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<DIV class=ody-article><FONT size=4><STRONG>Blackfeet Hear Thunder
Radio</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV class=ody-land-nonfullwith><IMG alt="DJ John Davis hosts "The Captain's Love Boat Show" on FM 107.5, the Blackfeet radio station in Browning. TRIBUNE PHOTOS/KRISTEN INBODY" src="http://cmsimg.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=G1&Date=20110612&Category=LIFESTYLE&ArtNo=106120308&Ref=AR&MaxW=640&Border=0">
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<H6>DJ John Davis hosts "The Captain's Love Boat Show" on FM 107.5, the
Blackfeet radio station in Browning. TRIBUNE PHOTOS/KRISTEN INBODY
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<H6>Written by</H6>
<H5>KRISTEN INBODY </H5></DIV>
<DIV class=ody-filed>BROWNING — John Davis took a unique route to his badge of
honor.</DIV>
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<P>"I was the first Blackfeet to ever talk on this radio," Davis said. "This is
my coup story."</P>
<P>Davis, a 21-year-old Blackfeet Community College student, is among the
volunteers who have made FM 107.5 a force to be reckoned with in Browning.</P>
<P>In the Blackfeet language, the station is Ksistsikam ayikinaan. That
translates to "voice from nowhere," but you can call it Thunder Radio.</P>
<P>At 30-watts, the community radio station doesn't reach too far beyond
Browning, but its impact is growing.</P>
<P>"What I've heard is, it's our own," station manager Lona Burns said. "The
Blackfeet people have our own accent so I guess they enjoy that it sounds like
them."</P>
<P>The DJs are preachers, teachers, students and others but have one important
thing in common.</P>
<P>"Every single one has a positive outlook on life," Burns said. "Their
programs transform into positive energy for the listeners."</P>
<P>The station went live on Nov. 20, 2010, with only three or four DJs.
Programming was live only from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.</P>
<P>"People were excited so we raised the hours to 7 a.m. to midnight, Monday
through Friday," Burns said.</P>
<P>Now the station is live daily from 6 a.m. to midnight.</P>
<P>"They didn't think people would be willing to volunteer," Burns said.</P>
<P>Instead, after less than a year on the air, the station has a waiting list of
those who want to be DJs.</P>
<P>"That radio has brought about a community energy," Burns said.</P>
<P>The chamber, radio station and town are working together on an event at a
date not yet set that will include pie eating and a radio talent contest.</P>
<P>"The radio station is the driving force in getting the community and entities
working together," Burns said. "Everyone has us in common because they come to
us to get information out."</P>
<P>In addition to a bevy of public service announcements and community
bulletins, the station has promoted the importance of voting, especially among
the young, and has hosted candidate forums.</P>
<P>"The apathy is so rampant in elections," Burns said. "We're pushing for
people to go vote."</P>
<P>Davis's program is about more than music, although certainly music is
key.</P>
<P>"Our big enemy is apathy," he said.</P>
<P>Davis said for a long time community service carried a stigma.</P>
<P>"They thought of people in orange jumpsuits on the roadside," he said. "Never
before on this reservation has there been such a great energy of
volunteerism."</P>
<P>Davis is the voice behind the "Captain's Love Boat Show" and pledges to "make
love to your eardrums."</P>
<P>He's said listeners hear on-the-air jokes they would never hear on a Clear
Channel Radio station, such as: "The captain is as cool as commodity
cheese."</P>
<P>The tag line — quoted around town — is a reference to part of the reservation
culture, he said, and something Davis saw first-hand working at the commodities
office.</P>
<P>"That was our prize asset. We had to watch the cheese," he said.</P>
<P>When the station was replaying programming that originated elsewhere, the
radio was all "tear in my beer" and "your cheatin' heart." They called it the
suicide station for its depressing old country themes.</P>
<P>"I never thought I'd be hearing Martin Gaye and AC/DC on 107," Davis
said.</P>
<P>The station's next step is streaming online broadcasts.</P>
<P>"We have 16,000-plus members of the Blackfeet nation, but 30,000 with
descendants and only 8,000 on the reservation," Burns said. "We want to allow
off-reservation members to learn the language, hear our program and get a little
taste of home."</P>
<P>The radio is a way to hear the Blackfeet language — and keep that language
contemporary. Talented linguist Darrell R. Kipp, who uses his Blackfeet name
Apiniokio Peta (Morning Eagle) on the show, broadcasts a mixture of language
lessons and stories from elders.</P>
<P>The program helps "bring an ancient language into a very modern and
electronic age, in keeping with the notion tribal languages are viable in the
modern age, not icons of an ancient past," he said.</P>
<P>"The radio is a good vehicle to keep the language viable," Kipp said. "It
gives the community an opportunity to listen to an hour of Blackfoot."</P>
<P>The Ksistsikam ayikinaan radio program is broadcast on Mondays, Tuesdays,
Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays during the noon hour. A free booklet to go
with the broadcast is available at the Piegan Institute or radio station.</P>
<P>"In the program, we play numerous recordings of our venerated older
generation speaking the language. They might be telling stories, or, for
example, one recording was Peter Red Horn, who has since passed on, reading the
American Indian Civil Rights Act of 1958 in Blackfoot. We've had for the last
six Sunday programs, the Gospel of John in Blackfoot."</P>
<P>A Mother's Day episode focused on Blackfeet words connected with mothers.
Generally the Monday and Tuesday programs are focused on language
instruction.</P>
<P>"If it's raining, we do rain words," Kipp said. "If it's snowing, we do snow
words. Today we're doing terminology for months, weeks and time."</P>
<P>Kipp said the radio program fits well with the Piegan Institute's goals since
its 1987 founding to keep the language active and revitalized.</P>
<P>The radio program "has been well received. I've had many individuals who have
voiced they're glad to hear the language again," he said. "The language is in a
fragile state, and it's important the community keep it in a contemporary
sense."</P>
<P>Children are especially good at coming up with descriptive language for
modern items such as iPods.</P>
<P>The language "has to be used to keep it dynamic, and to be viable it has to
be spoken by children," Kipp said.</P>
<P>A mantra in America has been to concentrate on English only and, especially
at the turn of the century, to wipe out mother tongues, Kipp said. But the
institute's language emersion Cuts Wood school has found that its students do
extremely well when they go to high school.</P>
<P>"It's not necessary to sacrifice one language to another, and it's simply
less effective than to add another language on," he said.</P></DIV></DIV></DIV>
<P><STRONG>Reach Tribune Staff Writer Kristen Inbody at 791-1490 or <A href="mailto:kinbody@greatfallstribune.com">kinbody@greatfallstribune.com</A>.</STRONG></P></DIV></DIV></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>