0:10

You know, everybody

0:10

burn sage, right? That wasn't

0:13

legal up until 1978. For

0:13

everyone, but nobody even heard

0:18

of it until recently, is it

0:18

real, it's more of a thing now

0:22

everybody does it. But within my

0:22

lifetime, I couldn't even do

0:26

that. Our ceremonies had to be

0:26

done in secret.

0:31

This is United States

0:31

of race, personal stories of how

0:36

our earliest memories determine

0:36

a lifetime of relationships. I'm

0:40

your host, DB crema. This week,

0:40

we are speaking with grace. And

0:48

she shares in the most personal

0:48

way how historical trauma has

0:52

impacted her life, and that of

0:52

her family, her community, her

0:57

tribe. You know, while most of

0:57

us have learned about the

1:00

residential schools in the news

1:00

lately, she brings to life, the

1:04

realities and the lasting and

1:04

detrimental impact of those

1:08

schools, and what it takes to

1:08

overcome generations of

1:12

colonisation and oppression and

1:12

violence against Native

1:15

Americans. And it's got me

1:15

thinking about why we share our

1:19

stories, the importance of it,

1:19

you know, we are sorely missing

1:24

a breath of inclusive history in

1:24

our education system, there is

1:28

no doubt. And at the same time,

1:28

no matter how much textbook

1:32

learning there is, it's only

1:32

really through the power of

1:36

sharing one's personal story

1:36

where you can help other people

1:40

really understand it, and really

1:40

internalize it and see it from

1:45

the perspective of the lived

1:45

experience. And I guess that's

1:48

how this podcast got its start.

1:48

You know, a couple of years ago,

1:52

I was hearing a lot of anti

1:52

black sentiment creep into work

1:56

related conversations. And I was

1:56

incensed. And I felt someone

2:00

needed to speak up and

2:00

represented a different

2:03

viewpoint. And so as a woman of

2:03

color, I facilitated

2:06

conversations on race. And

2:06

within one of my groups, I asked

2:10

that question, the initial

2:10

question, when did you first

2:13

become aware of race, and each

2:13

person went around the room and

2:16

shared a story from their early

2:16

childhood, when they first

2:21

learned about it. And what was

2:21

interesting is that, you know,

2:24

as a professional network, we

2:24

didn't know each other on a

2:27

personal level. And what was

2:27

interesting was, not only did we

2:29

get to know each other better,

2:29

but there was this intangible

2:33

but palpable impact among this

2:33

group of people, you could see

2:38

that we had this new

2:38

understanding of the realities

2:44

of each other's lives. And what

2:44

I took away from it were these

2:48

two realizations. One, we all

2:48

had to be taught about race

2:52

introduced to it at some point,

2:52

you know, none of us were born

2:55

race aware, across the group in

2:55

everybody's story, we were all

3:01

confused, and shocked and

3:01

dubious like we do. What about

3:05

what now? You know, as children,

3:05

we see difference. But it's not

3:09

until we're told that we should

3:09

differentiate based on that

3:12

difference, that we start to

3:12

apply these judgments that we're

3:17

being taught. And so the reality

3:17

is for society to come to terms

3:22

with its past, its ugly past, it

3:22

has to learn through individual

3:27

stories, the lived experience of

3:27

its people. For this, I am so

3:32

grateful for all the folks who

3:32

have shared their stories along

3:35

the way. While the show includes

3:35

people from all walks of life,

3:40

the voice of black, Indigenous

3:40

and People of Color is still

3:44

sorely underrepresented in

3:44

media, and I feel honored to be

3:47

able to bring some of those

3:47

voices to the fore.

4:00

When did you first become aware of race?

4:04

I grew up in South

4:04

Dakota. And the race relations

4:08

between natives and non natives

4:08

is not good at all. We when we

4:12

would leave the reservations as

4:12

as kids to go to, say a grocery

4:17

store. We had, I had the

4:17

experience of you know, just

4:21

people following us watching us.

4:21

South Dakota is very, very

4:26

racist towards Native peoples,

4:26

even though we're about a third

4:29

of the population there. So

4:29

there was a lot of experiences

4:33

like that, and I didn't really

4:33

click until I got older. But

4:36

there is one particular memory.

4:36

I do have. And the thing is it

4:41

wasn't with a non native it was

4:41

with my own people. And I was

4:47

real little I had to be, I don't

4:47

know, five, six, or maybe even

4:51

seven. But my mom just was on

4:51

the reservation. And we were at

4:56

a grocery store. She went into

4:56

get groceries There were six in

5:01

my family, six kids, I'm number

5:01

five of six. And I have a

5:06

younger sister and me and her

5:06

were always together. And my dad

5:09

was outside. We were kids, we

5:09

got tired of sitting in the car

5:12

waiting for our mom to do her

5:12

grocery shopping. So we got out

5:15

and we sat on the hood of the

5:15

car. And I remember it was a

5:18

sunny day. And this native man

5:18

walked by, and he he made a

5:23

comment. And he said, look at

5:23

those ies because, and yeska in

5:28

our term in our language. It

5:28

means what today is a derogatory

5:34

term, it means like halfbreed.

5:34

And my dad, my mom definitely

5:40

looked much more native than I

5:40

do, because I'm very light

5:43

skinned. I have four, four older

5:43

siblings, and they all have much

5:47

darker skin and darker hair. So

5:47

they look like the typical

5:51

ethnic kind of kid. And me and

5:51

my younger sister, a much

5:54

lighter skin. And we were kids,

5:54

though, we were little little.

5:59

And I didn't. At first I didn't

5:59

know what he said. But my dad

6:04

heard it. And it pissed off. My

6:04

dad made him very angry. He got

6:10

out the car. And he said, What

6:10

did you say? Because those are

6:13

my kids. And the guy knew my

6:13

dad, and he goes, Oh, my God,

6:18

I'm sorry. I didn't know those

6:18

were your kids. And I didn't

6:21

know what he had said was wrong

6:21

until my dad reacted. And the

6:26

older I got, you know? Yeah, the

6:26

older I got, I began to realize

6:36

what it meant. And it was it was

6:36

it's an ugly feeling. And then,

6:53

I began to realize what the term

6:53

meant. And I as I got older, and

6:57

I began to realize what colorism

6:57

meant. It still impacts me to

7:03

this day. Right? It made me it

7:03

made me feel like what's wrong

7:09

with me. And I knew, I mean,

7:09

there was always kind of jokes

7:13

about me and my younger sister, because we were a lot lighter than my rest of my brothers and

7:15

sisters. And then that always

7:19

kind of made me feel like I'm not enough.

7:23

Not enough, like I

7:23

don't look enough

7:25

Indian, or native. And

7:25

I didn't have the straight black

7:29

hair that a lot of natives have.

7:29

My mom had that my sisters had

7:33

that. But my dad had curly hair.

7:33

And so I had a lighter brown

7:37

hair that was more wavy. So I

7:37

didn't have the hair that I had

7:42

seen in my tribe, that his

7:42

beautiful black shiny hair. And

7:47

I didn't have that I had this

7:47

brown curly wavy hair that I

7:49

hated. You know, because I

7:49

didn't look like the other kids.

7:54

And even the boys boys had

7:54

really long hair down to their

7:56

waist. And it was it was to me,

7:56

I always looked at their hair.

8:00

And I was like, gosh, it's

8:00

beautiful hair. I like their

8:02

hair thing of beauty. And just

8:02

growing up that always stuck

8:06

with me. I didn't feel like I

8:06

was enough native. And I don't

8:10

know if that makes any sense.

8:13

Absolutely does to me.

8:13

I grew up around whiteness. And

8:17

so, you know, I had dark curly

8:17

hair and very, very curly. And I

8:23

just always wished it was

8:23

lighter in color. And I always

8:26

wished I could feather my hair

8:26

like Farrah Fawcett. I seriously

8:30

spent the first 14 years of my

8:30

life wishing I could feather my

8:33

hair like that.

8:37

Yes, I know that

8:37

feeling. And then the hard thing

8:41

was when we left the

8:41

reservation, it was abundantly

8:43

clear. I was not white. And my

8:43

family was treated, not very

8:49

kindly. And so I think I was

8:49

aware of race, some a very young

8:55

age. And colorism does happen

8:55

amongst every group. And for my

9:01

group. I had cousins that had

9:01

blond hair, blue eyes, and they

9:07

were treated pretty badly by

9:07

other natives. And then there

9:11

was some native some relatives

9:11

of mine that were very what you

9:14

would call fullblood. Meaning

9:14

meaning they were full. Native

9:19

America didn't have any white

9:19

blood in them or anything else.

9:22

And so they were made fun of

9:22

too. If you were too light or

9:26

too dark or and then people like

9:26

me who were in between, we were

9:30

still called half breeds. So

9:30

like just no one could win,

9:33

right? Yes. And I never

9:33

understood that until I got

9:39

older. And my aunt, she got me

9:39

into my life direction where I'm

9:47

at right now. She was a nurse.

9:47

She became a therapist. She was

9:51

in the military and she had gone

9:51

through the boarding schools

9:54

just like my mom and dad. And if

9:54

you're not have heard what the

9:57

boarding schools are, most

9:57

people are beginning I need to

10:00

be aware of what they are.

10:02

To be honest, I

10:02

actually know about schools in

10:05

Canada.

10:08

The boarding schools in

10:08

Canada happened here, too. And

10:11

they went on until the late the

10:11

middle 70s. Those forms of

10:15

boarding schools. And they were

10:15

government, not always

10:20

government run, sometimes they

10:20

were run by private

10:23

missionaries, private religious

10:23

groups to Mormons had their own

10:26

version, Catholics had theirs.

10:26

And then there was government

10:29

run boarding schools where the

10:29

kids had to attend these schools

10:33

starting at age five. And the

10:33

purpose of them initially was

10:38

too, it did a good job of was to

10:38

stomp out the culture and

10:43

identity of natives. And just

10:43

try to get rid of that erase

10:48

that identity knowledge. They

10:48

tried to break the passing of

10:52

cultural knowledge on

10:52

generationally. And these went

10:55

on from like, 1891, all the way

10:55

up until 1970s. And so my

11:00

parents went to them. And in the

11:00

schools, there was a lot of

11:03

abuse, the parents could not see

11:03

their children, they could not

11:07

say no, you know, if you spoke

11:07

your language in the schools,

11:11

they would beat you. There was a

11:11

lot of rampant sexual abuse,

11:15

verbal, cultural, emotional,

11:15

mental, you name it, it was

11:19

there. And it was it. It was

11:19

horrible. You know, today, we

11:25

call them survivors, people who

11:25

made it through those because

11:27

there's natives that didn't make

11:27

it through them. And so my

11:31

parents went through these

11:31

boarding schools. And they, if a

11:34

parent did not hand over their

11:34

kids to go to these boarding

11:37

schools that were on the

11:37

reservations, they could

11:39

withhold money and food from

11:39

them.

11:43

And so these schools,

11:43

their children were taken from

11:46

their families taken from their

11:46

parents put into the boarding

11:49

school, solely for the purpose

11:49

of assimilation. And yes,

11:53

stripping you of your culture

11:53

and identity through refusing to

11:57

allow you to use your your

11:57

language, your dress, your

12:01

customs. Is that

12:03

Yes, yes, that's

12:03

exactly it. They cut the hair of

12:07

the kids as they came in, they

12:07

stripped him of any identity.

12:12

They marched, the schools were

12:12

kind of run like military

12:15

styles, schools, they were

12:15

marched from class to class. It

12:20

was a horrific experience,

12:20

honest to God. And so my parents

12:25

had gone through that. And I

12:25

didn't know much about it. I

12:28

didn't really know anything

12:28

about it, because people who

12:31

natives who came out of that did

12:31

not talk about this era. They

12:35

didn't want to talk about this

12:35

era, because it was very, it's

12:38

traumatic. And I had an aunt

12:38

who, while my parents became

12:43

alcoholics, and so did she and a

12:43

lot of people did, who came out

12:46

of the schools for obvious

12:46

reasons. And she, as she got

12:50

sober, she went back to

12:50

understanding the culture, our

12:55

traditions, and our tribe,

12:55

because she never got to learn

12:58

it. And she wanted to know why

12:58

she was on a journey to figure

13:01

out why she became an alcoholic.

13:01

It was part of her healing

13:04

process, right? She began to

13:04

understand our culture was very

13:09

different than what we have

13:09

today, our traditional

13:12

knowledge. And that's when she

13:12

it clicked with her. What

13:15

happened in these boarding

13:15

schools was abuse. Oh, wow.

13:18

Yeah. And she was one of the

13:18

first people to speak out

13:21

against this and start talking

13:21

about it. And this was back in

13:24

the 1980s. Before today, where

13:24

it's a lot of people talk about

13:28

it, it was before we understood

13:28

trauma. It was you know, we

13:31

didn't even have a term for

13:31

trauma then. And so she would do

13:35

these presentations. And I

13:35

attended one of those when I was

13:37

in college, and it changed my

13:37

life. She gave me so many

13:42

answers that I've been looking

13:42

for, and that many natives are

13:45

looking for, you know, what

13:45

happened to us? How do we? How

13:48

do we get to where we're at

13:48

right now, because we have a lot

13:50

of issues and dysfunction in

13:50

reservations. And people don't

13:54

understand that. Well, whole

13:54

generations went through this

13:57

abusive environment from age

13:57

five until they graduated high

14:01

school.

14:03

And even those who

14:03

didn't, the generations before

14:05

them are passing it on. And it's

14:05

very challenging to not pass it

14:08

on to your children. If he's

14:08

actually incited abuse.

14:11

Yeah. So it's a huge

14:11

complex issue. And it changed me

14:16

it gave me this aha. Like I said

14:16

earlier that I want to know more

14:20

about my culture. I want to

14:20

understand what happened. I want

14:24

to understand how did we lose

14:24

our parenting skills because we

14:27

had awesome, beautiful parenting

14:27

styles in our tribes that were

14:30

extremely healthy. That

14:30

knowledge was almost completely

14:33

eradicated. And it's a

14:33

resurgence. Now we're trying to

14:35

pull it back. So I look back now

14:35

at this adult who called me in

14:42

ESCA as a child, I'm just like,

14:42

wow, I was a child. I mean, who

14:45

really does that to kids? And I

14:45

looked back and I was and I

14:49

think now I know where and why

14:49

he said those things. Right?

14:54

Right. Where and like you said,

14:54

there's no winning there. You

14:57

read the two foot fullblood or

14:57

your two white or you halfbreed

15:01

you know,

15:02

but you can also hold

15:02

a space for empathy for him no

15:05

understanding that, you know,

15:05

the negativity that we put on

15:10

each other, even our own kind,

15:10

is because it comes from a place

15:14

of the traumas that we've

15:14

experienced.

15:16

Yes. And lateral

15:16

violence was a term I learned.

15:21

It's more, it's used a lot more

15:21

in Canada. It's the violence

15:25

that happens to oppress people,

15:25

between each other in the

15:29

community. It's called sideways.

15:29

Because when people are

15:33

oppressed, and colonized like

15:33

natives were, you can't

15:37

overthrow the oppressor, right.

15:37

And so it becomes internalized,

15:42

and we begin to hate ourselves

15:42

as what's called internalized

15:46

oppression, and then it comes

15:46

out, sideways on each other

15:50

through lateral violence. Yes,

15:50

once I understood, this is why I

15:53

decided to go into therapy and

15:53

counseling, I got a psychology

15:57

bachelor in psychology and then

15:57

moved into working in the

16:01

schools. And I began to get a

16:01

better understanding of what

16:04

natives urban natives are going

16:04

through. And because there's a

16:11

wide spectrum of natives,

16:11

there's, there's ones who live

16:13

on the reservation, those who go

16:13

back and forth, and then those

16:16

that live on the reservation.

16:16

There's those that are

16:19

traditional to a wide spectrum

16:19

to non traditional, who know

16:22

nothing of their culture. You

16:22

know, so there's a big picture

16:25

going on here that I didn't

16:25

understand until now. And it's

16:29

taken me since since I was

16:29

little kid, right? Since taking

16:33

me decades to understand, right?

16:33

It's interesting

16:37

time, when you

16:37

mentioned that your aunt that

16:39

you attended your aunt's

16:39

presentation, and it almost like

16:45

fit the puzzle pieces together

16:45

for you, I imagine and gave a

16:50

name to some of the things you

16:50

were feeling and seeing

16:52

happening. But when you don't

16:52

have that name for it, not only

16:59

is it hard to make sense of it,

16:59

but it's also you kind of keep

17:01

it to yourself as like something

17:01

a fault of your own, rather than

17:05

understanding that it's because

17:05

of this systemic issue that has

17:09

been perpetrated against your

17:09

entire community for

17:13

generations.

17:13

Yeah, yeah. I, I did an

17:13

internship at a treatment

17:17

program with natives. And I

17:17

began to talk to them about

17:21

this, they were wanting to know

17:21

more to it got to a point where

17:25

several of them were like, can

17:25

you put this in a presentation?

17:28

Can you give this to my, my

17:28

church? Can you talk to my group

17:32

about this? I was able to talk

17:32

about historical trauma in a way

17:35

that we could explain what

17:35

happened. But I had people

17:40

coming to me saying, can you

17:40

tell me more? I want to know

17:43

more too.

17:46

But that's within that

17:46

specifically within your own

17:48

community. But there's so much

17:48

less discussion kind of across

17:52

the country. As a general in

17:52

terms of a general population,

17:56

there's so much less discussion

17:56

on the reality of centuries of

17:58

these impacts on the Native

17:58

American population.

18:02

And you're right,

18:02

you're absolutely right. I asked

18:05

people, well, I get people

18:05

who've asked me and said to me,

18:10

you guys still exist. You know,

18:10

they don't even know we're still

18:15

here. And the history of

18:15

happened. What happened with

18:19

Native Americans is, like you

18:19

said, it's not talked about it's

18:22

not discussed is not taught in

18:22

the schools. And people, they

18:27

don't even know we exist

18:27

anymore. So when people ask us,

18:32

What do you want to say? I'm

18:32

like, I want to say we're still

18:34

here. We are still here. We

18:34

still exist. And there's a whole

18:42

history in there that that has

18:42

to be taught has to be talked

18:45

about. You know, we were

18:45

obviously colonized. There was a

18:49

genocide that happened. When

18:49

Christopher Columbus came here.

18:52

They think there was anywhere

18:52

from 30 to 50 million natives in

18:55

the continent. And then by the

18:55

year 1900, US Census said we

19:00

only had 250,000. Oh, wow. You

19:00

know, the city I live in, has at

19:07

least 365,000 people. Right?

19:07

Today, our population numbers

19:14

are rising again. Thank God,

19:14

we're, there's about 6 million

19:17

of us. I mean, but that's still

19:17

smaller than New York City. And

19:24

so for me, race issues are

19:24

always present. Because for

19:30

natives everywhere we look,

19:30

anywhere we go. In United

19:34

States, this was traditionally

19:34

native land. Mm hmm. So there is

19:38

a constant reminder there. That,

19:38

you know, there was a genocide

19:45

you know, it's hard.

19:48

How does that how does

19:48

that affect someone, right? So

19:51

like, we're all aware of

19:51

genocides taking place, in

19:55

different places, and it's one

19:55

thing to have sympathy for it

19:59

and to but to be able to hold it

19:59

at arm's length, what is it do

20:03

to a person to know of this

20:03

genocide of one's own people?

20:12

Well, that's that's a

20:12

good question. Thank you for

20:17

asking. It's a tough one to it

20:17

obviously, is it's very

20:21

emotional. And, and it's very

20:21

emotional for natives who hear

20:25

it too, because they were I see

20:25

in their eyes were lights are

20:28

going off into being and to

20:28

understand what happened, I

20:31

realized I have to be careful

20:31

how I present this because when

20:35

I first started doing this,

20:35

there was a man in the, in the

20:38

audience and he was native. And

20:38

he got up halfway through the

20:41

presentation, he was crying. And

20:41

he said, I have to leave. He

20:47

said, I can't I can't hear this

20:47

anymore. This hurts. And he

20:52

said, If I don't, I'm gonna walk

20:52

out here and find the first

20:55

white person and punch him in

20:55

the face. You know? And so I was

21:00

like, okay, yeah, you need to

21:00

leave. You need to take your

21:03

time, you know, you need to

21:03

process. Give yourself that time

21:07

to process this. Because for

21:07

natives, we I know for myself,

21:15

all I can do is speak for me.

21:15

There's there's a sense of

21:18

sadness, some anger, hurt,

21:18

confusion, when we hear it when

21:25

we learn about these, this

21:25

history, and knowing about that

21:30

can really rile you up. So how

21:30

do you process that? How do you

21:33

deal with that? It's gotten

21:33

easier for me to talk about it

21:37

to speak about these things. But

21:37

it's, it's still there, like I

21:44

said that there's a daily

21:44

reminder for natives, we can

21:47

move on some, a lot of people

21:47

are able to go about their daily

21:52

lives and just not think about

21:52

it. But I do think there are

21:56

others that don't, and that

21:56

can't, and they may not know

21:59

where the sadness comes from.

21:59

And what we call it we call

22:05

historical trauma, right. And

22:05

there was also a phenomenon that

22:10

happens to people who are

22:10

colonized, they their self

22:13

esteem and self worth can sink

22:13

to a very low level where they

22:16

begin to hate themselves. And if

22:16

the whole group is going through

22:22

that, there's going to going to

22:22

be some that just can't push

22:25

that aside. Some have turned

22:25

towards drug and alcohol use to

22:30

be able to cope with it. It's I

22:30

had an interesting conversation

22:35

with somebody who was Jewish

22:35

that we were talking about the

22:39

Holocaust. And he remembers the

22:39

date whenever they were

22:45

liberated. And it occurred to

22:45

me, natives never had that. We

22:51

never had this aha Liberation

22:51

Day, you know, and we never had

22:56

our pain or trauma acknowledged

22:56

either. Yet, yet? Well, we've

23:05

tribes have asked the government

23:05

for apologies, and they refused,

23:10

is very complex with natives

23:10

because our position here is

23:13

unique in the way that we are a

23:13

political entity to we have a

23:17

political status, and we have

23:17

legal claims to Lance. So the

23:21

government is very clear on

23:21

saying I'm not gonna apologize,

23:24

because then I admit guilt. Mm

23:24

hmm. And then we can go to

23:27

court. Right.

23:28

Right. As a sovereign

23:28

nation, yeah. So my

23:33

understanding is that through

23:33

your treaties that many have

23:35

been, most have been broken,

23:35

broken. Um, it does bestow upon

23:41

you US sovereignty as a

23:41

independent nation. Yes. Or I

23:46

should say, plural independent

23:46

nations. Yes.

23:48

I mean, I'm trying to

23:48

like sum this up real quickly.

23:52

Keep it back to personal

23:52

experiences here. Yes. Can

23:55

you just sum up like,

23:55

yeah, freeze them in about a 20

23:59

minute, you know, sound bite for me?

24:02

It's not easy. No. Oh,

24:02

so my experiences, it's hard to

24:09

not talk about them without having talked about the bigger context. Mm hmm. So going from

24:11

from those experiences growing

24:17

up in South Dakota, when I was

24:17

little, I'll be upfront and

24:21

honest, I did not like white

24:21

people. I was treated very

24:25

rudely, whenever we left the

24:25

reservation. And then I went off

24:28

to college and I got a

24:28

scholarship to go to a private

24:32

Jesuit school. And then I was

24:32

placed in with a lot of white

24:38

people. That definitely had more

24:38

money than I did. And so I that

24:43

was a whole new experience from

24:43

there and i i Slowly made

24:46

friends and coming from a place

24:46

or reservation in the state of

24:51

South Dakota. It was seriously

24:51

like going to a foreign country

24:55

for me, even though I was within

24:55

the United States. But I, I was,

25:03

I've come a long way I think

25:03

that going from

25:09

angry, angry at white people to

25:09

where I'm at now. Right? I

25:14

don't, I don't feel that

25:14

anymore. But it had a lot to do

25:18

with my experiences and who I

25:18

encountered and who I talked to.

25:25

When you're talking about the presentations that you've given to variety of

25:26

audiences, when you give those

25:30

presentations, how are they

25:30

received by non natives?

25:36

At one point, I

25:36

realized I had had to tone this

25:39

down a bit because I had people

25:39

crying. And I think I was

25:44

traumatizing them. And I'm like,

25:44

I'm trying to just give you the

25:48

history. This is not just native

25:48

history, this is American

25:51

history. A lot of them were

25:51

grateful, honestly, it was very

25:57

impactful, because they had

25:57

never heard this information

25:59

before. It just blew their minds

25:59

that like, native religion was

26:03

outlawed until 1978. Anything

26:03

with traditional culture was it

26:08

could have been considered

26:08

outlawed too. And our language

26:12

was outlawed until that time

26:12

also 1978. Yeah, yeah, 1978. In

26:18

1979, there was an act called

26:18

the Indian Religious Freedom

26:21

Act, then we could practice our

26:21

spiritual practices, beliefs,

26:25

religion, everything. And I

26:25

would tell them, I'm not blaming

26:31

you, I'm not blaming anybody.

26:31

This is just the history that is

26:34

not taught in this, we'd need to

26:34

know this, in order to

26:39

understand where we're at today.

26:39

And I would think, to, I would

26:43

say, the government to help

26:43

would be to teach actual native

26:47

history included into American

26:47

history, not as a separate just

26:53

a separate month, and a separate

26:53

class. I'm like, No, we, we were

26:56

always here, whenever the

26:56

country was moving along, from

27:01

beginning to now, and it just

27:01

needs to start including us.

27:06

I'm trying to imagine

27:06

what an entirely overhauled

27:09

education system would look like

27:09

to to genuinely and faithfully

27:16

recount the history of all of,

27:16

of Native Americans, but all of

27:20

all America, all Americans, it

27:20

just,

27:24

it would be an awesome

27:24

thing if we could do that.

27:26

Because I always say, American

27:26

history begins with Native

27:30

Americans. You know, we were

27:30

here first.

27:38

You would also talked

27:38

about asking the government for

27:41

an apology. So it kind of in

27:41

that vein, what would for Native

27:48

Americans, and I recognize you

27:48

can't speak for all of them, or

27:51

even freed the entirety of your

27:51

own tribe. But

27:53

there's, there's not

27:53

one person who can be like

27:56

spokesperson for a group. And

27:56

you know, a native tribes,

27:59

there's over 500 of us around

27:59

and we're all very different. So

28:03

it's it's something that people

28:03

don't always understand or

28:07

recognize, right off that there

28:07

are so many tribes here that we

28:11

have such different cultures,

28:11

sometimes in languages that it

28:14

is difficult to try and get a

28:14

representative for tribes,

28:18

because

28:20

right, it's hard. No

28:20

one can speak for the experience

28:23

of an AI that's, that's across

28:23

all groups, all demographics, I

28:27

guess, no one can speak for the

28:27

experience of everyone. What

28:31

would it what is needed? What

28:31

would it take to be to

28:34

acknowledge these issues and to

28:34

be able to reconcile resolve

28:40

move on?

28:42

Oh, I've thought about

28:42

that. Yeah. Every time I see

28:44

some stuff, I remember those.

28:44

I'm like this is could be

28:47

reconciliation. This could be

28:47

reparations. Oh, that's a that's

28:51

a four letter word for a lot of

28:51

people reparations are so pissed

28:56

with them. Some people are like,

28:56

what reparations? I'm like, Yes.

29:02

I think one of them would be

29:02

providing funding for immersion

29:06

schools, because in native

29:06

tribes, our entire culture is is

29:11

held within our language. And

29:11

that was one of the things that

29:14

was outlawed was our language,

29:14

and our religion. And that's why

29:19

they went out of their way to

29:19

remove them from the home and

29:21

put them in these schools and

29:21

beat the crap out of them if

29:23

they spoke their language. If we

29:23

had funding for immersion

29:28

schools, just to help the kids

29:28

start learning their language,

29:31

again, because they're dying out

29:31

in so many tribes. There's a lot

29:35

of tribes who completely lost

29:35

all their languages. And that's

29:39

one thing that defines a society

29:39

as a living language. Right.

29:42

Right. And there's so many

29:42

tribes are losing that. I know

29:46

in Hawaii, they're doing it to

29:46

try and revive the Hawaiian

29:49

language. Oh, and it, I'm

29:49

thinking that's just one thing

29:53

they could do. I would say they

29:53

need to honor the treaties. The

29:57

government needs to honor the

29:57

treaties that were struck. And,

30:02

and remembering now over in

30:02

Germany, what they have done for

30:06

Jewish people? Uh huh. What? If

30:06

you go to Germany and you'll

30:12

find placards on the ground and

30:12

statues, you'll see you'll find

30:16

these these markers all over the

30:16

country that acknowledged how

30:20

many Jews live there prior to

30:20

the Holocaust in Germany that

30:25

they're very, they really don't.

30:25

They're very embarrassed of that

30:29

history that they have of the

30:29

Holocaust. And they don't want

30:33

to forget it. Because if they do

30:33

they know what can happen again,

30:35

right? So if you go through

30:35

Germany, they really, like I

30:40

said, they mark everywhere. How

30:40

many Jews were in this one area?

30:44

Or maybe how many were killed?

30:44

And they make sure that history

30:47

is taught.

30:50

The importance of

30:50

starting with the recognition?

30:53

Yeah, just talking

30:53

about it even Yeah, yeah.

30:56

Acknowledging, like I said,

30:56

we're still here. We are still

31:00

here. I think this is that is

31:00

why the boarding schools were so

31:07

they were so effective in and

31:07

how much damage they they made.

31:13

By separating the kids from

31:13

their parents, you know, and

31:15

they did it at such an early

31:15

age, unfortunately, because they

31:18

were like age five, I mean, how

31:18

many five year olds you know,

31:20

are terrified when they're

31:20

missing their mom and dad? Yeah.

31:23

In my tribe, Lakota, the word

31:23

for children, the language

31:27

Lakota, but the the word for

31:27

children is what chi Asia. That

31:33

means sacred people. And that

31:33

was the literal term for

31:37

children. We call them sacred

31:37

people. It helps to give an idea

31:42

of what we saw them as, right

31:42

and how we treated them. When

31:45

you see something as sacred and

31:45

beautiful. You don't hurt it,

31:48

you don't abuse it. You know,

31:48

you you take care of it, you

31:51

love you provide you care for

31:51

it. And we had an environment

31:55

where we could raise our

31:55

children in a very healthy

31:57

manner. And to allow them to be

31:57

them allow their emotions to

32:01

just develop and their mind to

32:01

develop. We created very healthy

32:05

adults. And we had this system

32:05

that worked. It worked really

32:11

well. So you go from that to

32:11

what we have today. And if you

32:15

you can see where and why and

32:15

how we got where we're at today.

32:19

But what we were like

32:19

traditionally, if left alone, we

32:23

had a beautiful functioning

32:23

society that worked well.

32:37

Thanks for listening

32:37

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32:41

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