Indigenous Peoples Day

Some days I wonder…What if I wasn’t an Alaska Native?

What if I didn’t grow up with a blood quantum card…a card that only dogs and Native Americans have.
I am 13/16th Alaska Native…if I have children and my children marry others who are not Alaska Native and they have children, the “Native” will be bred out of us. This was a slow and calculated decision placed on us to limit our citizenship to our own tribes and to slowly eliminate our cultures and our people.

What if I didn’t grow up and experience subtle racism?

What if I didn’t grow up and realize I am a “minority” which at times can be an advantage and disadvantage?

What if I didn’t grow up and have to learn about ANILCA, ANSCA, tribal councils, Alaska Native Corporations, federal subsistence meetings, environmental impact statement comment periods, and everything else that entails being Alaska Native?

What if I didn’t grow up with brown skin?

>>> Then I slip out of the questions of “what if’s” and appreciate the other side of the coin of what it is like to be an Alaska Native woman who cares about so many things.

I grew up with my mother telling me stories of the Elders she interviewed.
I grew up with my grandma speaking Dena’ina to me.
I grew up with my dad hunting, trapping and providing for our family in the traditional way.
I grew up in community.
I grew up learning how to bead, drive a boat, honda, and snow machine; process meat, salmon, and birds.
I grew up learning how to listen with my eyes, ears, and heart.
I grew up at fishcamp.
I grew up with deep reverence for the salmon, the moose, the water, and the lands that provide.
I grew up outside.
I grew up on the lake.

>>> I grew up remembering ceremony and how to tap into the hum of the earth that reminds us to celebrate each other, celebrate our indigeneity, and celebrate life.

Today and every day I celebrate Indigenous Peoples, those who came before; those who are here now, and those who will come after.