News from rural America.

We begin with Daily Yonder contributor Kaitlyn McConnell, who takes us to Eudora Baptist Church in Polk County, Missouri. For the last 25 years, the church has been the site of some pretty major folk-artistry, helping generations of children create unique, hand-made mosaics. Next, we talk with Christine Hemp, the president of the National Grange, about their mission of community empowerment, ongoing since 1867. Daily Yonder columnist Donna Kallner gives us some advice about write-in voting, and we talk to author Heather Hansman about her latest book, Fierce Country. Finally, we put on our cowboy hats and head to Kazakhstan, to learn about the gnarliest sport at the World Nomad Games: Kok boru. It’s like polo, but with a headless goat. Don’t worry, you’ll love it. Our featured musician this week is Moses Martinez, harmonica player extraordinaire out of Terlingua, Texas.

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, I'm Jared Ewe, the host of Yonder Radio.

Every week we bring listeners to World Conversations with National Reach.

This week, Caitlin McConnell is back to tell us a story from Eudora Baptist Church in Polk County, Missouri.

You know, they're just teaching kids art.

Turns out they're making mosaic masterpieces.

She has that, and then Christine Hemp joins us, the president of the National Grange, about their mission that they've been doing since 1867.

And daily Yonder columnist Donna Counter gives us some advice about write-in voting.

And we talked to author Heather Hansman about her latest book, Fierce Country.

Oh, and finally, we put on our cowboy hats and head to Kazakhstan to learn about the gnarliest sports at the World Nomad Games.

Coke Brew.

It's like polo, but with a headless goat.

Gather the kids.

This is a family-friendly show.

Our featured musician this week is Moses Martinez, harmonica player extraordinaire out of Terlingua, Texas.

Tune in for all that and more on Yonder Radio.

We'll be right back.

We'll be right back.

Thank you.

Yonder Radio Rural Conversations with National Reach.

Hello, my name is Jared Ewee.

And you, I mean, I don't want to be too presumptuous, but I think you're in for a treat.

All right, we have American Cowboys from Kazakhstan.

They are coming up, playing a game with a headless goat.

Okay, we got a little Breaking Bad on that one.

And also, Donna Counter chimes in.

And when she does, you're just a better person on the other side.

We're going to go to the National Grange.

And there has been a discovery in Polk County, Missouri that people are raving about.

We'll piece that mosaic story together for you here shortly.

But first, before the trivia, the music and all the stories, it is Jan Patolsky, news editor for The Daily Yonder, to tell us about some of this week's top rural headlines.

This week, we start off with high country news and a story of some land swapping hands in Alaska.

1.4 million acres go from the federal government back to the state.

It's land surrounding the Dalton Highway, which is an artery connecting Alaska's road system with its Arctic coast, over 400 miles long.

It used to be protected by the federal government by land orders.

Trump administration rescinded both of those orders.

What it means is there might be more development cutting through some of the very important ecosystems and protected land.

People and experts worry that could disrupt migration and spawning of salmon.

It could destabilize permafrost.

Of course, folks who are looking at the development are thinking about more fossil fuel extraction in the area.

Or maybe instead of calling it the Yukon, we should have called it the Yukon-not.

Everybody listening is desperately hoping we move on.

I'm going to do my best to be a part of that.

Washington Monthly, wait a second, best colleges for rural America.

There's a thing.

They came up with a new type of college ranking where they looked specifically at higher ed institutions in rural.

Higher ed often is a space where rural places get a little short shrifted.

To get on that list, colleges must be located in rural and not be highly selective.

They need to recruit and graduate large numbers of in-state students.

And extra credit goes for those schools that supply degrees in high-demand occupations like teaching, nursing, engineering, agriculture.

Top three, University of West Alabama.

Number two, Sulra State University in Texas.

And Georgia Southwestern State University in number three.

Democracy Docket, the United States Postal Service.

And I've seen this around.

There has been a whistleblower.

What is the full story here?

We've already covered a little bit of that news before, talking about how the Trump administration is trying to limit mail-in ballot voting.

Recently, a whistleblower report came out claiming that despite some of the court injunctions, the USPS is moving forward with trying to implement those limitations.

Now, obviously, for rural areas where we do a lot of mail-in voting, that could mean that even before we are able to realize our ballots may be thrown out.

And we are already reeling from the loss of Dolly Parton.

Another luminary has passed away, novelist and poet Wendell Berry.

Can you tell us more about him?

Wendell Berry passed away on August 31st at his home in Port Royal, Kentucky.

He was very interested in environmentalist movement, in sustainability in agriculture, and a well-known skeptic of industrialized farming and modern technology in general.

And he made that a central focus of his work.

And your notes here, he purchased a typewriter in 1956 and never needed to replace it.

That's correct.

Missing Wendell Berry already.

Jan Patalski from the Daily Yonder Newsroom, thank you so much.

Thanks, Jared.

Jan Podolsky, legend at Daily Yonder as the news editor.

Well, if you listen to Yonder Radio at all, you know Caitlin McConnell is out in the Ozarks bringing back little bits of magic from her notebook.

And this one, this story is incredible because I agree, Caitlin, with someone in your story says it's Smithsonian grade arts.

We're going to get to that with this article from her outsider folk art made of a million pieces.

Tell us what's going on with Eudora Baptist Church and what they're creating.

So I have to say that I was shocked when I discovered this trove of art, as I will describe it.

I had no idea this was here when I showed up at the church for a completely unrelated story a few weeks ago.

And I walked in the church.

This church is a very rural area of Missouri.

And on its walls are these really large mosaic pieces, almost 25 of them in different cases as you walk the halls.

And of course, instantly I'm like, what is this?

Where did this come from?

And I learned that this is a tradition at this church that every year during their summer kids camp, they create a mosaic and they've been doing it for almost 25 years.

And I was blown away.

You know, you never know where you're gonna find really cool stuff.

And I just was sad I hadn't known about this before because it was definitely a really neat thing to see.

This is something I'm shocked that we haven't seen.

CBS Sunday morning cover.

Yeah.

The pictures in this article of these mosaics, people get on over to dailyyonder.com, look for Kayla McConnell.

They're fantastic.

What are they?

I know they use Legos.

And then I think in your article, you mentioned it was too expensive.

Every year is a different material and different themes.

So of course, there are generally biblical stories or biblical themes to tie in with the camp most of the time.

But the lady who runs these mosaic projects designs it herself She draws it out.

Her name's Rhonda.

And she goes through and, you know, comes up with this design.

And the thing is, she doesn't have formal art training.

This was all organic, you know, her natural talent to be able to do this.

But she draws it out or paints it out on a board.

And then, you know, like I said, each year it's a different material.

So one year it was buttons.

One year it was postage stamps.

One year it was crayons.

It's all these different materials often sourced from the church.

That was one thing they learned from the Lego thing was they tried to keep costs lower than that year because it ended up being so expensive.

And so in other ones, like they tell the story of Ruth, you know, which is in the Old Testament.

And they have the people of the church bring in old costume jewelry that they don't want anymore.

And they use it to create this beautiful picture of her with lots of symbolism, including this row of watches that's at the top of it to represent for such a time as this.

And so it's like multi-layered amazingness, basically, is what's on the walls of the church.

Multi-layered amazingness.

Even looking at your article, thinking, okay, mosaics and kids at camp, that'll be sweet.

These are crazy.

I mean, a human can fit in one of these shadow boxes featuring the mosaic.

Tell us about Rhonda Barnhouse.

Here she is, a postal worker?

Yes.

So she is a longtime local lady and has been involved with the church for a long time.

And it was another lady at the church had seen someplace else, another church, not, you know, in Eudora, but in the area who had done something similar and thought, you know, maybe this is something we could try.

And so Rhonda went and saw what they had done and then came back and developed this concept.

Also, what she tries to do is make this where this really is about the kids.

You know, there's a framework that she designs and draws out, but it's really about their work on it during camp and then participating in the process.

Another cool thing about that, from my perspective, is that her kids grew up in this and now one of her granddaughters is even starting to do it.

And so it's multi-generations as well as, you know, generations of the church, which, you know, it's like an art project that is representing the church's growth as well.

Because they talked about how, you know, people who were kids 25 years ago can still go up and look at the mosaics they were involved in and remember what pieces they put in. or the memories attached to that design.

And so it's definitely capturing their own stories as well.

This is incredible.

This camp is $25 for a child to join.

And if need be, there's a scholarship to cover that.

Yes, they have had this tradition for years and see it as a ministry.

And they have, you know, Eudora is very small.

And I would bet that they have far more people at camp than they do in the town because they, you know, people come from all over the place, I learned.

And, you know, this is something they look forward to every year.

You're going in there to do this story.

You see these on the wall.

I mean, what was the visceral reaction to these mosaics?

The first one I saw was when you walked in the door and it was the one made of postage stamps.

It was like, you know, what is this?

What is?

And then I saw the others and it was like, oh, my gosh, I have never I've never seen anything like this.

I was just completely blown away.

And I was like, how have I never heard about this?

This is something I would have covered years and years ago if I'd known about it.

But it's just something that is baked into their own tradition at this point.

You know, like I said, with 25 years, the only year they haven't done one is when COVID happened and they had to cancel camp that year.

But otherwise, it's been, you know, something that everybody looks forward to that.

She said once the mosaic is done that year, they put it in the church sanctuary so that the other congregants can see it.

And then they have a case and they hang it on the wall so that they're able to, you know, appreciate it into the future as well.

Outsider Folk Art made of a million pieces.

It's a great read.

And if you don't have time, just stare at the mosaics that Caitlin McConnell has uncovered in her Ozarks Alive journey that she shares with us at DailyYonder.com.

Thank you again for coming by.

Thank you for having me.

Thank you, Caitlin McConnell, local legend.

Eudora Baptist Church is in Polk County, Missouri, and you can find McConnell's reporting at dailyyonder.com.

Our next guest is our featured musician for the week, Moses, or sometimes he's known as Moises, which caused some confusion, but he's not a guy who really cares.

He just wants to hang out in Terlingua and love his family and his life and play music.

Moses Martinez.

We're in Texas, that's where I gotta go.

You are in Terlingua, Texas, which to me has become one of the greatest mysteries in all the land.

What is it with Terlingua?

All these musicians are going there.

It's taking all our talent.

What's happening in this little desert town?

I'm not really sure whether it's something in the water or the dirt.

There's something about this place.

I saw this little clip of you, and you were talking about that first time you were in Terlingua, and you were walking around looking to get a fix, and you couldn't even find an aspirin.

Yeah.

And I wanted to know about that story.

I wanted, that sounds like a pretty big change in your life that was about to take place.

Part of the reason I came out here was to dry out.

You know, I was playing harmonica on the road for a long time and picked up a bunch of bad habits along the way.

And what better place to dry out except the desert, you know?

Yeah.

I had a good friend of mine, bless him.

He was trying to look out for me.

And when I got here, he told everybody that I had had some bad habits and don't give me any sort of any drug not even a single joint i couldn't even find an aspirin like that's saying you know like it was supposed to be for a weekend you know 16 years later now wow then one hell of a weekend there's an old room where they think everybody's out here is hiding or running from something yeah that's what i'm getting now is become this valuable place for community and sharing of ideas and ultimately creating harmonies in the desert air well you know as a It's a beautiful thing when you make music here.

There's a friend of ours, Pablo Menudo, who has since passed on.

When you sing a song out in the desert, it has residents.

There's no Walmarts for it to bounce off of.

It just keeps going.

Down in Texas where this music flows like a river through the pines.

Take my ticker right back home to the lone star state of mine.

In Texas where the women, they're busting at their seams.

Sweet Texas, you're the answer to my sweet dreams.

I want to go back to what was the music you were making when you were on the road?

Apparently, you were doing something that people saw, and they were like, we got to have this guy.

Well, I've been pretty fortunate as far as I've been playing harmonica since I was pretty young.

So I feel like it's kind of a dying breed in music genre nowadays.

But we started younger.

We were kind of, you know, punk rock and raised heavily into heavy metal and punk rock.

Of course, growing up young punk kids, we were, oh, country music sucks, you know, or whatever.

Living in Texas and living out here, just something about, you know, Texas music and country roots and blues rock, blues country stuff.

That's kind of where my wheelhouse lays.

So you're coming from a punk rock background.

Yeah, you know, I've definitely got a love for the loud.

My wife, not so much.

That's why I'm secluded to this bar and when I want to get loud here.

I have a drum set here.

I can crank it to 11 and my neighbor is probably a mile and a half away.

You know, I see them and I said, you can hear me at all?

Nope, can't hear a thing.

Nobody's calling the cops on me here.

And if they did, I knew them by name.

You seem to be able to capture the moment really well.

What can people expect from what I'm trademarking as a Moises moment?

You've been able to capture some people.

The musicians of Terlingua have taught me so much as far as listening.

And less is really more, you know, and you don't have to play every note. just because you can.

Like, I'll never make a set list down.

I'll never write a set list.

Collectively, I probably know, you know, two or 300 songs.

Only a handful of those are really written.

I have, I've been working on, I'm like the dentist with bad teeth, you know.

I've been working with so many, everybody else's music.

I put my stuff to the back burner and haven't released anything yet.

But soon to be.

People keep asking for it.

So I really think I owe that to them.

And I think it's just a sense of being in the moment.

Like you said, you know, reading the crowd and seeing what, trying to read people by what music you think they listen to. - You might be a dentist with bad teeth, although from where I'm sitting, it looks like you have fine ivories, but you're a dentist with bad teeth who can play a lot of instruments.

What do you play and what's your favorite? - Well, of course, my weapon of choice is the harmonica.

You know, you get paid the same as the drummer without having to haul all the stuff. you know drums is really fun because you don't have to remember words guitar is a blessing to be able to have an idea of a lyric and be able to put that to music a lot of people i've realized struggle with that and i feel like it's something that comes pretty easy for the most part for me What a cool superpower to be a musician and to, let's say you're frustrated in a day and you could turn that into music.

It really is, you know, and it's like being a magician.

You're, especially if somebody else is having a bad day, you could totally affect the mood of a room by what you play, you know.

And it is like sprinkling a little magic dust out there and watching everybody change.

Well, Moses Martinez, what a great attitude and incredible music.

Yet another Terlingua musician, people.

I don't know what's going on down there, but whatever it is, bottle it.

Moises, thank you so much for sharing some time today.

Thank you for having me.

Appreciate y'all.

Keep it up.

To Texas.

Sweet Texas, that's where I'm gonna die.

Heady right back home to Texas.

That was musician Moses Martinez.

You can find them on Instagram at musicmoses432.

Well, we're going to take a break here in a second.

But first, it's time for our first trivia clue of the week.

We'll give you three clues throughout the episode and reveal the answer at the end.

The answer to this week's trivia is a controversial, intentional community that was located near the town of Antelope in central Oregon from 1981 to 1985. 81 through 85, big hair, big music, and this community in Central Oregon.

All right, coming up, Christine Hemp welcomes us to the Grange and their mission.

It's something I think we may need.

More from Moses and trivia clues on the way on Yonder Radio. guitar solo guitar solo Yonder Radio, rural conversations with National Reach.

And I don't want to alarm you, but this show soon will feature a game with a headless goat.

And I'm not here to cast spells.

That's not what I'm doing.

That's coming up.

An actual story from Kazakhstan.

And now we're talking to Christine Hemp, the president of the National Grange.

Founded in 1867, the National Grange has members in 1,400 chapters around the country.

Their mission is to strengthen individuals, families, and communities through service, education, nonpartisan advocacy, agricultural awareness, and incredible oratory skills, as you'll hear now with Christine.

So, after 159 years, are you surprised that you still need to remind people the importance of fostering communities and empowering families?

I do think that oftentimes some of the best stuff that we have, we need to be reminded of.

We need to be reminded that it's not super difficult.

It's not rocket science.

It's treating each other well.

It's respecting each other.

And the Grange is always a couple of things that I think set us apart.

One, that intergenerational programming.

That the Grange is a place that you can load up everybody in the car, go to your local Grange meeting, and everybody has a place.

Everybody can participate.

Everybody can get involved.

You know, the other thing is the non-partisanship.

That focus from day one has brought people together because they know it's a safe space.

I always go back to the potluck.

I think we really nailed it with the idea of the potluck is everybody's bringing something to the table and nobody's worried if your agrarian might be left or right.

But there's this communal effort and everybody's getting fed and everybody's getting to share.

Yeah.

Well, especially today, I think we see a lot of food insecurity.

And I don't think many of us realize how close to home that is.

And so that potluck allows a family of five to come, you know, with a warmed up can of beans.

It also allows the grandma to make three different cakes because that's what she wanted to do that day.

And she wants to make sure that every kiddo goes home full of cake.

And so it's this ability to bring folks together and to share and for everybody to feel like they're contributing.

And I think we get so busy and we're so myopic in performing and surviving that we just forget that simple measure of community and making that happen.

And on the occasions where you accidentally stumble into it, you're driving home with your loved one thinking, wow, we should do that more often.

Yeah, it's that community.

It's civility, right?

It's treating folks well and being inclusive.

I think that's the other thing that Grange has hung its hat on from the get-go, that from the very beginning, it didn't matter your gender, your color, or anything else.

You had a place in the Grange in 1867.

You know, that upbringing, that platform that we stand on and that we carry forward, I think just serves us very well to make sure that those ideals of what community really means is carried forth.

My big, awesome, hairy goal is, you know, every community in America has a Grange.

Think what these communities would be like if every single one had that place where everybody was welcome, everybody could go, everybody could participate.

Your voice is amplified.

Your actions are amplified.

Everything you do is bigger and better because you're doing it together.

And that reminds me, you have dimensions because when I think of the Grange, I think of faith, hope, charity, fidelity, the basic lessons.

But then there's this depth that you've been doing for generations, and that's empowering the worker, helping with livelihoods, broadband, and ensuring communities are connected.

And I saw recently you wrote some commentary on prescription, a prescription program.

Talk about that.

Yeah, I think you're probably referring to the hospital dual classification loophole that has been identified.

And what it does is it allows hospitals that are not rural hospitals to classify themselves as such.

And so take advantage of some of those 340B funds that are supposed to be supporting rural hospitals.

And so when that happens, those rural hospitals close.

Then the chain reaction is started, right?

So when the rural hospital closes, Jared, the pharmacy closes.

And all of those health care workers have now moved down the road somewhere to chase jobs, to stay employed.

Meaning that those of us that are left in that community have to go farther for treatment.

That's where we're trying to make sure that our folks know the importance and everybody knows the importance pulling up a chair and sitting at the table and being part of these conversations.

People shouldn't be surprised when an AI data center starts to build next door.

That process happened years ago to get that zoning change, for example, right?

And so when we get up from our seat and we walk away from being a part of the conversation, it's hard to get that back.

I don't want somebody else determining what's best for rural America.

Rural America knows that.

It's incumbent on us to be at that table.

And that's a focus of the National Grange right now is advocacy.

What is it?

How do we do it?

Not only trying to show that at the national level, how do the state granges do this?

How does a local grange get involved and do that?

And you are getting people started young.

How are you empowering youth to get involved with the National Grange?

There's programming that starts at the age of five. program track for those young folks, for the youth to come together, to learn together, to compete in public speaking and other things where they're growing skills to be a part of this, that they understand that their voice is important.

And you can join Grange at 14, 13 and a half years of age.

In Washington, just a month or so ago, a lady received her 90 consecutive year certificate.

Wow.

So she's 104 years old, and she's been a Grange member for the last 90 years of her life.

So it's something that people have a tremendous amount of pride in, And we need to take that and amplify that to action.

Well, thank you so much, Christine Hemp, President of the National Grange.

And you can learn more, nationalgrange.org.

And we greatly appreciate you coming on and sharing this.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Christine Hemp, thank you.

Preaching the good word about National Grange.

Glad that you could come by.

And now.

Record this on stilts because I'm so high on your level.

We have some more music from Moses Martinez.

This one is called Agua Fria Amor on Yonder Radio.

The longest two days before Tuesday Was the perfect day To take my blues away Let the waterfall overhead Roll around in the hay The rocks, the mud and clay Let the hours wallow away Our cares were nowhere around Two folks nowhere to be found While the cottonwood leaves They were dancing in the breeze We were swimming through the watershed sounds And hiding up in them clouds Way past the trees Was a much brighter, beautiful sky She was already right there Painted for me Kept dancing around And lifting me high Oh, I'm searching for a way to lock this feeling tight So I know I won't let this moment pass me by, no guitar solo That was Agua Fria Amor by Moses Martinez, our featured musician for the week.

Don't forget to look for him on Instagram, musicmoses432.

Up next, we're going to hear from Donna Callner, a daily yonder columnist from northern Wisconsin.

Donna brings the wisdom, people.

She works as a poll worker and has some tips to share about write-in votes in local elections, where they can make a big difference.

Local races sometimes are one with surprisingly few votes.

A write-in can have a pretty good chance of success.

But there are rules that apply to write-in votes, rules that provide a framework for fairness.

Those vary from state to state to cover a number of possible scenarios.

What if there aren't enough ballot candidates to fill available seats?

What if there are no candidates on the ballot?

What if a candidate on the ballot dies before the election?

31 states that permit write-ins have some filing requirement for write-in candidates.

That might be a letter of intent asserting residency or qualifications for office, or it could be a registration document that acknowledges the write-in candidates' responsibilities, say, regarding campaign funding record-keeping.

In Wisconsin, where I live, election rules are specific about when write-in votes are counted and when they are not.

For example, if the ballot already includes candidates equal to or greater than the number of seats to be filled, write-in votes are only counted if the write-in candidate has registered by a specific deadline prior to Election Day.

Some states may post the names of registered write-in candidates at polling places, but not in Wisconsin, where I'm a poll worker in a rural voting district.

Before the polls open, we review the registered write-in candidate list provided by our county clerk.

Election rules state that the list may be given to any elector who inquires about the list but may not be posted.

I don't love the prohibition on posting, but I support the guidance that poll workers may respond to questions from electors but not offer information.

In small communities where poll worker relationships are well known, it helps prevent any subtle encouragement, conscious or otherwise, about who to vote for.

As a voter, you want to make sure your vote counts.

So in the voting booth, reread the instructions on the ballot.

But if there's a bubble next to the space for a write-in, fill in that bubble and try to spell your candidate's name correctly, or at least close enough that the Board of Canvas can reasonably assume voter intent.

This is Donna Kellner from 45 Degrees North for Yonder Radio.

Donna Kellner, thank you so much.

I absolutely adore what she brings to this show.

And if you're like me or even have so in your Donna Kellner fandom, check her out at dailyyonder.com and her commentary under 45 degrees north.

Well, it's now time for our second trivia clue.

We're talking about a short-lived intentional community in Central Oregon.

After the fall of the community in 1985, its leadership was investigated and found guilty of a range of crimes, including arson, voter fraud, drug smuggling, attempted murder, and bioterrorism.

Okay, well that's a terrifying resume We'll get to that answer coming up And we're going to be playing a game with a headless goat I feel like I've just invited you to a Blair Witch gathering That's coming up And also more trivia clues in the answer on Yonder Radio Thank you.

Yonder Radio, Rural Conversations with National Reach.

Hello, my name is Jared Iwi.

I love a niche sporting event, and a new one has just popped up on my radar.

Here to tell us about it is Daily Yonder reporter Anya Patron-Slepian.

Anya, what on earth are the World Nomad Games?

The World Nomad Games are actually one of my favorite things ever.

They are an international sporting competition that is held every two years in Central Asia, And they feature traditional nomadic sports.

And you can think of it like the Olympics, except with a lot more wrestling and a lot more horses.

And sometimes those two are combined with wrestling on horseback.

That's amazing.

You've seen this in person?

Yes, I did.

It was awesome.

In 2024, so the last time that the games happened, I went to see them in Astana, Kazakhstan.

It's the capital of Kazakhstan.

And that year, there were around 3,000 athletes from 89 different countries competing in sports ranging from hunting with eagles to tug of war to strategy board games.

And people from 89 countries play these sports.

Have any of us heard of any of them?

So that's one of my favorite parts of the games is that some of the sports like archery are pretty standard, but some of them are pretty specific to Central Asia.

And that means you get this great mix of really competitive and in some cases professional athletes competing against some Australians who sort of randomly signed up and thought, OK, I'll give it a go.

So I've been promising people a game with a headless goat that's coming up in this story.

Absolutely it is.

Yes.

So most of my reporting was following the Team USA Kokhbar and Kokhbaru teams.

And Kokhbar and Kokhbaru are the national sports of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan respectively, but they're essentially the same game.

And the best comparison I can give is that it's something like rugby on horseback with a headless goat, or in some cases, a rubber dummy of a headless goat used as the ball.

And the Americans have been coming to the World Nomad Games and playing Coke Beru since 2016.

And in 2024, they're on a mission to try to win their first game in international competition.

I cannot imagine how this went, but we'll find out.

Here's the story.

Welcome to Central Asia.

You're playing Coke Beru.

Hope you get home okay.

That was Will Grant, a rider and lover of horses who lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

He hurt his arm while he was training a few weeks before the 2024 World Nomad Games, so he accompanied the U.S.

Coke Beru team as a manager.

He was my guide to understanding what on earth was going on, especially when it came to the rules of the game.

He describes Coke Beru like this.

In its most basic form, it's two teams of four horsemen on a field that's about 300 yards long, and the object of the game is to pick up this goat or this dummy goat from the back of your horse, and you run like hell to the other team's goal, and you throw it in their goal.

Simple enough, right?

But the real fun of the game comes from the fact that while you are trying to pick up the goat from the ground and then run like hell, there are four people on four aggressive horses who are doing everything they can to stop you.

So there's a lot of cursing and yelling and often a soundtrack of Central Asian rock in the background.

Cook Beru originated around 3,000 years ago, when the herders of Central Asia would kill wolves that threaten their livestock and play keep away with the body.

From this folk tradition, Cook Beru has been formalized into a national sport with professional leagues, celebrity players, and national and international competitions.

American participation in Cook Beru has a much shorter history.

Scott Zimmerman was part of the original U.S. team of players who came to Kyrgyzstan in 2016.

He joined more or less on a whim at the request of his brother-in-law.

Immediately is like, yes, I want to play.

I called him back a minute later and it was like, how do you spell that?

What are we doing?

What are we playing?

Like, is it really as dangerous as it looks?

Eight years later, it has become a defining part of his life.

This is something I was meant to do.

To get to come to Central Asia, to get to play these important games to the people of Central Asia was one of the callings that I was given.

I am very thankful for it.

I'm very honored to get to be a part of it.

Though they each had to travel across at least 11 time zones to compete, the American players have plenty in common with those descended from the nomadic cultures of Central Asia.

According to Will, the cowboy identity is an important unifier for the team.

The idea of seeing the horizon between the ears of a horse is pretty intrinsic to the cowboy culture.

And certainly for the nomadic heritage of Central Asia, the idea of the horse and the freedom to move and the boundless step, this is like the nomadic way.

And a lot of us, our cowboy ideology is sort of metaphorically the same.

Cook Peru is a full contact sport played on aggressive stallions.

The violence of the game, whips cracking, horses kicking, players swearing, can be shocking to watch.

So the horses are running, they're hitting each other.

You can't replicate the feeling of when the horses come together in the scrum.

They come together so hard that they feel like they're made out of cement.

The players wear limited protective gear, just shin guards, boots, and a helmet made of felt and fur.

So they have little protection if the worst should happen.

But according to Will, this intensity is what makes playing such a rich experience.

It's so immersive.

You can't really dabble in Coke Baru.

You can't go out there and go half speed.

You have so much at stake personally that the trade-off is remarkable.

But though the U.S. team has plenty of enthusiasm, they are profoundly lacking in experience.

That became clear during their first game of the tournament when the Americans faced off against the Kazakhstani national team.

For 45 minutes, the Kazakhstani team ruthlessly and efficiently routed Team USA, with a final score of 18-0.

Throughout the game, the Kazakhs had consistently blocked the American players from even getting a hand on the dummy goat, never mind scoring.

They just beat up on us.

They were trying to send us all home in ambulances.

They never let up.

At one point, Scott fell from his horse and was dragged by the stirrup through the field before he finally managed to kick loose.

As a spectator, I can tell you it wasn't easy to watch.

Playing against the home team is always difficult, But the inherent mismatch between the Americans and the Kazakhs goes much deeper than that.

One team member compared it to a high school basketball team facing off against the Lakers.

The Kazakhstani national team is made up of professional athletes who trained together for months prior to the games.

And though the American competitors are skilled horsemen, they have little opportunity to practice the game.

We're the amateurs.

We don't own the gear.

There's nowhere in the U.S. that you can buy a Coke brew saddle.

They don't make them over there.

This is certainly a Central Asian game.

In the next game, a different Kazakh team offered an olive branch.

It was more like, we're going to beat you, but we're going to help you guys play the game.

They were actually handing us the goat.

They were helping us to successfully execute some of the maneuvers that are necessary to scoring, to defending.

The second Kazakh team beat the Americans 12-4.

A few hours after their second game against the Kazakhs, the Americans lined up for their third game of the tournament.

This time, they were playing the Turkish national team, whose skill level was much closer to that of the Americans.

Both teams were out for blood and sure that this was a game they could win.

If the U.S. national team won, it would mark the first-ever victory with a fully American team.

But it wouldn't be easy.

When we lost 18-0, we're out there floundering, and it's hard, it's demoralizing, but it's not as hard as playing the Turks, who are closer to our level, when the fight is on.

And this is when it's going to take everything we have.

The Americans took an early lead, but the score was 1-1 at the end of the final period, sending the match into a sudden death overtime and then into a shootout called Bullet.

The Turks scored once during the shootout, and the Americans were unable to match them.

It was a tough loss.

As team captain, Scott took it especially hard.

But there is much more to the USA Cook Brew team than just winning and losing.

The bonds that I've built with the men that I've traveled with over the years will not be broken.

That we're willing to travel this far and play games that Americans have never partaken in.

I think it shows respect for the Kazakh culture, the Kyrgyz culture, the Central Asian traditions.

That's how we will make this world a better place.

Team USA is still seeking their first win in international competition.

And they'll have another chance at the sixth World Nomad Games taking place this week in Cholpanata, Kyrgyzstan.

For Yonder Radio, I'm Anya Patron-Slepian.

That was Daily Yonder reporter Anya Patron Slepian.

The Cowboys are back at it right now, this time in Kyrgyzstan.

We hope to give you an update on their quest for an international W in a few weeks' time.

Well, our next segment is a conversation between Daily Yonder reporter Ilana Newman and award-winning author, journalist, and editor Heather Hansman.

Heather is the author of the new biography book, Fierce Country, the untold story of three women who ignited America's love for the wild.

I'll let Heather introduce herself more.

I'm Heather Hansman.

I'm a writer, journalist, and author.

I tend to cover the intersection of recreation and environmental issues and how we interact with landscapes.

I wrote a book called Down River, which is about water in the western U.S.

I wrote a book called Powder Days, which is about the idea of being a ski bum and living in the dream and why it's not always dreamy.

And then I have a new book called Fierce Country, which is about overlooked women in the world of recreation and conservation and how we get outside.

Fierce Country follows three women throughout the 20th century who paved the way for women in the outdoors and environmentalism.

First, there's Georgie White, one of the first women to raft and guide the Grand Canyon.

Then there's Anne Labastille, who guided and advocated for conservation from her off-grid cabin in the Adirondacks, near where Heather grew up.

Finally, there's Dolores LaChapelle, who was one of the first female big mountain powder skiers and environmental philosophers in the San Juan Mountains in Colorado, near where both Heather and I live today.

Heather and I met up in Hand in Hand, a bookstore in my town of Mancus, Colorado.

It was a bit noisy in there, so I apologize in advance for the audio quality from this conversation.

Enjoy.

How did you personally change throughout the process of getting to know these three women?

I think like the core nugget of the book is like how to be a good person in the outdoor world and like who can we look at for sort of like pathways to follow that.

And so I kind of got hooked into this idea of heroes and like, OK, who are the people?

Why did I not have people that I looked up to?

And these women like became these archetypes or like channels for like the things that I was trying to think about.

Georgie's the, what do we do outside?

Why do we get obsessed?

Why does that feel important?

And is how do you combine that stuff with caring about places and like trying to actually make an impact?

And Dolores is why behind it all?

What's the kind of like ethic on it?

That question about like, how did I change is a really interesting one because I think my like perception of them changed as I worked on it. they were all pretty complicated.

One of the themes that really comes up a lot with all of the women is the theme of nostalgia and how a lot of environmental movements have this underpinning of nostalgic memory and trying to make a place return to how it used to be.

Do you find yourself thinking about this personally?

And what are the positives and negatives of looking at a place with the lens of nostalgia?

I think about that all the time because I do think it can be really, Even in like working on this and reporting on it, this sense of like, oh, it would have been so cool to like be on the Grand Canyon in the 60s.

Even I went on a run with a friend this morning and she was like, when I first moved to Durango, we didn't have to turn on the air conditioning.

It's like that kind of, especially when it feels like things are moving in a way that isn't good or isn't protective of these places.

You know, like nowhere is untouched now because of air pollution and light pollution and like how we exist in the world.

I think it's hard not to want to or like to fantasize things were bad in the 60s before we had the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act and that kind of thing.

But I think it's easy to fantasize that that was like this more pure time.

But we also can't get back there.

So I think it's like you have to be working in the frame of right now.

And I think what's like interesting about Anne in particular is that she was really good at like tracking that stuff and being like, hey, I can show on the ground how things have changed, what they were like before, making stuff happen to be protective of that.

How do you see recreation affecting and changing these communities that you know and love, both positively or negatively?

Oh, God, that's like such a big question.

Yeah.

I think a lot of it comes back to what we were talking about.

Like, what are you trying to value and manage for?

And I think also, like, who are you managing for?

I think Silverton's a really interesting example of this.

The Adirondacks, where Anne was, is interesting, too.

It's like, are we trying to set up the system for visitors so we can bring in an economy?

Or are we trying to set up the system for the people who live there?

And then the economic stuff might be an add-on.

And I think since I've been working in this world, this like idea of like recreation economy has, that's like the golden, like the shiny star we're going to work towards.

And that's going to like, that's going to bring back these mining towns.

Places that have been, we used to be logging, we're going to bring recreation and it's going to be fine.

And I think there's, I think it's really hard to hit a good middle ground on that.

But places like Moab, where when that economy transitioned from mining to recreation, biking, RV, national parks, it kind of got blown out.

And now it's really hard for people to live there.

It's a lot of that landscape is pretty damaged.

Opposite side of that, I've seen like Gallup, New Mexico has tried to do something sort of similar and bring in bike tourism.

And there's like not quite enough infrastructure.

It's not quite, it hasn't quite taken off.

I asked Heather this question about recreation economies because Fierce Country gets into the history of the topic.

The book talks about the early days of rafting and skiing before it created a wealth disparity in the towns that support the outdoors.

I wanted to hear Heather's thoughts on the topic, which is something that I have also spent a lot of time thinking about for my podcast series Getaway.

If you're interested in this topic, you'll probably enjoy Fierce Country as much as I did.

Thank you, Alana Newman.

If you want to learn more about recreation economies, like Alana mentioned, check out the Getaway podcast that she created for Daily Yonder on the Rural Remix podcast feed.

Heather Hansman's most recent book, Fierce Country, is out now.

Check it out wherever you get books, but especially your local bookstore.

Well, we're almost done here, but we're still missing something important.

And that something is your third trivia clue.

And of course, the answer.

Here's your final clue.

The rise and fall of this community is chronicled in a 2018 Netflix documentary series called Wild Wild Country.

And the answer is Rajneesh Puram.

Founded by Indian spiritual teacher Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh, Rajneesh Puram was a religious free love community built on a ranch in Wasco County, Oregon.

The community at one point housed over 7,000 people and included an airport, a man-made lake, and thousands of structures.

As the community grew, major conflicts rose between its residents, known as Rajneeshis, and local ranchers and politicians.

The Rajneeshis' effort to gain political control of the area culminated in a number of illegal plots, including the largest bioterrorist attack in American history. when Rajneeshis intentionally spread salmonella across salad bars in the area in an attempt to suppress local voter turnout.

They were kind of ahead of their time looking at our current lettuce issue.

Eat safely, but well.

And my name is Jared E.

We thank you for tuning in to Yonder Radio.

You can learn more about us at yonderradio.com, on radio stations across the country, and listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Thank you for listening to Yonder Radio, a production of the Center for Rural Strategies, publisher of The Daily Yonder.

I'm your host, Jared Iwi.

Thanks to Don Castle and the Tennessee Sheiks, Steph Gunno and the Lone Tones, Quincy Ponfair, Leo Pozel, and Tim Merrimah for the great music.

Our editor and producer is Susanna Brown.

This episode was also produced by Anya Patron-Slepian, with additional support from Alana Newman and Julia Tilton.

Our executive producer is Joel Cohen.

The executive in charge of production is Adam Georgie.

Yonder Radio, rural conversations with National Reach.