- [Joleene] Tonight on WPBS Weekly: Inside The Stories, meet Pala, the first Oswego County K-9 on the force in two decades.

We'll tell you what he does best and how he and his trainer are tackling crime.

And discover Jefferson County and the Canadian French connection that makes this region so rich in history.

Also, as part of the Dorothea Susan Badenhausen Legacy Fund, we'll take you to SUNY Potsdam, where this African drummer is bringing culture to his classes in a powerful way.

Your stories, your region, coming up right now on WPBS Weekly: Inside The Stories.

(exciting music) - [Announcer] WPBS Weekly: Inside The Stories is brought to you by the Daisy Marquis Jones Foundation, the Watertown Oswego Small Business Development Center, Carthage Savings, CSX, the Oswego County Community Foundation at the Central New York Community Foundation, the Richard S. Shineman Foundation and the Badenhausen Legacy Fund at the Northern New York Community Foundation.

- Good Tuesday evening everyone, and welcome to this edition of WPBS Weekly: Inside The Stories.

I'm Joleene DesRosiers.

Stefan is off tonight.

We kick things off tonight with a K-9 police dog in action.

The Oswego County Sheriff's Department dissolved its K-9 program over two decades ago, but as we're about to show you, the program is back with a black and tan German shepherd named Pala leading the pack.

(exciting music) Meet Pala, the first K-9 at the Oswego County Sheriff's Department in over 20 years.

- One of the things I had talked about while I was running for sheriff, and we just thought the time was right, and we started with one dog.

- [Joleene] The original program was dissolved years ago because of lawsuits.

Deputy handlers claimed they requested state-mandated compensation for the additional training time they spent with their four-legged partners.

Their requests were denied.

Deputy Casey Holden, Pala's handler, can speak to the time involved in training and acclimating a dog to his duties on the force.

- It was a monetary thing through the state.

The state put out more or less a mandate that said the handlers had to be compensated for time with the dogs, or be granted time to take care of the dogs on their duty time, and everything's worked out.

The county's been great with helping out with that.

It's a 24/7 gig three to four hours on our off days that we're working, and then every day on I put 12 hours plus with him.

- [Joleene] Pala is originally from Hungary and has more energy than most dogs, but this is what police departments look for in a hardworking canine.

- He lived in my house for about two weeks.

He was practically a wild animal.

Didn't even know how to sit or lay down.

From that point, we attended a 14 week long police K-9 academy in Monroe County, where he was taught everything from obedience to obstacle course, agility work, building searches, tracking, evidence searches for items with human odor on it that may have been dropped and handler protection as well as apprehension.

Pala, aus.

Between.

Platz.

We actually select these dogs based off of their drive and willingness to work, and everything that they do is for a toy.

So everything he's doing is waiting to try to get that toy and waiting for his reward.

Pala's drive just makes it so he can do the things he needs to do.

I gotta pull him out of a car at a moment's notice and say hey, track this guy for two miles through the woods, or hey, I need you to go find this in a field that we can't find.

He's got one right there.

He's actually gonna lay down on it right there.

Where is it?

Show me.

Where is it?

Show me.

Yes, good boy.

- [Joleene] He doesn't realize what he's doing is probably police work.

- No, and that's the good thing.

I mean, the crazy thing about it is what we're asking these dogs to do, it's dangerous.

It's dangerous for the dogs.

It's situations that we ourselves typically don't put ourselves in.

We're asking these dogs to go out on the line for us, and it's a game for them.

They're having the best time of their lives doing it and they're playing the whole time.

Same odor as normal heroin.

It's just in a synthetic form so it's not harmful to us.

I'm actually gonna stick it up underneath this.

Here we go.

(exciting music) I initially started off with hiding a toy, started mixing the toy with like drug odor with four different types of drugs, and eventually the dogs, you remove the toy and they start alerting to the drug odor thinking they're getting their toy, and then they get rewarded with their toy.

- [Joleene] Pala's already had a series of successes since he joined the force in 2021, including a recent drug bust that removed illegal drugs and weapons from the street.

In some cases, the presence of the K-9 vehicle alone is enough to stop a suspect in his tracks, but not always.

And when that happens.

- Sheriff's K-9.

Stop, I'll send the dog and be bit.

Sheriff's K-9.

Stop, I'll send the dog and be bit.

Last warning.

Sheriff's K-9, stop, I'll send the dog and be bit.

(siren blaring) Fass.

(siren blaring) Good boy.

Sitz.

- [Joleene] Pala is the first on the force in Oswego County, but he won't be the last.

- We want to bring on at least three more.

Our idea was at first to bring all these dogs on at once, but then it was pointed out to us that we need to do it over time so the dogs don't all age out at the same time or we're back to the start of the program.

So as the year goes on, we'll bring on another one each year that we're here.

- It's such an honor to be selected for the first K-9 handler in over 20 years for this department.

As far as more getting on board, I hope to share the reins a little bit with everybody else, and hopefully by that point, I'll have enough experience to shed some light on and help other people.

- Pala will also play a role when the new K-9s arrive, the second expected sometime this year.

So long as he's rewarded with a toy, he's on board with whatever the Oswego County Sheriff's Department needs.

In Oswego County for WPBS Weekly, I'm Joleene DesRosiers.

The history of Jefferson County is a fascinating one and dates back long before the Revolutionary War, from the hardships early settlers faced to the establishment of a major center for industrialization to the Gilded Age mansions of the Thousand Islands.

Jefferson County was originally settled by the French, and roots of their history are still very much here in the county.

- [Brian] Jefferson County was untouched land, full of timber for building shelter, wild game for sustenance and countless numbers of lakes, rivers, and streams which provided plenty of fish.

Waterways like Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River were also used as avenues of transportation for Indigenous peoples.

The area served as hunting ground for Oneida, Iroquois and Algonquin tribes in the summer.

They traveled south during the harsh winters, but it was their knowledge and experience with these lands that was essential in forming relationships with the European settlers.

- The first European who is credited with landing on Jefferson County soil is Samuel Champlain.

He is reported to have landed in Jefferson County in 1609, and this was during his raids on the Onondaga further south.

- [Brian] Samuel Champlain was born into a family of mariners, and by the summer of 1567, he learned how to navigate the waters and draw nautical charts.

Champlain first voyaged to North America on a fur trading expedition with Francois Dupont in 1603.

During this time, he drew a map of the St. Lawrence.

Champlain returned to France in the fall of that same year, and after publishing an account of his experiences, set out again in the spring of 1604.

This expedition, led by Pierre Dubois Dumont, focused on areas south of the St. Lawrence.

- Well, it's interesting.

We had Europeans in our area even before the settlers.

The route coming down from Black Lake through the Indian River and connecting to the Black River has been a very, very ancient transportation corridor.

In fact, we recently learned that the French used that as their invasion route to central New York in the 18th century.

So there have been Europeans crossing our area even before actual settlement.

Our earliest settlers tended to be French, and they were encouraged to come here by James Le Ray de Chaumont, who was one of our earliest landowners and land developers.

- [Brian] The French alliance with Americans during the American Revolution is ultimately what urged James Le Ray de Chaumont and other Frenchmen like him to come to the area.

James Le Ray's father, Jacques Donatien Le Ray de Chaumont, invested in the American Revolution, providing money for weapons and supplies.

Sadly, he lost the family fortune with that investment.

After the war, the new United States government gave Jacques Donatien Le Ray de Chaumont land in payment of war debts.

His son, James Le Ray, also purchased thousands of acres in northern New York.

That acreage is known today as the town of LeRay and Chaumont in New York.

It also includes the Borough of Le Raysville in Pennsylvania, also named after him.

Another man looking to make money after the American Revolution was Alexander Macomb.

He was a merchant, land speculator and fur trader.

Following the Revolutionary War, the new state of New York was struggling financially.

To recover, the state offered tracks of land for sale.

In 1791, Macomb purchased 3,670,715 acres in New York for a mere 8 cents an acre.

Macomb's purchase would make up much of Lewis, Jefferson and St. Lawrence Counties and a part of Oswego County.

However, Macomb wasn't able to turn over his land quickly, an issue aggravated by the Panic of 1792, which slowed land sales.

As a result, Macomb found himself $300,000 in debt.

He was never able to regain his fortune.

Macomb passed away in 1831.

The historic piece you just watched comes from an original four part documentary series called Discovering Jefferson County.

The series was produced right here at WPBS.

If you'd like the entire series at your fingertips, you can order your own copy and enjoy all four parts in the comfort of your own home.

- Good parenting never ends.

Here are some tips for parents of young children on how to manage feelings and make the most of TV time.

- I use TV to help my kid learn.

Want to know how?

Pay attention to what your kids watch on TV.

Not all shows are appropriate for your little ones.

Watch TV with your kids.

Talk about the show with them and apply it to your daily lives.

- They're disposable bottles.

- After you watch a show, point out related examples throughout your day.

Good job.

Read a book or do activities about the theme of the show.

Make TV time into learning time.

(upbeat music) - For the past several weeks, we've been sharing segments with you featuring artists and musicians from St. Lawrence County, all thanks to the Dorothea Susan Badenhausen Legacy Fund.

Tonight, we take you inside a drumming circle at St. Lawrence University, where instructor Len Mackey teaches West African drumming.

Take a listen.

This is powerful.

- My name is Len Mackey, and I'm the Director of the Ancient Earth Skills Educational Center here just outside of Canton.

I studied West African and world music when I was at RIT and also at SUNY Potsdam.

I guess what really draws me to West African drumming and just drumming in general, we are born with rhythm around us, in us, everywhere.

Everything has a frequency, a rhythm.

Every organ, every plant, every tree, and African music is just so complex and so simple, just like this great universe.

Just to feel the drum through my skin, my heart, my mind, it makes me very happy.

This is called bala or balafon, and this is the instrument of the Griot or the Jali culture from Guinea, West Africa.

Those were the people who were the right hand person to the king.

The king would say hey, this is the news.

He would tell the Jali, and then the Jali would go and they would sing it to the people.

It's basically a marimba, a wooden keyed marimba, and underneath is a gourd, the calabash, and that's the resonating chamber.

So the keys give it the pitch and the gourd gives it the acoustic resonance.

(balafon playing) In Guinea, West Africa, they have a drum called a djembe.

Djembe you find all along the coast of West Africa.

The word actually comes from the Bambara people.

Dje means everyone, be means come together.

So the name literally means everyone come together or unity.

Djembe is unity.

You have three sounds on djembe, a low, middle, high, papa, mama and a baby sound.

And then the bass drums in that orchestra are a papa, a mama and a baby.

You have the dundunba.

(dundunba thumping) That's the big, dundunba means big.

Then you have sangban, that's the mama.

and then you have the kenkeni, and that's the baby drum.

You have balafon and you have also log drums and other instruments that they play.

But these instruments you'll find in different incarnations all over Africa.

In West Africa, they have djembe, but you go to another part of Africa and they have the kpanlogo drum, like in Ghana, which is more like a conga.

So you have different kinds of drums and different kinds of instruments in West Africa based on the resources that they had available.

It's always fun to see how people respond to an American white person playing African drums.

I think that when they start to feel the music, somehow the thoughts disappear and they get into that feeling.

I guess this reminds me of an experience I had when I was at RIT.

There was an Afro-Caribbean night and they had a dance contest.

They had all the girls do their part and then the gentlemen were invited up to come and dance.

I was on the edge of my seat like oh, I really want to go dance.

I really want to dance, and I'm the only white person that would be on the stage, and I was like ah, I just can't stand it any longer.

So I ran down there and just start like dancing and just feeling it.

And at first I think people were like, what?

And then by the end, they were like, go white boy, go white boy!

I actually ended up getting the trophy for the dance contest.

- [Joleene] Len is an adjunct professor at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York.

There he teaches classes in West African drums, fitness, and more.

He also founded the Ancient Earth Skills Educational Center.

- The Ancient Earth Skills Educational Center is a primitive skills school or ancient living skills school that I started.

I just kind of started at first by doing fires for nature up north, teaching people fire by friction or drumming around the fire.

And then I went to other schools like the Tracker School or Route School, or in St. Croix, Caribbean Earth Skills studying different survival skills.

At the school, at the educational center, Ancient Earth Skills, we do drumming, we do tracking.

We'll follow deer tracks or turkey.

We'll make turkey calls.

We're actually building a drum right now, a kenkeni-style drum.

We do other kinds of stuff, animal forms and movement, martial arts.

I have a children's program called Little Tracker that we do every week, but then also run adult programs as well.

So my life really has become a lot about what these old cultures have to share.

The African music, getting people moving, the aspects of edible medicinal plants and traditional skills like making buckskins and all that singing and drumming.

I'm completely enamored with culture that has elements that can give us meaning and experience, especially.

I'm Len Mackey.

This is Ashley Goff and Madison Lubscher, and we are Bomba Ferra.

Bomba Ferra is the nickname I was given when I was in Guinea, West Africa, studying this drum and dance, and it's the one who is everywhere and wants to do everything, to drum, to dance, to chase the pretty girl.

That's Bomba Ferra.

So we are very blessed to play this music for you today, and away we go.

(drums pounding) ♪ Oh my love, oh my love, oh my love, my heart is a drum ♪ ♪ Oh my love, oh my love, oh my love, my heart is a drum ♪ ♪ My heart is a drum, my heart is a drum ♪ ♪ My heart is a drum, my heart is a drum ♪ ♪ My heart is a drum, my heart is a drum ♪ ♪ My heart is a drum, my heart is a drum ♪ ♪ When I beat upon the drum my hearts become as one ♪ ♪ With the moon and the forest, ocean and the sun ♪ ♪ To the beat move your feet, shake your body, have some fun ♪ ♪ Turn hands now and dance for your heart is a drum ♪ ♪ Oh my love, oh my love, oh my love, my heart is a drum ♪ ♪ Oh my love, oh my love, oh my love, my heart is a drum ♪ ♪ Gotta let it go just so you know ♪ ♪ Come alive again, you're alive again ♪ ♪ Live today as if the last day ♪ ♪ Come alive my friend, come alive again ♪ ♪ 'Cause oh my love, my love, my love, my heart is a drum ♪ ♪ Oh my love, oh my love, oh my love, heart is a drum ♪ ♪ In the earth spread your toes ♪ ♪ Where your rooted lover grows ♪ ♪ Beautiful flower upon the vine ♪ ♪ Whose sacred fruit is a love divine ♪ ♪ Whose sacred fruit is a love divine ♪ ♪ Feel the heartbeat, feel the rhythm inside ♪ ♪ Feel the heartbeat, feel the rhythm inside ♪ ♪ Feel the heartbeat, love and rhythm inside ♪ ♪ Love and rhythm inside, love and rhythm inside ♪ ♪ 'Cause oh my love, my love, my love, my heart is a drum ♪ ♪ Oh my love, oh my love, oh my love, my heart is a drum ♪ ♪ Heart is a drum, my heart is a drum ♪ ♪ My heart is a drum, my heart is a drum ♪ ♪ My heart is a drum, my heart is a drum ♪ ♪ My heart is a drum, my heart is a drum ♪ (drums beating) - And that does it for us this Tuesday evening.

Please join us next week for a fresh look Inside The Stories.

A reality show is being filmed in Oswego County.

It's called Great Family Adventure, and WPBS will take you behind the scenes to this fresh new show exploring the outdoors on both sides of the border.

And Sackets Harbor is rich in history.

How rich?

We'll take you on a tour of the iconic village.

Also, join us as we take you inside the Frederick Remington Museum in Ogdensburg for a closer look at some truly remarkable pieces.

Meantime, we want to tell your story.

If you or someone in your community has something meaningful, historic or heroic to share, please email us at wpbsweekly@wpbstv.org, and let's share it with the region.

That's it for now, everyone.

Thank you.

We'll see you next week.

- [Announcer] WPBS Weekly: Inside The Stories is brought to you by the Daisy Marquis Jones Foundation, dedicated to improving the wellbeing of communities by helping disadvantaged children and families.

Online at dmjf.org.

The Watertown Oswego Small Business Development Center, a free resource offering confidential business advice for those interested in starting or expanding their small business.

Serving Jefferson, Lewis and Oswego Counties since 1986.

Online at watertown.nysbdc.org.

Carthage Savings has been here for generations, donating time and resources to this community.

They're proud to support WPBS-TV.

Online at carthagesavings.com.

Carthage Savings, mortgage solutions since 1888.

Additional funding provided by CSX, the Oswego County Community Foundation at the Central New York Community Foundation, the Richard S. Shineman Foundation and the Badenhausen Legacy Fund at the Northern New York Community Foundation.

♪ Feel the heartbeat, love and rhythm inside ♪ ♪ Love and rhythm inside, love and rhythm inside ♪ ♪ 'Cause oh my love, my love, my love, my heart is a drum ♪ ♪ Oh my love, oh my love, oh my love, my heart is a drum ♪ ♪ Heart is a drum, my heart is a drum ♪ ♪ My heart is a drum, my heart is a drum ♪ ♪ Heart is a drum, my heart is a drum ♪ ♪ My heart is a drum, my heart is a drum ♪ (drums beating) (soft tones)