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Braids, Teepees, and Warrior Traditions With Dr. JD Lopez
24 Plays1 year ago
Dr. JD Lopez is an assistant professor, a published author, a veteran, and a tribal member of the Quechan tribe of Fort Yuma, California. Not to mention, he’s also my husband! JD joins Willing To Learn to discuss all things Native American. JD explains what it’s like growing up off the Rez, dispels some myths surrounding Native American people, and gives advice on how you can support local tribes near you.
Topics:
- Warrior Traditions and Heritage
- Indigenous Education Perspectives
- Research in Indigenous Studies
- Policy Implications and Advocacy
- Cultural Traditions and Symbols
- Historical Context and Understanding
- Indigenous Identity and Representation
- Literary Contributions and Publications
- Military Service and Veteran Experience
- Tribal Membership and Community
For more information on JD, visit: Jamesondlopez.com
Read below to access some of JD’s recommended resources from the episode:
Shop Native:
- The NTVS: www.thentvs.com
- B. Yellowtail: www.byellowtail.com
- Mean Right Hook: www.meanrighthook.com
Read Native:
- Deloria, V. (1969). Custer died for your sins: An Indian manifesto. University of Oklahoma Press.
- American Indian’s Children’s Literature by Debbie Reese: www.americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com
- Shotton, H., Lowe, S., & Waterman, S. (2013). Beyond the asterisk: Understanding Native American college students.
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@ashddominguez
WATCH AND COMMENT ON OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClC8Nj4g7u1etmBGjREi-xQ
Contact: [email protected]
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast and Guest
00:00:19
Speaker
Hey everyone and welcome to willing to learn where we believe that when we learn more
00:00:24
Speaker
We can do more. I'm your host Ashley Dominguez. Now today we have a very special guest, someone who's very near and dear to my heart. Not only is he a professor, a published author, a veteran and a tribal member, but he is also my husband. It would only be right to bring in
00:00:43
Speaker
the one, the only, Dr. Jameson David Lopez.
JD's Academic and Research Focus
00:00:48
Speaker
JD for short, he is an assistant professor at the University of Arizona located here in Tucson. He's graduated with a bachelor's in elementary education from American Andean College located in Phoenix, a master's in curriculum and instruction, and a PhD in educational policy and evaluation from Arizona State University. His research focus is on indigenous statistics, survey research, and indigenous data collection.
00:01:12
Speaker
On his website, JamisonDLopez.com, he writes, My hope is that my experience in research incorporating Indigenous knowledge and Western scientific methods will continue to support all generations of Native American people. JD is the father of two beautiful children, which also makes me a stepmom or a bonus mom, as I like to say, to Luna, who is seven, and Gordie, who is five. We love them so, so much.
00:01:37
Speaker
Because this episode is about Native American people and the experience of life on the reservation, I thought I would tell a story about my first experience on the res.
Personal Experiences and Adventures
00:01:49
Speaker
So when JD and I first started dating, he took me to Havasupai Falls, which is in Arizona, to visit his friend named Sandy to help out at an event.
00:01:57
Speaker
which we ended up arriving late to, but we made it. Now, while this area, it's super famous for that crystal blue turquoise waterfalls. It's home to the Havasupai Nation. It's a small tribe located at the bottom of the Grand Canyon with about 650 residents.
00:02:15
Speaker
and it is literally at the bottom of the Grand Canyon because there are only two ways to get there. You can either hike eight miles down or you can take a helicopter. Now obviously for the sake of adventure and impressing my new bow, we hiked down. It took a long time and at some point I remember asking him, hey, how close do you think we are to the Grand Canyon?
00:02:39
Speaker
And he kind of just looked at me with shock and laughter and was like, Ashley, we're in the Grand Canyon right now.
00:02:49
Speaker
Yeah, not my finest moment. To my defense, I'm not from Arizona and I haven't spent a lot of time in the Grand Canyon. Well, he still jokes on me about this till this day. I think it ended up taking us about four hours to get there. As you can imagine, we're exhausted and my legs felt like jello. But hey, by the grace of God, we made it better late than ever, right?
00:03:11
Speaker
So, small community, and as we entered in, it looks like the land before times. You know, an image you would see plastered on a postcard. The pictures that you would see, you know, the ones that kind of look like they're not even real. Red's dogs are running wild. The children are running wilder. You saw backpackers, a lot of tourists traveling through with their tents to enjoy the wondrous place.
00:03:35
Speaker
Well, we get there, we finally find Sandy, and there was a mix up. So JD was like, hey, originally we were gonna stay for the weekend. But then Sandy let us know upon arrival that she was actually moving out the very next morning. So JD's like, no, we're not gonna be able to see the falls. It was already.
00:03:55
Speaker
I don't know, like three or four p.m. And we knew we had limited amount of sunlight left in the day. So he's like, let's go. We got to go now or we're going to miss it. So we started off and it's a two mile walk. But luckily, JD pulled out his thumb to this local who cruised by in a dune buggy and was like,
00:04:11
Speaker
can you give us a ride?" And she said yes. So we jumped in, we're cruising, going down these dirt roads, and we just had a great time. We made it. We got to swim and see, you know, have a soup by falls. We had to walk back. And we just had a great time talking with the people that Sandy had over in her apartment and just having good conversations, baking sandwiches, telling jokes. And then we camped out in her soon-to-be former living room.
00:04:39
Speaker
Early, early the next morning, we started, you know, moving her out in black trash bags. JD laughed and he was said I was getting a real Riz experience. But luckily, Sandy agreed to put us on the helicopter manifesto, which means that we could fly out with her. Now, hiking town was one thing, so I was quite relieved that my sore legs wouldn't have to worry about hiking up.
00:05:03
Speaker
So, in true Cindy fashion, she started assigning us tasks. She said, JD, go get that wheelbarrow and take these snacks to the house. You know, on the left, you go past the floor. Get the one with the broken stairs.
00:05:16
Speaker
We both kind of looked at each other. Wait, what house? She repeated the same bare minimal instructions. Without another question, JD and I took off. We had our coffees, and he maneuvered this toppling wheelbarrow down an old dirt road. We luckily found it, and JD reticently knocked on the door, and someone opened, and we started unloading all the food. A little girl, so cute she came out, but her head was shaved.
00:05:42
Speaker
And they were calling her Porcupine. Later I asked JD, I was like, what do you think that was about? And he said that it wasn't uncommon to shave a kid's head when they got lice. Well, anyways, she grabbed my hand and she gently took me over to visit this horse. And she was so kind and friendly. And JD finished unloading and then it was time to go. We hurried back because we didn't want to miss the helicopter.
00:06:04
Speaker
JD, oh my goodness, he was stressed. He was sweating and it was not because it was hot. So finally we get back and he's searching for her, he's searching for her. And he goes up to her to make sure that we're on the manifest. And immediately she says, my gosh, I almost forgot you guys. JD smirked and kind of just looked at me and gave me that look of, I told you so.
00:06:27
Speaker
Well, we grabbed two things and luckily we made it on the helicopter. Both with boxes in our laps and we're just laughing and smiling and taking pictures about the adventure and all of its mishaps. Well, this was my first experience with Red's Life and it was less than a 24 hour trip. One we'll never forget. But we've also had several adventures since and I know we'll have more in the future.
00:06:51
Speaker
Okay, so before we get into interview, don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe to the podcast. This not only helps me build a show, but I really want your feedback. I want your input, and I want us to build a community that we're proud of. It isn't just for me, although I will gladly kick shows and topics and guests, but I wanted to hear what you guys are interested in, so be sure to leave it in the comments.
00:07:13
Speaker
All right, and don't forget to reach out, get connected and go follow at willing to learn podcast on Instagram. Also, don't forget, stay tuned after the interview each week. I'm going to be giving listeners a call to action. What this call to action entails is basically a concrete task and a way to apply the knowledge of game this week. We learn best by doing. So I want us to reflect on our knowledge and see how we can put our lessons into action in our community and beyond. So be sure to keep listening until the end of today's episode to hear what the call to action is this week.
00:07:43
Speaker
Alright, and now to our guest instructor, Dr. JD Lopez.
00:07:50
Speaker
Well, hello. Hello. Hey, husband. Hey, wife. How's it going? Good. Having a good day. Having a great day. You know, I feel like I haven't seen you in a minute. At least a minute. At least a minute. I'm laughing because you're in the study and I'm in the bedroom, literally probably six feet apart, but while separating us. Oh, it's more like 15 feet.
00:08:19
Speaker
to be specific. Well, welcome. Thank you for obliging me, for honoring me and joining and being on the show. Of course. I'm super excited to have you. Not only are you nice to look at. Yes, but you're actually smart. Who didn't know? I'm good. I don't know if I'm smart. You'd be clever as the word.
00:08:50
Speaker
Well, first, if you can just tell everybody who you are, what you do.
JD's Background and Identity
00:08:56
Speaker
Yeah, sure. My name is Jamison Lopez. I'm from the Quizan tribe in Fort Yuma, California. Born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. I go by JD. I was born at this magical place called Phoenix Indian Medical Center, P-I-M-C.
00:09:13
Speaker
and operated by Indian Health Services. Anyways, I grew up in Phoenix. I went to a predominantly white school and lived in a white neighborhood, but then also my parents worked for a small private nonprofit college for native students called American Indian College. And so my life was spent in some kind of liminality between
00:09:35
Speaker
white community and a native community and then going back to my own reservation and different reservations across the United States. And I always liked my childhood. I feel fortunate to have had the experiences I had as a kid growing up and, you know, just being around my folks and it was a unique childhood. And I think me and my sisters all really had fun. But anyways, it's a little bit about me.
00:10:02
Speaker
Thank you for sharing. I definitely want to ask you some questions about that, living in the city, being an urban native, and then having those trips back and forth to the reservation. But before we get to that, I want you to tell everybody a little bit about what your position is and your research. Yeah, sure. So I'm a faculty member at the University of Arizona. I serve as an assistant professor. Most of my work is in indigenous statistics.
00:10:31
Speaker
What I do is I look at the limitations that we find in a lot of statistics surrounding Indigenous folks, and then I try to improve them, essentially. To put it simply, I look at persistence, but I also look at things that are difficult to measure, like how we're measuring academic outcomes that are based in the community value. So a lot of times I think we can see that mainstream outcomes of what we're looking at as far as
00:10:55
Speaker
what makes a good college students or things like, okay, what's the GPA? What's the first to second year persistence rates? What's the graduation rates and that kind of thing. But I think if we were to look at it from a community perspective, it may actually sound a little different. A lot of my work is kind of surrounded around that is like, how do we measure and implement community values and privilege the indigenous voices as opposed to like maybe some mainstream or Westernized approaches to the research itself.
00:11:25
Speaker
That's a little bit about me. I could I could go on and on if you want me to but oh, I know you can I have a faith in you But just to be clear you use numbers, you know quantitative methods use numbers surveys to measure Native American higher education outcomes But but you try to use constructs that are in indigenous traditions rather than
00:11:54
Speaker
Western concert. Exactly. And I think that's most of my work. And when I look at, I mean, it's, it's kind of broad and like, it's a broad swath of things. But again, it's like indigenous statistic and survey methods. Like that's like what I love. And that's what I focus on and what I enjoy working with the community with. So that's like kind of my, that's my side gig in addition to being a husband to a wonderful wife and of course a father to two beautiful kids. So
00:12:21
Speaker
Yes, yes. Now, something I'm always interested in is hearing about origin stories. And I'm curious, obviously you identify as Native American, you have tribal enrollment, but I'm also interested in why this research topic, why does this specific topic matter to you?
00:12:39
Speaker
I mean, there's there's a lot of reasons I alluded to it at the beginning and the introduction of just growing up around native folks. When I started reading research as a graduate student, I started seeing more and more that the way people were writing about native folks and especially higher ed, like native students in higher ed, wasn't reflective of what my experience were growing up at a native college and going to a native college and going to different reservation communities and native communities and
00:13:08
Speaker
I was just like, this isn't what I experienced firsthand. And so, I mean, in reality, I just wanted to explore that topic more for me, you know, the way that they're measuring, for example, the way that they were measuring indigenous identity of these ways of just using either self-identification, which is problematic and
00:13:28
Speaker
essence that folks are saying they're native when they're not really native for some kind of advancement whether it be career advancement or some kind of financial gain or you know access to higher education getting enrolled by saying you're from an underrepresented group but then also you run into problems with just asking tribes and how they identify their native folks and their tribal membership because
00:13:51
Speaker
A lot of tribes still use blood quantum and blood quantum could be problematic for a lot of reasons, but blood quantum being the amount of indigenous blood that you have. So for example, usually it's like a, like the four over four. So that means you're full-blooded, you know, native or a particular tribe. And just to clarify the four over four is parents on both sides or grandparents on both sides.
00:14:16
Speaker
Yeah, so it'd be like the parents so like if you and it goes back to some you know when they're doing the Indian Reorganization Act and they were trying to determine who had membership to certain communities and each tribe I don't I want to make sure that each tribe has tribal sovereignty and so they kind of you know did it in different ways but the main way that I've seen it in the indigenous community is like they use blood quantum as a way to show their membership
00:14:43
Speaker
There's some communities that do descendancy such as Cherokee, but for the most part, I've seen it as blood quantum, which again, it's like kind of whoever was around the community at the time and signed the rules were like, okay, you're native or you're four over four or whatever it may be.
00:14:59
Speaker
If you married, say, someone that was non-native, then your kids would be, you know, half. And then if they married somebody that was non-native, then those kids, your grandkids would be a quarter. And then usually the threshold is a quarter. Some tribes are different, some are half, some are an eighth. So once you kind of go out the limits of that threshold, so for example, if your great grandkids marry a non-native, then
00:15:23
Speaker
essentially they're not going to be enrolled tribal members based on where their community is, even if they grow up in the community. And so I think that's kind of where I saw the problems when I looked at like indigenous identity and how folks were measuring it between those two different
00:15:39
Speaker
ways of like, hey, we have a self-identification variable, but then we also have this other way of doing it where it's like, oh, we want to use the tribal way, but it's also blood quantum. And the reason why that's problematic, there's this kid in my community, he's a really great kid and 17 years old, and he grew up there. He knows the language, he participates in ceremony, he sings our songs, bird songs, we would have songs, lightning songs.
00:16:05
Speaker
And you know, he knows who his family are. He understands the land. He grew up there. And I think about him and in his status, his mother was a quarter and she married a non-native and so he's an eighth. And so the mother is considered to be a part of the tribe, but he's not.
00:16:23
Speaker
despite understanding the language, despite understanding the land, knowing his family and participating in ceremonies, he's not considered to be native. And so it's just like problematic. And so a lot of the things that I like to do in the statistics is like, how do we address some of those challenges? And, you know, for me, I developed a scale of Native Americans giving back in there. We have an identity measure and I
00:16:49
Speaker
I hate calling it that because even I feel like there's some criticism, but we based it in Robert K. Thomas in Tom Holmes idea of the peoplehood paradigm, which is saying your connection to a certain people is around four areas. So your kinship, your connection to land, your connection to language, and then your connection to sacred history. And so we have those four areas. And in that scale, we just started saying,
00:17:15
Speaker
like, okay, so if those are the four areas that we're looking at, how can we develop survey questions around that, that'll get at that experience. And so to us, when I read through the literature, it was kind of like, oh, there's not a scale of Indianist that exists, but you know, in my mind, I was like, well, maybe we should try. Cause everybody's been writing about Indianist on a scale. And so I don't like to call it Indianist. That's the words that I see in the literature, but
00:17:42
Speaker
For me, it's less about identity, more about what's your experience growing up as a native person. And that's the same for me, like growing up in the city. Right. And I think that's so interesting because I think America likes to put people in a box. They like to have an archetype, a stereotype of a way to identify what a person is, their background, and then what are some of the behaviors and habits that we can expect from those type of people.
00:18:10
Speaker
So we're going to touch a little bit more on that. But what I want us to move on to now is to dispel and unlearn some of the bad information that is out there around Native American people. So my question is, what are some of the common misconceptions surrounding Native American people? And
Addressing Stereotypes and Misconceptions
00:18:27
Speaker
with that, I have to ask you.
00:18:30
Speaker
Do you live in a teepee? Oh, my God. Though you I think you have all the people should know I do not live in a teepee. Your family does not live in a teepee. But for some reason, that's the image that we see in the media when we're talking about a Native American person.
00:18:49
Speaker
I don't know it's it's it's so funny because you know folks this is 2021 and folks still believe that like for some reason either like we don't exist and there's an issue of invisibility within the larger mainstream community but then also there's all these like misconceptions about native folks that are just not true and like to your point no I don't live in a teepee I live where we live on a little bit more than a half acre and the
00:19:17
Speaker
Catalina Foothills in Tucson. No, we have a guest house. There's a pool here. I don't know what else. There's a satellite. We have satellite TV and Netflix like anybody else. So what do you contribute this misconception to? Is it dancing with wolves?
00:19:34
Speaker
Yes, I think definitely it is somewhat of like Hollywood portrayal native folks. It's also the media in itself, but you know, there's a lot of misconceptions out there. Folks think that natives don't pay taxes and I wish that was true, but I still pay sales taxes. I pay property taxes. I pay state taxes, federal taxes, you know, I pay taxes for registering my car or the house, you know, and so it's just, it's interesting that folks may think that. I mean, there's
00:20:03
Speaker
other things that I've heard that natives go to college for free. It's not true. If you're lucky enough to be from a gaming tribe or a casino tribe, maybe the tribe will help you out with your college, but maybe not, depending on how successful and how large the tribe is. There's a lot of other factors that go into that. Not all tribes have casinos. I mean, some of the tribes
00:20:24
Speaker
are in really rural communities and so you're not gonna drive four or five hours in the middle of the desert or in like you know a blizzard to go to a casino out in the middle of nowhere and so it doesn't make sense. So definitely some tribes don't have gaming industries. I think
00:20:42
Speaker
Lots of folks think that natives drink a lot or that we're drunks And again, it goes back to the idea of like the the misconceptions of the media in the 1800s They were trying to I will say what the mainstream community white folks were trying to do to natives in the time We're trying to paint a bad image and portray natives in a negative way in the newspapers They started saying like hey, you know
00:21:04
Speaker
natives are drunks they can't resist the taste of alcohol and the same with women and you could read some of that propaganda and that was happening in the 1800s in the newspapers and they were just trying to like portray natives as these drunks without really having any kind of empirical proof
00:21:21
Speaker
and you fast forward and I think it was in 2016 there was a professor actually at the University of Arizona Dr. Cunningham and his colleagues they were like hey you know we've always heard this like stereotype that natives are drunks but what's that based in and so they took
00:21:37
Speaker
national data set and they said, let's see how true this is. And what they found was that actually natives drink less than white people. When it comes to casual drinking, natives still drink less than white people. When it comes to moderate drinking, natives still drink less than white people. When it comes to binge drinking, they were about the same. So like you think about those statistics and all these centuries or, you know, whatever it may be hundreds of years,
00:22:01
Speaker
People have thought natives are drunks, and to this day, I still hear it from certain folks, and they're like, hey, you better not drink. Or natives, I hear people really suffer from alcohols. In my mind, I'm like, well, not as much as yours. But I mean, it's just... It's true, I've heard it. It's an interesting thing to know where those stereotypes come from, when in reality, people just don't know.
00:22:29
Speaker
Okay, what about all Native American people don't have long hair or braids? Again, going back to this archetype. Typically, I was reading an article and the man didn't wear long hair or braids, but he said that when he did wear his long hair with braids, he was never questioned on his Native American identity. It was like, oh, boom, automatic, you're Native American. But when he cut it, people tended to question him like, are you sure?
00:22:58
Speaker
So what are your thoughts on that? You know, like for me, I have a long hair and I keep it that way. For me, it's part of my tradition, but then also it's my way of like resisting. You know, I think for a long time, our people, they went through the boarding school era where the
00:23:15
Speaker
Hair was cut the language was forbidden and abuse happened from the government and the Catholic Church and church in general And so for me, it's just a way of saying like hey resisting and being like hey, we have a right to wear our hair long So that's what I'm gonna do. I also feel like it's it's a connection back to my community Even though I live in a city right now Like I try to do as much as I can to make sure I'm connected back to the city and so, you know There's a lot of folks that thing like
00:23:44
Speaker
hey, you have to have long hair, but you also don't have to have long hair to be native, obviously. And that goes back to the idea of like, there's a spectrum of your experience, you know? You know, I didn't really, I'm sorry. Cause you've gone through periods of time where you didn't have long hair. Yeah, I had short hair and you know, my mom used to cut my hair for two reasons. First of all, if I got lice, hold on, be like, all right, we're shaving your head. You know, it's time to get rid of your lice.
00:24:06
Speaker
The other reason was funerals. In our community, we have funerals and there's this story that was told to me through one of our elders and he was saying, when the creator died, they couldn't figure out how to mourn. Everybody felt bad. So he said, what happened was the rabbit pulled off its ears and threw it into the fire when the creator was being cremated.
00:24:26
Speaker
And then the roadrunner pulled out its feathers and threw it into the fire. And they were doing these things as a way to show mourning, but in reality, it was a way to show that something, a piece of you has died with that person. And so when someone passes away, we usually cut our hair and it's signifying like a piece of you has passed away when that person has gone on into the afterlife. And so I still keep that in my mind when I go to a funeral, you know,
00:24:53
Speaker
I cut my hair at those times and just depending on how close that person is to me is kind of how much I feel like I need to get rid of my hair or you know that's kind of a personal thing that I know I do like the length of hair how much you're supposed to cut or not how much you're not supposed to cut off there's not actually like I feel like a measurement of that but for me that's something that I've always done but if someone passes away and I attend their funeral I always cut my hair
00:25:18
Speaker
I think that's when it goes to the hair and what it means to different communities. It also has different meanings with another tribes, but that's just my community in particular.
00:25:29
Speaker
Right. Because again, not all Native American people belong to the same tribe. There's 574 fairly recognized tribes. There's even more state recognized tribes. And there's some communities that are still fighting for recognition. And then not only that, there's indigenous folks in Canada, Mexico, all across the world. And so when you think about those communities, there's a range of experiences of what that is. Even going back to the last point about identity is
00:25:56
Speaker
Everybody even within the U.S. or being a Native person, it's all very different. I grew up in the city. I didn't really know I was Native until I was eight years old. I share this story. I didn't know I was Native until I was eight. I was sitting around on the playground with my friends and we were all talking about our different ethnic and racial makeup or whatever.
00:26:18
Speaker
And like I said, I grew up in a white community and these kids were like, oh, I'm German. Oh, I'm Italian and so forth. And then it came to me and I just remember all these eyes were staring at me because I was the darkest kid in the class. And they were like, what are you? You know, and they looked at me and they said, so what are you, JD? And I was like, well, you know, I was the darkest person I had ever met, darkest person I had ever seen. And then I was just like, well, I'm black.
00:26:48
Speaker
You know and I didn't know any better and I remember Just saying it over and over during the day and my teacher overheard me She called my mom and she said miss Lopez, you know, it's not a big deal But you know, I just want to let you know your son's going around everybody that he's black and my mom started laughing and
00:27:05
Speaker
And she was like, wait, is he or? And my mom was like, no, he's native. He squids on. I'll talk to him when he gets home. I remember getting off the school bus, walking in. My mom was sitting there on the couch and she said, you know, JD.
00:27:20
Speaker
come here, like I have something to tell you. And I remember going over there and sitting with my mom and she goes, JD, you know, you're, you're not black. And I was like, what, you know, identity crisis. I was like, I thoroughly enjoyed being African American for the first eight years of my life.
00:27:44
Speaker
And I was like, Oh, okay. Well, what am I then? And she goes, well, you're native. And back to your point of like seeing the movies, like my dad watching John Wayne movies growing up. And it's kind of funny to hear about native folks watching
00:28:00
Speaker
John Wayne movies. I don't know. I know a lot of folks that and they're all problematic. But anyways, that was like my representation of what a native person was. So automatically I got excited. I took off my shirt, got my mom's red lipstick, started painting up my face, painting my chest, went outside, cut up the hibiscus tree, started hunting the alley cats in the backyard. And I thought, man, this is like cool. I like
00:28:23
Speaker
being a Native person or whatever. But in reality, my experience growing up in the city was a true experience of growing up Native. Right. Being an urban Native, you know, 70% of Natives now live in urban areas. So my experience was actually the dominant experience for a lot of people who have Native identity. So yeah. Okay. Well, with that, another misconception is that all Native American people don't have brown skin.
00:28:51
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I mean there is there is that misconception but like obviously Native people that could have be like complected if we're talking about phenotype the game dark Complexion and it just depends also depends on the region. Like I mean, honestly, you're not gonna live in Alaska and be
00:29:09
Speaker
as dark as someone that grew up in Arizona. I've always had dark skin my whole life, but I also grew up in a desert. And so the desert itself kind of dictated to me like, hey, you're going to have really, really brown skin. And then also my ancestry of like all of our people going up here, but someone from Alaska, you know, it may be a little bit different being
00:29:31
Speaker
Covered up in jackets all all winter long and then you're not having as much sun in the summer And although I do know that they have nice summers sometimes in some areas or whatever it may be But it's just a little bit different compared to where you know I think it's just a little exposure and stuff is a little different down here
00:29:49
Speaker
And then plus, I think if you're talking about other things too, people intermarrying. Sometimes you have native folks that may marry a non-native person, whether they be African-American, white, and so forth, or Puerto Rican, you know? And so they're going to have a different type of makeup and what they look in their appearances. And I think that's a beautiful thing. I think people should celebrate that and our ancestry, you know, and our people were evolving.
00:30:17
Speaker
I think that's something I don't really think about much, but I also feel like it's a beautiful thing to see that.
00:30:25
Speaker
No, I think that's great. And I have one more and I know you and I have both. I've learned and we've kind of laughed about it and I've seen it be a trend in a lot of conversations. But there's this rise in discussion about people who want to identify as Native American and maybe, and then they start doing their ancestry.com and they learn that they're 5%
00:30:49
Speaker
Cherokee and then they want to use that to get into college and on their applications. So what are your thoughts on that? You know, I'm definitely not an expert in this area, but I do know there's a few faculty out there and professors that study this and Kim Tallbear is one of them. She's prolific and she has a lot of
00:31:11
Speaker
Different articles interviews and so forth that she's been able to publish around this area books and She's a wonderful resource and I would direct you towards her just me kind of off the cuff those types of things are problematic and in a sense of like
00:31:30
Speaker
You know, we were trying to claim native identity when native identity is actually more rooted in deeper connections to, like I said, land, language, kinship, understanding of sacred history. The cultural experience versus the blood quantum.
00:31:45
Speaker
Yeah. And so being able to claim like native ancestry through some type of DNA test, it's just, it's really problematic. You know, like I said, you want to be able to say like you have this certain connection to land, you have this certain connection to your language and you're understanding who your family are and you can relate back to that experience because folks, it's also based in treaties and it's like native identity is very complex and there's a lot
00:32:15
Speaker
that goes on with it. And so I mean, to like reduce it to a DNA test is, it's just, it's unfortunate. So that was the word exactly. I was thinking in my, my mind is that it's reductive. It's reductive. Yeah. Exactly. And it's a lot more complicated than that. Okay.
00:32:35
Speaker
All right, moving on. So now let's talk about some of the cold hard facts. What are the truths, regardless of your opinion or personal experience on the matter? The one that I wanted to talk about was the warrior tradition. So some of you may know that in the World War I, World War II, there were co-talkers who developed codes so that they were able to communicate and not be detected and understood by the enemy. Can you share a little bit about that?
00:33:02
Speaker
Yeah, sure. The warrior tradition for a lot of folks is different, you know, just depending on the community came from. You talk about co-talkers who mostly are associated with the Navajo community, but there's co-talkers in World War I, you know, from the Comanche, I believe the Mohawks and the Sioux as well, and other communities that have similar codes that they use to be able to fight in war.
00:33:26
Speaker
And so the US government has always looked to tribes to be able to help fight those wars. But we've also fought the US, you know, the cavalry throughout our entire duration of being here in the United States are then trying to come into the United States. And so we've been fighting against enemies for a long, long time. And I think that still situates ourself
00:33:48
Speaker
strongly within the warrior tradition. And then even if you think about more recent wars, you know, both my grandfathers were in World War II. I had like a lot of great uncles in World War II as well. I had nine uncles in Vietnam, had lots of cousins in Afghanistan and Iraq, serving in the army and the Marines and everything else in between. And so
00:34:09
Speaker
you know, those traditions are still strong and there's some aspects of our culture that can only be accomplished through carrying out some of those traditions that can only be accomplished through war. You can think about the connection between war and
00:34:25
Speaker
you know some people call it your your dream power or your spirit power and some of that only comes through those experiences that you have in war and that's the only way you could get it and so I think having that warrior tradition and being able to connect back to your culture it's important you know I know for me I was in the the army for a little bit I let's see here when did I join
00:34:47
Speaker
I think it was in 2009 or no, 2008, sorry, August 2008. I'm already forgetting because it was like 13 years ago, which is funny because it's had such a big impact on my life. But I joined in 2008. I remember walking into a recruiting station and said, I want to join up. And then two weeks later, I was gone to basic training in Fort Benning. And, you know, I stayed there in Fort Benning for about six months. I got commissioned as a second lieutenant.
00:35:15
Speaker
And the u.s army and then 2019 I went did some other training armor officer basic course, which is like tanks and so I got on the m1 m1a2 tanks and Then I got my first platoon and I guess it was august of 2019 trained with or excuse me august of 2009 I trained with them for a year and then we were deployed I guess in august of 2010
00:35:42
Speaker
I took a vacation to Iraq for a year, had a different experience up there. I was deployed to the northern province of Iraq and the Nineveh Province, which is near Mosul. I sat on a small patrol base that was probably like 400 meters squared or something like that, super tiny.
00:36:03
Speaker
and we just ran patrols out of that area for the entire year going on over 300 combat missions and having a range of experiences with that and then coming home and I just remember but I say all that to say like I just remember the reception I had from my community and they're always so welcoming and it was like a connection I only felt
00:36:24
Speaker
You know, it wasn't there before. It wasn't even there when I went to the army. It really happened when I came back home from war. And I could feel like, you know, just like almost like a stronger influence. Like there was a higher level of understanding of the culture, our participation in the culture, I guess, and carrying on our traditions that I remember feeling. And, you know, of course all my uncles that were in Vietnam are proud of me. They also made fun of me for being an officer, but
00:36:53
Speaker
At the same time, I know they were proud of me and I was just happy that I had that experience and I was able to carry on that tradition for my community, my family, myself. And to this day, I think there's certain experiences I know you could only have going into a battlefield like that. And I'm just happy that I was able to carry on those traditions and have that warrior spirit.
00:37:17
Speaker
Yeah, I know that you also did a short documentary film called Qantame. Oh, yeah. So you could cut, you could check out Qantame too. So it's kind of following along with the word tradition. I interviewed three veterans from our community and it's a really powerful film. We had a great friend and producer, Thomas Carmelo, who did a great job and his partner, Sierra Begay. And they were, they were able to partner with me and collaborate on this and it was, it was
00:37:43
Speaker
It's a really cool film, but yeah, you can check it out online. It's called Quantum Aid Protectors of the Quijan, and that's Q-U-E-C-H-A-N. And I just felt fortunate because, you know, one of the things I always like to tell my community or like mention whenever I have to get permission for this stuff is like, you know, we have to be able to tell our stories or else someone else is going to tell our stories for us. And you can see it through history, you know, like the books that are written about Quizan people are usually done by non
00:38:11
Speaker
you know, natives and definitely non-Qutans, you know, and they're trying to represent our community to the world that will speak of us in the history books in essence. So it's important for us to control that narrative, for us to say like, you know, as Qutan people, this is who Qutans are. And for me, that film helped do some of that, you know, it helps my research and how I'm measuring different things in survey research, such as the warrior tradition. But then it also helps
00:38:38
Speaker
my community and seeing like the experiences of what some of our veterans went to, those that are still upholding the warrior tradition, and then also something for our community and its future of just being like, you know, this is a history told from our own perspective and from our own voices. And so for me, that was a really powerful thing to see.
00:38:58
Speaker
What I think is so interesting is that a lot of these tribes do hold this warrior tradition and then they defend the American people and the American land despite the suppression of Native American people.
Historical and Generational Trauma
00:39:10
Speaker
So to the next topic of boarding schools, for those who are unfamiliar, this started around 1860 when the Bureau of Indian Affairs was established and they established these boarding schools as a way to reform and assimilate Indian tribes into the mainstream way of American life.
00:39:28
Speaker
What are your thoughts on boarding schools? You know, I mean, obviously they're horrific. The boarding square could actually go even farther into the early 1800s if you're thinking about the $10,000 subsidies that the US government was giving to religious organizations to be able to assimilate Native folks. And what had happened in boarding schools was just
00:39:52
Speaker
so traumatic for that generation. And then for the generations following, native students were abused physically, mentally, sexually by priests, by military folks, by teachers, you know, like people who you would think in this world would protect us in these days were the very abusers that native people saw back then. And even you could relate it back up to current day, maybe not in boarding schools, but in other ways,
00:40:22
Speaker
you know, boarding schools had a long lasting effect on native folks that it's been traumatic. And my, even my own family, I mean, both my grandparents went to a boarding school and they experienced abuses there. Like I said,
00:40:37
Speaker
losing their language, having their hair cut and, you know, just being forbidden to participate in any aspect of the culture. You know, eventually they run their course with boarding school. They go back to our home community and anybody experiencing
00:40:53
Speaker
traumatic events or having to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder and all the things that are associated with they begin to try to cope with those events and you know for my grandparents that was alcohol and so my mom she grew up in an alcoholic home
00:41:09
Speaker
my grandmother, she married or was with a man and she didn't know, you know, my mom never really actually knew who her real father was, but the man that raised her in the home, he and my grandmother were alcoholics and essentially, you know, they ended up becoming a party house.
00:41:26
Speaker
there on the reservation. My mom was abused in the same ways I was talking about that my grandparents had experienced in boarding schools. And she talks about her childhood and in a sense of like not only having one dress, no shoes, being very poor, looking for food, eating crickets with tortillas. And, you know, she had all these like interests, like, you know, I don't want to say interesting, but childhood trauma that happened with her in her own life in
00:41:55
Speaker
You know, it kind of culminated all when her father passed away beneath a mesquite tree outside their mud house when she was 12 years old and she found him out there. But there was still hope, you know, there was a group of native college students that came from a small college called American Indian College where my parents ended up going back to.
00:42:15
Speaker
And they talked to my mom as the man leading them, Jake Escalani. He's from the Tohono O'odham community and also from our own community. And he said, hey, you know, Belinda is my mom's name. And he said, you know, you could go to college, you could do this. And at the age of 12 years old, my mom made that decision and she decided to change the legacy of our family because my dad, they've known each other since the fourth grade.
00:42:39
Speaker
And my, you know, it was cause my dad failed the fourth grade. And so my mom was the extra year behind them. And so he said it was all in God's plan. But anyways, you know, he was a knucklehead most of his school years, you know, in his adolescence. And so my mom was the one that whipped him up into shape and.
00:42:56
Speaker
And so she changed the entire legacy of our family at the age of 12 and decided, you know, I'm going to go to college at 17. She went to college in Waxahatchee, Texas. And she spent, I remember she always tells us the same story, but she says, I remember going into the dorm and all those white kids were complaining about how small it was. And she goes, I just felt like crying because, you know, for the first time in my life, I had running water in my own bed and
00:43:26
Speaker
She was grateful with that. When I was little, we would sleep in the same bed or in the same area. Somebody would wet the bed and you would never know who it is because it just kind of trickled around them or whatever it was.
00:43:42
Speaker
Did you just say, like, you just kind of roll over and went back to sleep? But she goes, I actually got my own bed and running water and I was grateful. And, you know, my mom, she ended up graduating college. My dad graduated from American Indian Bible Institute that turned into American Indian College later on. And they decided, you know what, we're going to go back to the college and work there. My dad was an administrator. My mom was a faculty member. And she went on to train hundreds of native teachers that went out into their communities and made a difference.
00:44:11
Speaker
I think about that legacy of where she came from, what she was able to overcome, and then what she contributed and gave back to the community. And I just feel like that's so powerful and a lot of my purpose in my life is based off of
00:44:26
Speaker
her, but also my dad, who's also contributed a lot to the Native community. But I hold on to those stories because in my mind, I'm like, well, what have I done that's to that level? And I always keep that in mind and it drives me. There's more that I want to do. There's more I feel called. I don't know how to explain it because I don't think it's
00:44:50
Speaker
It's not this desire for recognition, but it's just a purpose, a sense of purpose. A desire to give back. Yeah, and you just want to do as much as you can. It's like, I can't help it, even if I wanted to stop
00:45:10
Speaker
I couldn't. And it's just something that draws you to it where I'm like, man, even if I wanted to quit, you know, doing what I'm doing or trying to help Native people, you know, I couldn't. Like, my spirit would be, like, restless. And so, it's just I know, like, that there's a calling there that just continues to bring me back and continues to bring me back. And, like, and it also fuels me. It gives me energy in saying, like,
00:45:36
Speaker
the more you do the more energy you get and so I'm in that cycle and I love it every day of it and I hope my kids see it too and you know and I hope they feel that same passion with whatever they decide to do with their lives and so you know it's it's it's been an interesting journey so far and I feel like for me
00:45:58
Speaker
like my kids are obviously like one of my family I would say is like my most important purpose in life too is to serve them but also have my larger native community and that's also people that I serve and I say that that word serve because that's how I see myself is just a servant to the people so.
00:46:20
Speaker
And there are a lot of issues that are still rampant within the Native American community. We know suicide rates are high poverty, welfare issues that are happening on reservations, the missing and murdered indigenous women.
00:46:33
Speaker
Yeah, sure. There's a lot of societal issues that we see in Native communities. But again, a lot of that's related to what the government had done to Natives. Like I talked about a lot about the traumatic events. Like you can't talk about suicide rates without talking about what the U.S. government as well as the church has done to Native communities to help perpetuate all those
00:46:56
Speaker
things that are rare. And I think that's the disconnect that maybe is not as well discussed in non-native arenas is how these events are generational cycles and the trauma and the abuse and the stolen land and the boarding schools, how all of these events are not isolated events that just end when a boarding school closes. It's not that that trauma and abuse just ends there.
00:47:20
Speaker
It's taken with those members that were there and passed down through their families And then it affects the lives of those and the generations that come after them exactly and you need You need folks you need native you like my mom like you just need people that can break those cycles and talk takes a lot of courage and bravery to do those types of things and you know to her
00:47:44
Speaker
credit she was able to do that and really changed the legacy of her children, which is, you know, me and my sisters, but then also our families and her grandkids, you know, and I have my nephews and nieces. One of them just graduated from college. My nieces are going to go to college, I think next year. And, you know, my other niece and nephew were going to go to college. My kids will likely go to college too. And you just see how that's
00:48:10
Speaker
changed the legacy of our family. They grew up in homes that, in good homes, nothing like the experiences my mother had to go through or her parents. And so, you know, I think that's an interesting point of like what she's been able to do and
00:48:25
Speaker
Maybe what we need more in the native community, I think, but that doesn't put the entire onus on the native community. But, you know, I think the government also needs to be able to fulfill the treaties that it proposed to do like that, that it signed. And so if we need healthcare services,
00:48:40
Speaker
like we negotiated, then you need to provide healthcare services. We need adequate education that you said you would provide, and you need to be able to provide adequate education. And the funding associated with that, the teachers associated with that, the programming associated with that, you know, and it's not handouts, it's compensation for what the
00:48:59
Speaker
you've done and what you've said you would do, you know? And so I think that's where a lot of this, you know, lies, is it lies on us and some folks to be able to, you know, be courageous and brave and say, you know what, I'm going to change the legacy of my family. But then it also goes to say like, all right, well, how can we put pressure on the government and make sure that they're giving us the resources we need to help these folks? And it's an interesting dance and it's very complicated too. Right.
00:49:29
Speaker
So what are some ways you think listeners can get involved or be supportive, help advocate for the native community? What are some things we could do?
00:49:37
Speaker
I mean, I think for me, one of the easiest things you could do is find out about the communities in your area. You know, simple things like land acknowledgments. You could read the land acknowledgement for your community from a university or if there is one. But really, I would just say get to know the communities around your areas. And partly because, you know, like folks see
00:50:00
Speaker
Native people, like there's that invisibility factor that I was mentioning earlier and people don't think that we exist to this day, but I think you'd be surprised if you would just say like, okay, what tribes are in Minnesota? What tribes are in Nebraska? What tribes are in Texas? You
Invisibility and Awareness of Native Tribes
00:50:16
Speaker
would see those communities and be like, oh, I didn't know there was like
00:50:19
Speaker
a tribal community right here a few hours away from me or right next door. And I think it's funny that a lot of folks in Scottsdale when they go to Topgolf don't realize that they're going on to the res. You're like, dude, you're on, you're on tribal land right now. You know, you may be drinking a $20 margarita, but you're on tribal land right now. And I am playing like ridiculous prices to play Topgolf.
00:50:42
Speaker
But you know, but that is true because I mean before I moved to Arizona I had little to zero interaction or knowledge about Native American people You know, you know, my father was in the military we moved around a lot So I was very familiar with military bases and that sort of upbringing and then I was in Dallas for the last 10 or so years of my life And I know that now that there are tribes in Texas, but before then I didn't have anybody in my circles
00:51:12
Speaker
that I knew nobody. So, you would recommend for people to just maybe do a little bit of digging research to find out what is actually in their areas to start with. You think about it. I mean, all the areas you were in had tribes around them. Right. You know, if you were in California at the overhead, I forget the marine base over there. Pendleton. What's that? Camp Pendleton. Yeah, if you're at Pendleton, you know, there's communities over there. Luceno's, they're all around there.
00:51:38
Speaker
Kumeyaay, you know, is down around that area. And so, I mean, like, there's tribes there. If you go to North Carolina, you have Lumbees all over that area. If you're in Dallas, you have Oklahoma that's a few hours, you know, north in Amadarco, and there's a bunch of tribes around, all around there. And in Texas, you have, you know, Alabama Coshada, you know, our friends are from there and, you know, near Dallas. And that's so true because
00:52:01
Speaker
It's like, I feel like before you see it, it's invisible, right? But then once you're aware, you can't not see it. Like you and I literally, we went on a road trip through California not too long ago and we stayed in Solvang and there was just happened to be a reservation right there off the side of his Danish town. We were like, whoa.
00:52:21
Speaker
And it's funny because like people are going there because it's like a popular Christmas town without realizing like, Hey, the tribes right there too. And I think that's like a lot of communities as you're like going to San Diego without realizing like, Hey, the Lucenos are right here too. And if you're going to,
00:52:36
Speaker
LA or wherever it may be and you're like oh there's like tribes all around here Seattle's the same way and you know there's muckleshoot right there. I mean you go to these big cities and there's going to be communities all around it that are that are tribal or native and so I think
00:52:51
Speaker
just getting to know those communities and realizing like, hey, but a part of that too is like realizing how they exist today, maybe how they existed in the past, because I think that's going to see how we're able to relate it back to the future. That's what I always think about whenever I do land acknowledgments.
00:53:07
Speaker
is I say, you know, this land resides on the traditional homelands of, say, the Tohono Othams and the Yaqui. And I say that, too, because it makes me reflect that the decisions I make today will reflect how this area looks in the future.
00:53:24
Speaker
I try to think back of how this area looked now and those decisions that were made throughout those generations before me that have made this place possible to this day, the University of Arizona, for example, and how the decisions I will make today will affect how it looks in the future and especially within indigenous homelands. And so I'm always thinking about that stuff. And, you know, and I think it's good for other folks to think about that too as well.
00:53:48
Speaker
that's a great point. Keep yourself situated not only in the time but in the land that you are not today but in history and know that there's going to be history that takes place ahead of us. What kind of history are we going to be on? How are we going to continue?
00:54:03
Speaker
And I would say too, like, you know, make an effort to buy from indigenous businesses, you know, visit a casino. If you have a chance to go to a hotel, I'm not saying you have to gamble, but if you want to, if you're going to stay in an area and there's a hotel there that's from a tribe, like give them your business to go to their restaurants. They're nice.
00:54:20
Speaker
You know, they're just as nice as any other restaurant. And I would say buy from those small retail shops too or online. I love the brand, the natives, T-H-E-N-T-V-S. My sisters love B Yellowtail. I like jewelry from, from Mean Right hooks.
00:54:35
Speaker
I like shoes and so there's like all these different places that you could go for jewelry, for clothing and they're from native folks and native artists and I think supporting that kind of economic development is important and so if you find those tribal businesses, you know, even my buddies Willie White and his brother Joey, they have Becker boards and they do advertising all along.
00:54:57
Speaker
the ITIN in Phoenix, LA, and then also in Miami. If you're a large organization, why not use them to advertise? And I think that's ways that you support native folks is supporting these native-owned businesses.
00:55:13
Speaker
Yeah. There's lots of ways that you can think about it, but I think the first part is just learn about native communities in your area. Okay. Great. Thank you. All right. Well, before I let you go, I want to play a little game called in my expert's opinion. So basically I'm going to list off some topics and I just want you to give your hot take.
00:55:34
Speaker
Which is basically a fast, quick, initial reaction to the matter. Okay. In like a sentence or two. Got it? Yeah, I got it. Okay, the first one. Native American Halloween costumes. Wrong. How do I have to explain it to you? Okay, yeah, like, you know, it goes back to this idea of invisibility. You don't want to perpetuate
00:56:01
Speaker
invisibility of a community. You don't want to represent their culture in a way that's not consistent with that community. And so, please do not wear... Right. So, if you are non-Native, do not wear Native American headdress or costumes. Yeah. Okay, great. Per capita checks.
00:56:21
Speaker
I mean, it would be nice if we all had those, but we don't. So per capita checks are essentially, I guess you could call them like gaming distributions. If you have a casino, even if you have a casino, does it automatically mean you're getting some type of per capita money or like shares or profits from that casino? If you are, then you're, you know, you're extremely blessed and lucky, but
00:56:45
Speaker
if not, not everybody's getting those. And I feel like I want to say like the communities that do get those are, are larger amounts that are meaningful to actually impact your income as a person where you don't have to work as few and far between. So most, most native folks, you know, we, we don't get per capita checks, you know, but they are nice if you do get them, you know, so. Right. Yeah, it depends. It varies. It's not one size fits all depending on the drive, depending on if they have a casino and then depending how much revenue that casino earns.
00:57:14
Speaker
Exactly. Okay, next. Interracial dating or marriage? Okay, so what's my hot take on Native folks? And be careful with this. On an interracial marriage or dating? I mean, it's like anything, like even if I'm not sure how other couples are, but I imagine it's like you have to be patient with other person's culture.
00:57:40
Speaker
I think me and you understand, and I've mentioned this to you before too, is like, sometimes I'm like, okay, this is just like a different cultural experience than what I'm used to. I know when I go to my buddy's house, Mo, and he's Filipino, I got to leave my shoes at the front door. Cause that's the way his family is, Filipinos, they run their house. And so I know it's more of his culture. And I think that in the same and dating relationships as you, I just have to be respectful of the culture of that person. When you do have disagreements,
00:58:07
Speaker
It's, you gotta like put yourself in their shoes and be like, okay, what, what perspective are they coming from? And I think if you could do that, then you're just going to be fine, especially in the, if it's interracial or like coming in as a native person and then trying to date someone else.
00:58:23
Speaker
Yeah. Because going back to your point about the blood quantum, if both parties have to be native for your child to be able to be 100% or at least 25% so that they can be enrolled in the tribe, wouldn't there be some of pressure, just like in other ethnicities and racial groups, wouldn't there be some pressure to marry within
00:58:43
Speaker
the native community. So that way that your child would be guaranteed. I mean, I think that's dependent on the family. I'm sure there's still, but I know there's families out there. I wouldn't say which tribes, but I know there's, there's particular tribes that I've seen anecdotally who tend to put more pressure on marrying somebody within the community than not. But to be honest, like for my tribe, us being so small, like having a little bit less than 4,000 members, if I had to have married someone from my community, she would probably be my cousin.
00:59:13
Speaker
And so, like, I'm like, I don't think there was, there was a question of like, my mom never, or my parents never put pressure on me or my sisters and marry somebody from our community because I think they knew like, Hey, that's your cousin. And so my sisters didn't need a husband, you know, and I didn't, the husband, he says with the C cousin husband. Yeah. And so, yeah. But yeah. And so, I mean, like,
00:59:42
Speaker
you're going to marry people. I think it's just, it's like anything. I think there's bigger issues in marriage though. Like I'm just like learning how to be patient with somebody, learn how to speak their love language, learning just to want to build a life with them, having the same purpose, you know, wanting, liking the same things and seeing like being in this bad essence of like, Hey, you know, I don't see myself living without them. And so, I mean, I don't, you know, you, you love who you love and that's what it is, you know? Oh, I know.
01:00:14
Speaker
long pause. What else? And then one that I just wanted to highlight because I think it's important is like COVID-19. We're
Impact of COVID-19 on Native Communities
01:00:25
Speaker
in the middle of a pandemic right now and how tribal communities and reservations, they're being hit really hard right now and they may not have the resources, the healthcare professionals, the vaccines, the list goes on. They're a little bit, they're more susceptible based on their health. So
01:00:44
Speaker
if you give a hot take on that. Yeah, I know. I mean, again, there's just been this long history, you know, like I'm a veteran and then I'm also native, obviously, but I've often said, like, I think the Indian Health Services and the VA, the Veterans Hospital are in a competition for who has worse healthcare.
01:01:06
Speaker
And I think IHS is first with the VA as a close second. And I think that just goes back to the treaties that were signed and not being honored within a lot of native communities is having that healthcare available that's needed to be able to prevent. And then also combat some of these things that are within
01:01:24
Speaker
especially with COVID-19. Like, I think all that did was expose how bad the healthcare system is within native communities. And so like, there's like a scramble to be able to help, but then also it's, it's been hard for me personally, I've known quite a few people that have passed away from COVID-19. And most recently, one of my aunts passed away and she was a language holder, spoke our language fluently. And so it was huge loss.
01:01:51
Speaker
But then also we had another younger person in our Native community who was 50 who passed away. And she was a really prominent lawyer, judge, cultural practitioner. And she was just like a very powerful woman, especially in the efforts to combat missing and murdered and
01:02:11
Speaker
indigenous women on a national level. She's served as a judge for a lot of different tribal communities. She's advocated for our people. She's participated in our ceremonies. She's always been on a personal level. She's always been great to me and to my kids and wanting to make sure that they were involved with our tribe. And so, you know, for me, I know I miss her deeply.
01:02:32
Speaker
Her son was in my third grade class and I just feel like it was such a hard, hard loss for our community that's small and needs somebody of that caliber. And it's also a loss for native country in the sense that she had an international impact on indigenous folks and what she brought to the table and the amount of knowledge. And COVID-19 has had a huge impact on
01:02:58
Speaker
the native community and it's been negative and it's exposed a lot of the inequalities that exist and that have existed throughout history but continue to exist and so you know it just goes to show we need more resources and we need the government to uphold its promise to be able to provide those things not as a handout but as compensation for what has already happened to us through their doing so.
01:03:23
Speaker
Well, thank you, Dr. James Salomas. Before I let you go, I want you to tell everybody if there's any other resources you can recommend. I know you mentioned about going, learning about your local communities, wherever you live, and seeing what tribes are nearby you, buying in, you know, indigenous or from native owned brands. Any other books, movies, music?
01:03:50
Speaker
There's a few books out there that I would recommend. Custer, Died for Your Sins is a great book by Vine Deloria. It was written in the 70s, so it's outdated, but then a lot of it has some historical facts that I think are interesting to know.
01:04:06
Speaker
And the book is fairly easy to read too for a lot of reading novels. I would say there's a woman named Debbie Reese. She's a great scholar. I shouldn't just call her a woman, but she's a great scholar and researcher. She has a website where she reviews a lot of children's literature.
01:04:26
Speaker
And so if you have young kids and you want to be like, hey, I want to buy some books around what it means to be native. She has a review of all those books and she has books she recommends from like ages zero to like 17. And what was her name again? Debbie Reese. Yeah. And so she's really prolific and a great scholar. That resource in itself has been really great. And like I said, she has books
01:04:50
Speaker
that she recommends for every age. She has critiques of books that she's like, oh, this book is problematic. You know, please don't. Maybe you should think twice about buying it because it's not representative of what tribal communities look like. I think she's a good resource for parents that are wanting to get their students or their kids to know more about Native people.
01:05:09
Speaker
And then also there's a book by Heather Schotten that talks a lot about Native folks and the work that she does around invisibility has been really impactful and incredible. And so I would read some of her stuff and she has the edited book with Dr. Stephanie Waterman and Dr. Heather Schotten and then also Shelly Lowe. They had an edited book called Beyond the Asterisk that's really great. And that's Dr. Heather Schotten Beyond the Asterisk.
01:05:33
Speaker
Yeah. And so that's a really good book. And like I said, those resources are just cool places to go. And just to learn more at a very basic level, I feel like there's other things you could do.
Resources for Further Learning
01:05:44
Speaker
Get to know someone, get a native friend, ask them questions. But just be open. Be like me, get a native husband. You learn a whole lot.
01:05:53
Speaker
Get a native husband asking questions You can learn a lot about native folks that way I would hope but yeah, there's there's there's some resources and you know Life is good. So Well, thank you so much for coming on and being my guest. I appreciate you your time your expertise your wisdom yes, for sure and shout out to Gordie and
01:06:21
Speaker
the babies, the babies that we love very, very much. Yes. Love you so much. Well, thank you again so much. Before you go, just tell people where they can find you Instagram. Oh yeah, sure. You can find me on Twitter. My handle is JamesonDLopez Instagram. It's the same, or you could go to my website, which is www.JamesonDLopez.com. You could Google my name and I think most of those outlets will pop up. So,
01:06:51
Speaker
Yeah, thanks. And if you have any questions, you can email me to same email address. Jamison D Lopez at email dot Arizona dot edu. So yeah, I'm a free resource are, you know, free. I don't know about free, free depends on what it is. This is a free resource. So if you want me to talk or something, it's probably depends.
01:07:20
Speaker
I'm gonna send you my invoice. Yeah, we'll see you hopefully we'll have you back on and But thank you. All right. Yeah, of course. Thanks for having me
01:07:33
Speaker
Wow, that was great. I learned so much and I hope you all learned a lot too. As my momma would say, I did good. Okay, each week I'm going to give my three takeaways for the listeners. Number one, don't dress up in costume as Native American.
01:07:50
Speaker
This should be obvious already, right? But let's face it, Native Americans are not caricatures. They are real people. Their tribal regalia should be worn in reserve for only those who identify as Native. Anything else is considered cultural appropriation. When you dress up as a Native person, it not only romanticizes them and further contributes to the invisibility of Native people, but it also perpetuates the image that they don't exist in modern day.
01:08:16
Speaker
Number two, Native Americans are multi-dimensional people. Native Americans are not monolithic. Please don't uphold the Native American archetype or other stereotypes. Natives come in many forms just like other race identity groups. Depending on the blood quantum, geographical influences, tribal enrollment, familiar upbringing, as well as many other factors.
01:08:37
Speaker
Number three, Native Americans have endured centuries of generational trauma and abuse that still affects their livelihood today. Many people hear about contemporary societal problems regarding the Native American community, but do not understand how the deep rooted history and trauma of colonialism created the very problems that exist today. Such history and trauma are inseparable.
01:08:59
Speaker
All right, y'all, as promised earlier in the episode, I'm gonna give each week a call to action. This is a way to go apply what you learn. So the call to action this week is to look up what's the nearest tribe to where you live. Go to their website, see how you can get involved, support, or donate. Several reservations have been severely impacted by COVID-19. See what you can do to help. Don't forget to post about it and use the willing to learn podcast hashtag.
01:09:26
Speaker
and tag our IG handle at Willing to Learn podcast so I can follow all of your good work out there. For more resources on today's subject matter, look at the description for this episode. I've gathered all of JD's recommendations and placed it there for you to easily access. Don't forget to share your own resources in the comments, and if you haven't done so already, please rate, comment, and subscribe to the podcast to stay in the know and help grow our Willing to Learn community.
01:09:51
Speaker
All right, everyone, thanks for tuning in. And remember, when we learn more, we can do more and we can be more for ourselves and others. All right. See you guys next week.