The thing that I tell young people, it doesn’t matter if you’re a young man trying to grow out your hair, or already have your hair long. Whoever you are, however you’re trying to express your culture, understand that the majority of people are extremely ignorant about that. It doesn’t excuse what they say, it doesn’t excuse what they do, and these kids are only modeling what they’ve seen adults do.
One is taught that no one comes out of the womb being racist, being prejudiced, being a bully. That is an environmental behavior that they’re seeing at home, that they’re seeing in their community, in their neighborhood, and it’s how families interact with each other. It doesn’t make it right, but at the end of the day, you have to remain true to yourself, and it is hard to do that at times when you’re in an environment where no one understands who you are.
But ultimately my hope is that these books, like Indian No More and others show young people that folks have already experienced this. Like, you are not alone in this and so my hope is that the book is a place of respite for them, maybe a life-saving device that they can turn to, and reread when they need comfort — going okay, you know what, Native people have experienced this, not just really for decades, but for centuries.
And to remember that their ancestors, yes, went through a lot, but they also gave them so much strength. So many people have prayed, and loved you, and dreamed you into being. And so you need to stay focused on that because there is so much power in our ancestors praying, and loving, and dreaming us into being that that is what you need to walk in.
This other stuff is going to be there and it’s going to be there on a regular basis, but we cannot stay in that place. We need to honor our ancestors with our eyes on the future because you will be an ancestor someday, and you need to encourage young people around you, and they’re going to need you to be that source of saying, ‘People have gone through this before you. And what do you need me to do, young one, to support you in your journey?’
