Osiyo, it’s how we say “hello” in Cherokee!

Osiyo, everyone. We’re excited to start a new blog feature on our Osiyo.TV website. This may seem odd starting a blog series in the middle of season 6, but the reality is, behind the scenes, we’re well on our way into season 7 development.

Our plan with this blog is to bring you glimmers of what’s going on with our show in real time. We may include behind-the-scenes photos and stories. There may be hints about upcoming segments. Sometimes we might go full-on pull-up-a-chair-and-let-me-tell-you-a-story. Or there might be a history lesson that relates to our almanacs or featured subjects.

One of the most common questions we get asked is how we decide what stories to tell on OsiyoTV. I’m glad you asked!

We have several considerations before choosing a story.

It has to be about a Cherokee Nation citizen who has accomplished something amazing in his or her area of expertise. Although there are three federally recognized Cherokee tribes, our show is underwritten and produced by Cherokee Nation and Cherokee Nation Businesses. So our focus is with people and events that shape our own tribe. Many, many times wonderful story ideas are submitted to us but when we go to verify it turns out the person is not part of Cherokee Nation or not even part of any tribe at all.

It has to work with our time frame and the subject has to be willing and available. If the subject of the story isn’t responsive, we have to move on. We often work on short turnaround times to take advantage of an event or weather or a seasonal issue. For instance, we can’t very well do a story about growing corn when it’s the middle of February. It’s typical for us to film 6-12 months ahead of a season actually airing.

It has to have heart and that “it” factor.  We need to be able to get enough information to make a full, robust story. A positive story that involves Cherokee culture, language or innovation will always have an edge over one that doesn’t.

We keep a running list of people and historic events to peruse for future segments. It’s not uncommon for us to get emails that start out, “I have this auntie and you should do a story about her because … .” And sometimes that’s all it takes!

From sports clips to someone mentioning their college roommate is now a fashion designer, we’ve probably heard it all. Stories come to us from the most amazing and obscure places. Those are the stories we love to bring you. The ones that make you, our viewer, sit up and say, “Wow, I never knew that!”

Think you’ve got a story idea for us? Drop us a quick line at contact@osiyo.tv We’ll be glad to check into it.

Donadagohvi.