(upbeat music) Tom - This week on Arizona Illustrated, a collection of uplifting and inspiring characters, starting with Scott and Abby.

Scott - And she looks at you and it's that unconditional love.

Tom - Meet the woman behind the popular social media game, "Find That Lizard."

Earyn - There's a lizard.

I promise you, there's a lizard on the tree.

Look at him.

He's just a cutie.

Tom - We'll introduce you to one of the first female wildland firefighters.

Linda - I was the only woman, so I found out there's going to be another challenge.

The men didn't want me here.

I had to figure out how to hold my own.

Tom - And an Indigenous powwow without gender categories, celebrating two-spirit people.

Sister Navi Ho - Back in the 80s and 90s, we didn't come out.

Iann - If the two-spirit powwow was here and there was any type of disability for anybody, two-spirit, transgender, or gay, it would have made my life so much easier growing up.

Tom - Hello and welcome to a special holiday episode of Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara.

And today we're coming to you from beautiful Agua Caliente Park on Tucson's east side.

Even as the winter settles in, we're so lucky to be in southern Arizona where there's still plenty of sunshine and fun experiences to be had outdoors.

And you can see people are really enjoying the park out here today.

Today we bring you uplifting and heartwarming stories from some of the unique characters we've met over the last few years.

First up, the story of a man and his dog.

When Scott Whitley first met Abby, a semi-misbehaved stray wandering in traffic, well, his life changed forever.

- Abbie, sit, lay down, stay, be quiet.

(growling) Be quiet, no!

(barking) She flunked out on dog obedience school.

("Bingo Was His Name-O") So I spell her name A-B-B-I-E after Abbie Hoffman, 'cause Abbie's very political, and she's sort of radical.

(dogs barking) Abbie!

(ball bouncing) (dogs barking) It was seven years ago, Labor Day, the Friday before Labor Day, and I was at Glenn and Alvernon, and there was this dog running loose, and she had a collar on, but had a chewed off rope on it.

And she was about 30 pounds at that time, she's 40 pounds now.

And I took her to the Humane Society, and got her out of the van, had a van at the time, took her in and she peed all over me, and the person at Humane Society said, "She's marking her territory."

And I, that did it.

You know, she peed on me, I decided this is the dog for me.

(lighthearted music) Here's one your size.

Go sniff some butts.

I think that doctors should write prescriptions for dogs or cats.

With mental illness, people get so wound up with talking about their illnesses and how many they have and all the acronyms.

You go to a dog park you don't talk about mental illness.

We talk about dogs, which is healthy, and I've never disclosed to anybody there that I have a mental illness 'cause it doesn't matter.

My name's Scott Whitley, I've lived with manic depressive illness, diagnosed since 1989.

(calm, relaxing music) Bipolar is sort of a confusing term.

It could be a sexually liberated polar bear.

I just prefer manic depressive illness 'cause that's what it is.

I've lost relationships, I've lost jobs, I've lost friends, I've lost periods of my life.

- I've been Scott's friend for, oh, it's over ten years now, and he's really great, and it's a great friendship that we have.

It's usually once a week we meet for breakfast, and then we either do a long walk or we head for the dog park.

The dog park is always a lot of fun.

(lighthearted music) - And we have breakfast and we talk about life and he'll ask me how I'm doin' with my illness and I share with him, I'm struggling with this medication change, and I'm going to work, training, and he'll be very supportive.

And Richard's a history professor from Michigan State, retired, so we talk about the work he did, and he gives me, he's the older brother I wish I woulda had.

I had a older brother that we didn't get along too well.

You can't choose your family but you can choose your friends.

- Scott's a very resourceful guy, and as he puts it he has his tool-kit to deal with mental illness, and one of the most important parts of that tool-kit is support, so it's people, and in this case it's also dogs, and Abbie's become, clearly, a really important support for him.

- Depression's a very self-centered state, "I'm no good, I'm incompetent, I shouldn't be alive," you know, very serious thoughts.

Well, when I take Abbie for a walk I don't think of that.

When I'm at the dog park, I think about the dogs and the people, and Abbie is... a talking point, and she likes all the dogs, and she's seven now, and she's very much a positive force in my life.

(engines rumbling) You havin' a good time today?

You like your ears rubbed, don't you?

I had a cat for 22 years, and he was special, his name was How Weird, 'cause he was really weird.

He was a Tibetan Buddhist.

And he passed on, and he sent me an email, he was in Kathmandu sayin' it was okay to get a dog.

So then I got Abbie a year and a half after How Weird passed on.

Right Abbie?

And we've been friends ever since.

And why don't you get treats?

And she looks at you, and it's that unconditional love which you don't give yourself when you're depressed.

You don't feel you're deserving.

(grunting) I don't want to say stable, I don't like that term because stable could be places you keep horses, and I hate recovery, 'cause recovery can be doing terrible and be in recovery.

Wellness means you're living well.

I go through recovery, but I'm in wellness now.

(upbeat, lighthearted music) Abbie is a balancing force in my life.

I owe her a walk, or a dog park, every day, and that's my responsibility that I feel most committed to.

She's just a joy.

(upbeat, lighthearted music) Tom - Earyn McGee is a PhD graduate who's researching the impact that drying climates have on lizards.

And she's teaching people cool facts about lizards and shifting the idea of what it means to be a scientist through her growing social media presence.

She's also working hard to get more black women involved in natural resources careers.

Earyn - Don't you run from me.

Don't you run from me, lizard.

I always knew I wanted to work with animals.

And when I was an undergraduate at Howard University, there was one snail guy and a fish guy.

But then there was only one animal, animal person.

And he was working with lizards.

And so I was like, well, lizards it is.

So these are one of my favorite lizard species.

If not my favorite, they're so beautiful.

Lizards are on the same schedule.

They're out around eight, which means I don't have to wake up until seven.

Perfect.

We just ended up meshing together.

We work.

Hi, I'm Earyn McGee, AKA Afro Herper.

I'm a PhD student at the University of Arizona studying natural resources.

I'm interested in lizards and their diets.

I want to know what they're eating.

Right behind me is the first friend of the day, a little tiny itty bitty.

It's like this big side-blotched lizard.

I'm also interested in increasing the representation of black women and natural resources.

So understanding barriers, preventing entry, and preventing retention of black women in these careers.

Do y'all see what I'm seeing?

How cute.

Just the cutest.

Find That Lizard is a game that I post on social media.

So Twitter and Instagram.

And I post a picture of a lizard camouflage in its natural environment.

And with the photo, there are some facts about the lizards.

And most of the time, those facts are clues as to where to look in the photo for the lizard.

And people have about four hours to find the lizard in the photo.

If I asked you what do lizards eat, you'd probably be like insects.

And you'd be right.

But like, where do those insects come from?

For the most part, we don't know.

So I wanted to know, are the lizards eating insects that are completely terrestrial?

Are they eating aquatic insects?

So insects that spend their larval stage in water and then emerge into the terrestrial landscape.

And then potentially becoming food for other species, bats, birds, and then of course, lizards.

Because no one has really looked at that.

And then here in the Southwest, where we're experiencing a lot of drought, a lot of stream drying, if there's no place for these insects to lay their eggs and live out the first part of their life stage, they can never become adults and enter the terrestrial world.

Which means that the lizards might not have enough food to eat.

People think of lizards and they think of desert.

They think of creatures that can, you know, survive extreme temperatures.

And that's all true.

But even with lizards, they have a heat threshold.

So if it gets too hot and they're not able to properly bring their body temperatures back down, they're gonna overheat and die.

So you will see like lizard populations moving up and up in elevation, which means that species are getting pushed off the top of the mountain because they have nowhere else to go.

As a kid, I was the weirdo in the family.

I was like very into my books.

I was just like, well, I'm just gonna, don't talk to me.

I'm going to my room, closing the door and I'm reading this book and I'm reading it until tomorrow.

So please do not disturb.

When I was growing up, I never thought that I could be a scientist in the way that I am now.

Like when you think of a scientist, you kind of think of, like I would think of like an old white man in like the tweed jacket with elbow patches and like a white lab coat.

But there's so many different definitions to what a scientist is and what a scientist can look like in the type of science that a scientist does.

And so I kind of want to open the doors to like show there's so many possibilities besides, you know, what we're just shown in TV because it's not really representative to the reality of what a scientist is or looks like.

I brought with me today my prop lizard so that I can show you guys how I lasso a lizard.

So a lasso consists of fishing pole or some kind of stick that you can hang a line off of.

And at the end of the line, there is a slipknot and the slipknot is what you want to get over the lizard's head.

Think of like if there was a hybrid sport between like lassoing cows and going fishing.

And then I try to get the lasso over the lizard's head.

It can be a bit challenging because the further away the line gets from you, the harder it becomes to see.

But then once it's over the head, I have a lizard.

And then once you catch it, you always want to give it some support.

You don't want to let it just dingle.

Y'all right behind me, right there.

There's a lizard.

I promise you it's a lizard on the tree.

I was skeptical at first myself.

I was walking and I was like, what is that?

It looks like a little piece off of the branch, but it looks kind of weird.

What is that?

What?

And then it moved and I was like, that is a lizard.

And I was like, okay, I need to get a picture for everybody for find that lizard.

Oh yeah.

That's what I like to see.

Lizards.

When I went to Howard my freshman year, I had no idea that people like studied lizards.

I just thought that all those kinds of questions were like answered.

I was like, there I could go on Google and figure out the answer to this question.

And nobody else is like interested in this stuff anymore.

My second semester I got into this program called the Environmental Biology Scholars.

So I got to go out and actually be an ecologist in real life.

And that was like my aha moment.

My, oh, this is truly, like they're not making this up.

This is a real job and I could do it.

I love the work that I do and knowing that I have like undergraduate students who have gotten something out of my mentorship and having a really great lab and support system in my family is super supportive.

Those are the things that I can fall back on whenever I'm struggling.

Such an exciting, happy herping trip.

I got to see a bunch of lizards, two cool species.

It's always great when you see a lizard.

Tom - Here at Agua Caliente Park, lightning struck a little over a year ago, caused a huge fire that destroyed dozens of palm trees and left many others like this one charred, but we're told these trees will survive over time.

Some good news.

Now you're gonna meet someone who knows a lot about fire and heat and exhaustion and danger.

Linda Strader was one of the first female firefighters hired by the US Forest Service way back in the 1970s.

And she says the experience was exhilarating.

(gentle music) So we are at Florida Station, which back in my day was Florida Ranger Station.

And this area is near and dear to my heart.

When I was 20 years old, I decided I wanted to be a firefighter and I accepted a position here at Florida Center.

And I remember the day that my supervisor brought me up to work and live here.

We were driving up the road and I'm looking around me and I'm seeing these majestic oak trees and sycamores and a creek and all these beautiful buildings nestled into this canyon.

And I'm thinking, oh my goodness, I just looked out big time.

I get to live and work in this place.

I was just amazed at how gorgeous this place was.

I knew the work was gonna be hard and I knew that I was gonna be facing the biggest challenge.

I thought just the work is firefighting.

But that wasn't the biggest challenge.

I was the only woman, so I found out there was going to be another challenge.

The men didn't want me here.

So I had to figure out how to hold my own both work wise and social wise of where I stood with the crew and I had to prove that yeah, I belong here just as much as you do and I did.

You know, back in 1976 was my first summer as a firefighter and our second fire call was out here in Box Canyon in the Santa Rita Mountains and we got the call thinking that we would be able to drive to it with the tanker.

So we came out here, a narrow winding mountain road with 200 gallon tanker and got to the site and realized we were gonna have to hike in.

I mean, it was really a tough hike up there.

Fire was moving away from us while we were building line and it turned around and came toward us.

So the only escape route that we had was to run into the black, which is where the fire already burned because obviously if the vegetation is already burned, it won't be burned there.

So we ran into the black, but we were encased in smoke, choking smoke and just lost track of each other there for a few seconds.

So that was a little nerve wracking and I don't think I've ever run so fast in my life.

A three foot tall clump of grass can have flings easily eight to 10 feet tall.

And when that's coming at you like a wall flame, that's something to see, I'll tell you.

I've almost been hit by slurry, which can kill you and that stuff is just water.

But when that stuff comes out of the bottom of the plane and you get the big slug of that on your head and you can break your neck.

I've been a little too close to a tree struck by lightning.

That was pretty amazing.

And to go back and find the tree in pieces everywhere.

And it's just like, oh my goodness.

And in the seven years that I did this, I guess I'm really lucky that nobody was ever seriously injured or died.

[Music] I completely destroyed my knees.

And it was something that I didn't want to admit was happening to me.

It was a very difficult decision, but I realized I just couldn't do this anymore.

[Music] I've had an awful lot of surgery.

I had to start my whole life all over again.

It was tough because I like my current career, but I really love my job then.

[Music] And when people would say, "Well, you're a woman.

How in the world can you do this?"

And I'd say, "Well, I do."

And even that felt good.

You know, it's like, I can do anything I want to do.

[Music] It fed something in me that nothing else ever had.

So, you know, I never thought, I never was out to prove anything to anybody, not even to myself.

I knew I could do it, and I just really enjoyed the satisfaction of a job well done and being outdoors.

And, you know, I got paid to work, to go hiking.

I thought that was the most amazing thing.

[Music] We were hot, tired, thirsty, hungry, sore.

And yet you get up in the morning and say, "Oh, I'm going to forget to get another fire today."

You know, you either love it or you hate it.

I loved it.

Tom - Next, we meet the inspiring folks behind Arizona's annual Two-Spirit Powwow.

Now, these organizers envision a world where diversity is celebrated, and all people are valued, respected, and affirmed, inclusive of their sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.

[Music] A powwow is basically a social gathering.

We come and dance, show our regalia, show our beauty, and dance to wonderful music that has meaning, has spiritual meaning.

[Music] Almost like a blessing.

[Music] I feel that there's this big old bubble of spiritual energy just surrounding us.

And, of course, we have our ancestors here that are pretty much dancing alongside us.

[Music] Today, we are having our second annual Two-Spirit Powwow.

Last year, we had our first.

We got a grant from the Pride Organization for Phoenix.

Last year, we had about 24 dancers, and this year, we have 64.

Traditionally, powwow is something that is very gender-like bias.

So, we kind of wanted to erase gender, and we kind of wanted to create a safe space for Two-Spirit individuals.

[Music] Thank you, Standing Horse dancers.

[Applause] Good afternoon, everyone.

My name is Ian Austin.

I am Mr. Southwest Two-Spirit.

I'm also part of the Powwow Committee.

I really wanted to say something specifically to the Two-Spirit community that is here with us today.

I want to let you know that this was created for you, a safe space for you, a place that you can go and you can feel welcomed, and you can feel safe, and you're free to be who you want to be.

[Music] The phrase Two-Spirit, that was coined back in 1990, so it's a relatively new term.

And it was from elders within the community that were at a pow wow, and the pow wow didn't have a dance for them.

It's someone who was able to help wherever needed in a village or community.

But they were also someone who just feel that they are both men and women together.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

My name is Tay Titla.

I'm your current reigning Miss Supreme Pride 2020 and your current reigning Miss Apache Diva forever.

It really depends on where you hear it and who tells you about it.

I heard the traditional term from my tribe.

My grandpa used to call me it when I was younger.

It's not derogatory, but I didn't know what it was growing up.

I didn't know that.

He knew that I wasn't going to be the average child.

My tribe, the Two-Spirit roles they had were taking items and information from the men to the women.

So he would say, go tell this to that.

We knew as indigenous people there's more than a man and a woman.

There's a third gender.

There's fourth gender in some tribes.

I'm Navajo, and in the Navajo way LGBT people had a place in our tribes.

And because of colonization and religion, unfortunately we lost those teachings.

So my organization, Native Peace Lives, we are bringing back those traditional teachings.

- (in Native language) Good afternoon, my name is Vanessa Losey, I am the currently reigning Miss International Two-Spirit.

I just want to say that the first time I held it, I won a title.

I was in boarding school.

I was 14 years old, and things were so different back then.

We used to have to lock ourselves in a room and hide and perform our pageant before the dorm attendants came in to check rooms.

And so it's really something to see all of this happening and to be able to be here.

I came from a really small town.

We made fun of it, and it was bad.

That was like the education that I got.

Back in the 80s and 90s, we didn't come out.

If this Two-Spirit power was here, and there was any type of visibility for anybody Two-Spirit, transgender, or gay, it would have made my life so much easier growing up.

I found out my daughter was dating a girl, and I talked to her about it.

I wasn't prepared for that discussion at all.

That day that I found out, it ended in both of us crying.

I didn't understand.

That same day, I asked my son, and at first he denied it, and then later he said, "Yeah, Mom, I'm gay too."

And that was the beginning of my education.

My daughter said some things to me I'll never forget.

She says, "Mom, why would I do this when I know society's going to be against me?"

She also said she wasn't going to tell me until she got to college, because she didn't want to be a disappointment.

And that's really hard for me to even think about that to the day, because she's amazing.

And I realized that I hadn't made a safe space in my own family, my own home, for her to be who she is.

And so when I started learning more about the community and all the challenges and all the things that are against the community, I said, "I've got to do something.

I have to do something."

Two-Spirit people were healers.

They were medicine people.

They were mediators.

They were part of our culture.

They have been for years and years.

We have to bring that back, because there should be no shame in being LGBT for Two-Spirit.

There should be no shame in that.

In the Navajo culture, we say that it's a blessing to have extra special blessing to have a child who is LGBT, and I can totally, totally agree with that, because I've gotten so many blessings from my children.

Tom - Thank you for joining us here on Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara.

Happy holidays, and we'll see you with all new episodes in the new year.