Its a good day to be Indigenous

With everything that is going on in our world, I am reminded of the things I had learned in my studies, Ethnic studies to be exact. I majored in Native American Studies and Xicano/a studies at Oregon State University. Being an Alaskan Native myself, with a rich history, I wanted to explore more the history of my brothers and sisters that live in the Southern continent of America.

This photo represents an unmolested land in Alaska. I know, I chose a rather strong word, but it is very much true. I grew up in Southwest Alaska and even up to this day, in my middle aged years, we still "live off the land". 80% of our diet consists of things we had fished, hunted and gathered from the land. I would not have it any other way. Even in our lifestyle the government still comes in and tries to "manage" our rivers and lakes we are surrounded by.

We are considered to be "wards" of the state and for the most part, our Southern (I say southern because I come from Alaska) brothers and sisters are "wards" of the government. Having been forced to live in reservations, they were pushed from the East into Western countries, some were even forced North.

This war reminds me so much of what happened to our country. Close to 100,000 Native Americans were killed for the sake of Manifest Destiny. We put in our history books and we learn about the holocaust and how many thousands were killed for the sake of their own "manifest destiny". Rarely do we learn about the numbers that were annihilated in our own back yard.

You may think, "Oh Great, Another angry Native", no just educated. How are we to move forward as a country when we don' t know our rich history. We are strong, we are survivors! Our youth these days have conformed themselves to Western culture. For Alaska, it began when the youth were sent off to boarding schools even at the age of 5 years old.

Our circle consisted of children in the center, than our elders and the women with their own specified role as the keeper of the home and caretaker of our elders and chilren. The men with their defined role in the outward circle, as the protector of the family, the provider. The "outside world" came, they forced the children, who were the center of the circle, to be brought hundreds and even thousands of miles away to boarding schools. Just imagine the disruption and how the circle was brutally broken. The children who were the center of our world, taken. The loss that the elder's must have felt. Our elders, our teachers. Who was left for them to teach? Many must have died of a broken heart. How did the mother's feel? How did the father's feel?

Many of the ones that were forced into boarding school were stripped of their culture and their language. We hear stories, when they spoke their native tongue, how the teachers would hit their small little hands with a ruler. There are photos today of boarding schools with signs in the background that say: "Speak English Only!"

Many of us wonder why some of our Native youth are addicted to alcohol and drugs, living in a bondage not knowing where this loneliness comes from, this low self-esteem. This feeling of "not fitting in" anywhere. From the 1960's, we have since started having school in our villages, but there still lies in the thread of the spirit, the ties from the past that still comes to haunt us to this day.

How are we going to heal from these ties of the passed? There is one way that I can think of and that is to speak. Speak of our history, speak out and tell your story. Speak to the trees, speak to the plants if you must. If there is no person there to listen you have your surroundings who will listen.