In this episode of CNTV News, Brad and Quin connect with composer Skye Garcia and his wife, Chickasaw illustrator Sarah Gilmore Garcia. Skye and Sarah worked together to compose and illustrate the first piano music book published by Chickasaw Press. "The motivation behind this was to preserve, to promote and to teach Chickasaw culture," says Skye. Ofiˈ Tohbiˈ Ishtoˈ and the Chickasaw Clan Animals includes six piano songs, each with a Chickasaw title that refers to a clan animal. Sarah hopes that this book will "make a difference in children's lives, that they'll really get excited about being Chickasaw, get excited about the language, the music and telling their own stories." Ofiˈ Tohbiˈ Ishtoˈ and the Chickasaw Clan Animals is available now at ChickasawPress.com.

The Chickasaw Explorers Archaeological Program is a two-week program in which participants do field work by recovering and documenting artifacts in the Chickasaw homeland. To learn more, visit Chickasaw.net/ChickasawExplorers or call (580) 272-1285.

The Three Sisters Celebration welcomes spring with family-friendly activities, gardening experiences and Chickasaw culture. Learn more about this free, annual event at ChickasawCulturalCenter.com.

To close the episode, meet award-winning Chickasaw playwright Laura Shamas. Laura began writing indigenous roles for theatre in 1980, and in 2023 was one of two winners of the Los Angeles New Play Project Playwriting Award for her play "Four Women in Red." The piece is a story about resilience as it follows four indigenous women in their search for missing loved ones. "I'm very proud of what it says about native women being in the forefront of the movement about missing and murdered indigenous women," says Laura. With her work, Laura is also "trying to raise awareness about what a crisis we're in about missing and murdered indigenous people." While Laura is now living in southern California, she was born and raised in Oklahoma, where her connection to Chickasaw culture began. Her Chickasaw heritage "shapes the way I see the world and what I think justice is, and what I think love is, and what I think right and wrong is," says Laura. After a delay due to the California wildfires, "Four Women in Red" premiered on Feb. 14, 2025 at the Victory Theatre Center in Burbank, California.