The power of your story.

Blog #6

Thursday

The power of your story.

Today I think about what if we didn’t have the struggles that we have had, the challenges, and the pushes, we would never develop our character. It is from those times that we decide to do it anyway, and fight through, that our character comes from. Today I understand that each and one of us has a story - or many stories - that have shaped our lives. For the Native Americans at its core, their story is where they live, emotionally,  mentally, and sometimes physically. “Your story can either be the wind behind your sails or the anchor that is weighing you down,” Graziosi. During our visit to the Twanana museum in Warm Springs, we got the opportunity to gather around Native American elders from different tribes, but before I talk about that I will explain a bit about the museum history. As I looked at the posters on the wall they read, “The museum exists as an answer to a question that has troubled Native Americans in general and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs in particular for most of the past century. Can this nations indigenous people take any meaningful steps on their own initiative, under their own control to halt the erosion of their traditions, the disposal of their sacred artifacts, the loss of their very identity as a culture?” Their first solution to answer their questions was a museum, “Resolution No. 4084 was passed in 1974 adopting the first Charter and establishing the first board of the Middle Oregon Indian Historical Society.” It was when they started noticing that their young people were growing up without knowing where they come from or who they are they, “wanted the museum to tell the story of our people. We wanted to tell the truth. To educate both the public and our children. To tell them who we are.” We introduced ourselves by telling them that our two-week program focuses on the people and the lands that are connected to the Colombian River. We kindly asked if they could share some of their stories so that we can learn, understand, and have an appreciation not just for the landscape or the natural resources but also for the entirety so that we can find who we are. Our first story from an amazing lady talked about the traditional food gatherers whose concerns are the quality of the air and the local water. Then it continued with their concerns about not being able to follow their tribal cultures like taking care of their foods that were created specifically for the natives and how it is not managed according to their ways but rather scientifically and to the ways of the country and how they manage the environment. They encouraged that we take Indian studies of who they are and the ways they follow to take care of their natural resources. In other words, labor jobs aren’t involved in the food cares and do not take into consideration the things that are important to the tribes. Even though we don’t understand their story, we can start by changing our attitude towards it. The next story talked about years back when the Native Americans didn’t have vehicles and rode horseback to go into the mountains to pick huckleberries. The one after talked about also growing in a time where they didn’t have electricity, no paved roads, and had to go to boarding school and spend time away from their parents. They didn’t have a choice back in the day, what they call the Indian Trial Welfare Act that protected their children. As the lady mentioned, “One morning I woke up and the social worker took me into her office, then took me down to a police car, and we drove all way to where they dumped me into a children’s home, where I stayed a year. From there they took me to Oklahoma where I spent 2 years there. So I spend five years always from my family where I had no say-so over my welfare. So I lived in a time like the other children where they were taken.” Unfortunately the Native Americans lost many years of cultural knowledge and because of that many things are being forgotten especially their language. However, projects and activities are being taken to save their languages and continue to educate their younglings. Our last presenter was Germaine who works at the achieves the museum and with elders in the cultural heritage and language department. His focus is to try and incorporate language into the archives and translate some of the descriptions that they have and create a type of history curriculum based on those languages and their culture. I finish this blog with the hope that their languages exist for many more generations to come.