By BROOKLYN BROWN
One Feather Reporter
CHEROKEE, N.C. – Brothers Cory Junaluska and Kyzik Wachacha, both members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), have started a new podcast and clothing brand called Uktena Underground. The pair aim to provide a platform for their tribal community and the rest of Indian Country through discussing contemporary Native issues by holding “raw, intuitive” conversations, as Junaluska describes them, with their guests.
Uktena Underground, named after the infamous Cherokee legend, “Uktena,” the horned serpent, started because of Wayohi (Wolftown) Anesto (Stickball). “I was playing for Wolftown and wanting to come up with some designs for merchandise for the team, and I just wasn’t tech savvy at all. I’d been back from the military for some time now, and at the same time [Kyzik] was going to Stanford and he had just come back home. I just reached out and I was like, ‘Hey, can you help me with this real quick?’” Junaluska recalled.
Uktena Underground consists of brothers Cory Junaluska and Kyzik Wachacha. (Photo contributed)
“He came over and was like, ‘Oh, it’s easy. Do this.’ And I’m like, ‘Okay. It wasn’t easy, but that’s dope.’ From that we started divvying up ideas. I’d try to talk him through this picture that I’m thinking of, and he’d capture it perfectly.”
Wachacha said he had always dreamed of starting a clothing brand, and the podcast developed out of their creative collaboration in merchandising.
Junaluska credits Wachacha with taking the initiative to get the podcast started.
“I mentioned that we should start a podcast, and you always hear of people having these phenomenal ideas but there’s no action being taken, and I was in that same kind of rut,” Junaluska said.
“He was like, ‘Well, let’s record one then.’ And I’m like, ‘Wait, right now? We don’t have microphones, cameras, none of that.’ And he just says, ‘Use your iPhone, bro.’ And that’s our first one. Our very first podcast posted was on an iPhone, and it was just a ‘stickball explained’ episode, and it’s growing from there.”
Uktena Underground says they are letting the podcast evolve organically, learning just as much in the process as they are hoping to share with the world. “I’m learning more about Cherokee culture and certain things I didn’t know about. For example, with Levi West coming on, he brought up a lot of good points about the mounds and the pottery or the crafts or the language revitalization. Going in depth with those conversations really broadened my perspective,” Wachacha shared.
Junaluska said their guests bring a unique Cherokee perspective to the episodes. “There’s just a plethora of knowledge that you don’t realize certain individuals have. Like Levi West, I always knew he was really inclined historically and culturally, but just sitting down and having a discussion in an enclosed room where we can just talk about that is one of my favorite moments so far.”
Junaluska and Wachacha have ideas for their clothing and podcast that centers Cherokee masculinity and identity. “We do have two or three images that we would like to use. It started off with our granddad’s handprint. He meant a lot to us, pretty much raised us as far as our father figure. So, we have his handprint, just his hand in some paint on a piece of paper, and we’ve always kept it close,” Junaluska said.
Wachacha said he developed the artwork for their logo as an homage to the late Jason Reed. “He was a phenomenal male figure in our life as well,” he said.
Cherokee masculinity has become an underlying theme of the podcast. They say it was unintentional, but they are leaning into it. “I would say personally, throughout my journey in life, I haven’t had that many conversations about that at home or with friends or with male authority figures in my life. And it just kind of ties in with the ‘underground,’ within the title; these are conversations that aren’t spoken about a lot, right? So, providing a space for certain topics to be discussed is important,” Wachacha said.
Uktena Underground wants to be a space for the Cherokee community and other Indigenous communities to speak freely. “In the long term, we want to expand to other tribes. We wanted to give everybody a space to talk about whatever they feel needs to be talked about,” Junaluska said.
“It’s a space or an opportunity for people who want to voice their opinions about certain issues. Feel free to reach out and to have a platform to speak about certain things,” Wachacha said,
Uktena Underground has a YouTube channel, Facebook page, TikTok, Instagram, and website: https://uktenaunderground.com/
