I just read a book called “The Wolf at Twilight” by Kent Nerburn. We are good at telling our stories or talking about our history. This guy was able to be an interpreter/ writer for an elder in Lakota. It's a great book about the boarding schools, about the abuse of our culture, spiritual ways, & traditions. I would highly recommend this book to be in the Indigenous Curriculum in all the schools, but there is more - who controls the curriculum and what are they saying? I'm confused because I know our kids don't know anything about the fishing rights struggles. I took some flyers to Standing Rock about the canoe families but someone took them down and threw them away. For several years now, I have offered to come and talk a little about my history growing up in the fishing rights, my experiences with Dennis Banks and AIM and the different movements that went on during the 60's, thru now. Sadly, people don't seem to want to hear about these stories. My grandmothers and grandfathers were forced to go to these schools, so was my dad and relatives but it seems that our people’s ears are closed.
Dennis at Chief Leschi School, February 3
I've seen people talking about these struggles but they weren't really involved, yet they are writing the stories. I guess whoever puts it out there IS the story. There are many, many stories from elders and no one is writing them down - no one is listening.
MY great-granddaughter, Kaylen, was so cute today. I was talking to Anthonia about different spiritual medicines that we use and Kaylen was just watching me, looking right into my eyes, nodding her head. I told Lokk, “see she knows” and I looked at the baby, she was jumping and smiling at me and I know she knows....
We as Indigenous people need to recognize that WE need to write our own stories and distribute them to the schools, or they just need to start buying good books that are truthful and spiritual. I fear for our youth, we are losing them and we need to bring them back into our arms and teach them that they have to learn to walk two roads, their own and the other one that brings them together with spirituality, harmony and passion. Let’s bring pride back into our tribes!
We have Black history month and we have Indian Indigenous Month but I'm not sure how we are representing ourselves. My mother, Janet McCloud, used to have all kinds of ceremonies THROUGHOUT the years at her home. Many kids would come and they learned, they opened their ears and listened. Now we need to start using those teachings...Just think about it, food for thought.
