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6 Stories Celebrating Native American History and Culture

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Indigenous People Answer Commonly Googled Questions About Native Americans

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Native American Culture - Language: the Key to Everything | Ron (Muqsahkwat) Corn, Jr. | TEDxOshkosh

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Native Knowledge 360° | Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian

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Native Knowledge 360° is the National Museum of the American Indian's national initiative to inspire and promote improvement of teaching and learning about American Indians. Discover standards-compliant, interactive teaching resources for all grade levels.

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A recent report confirms what Native Americans have always known: Most people in the United States know little, if anything, about American Indians. And what they do know is based on questionable information spread by traditional media.

At the same time, the report shows that the U.S. media is ready to help end misunderstandings and build new stories about Native Americans.

The report comes from The First Nations Development Institute and Echo Hawk Consulting, a private advisory business. The two-year "Reclaiming Native Truth" project was designed to study common ideas about Native Americans and find ways to correct stereotypes.

With help from Native American experts, researchers organized nearly 30 study groups across 11 states. The researchers spoke with political, judicial and business leaders. They also questioned more than 13,000 Americans and looked at social media.

Among the findings:

* Native Americans are largely invisible in modern society;

* Non-Native media controls news about Native Americans;

* Stories about Native Americans deal mainly with their problems, not strengths;

* Stereotypes affect law, policy and decision-making;

* Politicians do not understand tribal rights or U.S. treaty requirements.

"Most people said they didn't know a Native American," said Sarah Dewees, director of First Nations' research, policy and asset-building programs. "Many people think that there aren't many Native Americans left in America, which of course is not true."

Dewees points out that Americans have conflicting images of Indians, both good and bad, because of history.

The study shows Americans hold competing stereotypes of Native Americans: Both poor and wealthy from legalized gaming; spiritual, but struggling with drug abuse and violence; independent and non-tax-paying, but dependent on federal government assistance.

The report says the belief that Native Americans receive a lot of federal aid is the most harmful because it separates Native Americans from other communities. Many U.S. citizens believe the government gives Native Americans special treatment.

The researchers agree: News media is partly responsible for keeping these stereotypes alive.

"If it bleeds, it leads,'" said Dewees, noting the media's interest in bad news. "News stories about Native Americans focus on deficits, not positive developments in Indian Country. It's harder to find an audience for 'feel-good' stories, but these are the stories that need to be told."

The good news, say researchers, is that most Americans see Native Americans' love of country, high rates of military service, and concerns about family, community and the environment. And they also like tribes' strength in the face of difficulty, historic oppression and cultural genocide.

The study says most Americans are willing to let go of stereotypes when given facts. That is where the media can make a difference.

Brian Pollard is president of the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA). He said the media has a responsibility to reach out to Native Americans to find the truth.

"One of the things we see very consistently is that many non-Native journalists think that any Indian they talk to will be an expert on that community or that particular issue."

Pollard also notes the need for reporters to provide context when covering Native issues. He said, "Most people do not understand that each tribe has its unique history, its own culture, and its own story of what has brought that tribe to where it is today."

The American Society of News Editors has worked for years to increase diversity in news media, but recent information shows minorities remain underrepresented in newsrooms. Native American journalists make less than two-tenths of one percent of people working in traditional media.

As part of the Reclaiming Native Truth project, First Nations has published a guide to help non-Native journalists improve their reports about Indian Country. It is also working with Echo Hawk Consulting to develop a national campaign to increase recognition of and respect for Native Americans.

The "Reclaiming Native Youth" project received money from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, as well as several other groups and tribes.

I'm Jonathan Evans.
Cecily Hilleary Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page. reported this story for VOANews. Susan Shand adapted it for Learning English. The editor was George Grow.
Words in This Story

stereotype - n. an often unfair and untrue belief that many people have about all people or members of a group

invisible - adj. cannot be seen by people

asset - n. a valuable person or thing

of course - phrase. naturally; as expected

focus - v. to direct attention on someone or something

audience - n. a group of people who gather to watch or listen to something

context - n. the words that are used with a certain word or phrase and that help to explain its meaning

unique - adj. different from other things or people

diversity - n. the quality or state of having many different forms or ideas

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Report: Americans Know Little about Native Americans

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A recent report confirms what Native Americans have always known: Most people in the United States know little, if anything, about American Indians. And what they do know is based on questionable information spread by traditional media. At the same time, the report shows that the U.S.

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As an Indigenous person and a journalist, I am always concerned with articles or news stories, either in mainstream newspapers or electronic media, that directly involve Indigenous people. What is true about Indigenous people and what is simply not? What do you really know about the Native people that many of us write about? For example, how many federally recognized tribes/Nations are there in the United States in 2021, and how many Indians are left in the United States today? What is the proper term for Native people? Do Native/Indigenous people celebrate U.S. holidays such as Thanksgiving and Independence Day?

According to the AP stylebook, "American Indians, Native Americans both are acceptable terms in general references for those in the U.S. when referring to two or more people of different tribal affiliations. For individuals, use the name of the tribe; if that information is not immediately available, try to obtain it. He is a Navajo commissioner." Most Native people prefer not to be called American Indians or Native Americans and instead prefer the term Indigenous. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines Indigenous as "of or relating to the earliest known inhabitants of a place and especially of a place that was colonized by a now-dominant group." I believe that this best describes all Native people left on this continent.

I agree with the AP guidance on using the tribal affiliation as much as possible. The AP example, "He is a Navajo commissioner," is the most correct and respectful way to show tribal affiliation. Julia Rose White Bull (Lakota, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe) says, "I prefer to be called Lakota. I prefer Indigenous or American Indian as well. In 1492, 'Dios' was what Columbus and his people called us, which means the people of God." Patrick Littlewolf Brooks (The Tuscarora Tribe of the Iroquois 6 Nations) says that he prefers to be called Tuscarora or to be called Indigenous because "it's not just a word to call us in a news story... it is who I am."

I would add that most Indigenous communities prefer the use of the word "Nation" over "tribe" when describing or writing about their communities. The reason is that when the word tribe is used, the first mental image that comes to mind is of a people that carry bows and arrows or spears while wearing buckskins, or a breech cloth, maybe riding a horse and living in a remote, undeveloped part of the country. The word Nation evokes the mental image of a people that have a territory, an organized community with a set of laws, and their own government to write and enforce those laws. This best describes Indigenous communities throughout the United States, from coast to coast and border to border. It is a matter of fact that Benjamin Franklin and other designers of the Constitution of the United States thought that the Iroquois Nation's notion of democracy was so well developed that they used it to help form the idea of how the government should be framed for the United States ( https://www.history.com/news/iroquois-confederacy-influence-us-constitution). Additionally, only sovereign Nations have the ability to make treaties with the United States. There are more than 370 ratified treaties between the Indigenous Nations and the United States of America. Only a few of those treaties, those promises, were ever kept or honored by the United States of America ( https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/01/18/368559990/broken-promises-on-display-at-native-american-treaties-exhibit).

At the time of first contact between Europeans and Native cultures, it is estimated that 112 million Indigenous people lived in the Americas ( https://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/0289.htm). According to the 2020 U.S. Census, there are only 6.9 million Indigenous people left living in the United States. According to the National Congress of American Indians, in 2021 there are 574 federally recognized Indigenous Nations left in the United States. Hundreds of languages indigenous to the United States were alive and thriving just a few hundred years ago. In 2019, According to Ethnologue, "of the 115 Indigenous languages spoken in the U.S. today, two are healthy, 34 are in danger, and 79 will go extinct within a generation without serious intervention."

Where do most of the Indigenous people within the borders of the United States live? Most non-Natives will answer the Dakotas, Arizona, or Oklahoma. The largest number of Indigenous people in the United States live in California. Today about 22 percent of all Indigenous people in the United States live on Indian Reservations. The remaining 78 percent live in the cities and towns of America. However, most Indigenous people work to hold on to their Native beliefs and traditions and never completely become mainstreamed into the dominate culture.

What other issues are facing Indigenous people and Native Nations in 2021? One of the most important concerns is the installation of oil pipelines across Indian Reservations in the United States. It is a well-known fact that the United States as a country is addicted to oil for daily life, and that oil is becoming more and more in short supply. Another fact is that the United States and Indigenous people need clean water just to survive. Native Nations work hard to stop oil pipelines from being built in their water ways. The question is not if the pipeline will spill, but when it will spill and pollute the water on Native lands. Water is needed for the survival of both Indigenous and non-Native populations. Oil, on the other hand, is just a way of life, and much of it can be replaced with alternate energy such as solar energy or wind power.

Missing and murdered Indigenous women are another important issue for Indigenous communities. According to Native Women's Wilderness, Indigenous women and girls are murdered at a rate that is 10 times higher than among all other ethnicities ( nativewomenswilderness.org/mmiw). Indigenous women are violent crime victims at double the rate of the general U.S. population; the U.S. Department of Justice notes that seven out of ten victims report those who hurt them as being from another race ( justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/jr/jf-pf/2019/may01.html).

There are many more issues facing Indigenous communities in 2021, in fact, too many to list.

So, do the Indigenous people residing in the United States celebrate Thanksgiving, Independence Day, or other American holidays? In 1990, President George H.W. Bush approved a resolution designating November as National American Indian Heritage Month (archives.gov/news/topics/native-american-heritage-month). And, in 2008, President George W. Bush signed a law designating the Friday after Thanksgiving as Native American Day. Still, most Indigenous people and many non-Native people do not recognize this day as one of respect or honor of Indigenous people. According to wikigb, "In addition to calling Thanksgiving the 'National Day of Mourning,' some Native Americans believe it is 'poor taste' for Native American Heritage Day to be on Black Friday - 'a day of excess and gluttony and greed and aggressive capitalism' - which itself 'falls after a holiday that omits the murder and mutilation of Natives [in which they] mourn the [estimated] millions of indigenous people who died as a result of aggressive settler colonialism"

When asked if she celebrates Thanksgiving, Julia Rose White Bull (Lakota, an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe) says, "Every year when Thanksgiving comes around, I think of it as a day of mourning. In my family, we traditionally use it as a day of fasting. I think about the thousands of Indian children who have been found in Canada at Indian Boarding Schools and at the residential schools (in 2021, more than 6,500 skeletal remains of Native children who attended Indian Boarding Schools have been found in unmarked graves in Canada and in the United States). I think of the genocide we survived and the massacres. I also think of cultural appropriation in the media and social media, where people wear red face (non-Indians wearing what they think are Native warrior painted faces usually at sporting events) or women wear Native headdresses (Native feathered headdresses are earned over a lifetime and are one of the highest honors for Native leaders and considered very sacred). We are born with the potential to be leaders, educators, mothers, artists, and creators. Today is the time to act in the teachings of our elders and holy people and to cultivate the resilience we have always known. Even after everyone eats Thanksgiving dinner comfortably in their homes... the fight will still be there afterwards."

This sentiment is common with Indigenous people throughout the country. Lawrence D. Reddest, a 4/4 Brūlé Lakota (an enrolled member of Sīcangu Rosebud Sioux tribe of South Dakota) who grew up on the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Indian Reservations, says that "Today our family does not celebrate Thanksgiving; however, we use it as a time to get families together, sometimes giving thanks for all the blessings we have been given."

Ariana Chiago (Akimel O'odham Salt River Maricopa Nation) says that she knows some Indigenous people who do celebrate Thanksgiving the way mainstream America does, but that most of her people simply use the day as an excuse to come together and eat with family.

Rebecca Balog (Lakota/Mohawk/Romani) adds that "America holds a fantasy of Harvest Home table feasts called Thanksgiving. Every November, the popular imagination reflects on strong relationships set in a common cheer overcoming harsh winters, strained relations, and plights...What is gravely forgotten was the abandonment of these illusions of shared futures and festivities of feasts for a shared future on shared land. The true history is violence, enslavement, trafficking, genocide, and the 'manifest destiny' destined to leave a trail of broken promises and broken treaties. This is often called Intergenerational Trauma - memory that lives in our current world, around our modern table feasts, lunches, and dinners, except, not only in November, but every day. This residual reality of violence still exists today when the homes and the bodies of our people are invaded in current times across Indian Country."

Patrick Littlewolf Brooks (The Tuscarora Tribe of the Iroquois 6 Nations) adds that he does not celebrate Thanksgiving. He says that his people were among "...the first to meet the Europeans when they arrived on these shores and hundreds of tribes along the Eastern Coast were killed and completely wiped out by these new settlers." For him and many of his people, it's a day of mourning.

As an Indigenous person in 2021, I must also agree that Thanksgiving is not how it is taught in schools or seen in news media or social media in the United States and Canada. In fact, for most Indigenous people in the United States and Canada, it is just the opposite.

Another American holiday that Natives and non-Natives question is Independence Day. Do Indigenous people celebrate Independence Day? Many tribal Nations were destroyed, and many Indigenous men, women, and children were killed by the United States Army. That may, at first glance, seem like the main reason Indigenous people would not celebrate Independence Day. However, it is not. The reason most given is that Indigenous people within the borders of the United State are still colonized; we don't have Independence in 2021. Still, we have stood up and fought in every one of this country's conflicts, from the Revolutionary War to the Afghanistan war. It is important to remember that the Indigenous languages that Indigenous people were forbidden to speak and were punished for speaking in American boarding and public schools are the very languages that Native Code Talkers spoke to save us in World War II.

Every year, ahead of July 4, I am asked if I, as a Native person, will celebrate Independence Day. I once wrote this on social media: "It seems like everyone that I ran into today asked me if I would be celebrating the 4th - being NDN and all... I think it's finally getting to me! I have been explaining all day that we are the human beings, and we love this land. It's alive and we belong to it. Per capita, more American NDNs volunteer for military service in the United States than any other people and have since the Revolutionary War. I will visit with my kids and grandkids, share some food with them, and remember all my people who have spilled their blood to give me this opportunity." A 2018 Indian Country Today article noted that "[a]ccording to the Department of Defense, in 2010... Native people have the highest per-capita involvement of any population to serve in the U.S. Military."

Patrick Littlewolf Brooks (The Tuscarora Tribe of the Iroquois 6 Nations), a decorated combat Army Veteran of the Iraqi and Afghanistan wars, says that he does not celebrate Independence Day. The "United States won Independence from the British," he says, "... but American Indians today are still denied theirs."

Indigenous people in the United States are still here after 529 years of contact with Europeans. We proudly volunteer and fight for the United States of America in every conflict that faces the United States. We work to keep our Native languages and deepest traditions alive to share from generation to generation and at the same time work to become accepted into the mainstream of the dominate American culture. We work to keep our families educated and safe and to respect and honor the elders, Native or not.

Sometimes when someone asks me why I don't celebrate American holidays such as Thanksgiving, I respond by looking at them directly in their eyes. Then I kindly ask them back, "Why don't you celebrate Native holidays?"

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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What Do You Really Know About Native People?

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As an Indigenous person and a journalist, I am always concerned with articles or news stories, either in mainstream newspapers or electronic media, that directly involve Indigenous people. What is true about Indigenous people and what is simply not? What do you really know about the Native people that many of us write about?

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Here are seven First Nation facts plus one fun fact to add to your storehouse of knowledge.

1) Number of Nations
There are over 634 recognized First Nations governments or bands, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The total population with First Nation identity is more than 850,000 [1]

2) Creation Beliefs
People everywhere, including First Nations, have their own creation beliefs. Each First Nation has its own creation beliefs, told in the form of a story of their ancestors. The Iroquois creation story often includes elements of the earth being formed on the turtle's back with animals and all other creatures providing further guidance when Sky Woman gives birth to First Woman. While creation beliefs may sound unlikely or silly, to put things in perspective, so does the idea of a person walking on water, coming back from the dead or parting the Red Sea.

There is not one culture for all First Nations. Each Nation has its
3) Cultural Diversity
own culture, customs, beliefs, traditions, and world views. Cultural practices, symbols, and belief systems are influenced by each Nation's unique experience on the land and with each other, and are always connected with the Spirit world.

Download our free ebook Dispelling Common Myths about Indigenous Peoples in which we debunk 9 myths and provide the reality.

4) Cultural Survival
Cultural survival is the name of the game for First Nations (and Indigenous Peoples in general). The past two centuries have seen an active program of assimilation directed towards First Nation culture via the Indian Act. Despite this campaign, which includes relocation from traditional or territorial lands, disastrous assimilation programs, outlawing of cultural practices, loss of language and customs, First Nation cultures have survived. Every decision made reflects this goal, and according to the 7th Generation principle, all decisions must include consideration of impacts on community members seven generations into the future, while honouring those who came before. So, next time a community seems to be taking a long time to make a decision, reflect back on this.

5) Connectivity Principle Many First Nations believe everything is
connected - the spirit world is connected to the mortal world; the sea is connected to the land; the sky is connected to the land. They usually get frustrated by attempts to separate things out. Statements such as "I can't talk you about that as it is not my department or line of work" or "I'm here to talk about mining only and not impacts about forestry" should be avoided. Effort will have to be made to be sensitive to the view of connectivity. Offer to bring in the person whose department it is if it's not yours. You'll get more co-operation in the long run.

6) The Circle is a Sacred Symbol
In First Nation spirituality the circle is everywhere - the medicine wheel, meetings and gatherings are held in circles, dances go in circles, drums are round, as are sweat lodges and tipis. The circle is the symbol of the cycle of all forms of life.

7) The American Constitution is based on the principles of the Great Law of Haudenosaunee Confederacy
The Great Law of Haudenosaunee [2] Confederacy is credited as being a contributing influence on the American Constitution, due to Benjamin Franklin's great respect for the Haudenosaunee system of government, which in itself is interesting from the perspective that the United States formed their Constitution not on the principles of European governments, but rather on that of a people considered "savages".

Fun Fact - Inventions
Who invented hockey is hotly contested but one theory is that it was invented by the Mohawks and we're going with this one. Hundreds of years ago, Jesuit priests wrote about the Mohawks playing with a stick and a piece of frozen ice embedded with mud and stones. According to the Jesuit journals, when a player was struck by the "puck" they yelled "Aukie!" meaning, ouch. Other inventions credited to First Nations include the canoe and kayak, darts, lacrosse (forerunner to hockey) petroleum jelly, cough syrup.

[1] 2011 National Household Survey
[2] With thanks to Tasha Hill for pointing out that "Iroquois", which we formerly used, was the name imposed by settlers on the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (updated Oct. 14, 2019)

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Here are seven First Nation facts plus one fun fact to add to your storehouse of knowledge. 1) Number of Nations There are over 634 recognized First Nations governments or bands, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia.

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s I left my small, remote hometown of Joseph, Oregon, driving two hours to the nearest airport to fly south, I thought about my father, a Caddo/Delaware Native American man who spent most of his life in the Bay Area.

Dad arrived in California as a child due to the assimilation policies enacted by the US government in the 1950s, which forcefully relocated Native Americans from their land into urban areas to become "productive" members of society. It also intentionally placed Indian orphans into the homes of white families. Today, 78% of Native Americans live off-reservation, and 72% live in urban or suburban environments.

Those policies had devastating effects. Relocated tribal members became isolated from their communities. Low paying jobs and higher expenses, combined with the inability to return to reservations which had often been dissolved, left many in precarious circumstances.

In the case of my dad, this translated to growing up on the rough streets of Richmond, CA, and spending much of his life burying his trauma at the bottom of a bottle. He was orphaned twice; first when my Native grandmother died in our tribal territory, then when his adopted white mother passed when he was 16. Dad never knew who his birth father was, and his adopted father was also an alcoholic who died not many years after his wife.

My dad's love for his children was deep, but so was his pain.As a result, my father was barely a physical presence in my life, let alone an economic one. He was terrible with money: if he had it, he spent it.

Indigenous people are not supposed to have money. We were never meant to. My tribes occupied our homelands consistently for 13,000 years without it, and we were rich beyond our wildest dreams. We had advanced seasonal permaculture, hunting and fishing patterns, and vast amounts of leisure time. Yet we've had about 150 years to change 13,000 years of subsistence lifestyle into a complete dependence on money. To us, that is an incredibly weakened state.

With the civil rights movement, however, came a rebirth in self-determination. Groups such as the American Indian Movement were founded to put political pressure on the federal government. Many urban Natives found ways to rise above their challenges, eventually forming the "Native middle class". They began contributing back to their original communities.

This summer, I decided to document the experiences of some of the 140,000 Native Americans who call the Bay Area home. There, 18.50% of the Native population live below the poverty level, versus 10.4% of the white population. Among those living below poverty level, 24% of those are in "deep poverty".

According to Janeen Comenote, executive director of the National Urban Indian Family Coalition, "poverty remains one of the most challenging aspects to contemporary urban Indian life. While I do recognize that a sizable chunk of our populations are solidly middle class, every Native person I know has either experienced poverty or has a family member who is. Housing and homelessness remain at the top of the list of challenges."

Chah-tah Gould: ' Even the ones who are into gangs, they still go to powwows'

Chah-tah Gould stands in front of a banner listing the names of the companies that built stores on top of his tribe's burial shellmound. These days, it is known as the Bay Street Shopping Mall in Emeryville. He will not enter the plaza any further than this point due to it being a violation of his tribe's sacred protocol: the buildings are desecrating his ancestors' graves.

Sometimes, his friends will go to the mall and forget about his relationship with the land - he alwaysasks them to stop so he can get out of the car.

Chah-tah, a lifelong Oakland resident, is one of few Ohlone tribal members left. The Ohlone went nearly extinct after generations of slavery and colonization by Spain, Mexico, and the US; they are currently petitioning for federal recognition.

His mother, Corrina Gould, has been one of the lead organizers against the construction of the mall. While some graves were interred, many believe that hundreds of graves and human remains still lie underneath the development. On Black Friday every year, Native people gather to protest outside the mall and inform shoppers about the history of the place.

"A lot of city Natives grow up in foster care," says Chah-tah. "Growing up they try to fit in, and fitting in Oakland is getting into gang stuff, fighting, everything like that. It happens a lot, even to non-city Natives."

"I feel like on reservations, it's a whole different story. They grow up around their culture. But when they transition to here, it's a whole different game. To fit in, they start acting and thinking differently, and it gets to the point where it's almost like a disease. You know, to be cool, you start drinking, you start smoking, all this other stuff. I got into some stuff like that. Luckily for me I got away from all of it. I realized, 'this isn't who I am'."

There's hope, however. "Even the ones who are into gangs and stuff, they still go to powwows," Chah-tah says. "I like that a lot of Natives do know their culture."

I ask him how he stays away from negative influences. "There are a lot of centers and programs," he says. "But I feel like you have to put effort into staying in the Native community. Out here you have to deal with life - you know, the American-type life; taxes, jobs, everything like that. So it gets to a point where you have to choose. Materialistic things can become the priority and you miss out on the whole experience of what your people are about."

Michelle Lot: 'I can't find a spot that the government tells me I'm not trespassing on'

Sporting a large "No DAPL" pin on her hat in the photo above, Michelle Lot peels "bear root medicine" for her son, who suffers from a lung ailment. He is seated underneath a towel in the background steaming the root in a coffee pot to inhale the root's medicinal vapors.

I met Michelle and her son in a homeless protest camp in Berkeley, underneath the Bay Area Rapid Transit line (Bart), which can be seen screeching by above her. It was reminiscent of a miniature Standing Rock camp, with protest signs against corporate greed along with an upside down American flag and a Veterans for Peace flag. Michelle is a former nurse, and she serves as the camp medic and "aunty".

Michelle is a leader in the homeless activist group First They Came For The Homeless, which describes itself as "a group of unhoused people organized on the streets of Berkeley for mutual support and to promote a political message regarding homelessness, homeless people, income inequality, and the privatization of the commons in the US".

"My happiness is to use the wind, the water, and the sun to fulfill my needs, yet I can't find a spot that the government tells me I'm not trespassing on. But I'm an Earthling," says Michelle.

Michael Horse: 'I am still amazed at the lack of knowledge of Native culture'

Michael Horse, who is Yaqui of Sonora, is an award-winning artist currently starring in the TV series Twin Peaks. He was recently at the Oakland Planning Commission to speak on behalf of a recurring sweat lodge ceremony - a Native spiritual tradition - which was banned by the city after a group of neighbors complained about the smoke from the fire used to heat rocks for the lodge twice a month (some of the complainants can be seen in the first and second rows behind him).

Many other residents and neighbors came forward to testify that the smoke did not bother them, and compared it to the smoke from countless BBQ's that happen in the neighborhood uncontested, or other people's backyard campfire pits.

Well over 100 supporters showed up to testify on behalf of allowing the ceremony, citing the American Indian Freedom of Religion Act. The planning commission overturned the ban.

"I am still amazed at the lack of knowledge of Native culture," says Michael. "It has been a struggle for so many years to try to educate people, especially elected officials, about our rights under the laws of the US to practice our religions and ceremonies and to pray in our own ways."

Patricia St Onge: 'The overwhelming experience of racism was so transformative'

Patricia St Onge owns the property on which the contested sweat lodge is built. She is a descendant of the Mohawk Tribe, as well as adopted Lakota. I visited Patricia at her home, which also serves as a community spiritual space for local spiritual practitioners.

"I grew up in New Hampshire in a little French Canadian enclave," says Patricia. "Because I have white skin privilege, and was living in a community where there was no Indian community to speak of, I never felt culturally Native. I married an African American man, and we had kids. The overwhelming experience of racism that we experienced as a family in New England was so transformative. From the time my kids were little, we had neighbors petition our landlord to evict us."

After a series of moves to various urban localities in the late 1980s, they finally moved to Oakland so Patricia could go to graduate school. "When we got here, we found a place, we found jobs," says Patricia. "In Boston my husband was a social worker and had clients who would rather not have a social worker at all than have a black man for a social worker. We became really close as a family because of all of this."

Patricia's experiences with racism against her family led her to seek the connection with her Native heritage. "When we finally got to Oakland in 1987, one of the first things I did was to look for the Indian community, and I found the Oakland Intertribal Friendship House. So we started going there and getting involved."

Patricia went on to become the founding director of Habitat For Humanity Oakland and worked as a nonprofit consultant. It wasn't long before she had to face another cultural challenge to her family's identity though. About five years ago the complaints about the sweat lodge began, eventually leading the city to ban them.

It wasn't until the week I visited Patricia, this July, that the ban was finally overturned.

Decoy Gallerina: 'I've had endless love-filled experiences in my life'

Decoy Gallerina is part of performance art group known as Theatre Group International and Radical Medicine Photograph: Joe Whittle

I met Decoy Gallerina after she gave testimony about how traditional Native ceremonies have helped her heal from abuse and trauma.

Decoy, a Chiricahua Apache tribal member and artist, rents a bedroom in a rundown ranch style "mansion" located in the Oakland hills with multiple roommates. I interviewed her out by the home's once impressive poolside, which the landlady had recently allowed her to fill with water again.

"Two years after my mother and father married, they divorced due to alcoholism on both their parts," says Decoy. "My mother, grandmother, aunt and I moved to the Bay Area through the Relocation Act."

Decoy had complicated relationships with her mother and aunt, but her grandmother "recognized and accepted me completely. I don't remember her ever saying one negative word to me, only encouragement."

"When my 13th year came, my grandmother left to take care of my schizophrenic uncle. In the past, when she would travel on her own, she would always return. This time, she simply disappeared from my life and my whole world changed. I lost not only my connection with her, but all the presence, love and acceptance of hundreds of relatives in Mescalero and Oklahoma." As a result, she was left on her own in her mid-teenage years, with no parental support.

When she was 15, Decoy was raped by an 18-year-old man. She became almost completely silent and withdrawn. "I was raped again when I was about 18 by a man 23-years-old or so," she says. "I never identified it as rape until years later when I was in a support group for suicide attempt survivors. I heard someone else tell her story and I said to myself, 'That happened to me', with absolutely no emotional connection to the thought."

Among American Indian and Alaska Native women, 56.1% have experienced sexual violence in their lifetime (over 70% of the perpetrators are non-Native).

I was profoundly struck by Decoy's words when she told me she was "so blessed" to have never become a prostitute or addict. There wasn't an ounce of cynicism in those words, but rather wholehearted gratitude.

"I've had endless beautiful and love-filled experiences in my life," she says. "I've studied art my whole life - dance, singing, writing, visual arts, performance, bead work with amazing and famous artists since I was tiny. I have been blessed to have the ability to absorb and produce almost any artistic form. Creator chose me as a vehicle for these things, is all I can say. I am an artistic being who has PTSD, and I've suffered from chronic, deep suicidal depression, OCD, low self esteem, and self-abusive behaviors for most of my life. Side by side with that I am a courageous, tenacious, kind and ferocious spirit."

She hopes her story can be an inspiration to others facing similar struggles.

Isabella Zizi: 'We are a minority mixed within a minority group'

Isabella's grandmother, Wanda Jean Bulletti, was relocated to the Bay Area from her reservation in the 1950s. Wanda had been Christianized and had given up her traditional ways, but she quietly stayed active her whole life reaching out to disenfranchised groups. She eventually helped to create the Native American health and cultural centers in Richmond. Today, Isabella continues that work as an organizer.

Growing up off-reservation in an urban environment outside her tribal community turned out to be a challenge. "We aren't able to culturally find out who we truly are because we've been displaced. I feel like that puts historical trauma on us, and we really just want to disconnect. It makes us not feel welcomed and not feel complete because we are a minority mixed within a minority group."

So she struggled finding a place to fit in. Natives are so dispersed and statistically sparse that it rarely allows creation of a peer subgroup in an off-reservation environment. "What am I going to do? Who am I going to talk to?" she found herself thinking as a teenager. "Going through that stage creates depression. It shuts us down living in an urban city," she says.

As she grew older and became more involved in Native activism, Isabella found ways to strengthen her Indigenous identity. "I feel like I am breaking that stereotypical mindset that all Natives live on reservations," says Isabella. "Although I don't live in my own territory, I am still connected to my Indigenous ways. There are many ways we still practice our ceremonies. We're able to be in prayer, or just be in a beautiful circle with different Natives here in the Bay Area in one of the most urban places I know of," she says with a laugh.

Star Morgan: 'They didn't know about our struggle until we made our voices heard'

Star Morgan is an 18-year-old member of the Navajo Nation. I asked her if she'd like to meet somewhere where she feels connected to her culture. She chose Twin Peaks, a hilltop at the crown of San Francisco overlooking the entire Bay Area. Chilly coastal fog rolled in around us. Zipping up our jackets, I commented on its biting effects and Star laughed at the complaints: "I love this!"

When she was 17, Star found a way to travel to the Standing Rock protest camp with a bunch of strangers. She was on the Backwater Bridge when over 150 people contracted hypothermia from police water cannons spraying them in below-freezing temperatures. Countless injuries were sustained from police armaments, including the near losses of an eye and an arm for two young women not much older than Star (my own daughter was shot at with rubber bullets while kneeling on the ground praying).

"We gotta stick together, because there's not very many of us," Star says with a chuckle. "We're supposed to stick together, and be unified. That's why when I went to Standing Rock, it was amazing. Over 300 tribes came together just to protect water! We stood our ground. It felt really empowering. People went to Standing Rock with little or no money and just the clothes they had on their back to stand up for what's right."

Star has struggled intensely with depression, anxiety and PTSD, and has witnessed severe violence in her life. She saw her brother, who suffers from bipolar disorder, beaten by police who didn't understand his strange behavior; he now has permanent brain damage. (According to the Center on Juvenile Crime and Justice, Native Americans are the most likely race to experience police violence in the US.)

She has been a mentee in the Native Mentorship in Public Health Program, which encourages physical, spiritual and mental wellness for Indigenous youth. The program provides a variety of activities to help prevent substance abuse and promote leadership, communication and self-empowerment skills.

"I don't want to be one of the ones to stay silent," she says. "I want to go and do something. It was healing to know people came from all over [to Standing Rock] just to protect the water. It was like a balance of really bad and really good at the same time."

My conversation with Star left me reflecting on the fact that no matter where I go in Indian Country, I see the same Indigenous values - ones that transcends far beyond economics. It's a value system that has nothing whatsoever to do with money.

Even though money is here to stay, so are our Indigenous ways. Is it possible for the two to exist in congruity? I don't know. But I can say that it is possible for Indigenous people to survive and thrive despite the incongruities that may be placed in their paths. It is illustrated time and again, whether in the refusal of the Standing Rock Sioux to take pipeline payoffs, in teenagers putting their bodies on the line, or in the resistance of the Ohlone to having their graves desecrated by consumerism.

An excellent demonstration of that value system is still exhibited today among many of the Pacific Northwest tribes who practice Potlatch culture, where the value of someone's wealth is measured by how much they are able to give away to their tribe and honored relations and guests. The more you are able to give away, the more social esteem and value as a "wealthy" person you earn. Your value within the culture is measured by how much you give, not by how much you take and accrue.

To me, values like that explain the humbling strength and resilience I found in every Native person I met in the course of this story.

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Most Native Americans live in cities, not reservations. Here are their stories

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s I left my small, remote hometown of Joseph, Oregon, driving two hours to the nearest airport to fly south, I thought about my father, a Caddo/Delaware Native American man who spent most of his life in the Bay Area.