The Story of Our History...

A day re-written in history, extremely historical lyrics but intentionally forgotten.

You ask me to just pick one instance, but how can you when there are so many.

The stories untold throughout History removed or never even added to our educational institutions text books.

We survived through the trail of tears and forced removal from our home lands.

We survived through being confined to reservations where we could not hunt, gather, and roam freely that is the essence within our veins.

We survived boarding schools, stripping our children from our arms. Being punished for speaking our language. Having our spirits snatched away with every cut of a lock of our hair from our sweet children's heads.

Another institution forced upon our very souls, designed with the motto and intention of "Kill the Indian, Save the Man"! To always be treated and thought of as less than.

To have treaties broken between governments, and stories throughout History rewritten from a non-Indigenous perspective. To have our women forceably raped, and sterilized, kidnapped from their homes. Missing and Murdered is something that has continued on throughout time.

And yet today History goes on repeating itself. I thought about what one moment in History could I speak about. What one influential person shifted History and left their mark.

But there is way more than one. In our culture we live together, we are a community. Our Tribal Chief’s are picked to not just think of themselves, but of our people. We are all connected.

When I look back I am reminded of my own personal experiences. Wanting to take my children out to North Dakota for the DAPL Protests. To Take a stand against greed and protect our lands and waters.

I remember telling my two teenage sons that this was a moment in time where not only our people but many around the world were being a part of something huge that were making History.

Unfortunately, I did not make it out there. The closest I got to doing my part was joining a Mni Wiconi Protest "Water is Life" in my hometown.

Later the news captured the peaceful protesters being sprayed with cold water through water canons in 20 degree weather, the use of mace and pepper spray, tasers and flash bangs, attack dogs and rubber bullets being unleashed on these civilians. Our Warriors, Our Veterans, Our Grandmothers, Our Mothers, Our Fathers, and Our Children (unarmed, but nevertheless still harmed). Many were arrested and sent to jail, even some celebrities that were there. Some were mamed, lost vision, and even limbs.

As I shared about what was going on with a High School "Humanities" Class in a school district that claims to be diverse and inclusive; I was shocked that not one student knew this was going on, or what had happened on the Standing Rock Reservation.

This school later had a teacher state to their students that they didn't believe there were any real natives still around. Unknown that there were actual Indigenous students sitting in their classroom.

We are not all dead. Our Stories are not just what has been shared over time in History books. We are not only in the past. We live and breathe, and walk this earth just like everyone else.

You see the history books like to leave out the things this nation has done to our people. It likes to rewrite History the things that it cannot erase are just left out to hopefully one day be forgotten.

But how can it be forgotten when History continues to repeat itself. To this day we have influential history makers being left out of our textbooks and their significant stories Rewritten.

Did you know Electa Quinney was the very first school teacher in the state of Wisconsin. They even have a school named after her. But did you also know she was Indigenous.

Did you know 18 years before Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his infamous "I Have A Dream" speech Elizabeth Petrovich was already fighting for civil rights up in Alaska. But did you know she was Indigenous also.

Slaves back in History were not just Black people but there were some Brown people too. So then why does one ethnicity get their stories shared throughout History and another's does not.

There have been Indigenous Vice President's, Astronauts, Actors, Judge's, NBA players, Rappers, Lawyers, Miss Universe, and the list goes on and on.

Did you know our own Nation’s government was greatly influenced by the Iroquois Confederacy or what most know as the Haudenosaunee. It's a fact that Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson framed our democracy after that of the Indigenous People.

Throughout time our Voices have been stifled, our screams muffled, our existence the quote unquote Indian Problem. If you can't get rid of them, let's try to act as though they cease to exist; they are all extinct like dinosaurs and cavemen.

I worked in a local area school district. I was the Tribal Education Liaison and ran the Indian Education Program that was funded through a government grant. Our district was the sixth largest district in the state.

I worked not only with our PreK - 12 grade Native American and Alaskan Native students that was over 100+ students, a bigger student list than most teachers. But I also worked as a resource for the entire district, a resource for our community, and that was the first year they added a position at a local college to my job description.

It was enough work for three full-time employees, and eventually led to my Burnout. I've never been the same since. In more ways than one. This experience definitely opened my eyes.

To work with and get to know my students. Bonds I still have to this day almost a decade later. It was the hardest job I've ever had. To hear some of the awful things that were being said to our children. It broke my heart.

Living in this city growing up in this school district. They have had the Indian Education Program for 40 plus years. Yet every year you had to reintroduce yourself and share with everyone that this program is a part of this district.

You literally had to pull students from classes to help them with their academics because the teachers didn't see this program as a serious need. You had teachers looking at the cultural field trips as not an educational experience but as a fun time off of school.

Then there was the lack of representation of our students, and a lack of support from administration. And on top of all of that. You had a non-Indigenous person trying to rewrite History and take credit for the Indigenous Individual's hard work. All the while putting barriers in their way and creating a hostile work environment.

During my short time there I was able to meet with all of the high school principals and discuss the significance of the eagle feather and how our Indigenous students should be allowed to wear them at graduation. But this too will go down in History of a policy being made by an Asian individual and a Caucasian. No Indigenous spoken of in making changes, huge contributions to our Indigenous students and shifting school policies, that will impact our Indigenous Community throughout the next seven generations and beyond. And to know an Indigenous Individual made it all happen. But that's not how it will be remembered.

Throughout History, our stories, Rewritten and Forgotten. Wars fought, the language of our people used by Code Talkers, Enemies defeated. But to whom's account were these stories shared with the world.

The Nelson Mandelas and the Leonard Peltiers who sat behind bars for many years. Their lives ripped away by the words of others. Who to say if their stories were captured correctly because they were written from another's perspective.

The Walleye Wars that occured in Wisconsin only 50 some years ago, will soon be forgotten. Yet these stories of discrimination will last in the mind's of the Indigenous People who had to live through and endure these atrocities. Seeing images of Native American heads on spikes, and Indian Joe hanging from the trees. To have rocks and words of violence flug at them, and to see signs that read spear and indian save a walleye.

When did our world become so full of hatred for each other? We are taught to only take what you need. We offer tobacco to one that gives its life whether the maple tree that gives us sugar, or the bison that gives us meat to eat, or its other parts for useful necessities. Our Culture has never been about greed or hatred, but doing what is right for all.

I wish they would share more of our stories written from our perspectives in our history books. It may not always be pretty, but at least it will be true!

Even to this day, we face discrimination, violence, explicit slurs, and are demeaned by those around us. All the while those unleashing such hatred never took the time to actually learn about us or get to know who we really are!

There is one saying that sticks in my mind to this day about our people, our resilience, our way to persevere… “They tried to bury us, but they did not know… We were the seeds!”

And this story shared was just a day in the life of an Indian!