by another

00:26:41.620 --> 00:26:44.752
individual and with the fuel conditions, the location

00:26:44.752 --> 00:26:49.663
of the fire, it was just non-stoppable.

00:26:50.530 --> 00:26:52.290
If you just follow the pencil line

00:26:55.575 --> 00:26:57.690
and it went all the way north, that\'s the portion

00:26:57.690 --> 00:27:00.830
of the fire that actually burnt on the reservation

00:27:00.830 --> 00:27:04.200
and as far as a lot of the Fort Apache crews

00:27:04.200 --> 00:27:07.260
along with the Apache 8 personnel, a lot of us were

00:27:07.260 --> 00:27:11.097
working on the western side of the Rodeo Fire

00:27:11.097 --> 00:27:13.430
and those were local resources.

00:27:13.430 --> 00:27:17.450
- We have lost half of the reservation and it was

00:27:17.450 --> 00:27:21.430
just sad to lose all of that timber and everything,

00:27:21.430 --> 00:27:26.240
and all the wild animals, it was pretty too in that area.

00:27:26.240 --> 00:27:29.230
- A lot of people were just hurt by what happened

00:27:30.180 --> 00:27:34.713
and we all try to come back together and move on.

00:27:35.810 --> 00:27:39.510
That\'s why here on this eastern part of our reservation

00:27:40.490 --> 00:27:45.080
every little fire that we get on we try to take care

00:27:45.080 --> 00:27:46.525
of it right away so we will not

00:27:46.525 --> 00:27:48.723
have another Rodeo-Chedski Fire.

00:27:49.799 --> 00:27:52.382
(Apache music)

00:27:56.854 --> 00:27:59.400
- The fire burned 500,000 acres of land

00:27:59.400 --> 00:28:03.510
and destroyed over 400 homes, fortunately, do to the efforts

00:28:03.510 --> 00:28:06.940
of Apache firefighter Rick Lupe, the towns of Show Low,

00:28:06.940 --> 00:28:09.970
Pinetop, White River, and others narrowly escaped

00:28:09.970 --> 00:28:14.180
the same fate as those seared by the Rodeo-Chedski Fire.

00:28:14.180 --> 00:28:16.453
- [Katy] Rick was an Apache Hotshot.

00:28:17.943 --> 00:28:19.900
Apache Hotshots were known worldwide

00:28:19.900 --> 00:28:23.340
as the world\'s elite firefighters.

00:28:23.340 --> 00:28:26.630
He was the one that led the crew on all the fires;

00:28:26.630 --> 00:28:28.930
so he was doing the same job as Cheryl.

00:28:28.930 --> 00:28:30.280
It must run in their blood.

00:28:31.420 --> 00:28:33.453
- I was always close to my nephew Rick.

00:28:36.340 --> 00:28:39.043
I was proud when he became a wild land firefighter.

00:28:42.680 --> 00:28:47.680
In May 2003, they were doing a spring burning,

00:28:51.410 --> 00:28:54.250
that\'s when Rick got the call,

00:28:54.250 --> 00:28:56.547
and he was gonna go check that spot fire out.

00:28:58.355 --> 00:29:02.150
While we\'re still walking we heard Rick call dispatch

00:29:02.150 --> 00:29:06.557
and he says okay, I\'m hurt, and the only thing

00:29:08.110 --> 00:29:10.334
that ran through myself was oh, he must

00:29:10.334 --> 00:29:12.910
have fell, and then right in the smoke

00:29:14.000 --> 00:29:18.393
Rick came out and his face was just ashy looking,

00:29:20.070 --> 00:29:22.573
and all he said is I\'m burnt, I\'m hurt,

00:29:23.570 --> 00:29:25.703
and he says: look at my hands.

00:29:27.630 --> 00:29:29.580
- The winds were so strong that it blew away

00:29:29.580 --> 00:29:33.363
emergency shelter, Rick was burned over 40% of his body.

00:29:35.192 --> 00:29:36.923
- And he just says, oh my hands.

00:29:39.249 --> 00:29:43.666
And his whole hand was burnt, skin were hanging down.

00:29:44.667 --> 00:29:47.667
(melancholic music)

00:29:52.710 --> 00:29:57.110
- I thought he would walk out of there because after

00:29:57.110 --> 00:30:02.110
Cheryl telling me what he went through, I though if you got

00:30:02.130 --> 00:30:04.830
out of this one that he will walk out of the hospital.

00:30:06.471 --> 00:30:09.471
(melancholic music)

00:30:16.280 --> 00:30:20.583
- After Rick\'s accident, I just didn\'t wanna go out anymore.

00:30:23.550 --> 00:30:27.390
But at least a year after it happened that I finally

00:30:27.390 --> 00:30:32.390
went back and this past season I finally committed myself

00:30:36.380 --> 00:30:40.140
that okay, if this is my job I need

00:30:40.140 --> 00:30:43.934
to go back and face it, and face my--

00:30:43.934 --> 00:30:45.230
(Native American singing)

00:30:45.230 --> 00:30:46.720
- Everybody, the whole forestry, just

00:30:46.720 --> 00:30:49.490
the reservation just was affected,

00:30:49.490 --> 00:30:54.433
everybody just gave her support, firefighters worldwide.

00:30:56.870 --> 00:31:01.870
- The Apache people are a very strong people.

00:31:02.120 --> 00:31:05.453
They are are a very proud people.

00:31:06.930 --> 00:31:10.190
When there\'s an illness, when there\'s a death,

00:31:10.190 --> 00:31:14.010
you can see the families unite, friends unite,

00:31:14.010 --> 00:31:16.780
people come out of the woodwork to help

00:31:16.780 --> 00:31:19.350
out of respect because they care,

00:31:19.350 --> 00:31:20.700
because they love these people,

00:31:20.700 --> 00:31:24.660
because they\'re one of them, your me, I\'m you,

00:31:24.660 --> 00:31:28.053
that\'s the attitude that they have and you gotta love it.

00:31:30.160 --> 00:31:32.793
- We have a lot of ceremonies in our culture.

00:31:33.720 --> 00:31:36.000
One of the biggest ceremonies that is open

00:31:36.000 --> 00:31:38.200
to the public is the Sunrise Dance Ceremony.

00:31:42.090 --> 00:31:45.640
When your daughter becomes of age she goes and she tells

00:31:45.640 --> 00:31:49.530
her parents and they\'re taught that from a very young age.

00:31:49.530 --> 00:31:51.970
You know we need to know as soon as it happens.

00:31:51.970 --> 00:31:54.040
You know you gotta let us know, you gotta let us know.

00:31:54.040 --> 00:31:56.897
I mean there\'s no privacy here, okay.

00:31:56.897 --> 00:31:59.480
(Apache music)

00:32:05.105 --> 00:32:07.938
- (speaks Apache)

00:32:23.072 --> 00:32:25.138
I said what\'s going on here mom?

00:32:25.138 --> 00:32:27.630
She goes: you\'re gonna be dancing for us.

00:32:27.630 --> 00:32:29.130
And I said what kind of dance?

00:32:30.950 --> 00:32:35.550
- Through thiw ceremony this girl can be blessed

00:32:35.550 --> 00:32:40.550
with a long life so that one day she can gain wisdom,

00:32:42.450 --> 00:32:46.345
knowledge, understanding, and prayers.

00:32:46.345 --> 00:32:48.928
(Apache music)

00:32:54.628 --> 00:32:56.600
- Everybody goes, you\'re gonna be dancing

00:32:56.600 --> 00:33:00.569
and I was like, no, not me mother I told her

00:33:00.569 --> 00:33:03.300
and my aunt Dolly comes, she goes, you have to do it,

00:33:03.300 --> 00:33:06.193
you have to do it for us, you can\'t say no now.

00:33:10.720 --> 00:33:12.120
I was a student in high school then.

00:33:12.120 --> 00:33:13.523
I was an athletic type.

00:33:16.050 --> 00:33:19.453
And then here comes Bill Hess, he was an in-law to us,

00:33:20.394 --> 00:33:22.430
said there are some guys out of Washington D.C., wants

00:33:22.430 --> 00:33:25.840
to see you I said for what, he said you know your

00:33:25.840 --> 00:33:29.850
Sunrise Dance, and I say yeah, I took some pictures

00:33:29.850 --> 00:33:32.100
out there and they really like it he told me.

00:33:33.570 --> 00:33:35.530
He says all those people in National Geographic

00:33:35.530 --> 00:33:38.140
they want to see you in person and interview you

00:33:38.140 --> 00:33:42.020
in person tomorrow; so I said what I can\'t go tomorrow

00:33:42.020 --> 00:33:45.920
I got practice, I wanna play sports and I say well

00:33:47.540 --> 00:33:51.020
aunt Dolly can go, my Aunt Dolly she was there all the time

00:33:51.020 --> 00:33:54.390
she was like the most important person to me in my life.

00:33:54.390 --> 00:33:57.510
I\'m supposed to go but she said I don\'t wanna go.

00:33:57.510 --> 00:34:00.830
She said I\'m afraid of playing I don\'t want no fine.

00:34:00.830 --> 00:34:03.030
You\'re the one who that always jump in there

00:34:03.030 --> 00:34:06.220
and wanna travel, why don\'t you go with them?

00:34:06.220 --> 00:34:09.810
Oh come on, you can do it.

00:34:09.810 --> 00:34:11.570
No, I want you to go.

00:34:11.570 --> 00:34:13.590
So that\'s how I got in.

00:34:14.680 --> 00:34:18.889
- I said okay then if Aunt Dolly\'s gonna go then I\'ll go

00:34:18.889 --> 00:34:21.370
so we all took a trip to Washington D.C.

00:34:21.370 --> 00:34:26.370
So this article came about in National Geographic.

00:34:28.263 --> 00:34:30.846
(Apache music)

00:34:41.330 --> 00:34:42.620
- [Narrator] The Sunrise Dance helped prepare

00:34:42.620 --> 00:34:44.973
me for the biggest challenges in my life,

00:34:48.270 --> 00:34:49.969
like being a wildland firefighter.

00:34:51.438 --> 00:34:54.188
(engaging music)

00:35:00.319 --> 00:35:01.319
- Come here.

00:35:03.135 --> 00:35:04.556
Did your friend make it?

00:35:04.556 --> 00:35:05.405
- Yeah.

00:35:05.405 --> 00:35:08.227
- Okay, you can watch a movie in there.

00:35:08.227 --> 00:35:10.710
Okay then I\'m gonna take a shower

00:35:10.710 --> 00:35:14.753
so don\'t answer the door for anybody.

00:35:14.753 --> 00:35:15.773
- Okay.

00:35:17.050 --> 00:35:19.601
- Pick a movie, which one do you wanna watch?

00:35:19.601 --> 00:35:22.419
- I watch this movie.

00:35:22.419 --> 00:35:23.252
- That one again?

00:35:23.252 --> 00:35:24.085
- Yeah.

00:35:25.660 --> 00:35:28.943
- She\'s gonna be leaving in the morning, maybe about seven,

00:35:29.880 --> 00:35:32.733
she\'s got another assignment out in California,

00:35:34.180 --> 00:35:36.180
and where it picks up again we\'re,

00:35:36.180 --> 00:35:38.423
I\'m gonna be left home with the kids, taking care

00:35:38.423 --> 00:35:40.133
of the kids and being at work.

00:35:40.970 --> 00:35:43.230
Taking care of what needs to be done at home.

00:35:43.230 --> 00:35:45.293
Waiting for her phone calls every day.

00:35:46.420 --> 00:35:48.580
But she\'s out there to work and do

00:35:48.580 --> 00:35:49.980
what she was assigned to do.

00:35:54.540 --> 00:35:58.920
- She does really help me a lot, a lot of times,

00:35:58.920 --> 00:36:02.110
she\'s always gonna help me out even though she has never

00:36:02.110 --> 00:36:05.750
wanted to be a fire fighting or anything like that.

00:36:05.750 --> 00:36:10.700
So, it\'s like, I guess from all this years I\'ve been

00:36:10.700 --> 00:36:14.740
fighting fires, something has been going on out there

00:36:14.740 --> 00:36:17.332
and I\'d be telling her all this stuff and from there

00:36:17.332 --> 00:36:22.332
she would just know that I am doing my job out there

00:36:22.980 --> 00:36:26.583
even though she doesn\'t know about wild land firefighting.

00:36:28.800 --> 00:36:33.200
- I do what I can to help her and push her but she\'s

00:36:33.200 --> 00:36:35.840
gone this far and she still has a little bit ways

00:36:35.840 --> 00:36:39.790
to go, you know, to be a crew rep now.

00:36:39.790 --> 00:36:41.490
That\'s what we\'re looking for now.

00:36:43.030 --> 00:36:44.580
Maybe a couple of years.

00:36:44.580 --> 00:36:45.413
- Yeah.

00:36:46.398 --> 00:36:47.853
- So I guess she is my boss.

00:36:49.250 --> 00:36:51.283
- Assigning her from home.

00:36:52.340 --> 00:36:54.253
- Boss at work, boss at home.

00:36:56.550 --> 00:36:57.383
- Oh yeah.

00:36:57.383 --> 00:36:58.676
- Yep.

00:36:58.676 --> 00:36:59.710
- So.

00:36:59.710 --> 00:37:02.773
- The real boss there, like a family.

00:37:08.990 --> 00:37:11.470
- Well we\'ve been together 15 years.

00:37:11.470 --> 00:37:13.840
This past April it\'s been 15.

00:37:13.840 --> 00:37:15.120
She helped me raise my daughter.

00:37:15.120 --> 00:37:17.210
My daughter was only three at the time.

00:37:17.210 --> 00:37:18.233
We got to know her.

00:37:19.260 --> 00:37:22.400
So if anything she\'s always asking about Nata,

00:37:22.400 --> 00:37:25.530
is Nata on the fire, at least she has her,

00:37:25.530 --> 00:37:29.373
she has us, you know that\'s what\'s important to us.

00:37:30.353 --> 00:37:33.895
(lively Native American music)

00:37:33.895 --> 00:37:38.895
- I\'ve been to Oregon, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico,

00:37:40.220 --> 00:37:44.853
Mississippi, one in Texas, California, Montana.

00:37:47.620 --> 00:37:52.090
A two days road trip coming from White River, Arizona

00:37:52.090 --> 00:37:55.200
to our main heli base is Omak.

00:37:58.543 --> 00:38:01.079
(engaging music)

00:38:01.079 --> 00:38:04.690
- The Helitack is part of the air operations department

00:38:04.690 --> 00:38:08.720
and for you to go on an assignment you have

00:38:08.720 --> 00:38:11.490
to take inner-agency helicopter training.

00:38:11.490 --> 00:38:13.630
You have to take that before you

00:38:13.630 --> 00:38:16.800
can actually be a helicopter crew member.

00:38:16.800 --> 00:38:20.900
After our contract is over we go out maybe to Oregon,

00:38:20.900 --> 00:38:24.493
Montana, and we support other fires there.

00:38:25.640 --> 00:38:29.150
Working with the Helitack I know that there\'s a lot

00:38:29.150 --> 00:38:31.784
of people that want to get into that job

00:38:31.784 --> 00:38:34.341
and I guess I\'m one of the lucky ones.

00:38:34.341 --> 00:38:37.258
(helicopter whirs)

00:38:39.921 --> 00:38:42.250
- Our main concern is safety first,

00:38:42.250 --> 00:38:44.333
doing a bucket drop up on the flyer.

00:38:45.870 --> 00:38:49.730
But when he goes in to get up, to get water,

00:38:49.730 --> 00:38:51.660
there\'s this bucket that opens up,

00:38:51.660 --> 00:38:53.993
and it kind of opens up like an umbrella.

00:38:56.690 --> 00:39:00.740
- When they fly it out to wherever a division needs drops

00:39:00.740 --> 00:39:04.230
and then they\'ll let the pilot know if there\'s flare ups

00:39:04.230 --> 00:39:07.120
or anything they let people know on the ground

00:39:07.120 --> 00:39:09.913
so it\'s like they\'re the eyes in the sky they say.

00:39:12.320 --> 00:39:15.884
My husband, he worked with the Hotshots,

00:39:15.884 --> 00:39:20.530
and I started here first with the Helitack.

00:39:20.530 --> 00:39:22.800
We did have helicopter go down.

00:39:22.800 --> 00:39:25.560
And we had two fatalities, the pilot

00:39:25.560 --> 00:39:29.807
and one of our crew members, and the other two survived it.

00:39:29.807 --> 00:39:31.057
That was really hard too.

00:39:34.950 --> 00:39:38.339
- It\'s good business firefighting, I mean good money

00:39:38.339 --> 00:39:40.610
the only bad thing is just being away from your family

00:39:40.610 --> 00:39:43.383
and kids and you miss out on a lot of stuff.

00:39:44.800 --> 00:39:46.963
- It is hard being away from them.

00:39:48.710 --> 00:39:51.300
There is time when people, they ask like if I ever

00:39:51.300 --> 00:39:54.210
get tired of him, \'cause you know I work with him everyday

00:39:54.210 --> 00:39:58.470
but no I don\'t, I\'m glad that he\'s working with me.

00:39:58.470 --> 00:40:00.630
- We try to both help each other out;

00:40:00.630 --> 00:40:01.930
make our job a lot easier.

00:40:03.340 --> 00:40:04.910
- Now I\'m moving up.

00:40:04.910 --> 00:40:07.860
This season I got to be one of the first two women

00:40:07.860 --> 00:40:10.010
to ever work with the Fort Apache Hotshots.

00:40:11.386 --> 00:40:14.136
(engaging music)

00:40:21.350 --> 00:40:26.213
- My wife was on the fire, it was tough, it was tough,

00:40:27.433 --> 00:40:29.930
I had to learn just how to cook, or a lot

00:40:31.850 --> 00:40:36.850
of washing clothes, cleaning the house, and cooking,

00:40:37.860 --> 00:40:41.920
what I did with my two kids while my wife was on the fire.

00:40:41.920 --> 00:40:44.240
- Most Apache men don\'t do that.

00:40:44.240 --> 00:40:47.260
You know it really proved to me at a very young age

00:40:47.260 --> 00:40:49.520
how committed he was to our family.

00:40:49.520 --> 00:40:52.030
I look back on our life together

00:40:52.030 --> 00:40:56.000
and I think how fortunate we were to have met.

00:40:56.000 --> 00:40:59.330
I was in the Army, I had come back from Officer Training

00:40:59.330 --> 00:41:03.500
School, so there I was and I had to go back to school.

00:41:03.500 --> 00:41:08.280
I came back and the money I got paid wasn\'t enough.

00:41:08.280 --> 00:41:11.884
We had babysitters, we had to pay back what he had,

00:41:11.884 --> 00:41:14.030
we had bills we had to catch up on,

00:41:14.030 --> 00:41:15.870
we had all these things that we had to do

00:41:15.870 --> 00:41:19.790
and the one night, I told Lee, I said you know what

00:41:19.790 --> 00:41:22.820
I have to go back to school tomorrow

00:41:22.820 --> 00:41:26.020
and we have no money and what am I gonna do.

00:41:26.020 --> 00:41:30.120
And he said I\'ll be back and I\'m just gonna go think

00:41:30.120 --> 00:41:32.630
and I was like great, you know he\'s gonna go think

00:41:32.630 --> 00:41:36.240
while I need money, and I was like all right.

00:41:36.240 --> 00:41:40.560
So he left and then he came back about eight o\'clock,

00:41:40.560 --> 00:41:42.770
but he just walked in the back door,

00:41:42.770 --> 00:41:44.360
and I said: where\'s your truck?

00:41:44.360 --> 00:41:49.110
And I thought it broke down somewhere.

00:41:49.110 --> 00:41:52.860
And then he handed over all this money and he said

00:41:52.860 --> 00:41:55.970
here\'s the money for you to go back to school fund.

00:41:55.970 --> 00:42:00.970
And I said, where did you get the money?

00:42:02.947 --> 00:42:04.853
And he said, I sold my truck.

00:42:05.900 --> 00:42:08.220
That was his only ride.

00:42:08.220 --> 00:42:10.730
He would be on foot so I could

00:42:10.730 --> 00:42:13.190
go back to school with the kids.

00:42:13.190 --> 00:42:17.610
We were young and yet he knew about investing

00:42:17.610 --> 00:42:22.610
into his family, I am very proud of Lee, he grew

00:42:22.960 --> 00:42:25.993
up without a father but he\'s an excellent father.

00:42:26.830 --> 00:42:29.200
- When I come home I want to be able to implement

00:42:29.200 --> 00:42:31.290
different programs and start different things

00:42:31.290 --> 00:42:33.640
and change different things because a lot of the things

00:42:33.640 --> 00:42:38.130
that are here don\'t work and trying to change things

00:42:38.130 --> 00:42:41.040
scares everybody here, change is just like you know,

00:42:41.040 --> 00:42:44.780
taboo almost, and to work that in traditionally

00:42:44.780 --> 00:42:48.480
and to work that in you know, with just everyone

00:42:48.480 --> 00:42:50.880
here within the culture, it\'s gonna to take time

00:42:52.174 --> 00:42:53.851
and I wanna be able to know what I\'m doing

00:42:53.851 --> 00:42:55.140
and how to do it and do it right.

00:42:55.140 --> 00:42:57.320
But I still come home and I still participate

00:42:57.320 --> 00:42:59.710
in all the traditional ceremonies and I do all

00:42:59.710 --> 00:43:02.773
the different things that my parents have taught me.

00:43:03.902 --> 00:43:05.639
My aunt\'s like oh you\'re just like your mom.

00:43:05.639 --> 00:43:07.722
I was like oh maybe I am.

00:43:11.380 --> 00:43:14.770
(dramatic music)

00:43:14.770 --> 00:43:15.940
- [Presenter] Cheryl didn\'t get to see

00:43:15.940 --> 00:43:19.053
her daughter, Martha, become just like her.

00:43:19.920 --> 00:43:22.690
Martha was murdered by drug dealers

00:43:22.690 --> 00:43:24.467
who thought she was an informant.

00:43:26.870 --> 00:43:27.820
- That\'s my Martha.

00:43:38.070 --> 00:43:39.403
- I miss Martha!

00:43:42.950 --> 00:43:45.450
- So, not a single day goes by without saying

00:43:45.450 --> 00:43:49.167
her name in the morning and the evening.

00:43:53.487 --> 00:43:54.737
He are my kids.

00:43:57.860 --> 00:44:00.363
Martha was probably about an eighth grader,

00:44:04.626 --> 00:44:06.176
I remember the year, so (sobs).

00:44:09.330 --> 00:44:11.793
And everyday we try to make our house a home

00:44:13.190 --> 00:44:18.190
but we still can\'t, I guess I\'m not up to it.

00:44:19.302 --> 00:44:22.302
(melancholic music)

00:44:27.180 --> 00:44:30.040
- It had to do with meth, \'cause there\'s a lot

00:44:30.040 --> 00:44:32.340
of meth in the reservation and my son got involved

00:44:32.340 --> 00:44:36.960
and I didn\'t know that my son was into that.

00:44:36.960 --> 00:44:39.200
I had no idea.

00:44:39.200 --> 00:44:41.663
- When you see somebody doing something wrong,

00:44:42.730 --> 00:44:46.800
somebody must have you know the sense to say

00:44:46.800 --> 00:44:49.110
hey that\'s enough, we did enough already

00:44:49.110 --> 00:44:53.250
and can\'t do anymore, but their intent was just

00:44:53.250 --> 00:44:55.733
to kill her and that\'s what they did.

00:44:56.620 --> 00:44:58.970
- My son after all that, the trial,

00:44:58.970 --> 00:45:01.880
he got life with no parole and he got

00:45:01.880 --> 00:45:04.903
in at 21 and he just turned 25 in July.

00:45:05.790 --> 00:45:10.020
Cheryl and I go way back and being on fires we become

00:45:10.020 --> 00:45:12.840
families, it\'s like we all watch each other\'s back,

00:45:12.840 --> 00:45:15.210
we watch each other\'s kids, if somebody\'s out of town

00:45:15.210 --> 00:45:16.720
then you know we look after each other

00:45:16.720 --> 00:45:21.250
and I ran into Cheryl and I tried to talk to her.

00:45:21.250 --> 00:45:26.250
She\'s like no, no Dee, no, no and I told her I just

00:45:27.870 --> 00:45:30.540
wanted you to know that I\'m sorry

00:45:31.460 --> 00:45:33.570
and I\'m glad it\'s all over with,

00:45:33.570 --> 00:45:35.810
and I just wanted you to know you\'re in my prayers,

00:45:35.810 --> 00:45:38.063
your family, and especially you.

00:45:41.060 --> 00:45:44.210
- So I have a really, really complete circle grieving

00:45:44.210 --> 00:45:47.760
for Rick and then my daughter came on, so I started

00:45:47.760 --> 00:45:50.333
from the top again trying to go with a full circle.

00:45:51.520 --> 00:45:54.230
Then since I didn\'t even finish one circle

00:45:54.230 --> 00:45:56.730
and then they\'re starting another one.

00:45:56.730 --> 00:46:00.793
I said this is part of the hatred and the blame,

00:46:01.760 --> 00:46:05.010
and on this one I still stuck on the hatred and the blame

00:46:05.010 --> 00:46:07.290
that I\'m supposed to go around full circle

00:46:07.290 --> 00:46:09.593
to have my life back and complete.

00:46:13.710 --> 00:46:18.040
- In our tradition when somebody passes this is like

00:46:18.040 --> 00:46:22.290
the family will start talking, well he must have known

00:46:22.290 --> 00:46:25.704
that this was gonna happen and in our case,

00:46:25.704 --> 00:46:29.110
we feel that Martha must\'ve known something was gonna

00:46:29.110 --> 00:46:34.110
happen because she had wanted her boys to be with the dad

00:46:36.330 --> 00:46:40.033
and then for her daughter, her brain to be with Cheryl.

00:46:40.995 --> 00:46:44.078
(melodramatic music)

00:46:53.720 --> 00:46:57.230
There\'s a lot of things that\'s going on around here

00:46:57.230 --> 00:47:01.010
on the reservation; one day I was standing

00:47:01.010 --> 00:47:04.600
in a service station and I\'ve seen some people

00:47:04.600 --> 00:47:09.320
hauling out maybe like 10, 15 cases of beer

00:47:09.320 --> 00:47:12.400
and they were just talking, laughing, saying that hey

00:47:12.400 --> 00:47:17.400
down there on the res, they have bootleggers,

00:47:17.660 --> 00:47:21.010
have so many bootleggers, and about 200 or something

00:47:21.010 --> 00:47:23.253
drug dealers, and they were just making fun of it,

00:47:23.253 --> 00:47:26.960
and I felt really bad standing there, and here

00:47:26.960 --> 00:47:29.300
they were selling it, you know they were making money

00:47:29.300 --> 00:47:32.620
but then I was thinking ah, this is

00:47:32.620 --> 00:47:35.104
how they see us down there, that all of us

00:47:35.104 --> 00:47:39.283
are alcoholics, and all of us are into drugs.

00:47:41.410 --> 00:47:45.050
- I lost two sisters, my oldest one we lost her

00:47:45.050 --> 00:47:47.940
when she had just gotten accepted into a law school

00:47:47.940 --> 00:47:51.710
in New Mexico, she wss coming home and she got hit head

00:47:51.710 --> 00:47:55.170
on by a drunk driver and she died instantly.

00:47:55.170 --> 00:47:59.730
And then about maybe 10 years later I lost my third sister

00:47:59.730 --> 00:48:03.373
to a drunk driver that ran her over in the middle of town.

00:48:04.680 --> 00:48:08.013
So needless to say I\'m not big on alcohol.

00:48:17.480 --> 00:48:20.720
When I retire I would like to be a judge

00:48:20.720 --> 00:48:22.600
and the reason I would like to be a judge

00:48:22.600 --> 00:48:25.930
is as a social worker I have seen a lot

00:48:25.930 --> 00:48:28.450
of children that have been placed back

00:48:28.450 --> 00:48:30.550
into homes that they shouldn\'t have been.

00:48:30.550 --> 00:48:32.890
I\'ve seen a lot of children that have been

00:48:33.760 --> 00:48:37.380
neglected by the system and I don\'t like that.

00:48:37.380 --> 00:48:39.850
So Crater Board and White Mountain Elementary School

00:48:39.850 --> 00:48:41.230
are completely full, we\'re fully

00:48:41.230 --> 00:48:42.983
staffed in those two schools?

00:48:44.779 --> 00:48:45.612
Good.

00:48:46.970 --> 00:48:49.780
I was in a foster home and I wanted to come home

00:48:49.780 --> 00:48:52.530
and I wasn\'t allowed to come home and I hated that,

00:48:52.530 --> 00:48:55.250
hated that, knowing that I had a family on the reservation

00:48:55.250 --> 00:48:57.150
and I couldn\'t come home and see them.

00:48:58.350 --> 00:49:03.350
A long, long time ago, the Army was in charge of us here,

00:49:04.260 --> 00:49:09.130
that\'s why we have Fort Apache, but the army couldn\'t

00:49:09.130 --> 00:49:11.370
keep track of all the health problems that

00:49:11.370 --> 00:49:13.750
we were having that they brought with them

00:49:16.600 --> 00:49:19.730
and so the Navy said okay we\'ll take care of them.

00:49:19.730 --> 00:49:21.730
So then the Navy came in and that\'s

00:49:21.730 --> 00:49:23.750
what\'s called the Commissioned Corps.

00:49:23.750 --> 00:49:26.370
The Commissioned Corps people who wear this uniform

00:49:26.370 --> 00:49:29.980
are all medical, in the medical field,

00:49:29.980 --> 00:49:32.600
you have to have a degree to wear the uniform.

00:49:32.600 --> 00:49:36.330
When I got my Bachelors I was commissioned

00:49:36.330 --> 00:49:38.530
second Lieutenant, I got my bars.

00:49:38.530 --> 00:49:40.690
My dad and my husband pinned those on me

00:49:41.930 --> 00:49:44.600
and then when I got my Masters I got promoted

00:49:44.600 --> 00:49:49.600
to first Lieutenant, once I went over and was in the Army

00:49:49.770 --> 00:49:53.580
and served during Desert Storm, I got my Captain\'s bars

00:49:56.500 --> 00:49:59.450
and then after Desert Storm was over then I came home

00:49:59.450 --> 00:50:02.720
and I\'m now a Commander in the Navy, which is equivalent

00:50:02.720 --> 00:50:05.377
to a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army.

00:50:05.377 --> 00:50:08.127
(engaging music)

00:50:09.360 --> 00:50:11.370
When the Army tried to teach me about loyalty

00:50:11.370 --> 00:50:14.240
I was like no way, this is something the tribe

00:50:14.240 --> 00:50:16.050
has taught me since the day I was born.

00:50:16.050 --> 00:50:18.550
Integrity, something they taught me since the day

00:50:18.550 --> 00:50:21.192
I was born; we already know that.

00:50:21.192 --> 00:50:22.143
That is who we are.

00:50:22.990 --> 00:50:24.323
That\'s what made us.

00:50:25.410 --> 00:50:29.510
If we are going to succeed as a tribe and the tribe keeps

00:50:29.510 --> 00:50:32.670
saying we are a sovereign nation, if they really mean that

00:50:32.670 --> 00:50:35.510
a sovereign nation means we stand on our own.

00:50:35.510 --> 00:50:37.280
Education is the only way.

00:50:37.280 --> 00:50:41.400
The future is truly our children and I want to make sure

00:50:41.400 --> 00:50:44.280
that they are around to be able to succeed

00:50:44.280 --> 00:50:47.390
so that we can have a tribe 300 years from now

00:50:47.390 --> 00:50:49.380
and still be able to move forward

00:50:49.380 --> 00:50:52.023
and hold our own and be proud oof who we are.

00:50:54.593 --> 00:50:56.609
(engaging music)

00:50:56.609 --> 00:50:58.680
- [Presenter] The kind of pride I experience with the women

00:50:58.680 --> 00:51:02.680
of Apache 8, they were strong, hard working

00:51:02.680 --> 00:51:05.231
women who looked out for each other.

00:51:05.231 --> 00:51:08.314
(enterprising music)

00:51:19.845 --> 00:51:21.680
- In the Army they have sergeants,

00:51:21.680 --> 00:51:26.410
Cheryl was one of those high-ranking sergeants.

00:51:26.410 --> 00:51:30.920
She stated the order and we followed it to the T.

00:51:30.920 --> 00:51:34.980
Back then if we had joined the Army and any

00:51:34.980 --> 00:51:38.268
of those armed forces we would have made it.

00:51:38.268 --> 00:51:41.018
(engaging music)

00:51:41.870 --> 00:51:44.180
- And Cheryl, you know I think she\'s gonna become

00:51:44.180 --> 00:51:47.640
a real strong elder here, on the reservation.

00:51:47.640 --> 00:51:49.063
Cheryl does an awful lot.

00:51:50.410 --> 00:51:51.616
- [Interviewer] Did you know

00:51:51.616 --> 00:51:54.592
there\'s a statue of Cheryl in Boise, Idaho?

00:51:54.592 --> 00:51:56.513
- Really, I didn\'t know that.

00:51:57.603 --> 00:52:01.176
That\'s just a secret, see she doesn\'t even tell her secrets.

00:52:01.176 --> 00:52:03.843
(speaks Apache)

00:52:04.729 --> 00:52:06.838
(engaging music)

00:52:06.838 --> 00:52:09.671
- (speaks Apache)

00:52:49.102 --> 00:52:50.398
- (speaks Apache)

00:52:50.398 --> 00:52:53.231
- (speaks Apache)

00:52:56.323 --> 00:52:58.610
- People from different age and see come and comment

00:52:58.610 --> 00:53:01.210
about Apache 8, you know what ever happened

00:53:01.210 --> 00:53:05.030
to the Apache 8 women crew, and I go it went co-ed,

00:53:05.030 --> 00:53:08.050
both men and women, they go man those women were strong,

00:53:08.050 --> 00:53:10.340
they were hard working women, I says

00:53:10.340 --> 00:53:13.783
yeah we\'re Apache women, Apache women have to be strong.

00:53:14.622 --> 00:53:17.372
(engaging music)

00:53:18.470 --> 00:53:23.010
- Being the only man on the Apache 8 there\'s no distinction

00:53:23.010 --> 00:53:28.010
between a woman and a man when it comes down to your work.

00:53:28.390 --> 00:53:31.520
I was fortunate to be part of them.

00:53:31.520 --> 00:53:36.293
They might\'ve known it but they made history out there.

00:53:36.293 --> 00:53:39.793
(engaging dramatic music)

00:53:45.660 --> 00:53:48.800
- [Cheryl] These ladies, a few of them have retired.

00:53:48.800 --> 00:53:50.490
Some are still working.

00:53:50.490 --> 00:53:53.810
Some have maybe have changed to different professions,

00:53:53.810 --> 00:53:57.750
but this firefighting, being on the Apache 8

00:53:57.750 --> 00:54:00.920
gave them the stepping stone that they needed

00:54:00.920 --> 00:54:04.424
to further enhance themselves.

00:54:04.424 --> 00:54:06.930
(enterprising music)

00:54:06.930 --> 00:54:10.480
And I know that if given the opportunity

00:54:10.480 --> 00:54:11.630
they would do it again.

00:54:12.728 --> 00:54:15.478
(engaging music)

00:54:50.610 --> 00:54:53.390
- Hopefully before I retire I\'ll take

00:54:53.390 --> 00:54:55.383
that all women\'s crew out again.

00:54:57.110 --> 00:54:59.457
Let\'s do it one more time.

00:54:59.457 --> 00:55:02.957
(engaging dramatic music)

00:55:48.900 --> 00:55:50.670
- [Presenter} Major Funding For Apache 8

00:55:50.670 --> 00:55:54.390
was provided by Native American Public Telecommunications,

00:55:54.390 --> 00:55:57.210
through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting,

00:55:57.210 --> 00:55:58.640
additional funding was provided

00:55:58.640 --> 00:56:01.720
by French American Charitable Trust,

00:56:01.720 --> 00:56:04.620
Hanson Film Institute of the University of Arizona,

00:56:04.620 --> 00:56:07.413
and the National Geographic All Roads Film Project.

00:56:08.833 --> 00:56:11.916
(enterprising music)

00:56:15.790 --> 00:56:18.510
For more information including, free downloadable

00:56:18.510 --> 00:56:23.407
viewer\'s guide and educational guide visit www.apache8.com.