The Native Ways -

In Appreciation of My Journey

Posted on July 28, 2012 by Cheryl

Yesterday as we drove away from our home in the coastal northwest, homelands of the Xwlemi, we felt a poignant sadness that we would not see the faces of our friends everyday. We will see them later.

As we visited, I thought about the journey that I am on. When I was a young woman, back from the University of South Dakota with two little kids and one about to make himself known, my brother/cousin, Butch Felix, told me there was a job teaching at Sinte Gleska College and I should go see about it. I remember it clearly, we were standing in our yards talking over the fence. I am thankful that he told me because it sent me down the road that I am still travelling today – the road to good health and happiness for students and their families through Indian education.

Over the more than 30 years that I have worked with tribal colleges and tribal students, I have experienced the most joyous rewards of student success and family pride. But I am amazed that I would even get to do this. When I worked at Sinte, I thought I would never leave the Rosebud. I loved living there and am so happy that I raised my children there enfolded in their families and friends, I learned so much about myself being able to touch the land there and to look at the skies seen by my ancestors. My spiritual self emerged there.

Being at St. Francis was the best time because all the children and youth who attended the school grounded me with their focus in their lives. Their hopefulness and that of their families, their desire to survive and do better for themselves, and their relationships all inspire me. I was reminded everyday that we are related and that our 7th generation lives among us.

I believe I was called to Northwest Indian College by the ancestors and elders of the people there, to help those with the tribal college vision to set the college on the right path. Like Willies Jones, Sr., says, teaching the crew to paddle is the role of the skipper, then the skipper passes that role on to the next crew leader. The identity of NWIC as a tribal college emerged from the people there. I am appreciative that my work there helped me articulate my own understanding of what it means to be a tribal college.

There are journeys around me, Albert Whit Hat, Sr’s new book, Life’s Journey-Zuya, is in my reading bag. The Coastal People are engaged in their annual canoe journey sharing inspiring pictures and stories through social media. Our people are sun dancing and others are having summer ceremonials, on their spiritual journeys. The roads we take, the paths we chose, are all connected.

I was reading a chapter in a book, Brain Trust, by Garth Sendum, about how to get your husband to do more housework by making housework part of his male identity. I will still have to figure that one out. But it reminded me that in today’s Lakota society we have translated the tradition of naming into a contemporary experience through giving “Indian” names. That is a good thing because we are keeping the link between naming and identity alive. Now our Indian names are our guides, they are part of our identity, our names honor us for qualities that we exhibit and reflect the intention of those who sponsor us or host our naming ceremonies. My grandmother named me Wacinyanpi Win, they depend on her, when I am asked to do something, I try to listen to that call and to answer it the best I can. That takes hard work and often means sacrifices for my loved ones. I do not get to live next door to my children as my mother did, I must get out and speak and advocate, hold fast to the journey we are on, even when I would like to stay home and quilt and write. I must move to unknown places and learn new ways. As I sit here in the lobby of the hotel on our journey to our next place where I will do the work I am called to do, I have my values of courage, generosity and industriousness to fall back on. I am reminding myself in a public way that this next step in my work, to go to the American Indian College Fund, to live in a city and to travel and speak often with others, is so that the people may live.

Wopila, Tunkashila and Unci Maka, I am thankful that I am who I am, and that I have the strength of my identity as a Lakota woman. And thank you Butch Felix and all my other mentors, relatives and friends, for guiding me on this journey. Especially thank you to my children and grandchildren for sharing. And to Red who engages in these adventures with me. My appreciation to his chidren and grandchildren for sharing him.

Posted in Contemporary Native Issues | 8 Comments

Celebrating AIHEC’s 40th Anniversary

Posted on July 20, 2012 by Cheryl

Tribal college presidents and our central office staff along with colleagues from our institutions gathered this week on the Standing Rock Nation at our annual summer retreat. This is a time when we discuss important priorities of the colleges that we don’t get to spend as much time on during our other gatherings. A special treat this time was a number of activities hosted by Sitting Bull College that focused on the place-based, cultural knowledge present among the people here.

This is an important time for the tribal colleges as we prepare to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, AIHEC. We are privileged to still have among us founders not only of the tribal colleges and universities but also of AIHEC. AIHEC represents the vision we have as tribal people and college leaders of an organization that successfully advocates on our behalf, bringing resources and partnerships to the capacity building necessary to our prosperity. The accomplishments of AIHEC are many and varied, from federal legislation to education partnerships at the national and international level to leadership development and student programming.

Our long time leaders like Lionel Bordeaux and Dave Gipp remind us that we as tribal institutions have overcome tremendous obstacles and challenges through our ability to navigate our diversity and negotiate our different interests. Our strength is in our collective vision of prosperous tribal nations rooted in our traditions and teachings and committed to our indigenousness and sovereignty.

We remember that we do sacred work, the education of our people. We were reminded through words and songs of encouragement that our work takes courage. Our students teach us many lessons not the least of which is the power of our shared experiences and our kinship with each other.

Remember what you know about the tribal colleges and universities in this country and beyond, remember those who prepared the path for us to walk on through their vision and hard work, remember all the students who tried and all those who have been successful, remember that we do work for our future generations.

Celebrate the tribal colleges and AIHEC everyday but especially this year.

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Finding Our Place in the Urban Sun

Posted on July 16, 2012 by Cheryl

Getting to know the new place that we will be moving to has been part of the last few days. Having enjoyed a road trip that led us through the Indian country of the Northwest and Plateau Tribes, we are now exploring the Rocky Mountains and the foothills and plains that lie to their east. We are in semi-arid country, a mid-country version of high desert. There are lots of people here and the growth of the city of Denver and its suburbs is evident in the new houses and businesses all around us. It seems that Denver is a popular place.

I have been thinking about the geographic transitions that I have experienced over the years. They have been very few but each one profoundly affected me as a person and as a Lakota woman. When I was little girl, we moved from St. Francis to Rosebud following our Dad’s job. I can still remember, 50 years later, how disorienting it was to go from our home to a new town. We must have gone to Church of Jesus in Rosebud before then and certainly would have gone there on agency business but my sense of place was St. Francis, that was were my grandparents, relatives and friends were. My sisters took me to my first day of school in Rosebud while Mom stayed home to take care of the store. I have clear memories of playing in the sand on the road that ran through town and under the trees in our backyard. We could take a two minute walk to see aunties and grandmas. When we moved to Rosebud, it became a drive to see relatives until all of us grew up and raised our kids there. They think of themselves as from Rosebud, I still think of myself as from St. Francis.

When I went to college first briefly in New Hampshire then in Aberdeen and Vermillion, I saw those moves as forays into a world for the purpose of my education, they were temporary and in each place I sought my own connections with my fellow tribal students, I have good memories of those times and good friends, but those times were not about my work or making a life among others.

Moving to the Northwest was both geographically and culturally different. It was a very big move, leaving my mom who i lived next door to and leaving the social and cermonial relationships that formed me. I wanted the opportunity to serve as a tribal college president and felt called to join the people of coast so I gathered my courage and moved west. had been living in a town of 900 and went to live in a city of thousands. I considered it very urban, others laughed because urban to them was Seattle not Bellingham and its surrounding communities like where we recently made our home in Birch Bay. Everyday I appreciated that I worked on the Lummi Reservation which is still rural. The Coast Salish have their own ways, different from the Lakota, so I learned to live with people of another indigenous culture, it is a good experience and we have been able to make lifelong friends, one of the most gifts of any visit to another place.

I have been conscientious about what it means to live off the reservation and how that affects our knowledge of who we are as sovereign indigenous peoples. I have especially been aware of the effect of that on my grandchildren whose connection to their identity is provided by their family and rare opportunities to touch the land of their ancestors. I want to keep that alive for them. I want to keep it alive for us. I am reminded that we are taught that our kinship is one of the sources of our tribal identities, kinship is all around us, binds us to each other, we seek it out to reassure ourselves of who we are and helps us remember our connections.

As my family and I join the thousands of tribal people who do not live on the reservation, I will continue to remind us that our identity, our people, are about our homelands, our languages, and our way of living which has become rooted in our reservations. To thrive and prosper in our identity and in the places we choose to live, we must hold fast to all that ties us to our lands.

Posted in Contemporary Native Issues | 1 Comment

Journey West Begins

Posted on July 12, 2012 by Cheryl

We have been on a road trip travelling from the sea level homelands of the Lummi and Coast Salish people to the homeland of the Utes, Comanches, Arapahoes and others of the high plains. Alex and I drove our Chrysler 300 which still runs well with close to 150,000 miles on, like an old horse, used to long trips while our new pony waits at home for the next trip west. We left the lush, dense landscape of the Northwest Coast for the vast prairies of the western plains, cruising over the snow capped Cascades toward the rolling hills and valleys of the Plateaus, past the homelands of the Yakima and Umatilla, into the places where the land spreads before us for miles.

I felt in awe through our whole three day trip, we took our time enjoying the view, listening to rock and roll with occasional forays into what I call beer drinking, sitting on the tailgate of the pickup at the rodeo, country and western music. We felt very much like we are heading home, to the prairies and mountains that call to us, our DNA tells us we are in the place of our ancestors, the place where we belong.

It is a trip across Indian Country, our markers for where we are aren’t the cities or counties, they are the tribes whose lands we pass through. The history we share, the stories we tell, the relationships we have are with the tribal nations. I tell the stories that I have heard or read, or say the names of people we know. If we speak of others, Lewis and Clark, or the Mormon settlers whose descendants inhabit our lands, it is in the context of their relationships with tribal people.

For many, a road trip is an exploration of cities and counties, discovered paths, parks and recreational services, for us it is a journey through the lands of relatives. We arrive in the foothills of the Rockies, a place of gathering of our people. The next part of our life journey begins here.

Posted in Contemporary Native Issues | Tagged Homelands, relatives, road trip | Leave a comment

Reflections on a man of the people, John Trudell

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Cheryl

My niece graduated from the Institute of American Indian Arts last week. John Trudell spoke at their graduation and it reminded that I had this piece that was shared on the NWIC home page.

Northwest Indian College was honored to host the noted Indian activist and artist, John Trudell on April 25. John is a remarkable individual with a long history of activism on behalf of the rights of tribal people, including being at the forefront of the occupancy movement during the early days of the American Indian Movement. Over the years he has become increasingly engaged with the stories of tribal life through words and music, publishing his poetry and sharing his songs throughout Indian country and internationally. He is a well respected public speaker who in recent years has spoken most eloquently, with thoughtfulness and humor, about the many challenges faced by American society and, in particular, by Native people.

During his formal talks at NWIC and in his visits with students, community members and staff, John stressed the critical and urgent need for us to be watchful of the ways that we as human beings are being turned away from our humanity. Although much of what he had to say was very thought-provoking, there were a few things that stood out to me. John pointed out that all people come from tribes, including people of European ancestry. He said that the desire for property and resources caused some people to dominate others through warfare and inquisitions and that turned people away from being human beings. Just as tribal people refer to themselves by their traditional names, which translate into “the people”, so did Europeans at one time have those same names for themselves. The risk that tribal people face today of losing their sense of being human beings is great and he called upon us to be committed to the traditional knowledge that names us as “the people”.

John also stressed that it is important to be people who use our intelligence to think about what we believe and not to just “believe” without thinking about it. His point is that our intelligence is a powerful energy force that can move us into any direction that we want to go – so we should use our intelligence to ensure our survival and prosperity as tribal people.

I think everyone who had the opportunity to meet John, who is a Santee Dakota, enjoyed his humbleness and sense of humor and appreciated the courageous way that he shared himself with us.

Mother’s Day Lessons

Posted on May 13, 2012 by Cheryl

All of us have lots of loving words for our mothers. Those women who give birth to us and those who raise us. Many of us have deep connections to our mothers, aunties and grandmothers. Others of us live with a heartbreaking void where mothering is supposed to be. My mom always said she was a mother everyday. I feel that way myself, like each thing I do, how I act, and what I say with my children and grandchildren and all of my extended family are all lessons in how to be a mother, grandmother and a good relative. When I see what I am teaching in my children, I am honored that they listened and learned. When they don’t listen and learn, I feel that heartache that only a mother knows.

My mother, Vera ‘Tootie’ Whiting Compton, gave the best teaching of all, she gave us unconditional love. To each of us she was always supportive and accepting even when she shared her concern or disapproval. Oh, I know that she would complain about each of us especially to her sisters or sometimes to the other kids but I never felt anything but her love. I learned about how to be a mom and grandma from her. I learned to support and accept my children no matter what. I have a big family and she is the one who taught me that being an auntie is like being a mom and that a woman is grandmother to all. She also showed me to how to sew and bead, can food, and dry meats and vegetables. All important skills for a woman to have.

From my adopted mom, Doris Leader Charge, I learned how to persevere through humor and she taught me how to be a pipe carrier. The strength of prayer and the lessons of courage and discipline were lessons she taught me. She told me literally hours of stories and gave me lessons on how to sing ceremonial songs. I sundanced with her for many years. She modeled what our traditional adoption of the hunka family meant. I still think of her, Fred and all of their family as my relatives.

My mother-in-law, Marcella Prue, has taught me the importance of fierce loyalty to your family and models activism as an elder woman. She enjoys her life. She showed me the courage of survival and change in the face of tremendous loss, when her husband died at a young age leaving her to raise her children without him. My mom always said she felt lucky to have my grandma, Alice Cadotte, as her mother-in-law. They showed me that a mother-in-law can be your other mom if you let her,

Today I think of all my aunties who raised their own families and reached to all the rest of us with love and attention, I think of all the women I called grandma who gave out hugs and kisses and pressed their smooth, wrinkled cheeks against mine, smelling of roses and talcum powder. I look in the mirror and see their faces in mine.

Educators’ opportunities with Indian Businesses

Posted on May 5, 2012 by Cheryl

The National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development (NCAIED) is a great organization that builds capacity, networking and business opportunities for tribal businesses. For over 25 years, NCAIED has hosted the Reservation Economic Summit (RES), most of that time in Las Vegas, I don’t recall if it has been every year but it is a venue bustling with activity and risk taking so it is well suited to the high energy experience of RES. When I attend RES, I am so impressed by the relationships among the tribal and business partners and the incredible business acumen and financial knowledge of all the Native people who attend. Businesses and governments want to do business with tribes and individually owned Indian businesses and help create a great networking and educational opportunity. It is an economic development and networkers dream.

More tribal educators should attend. Not only do we have the opportunity to learn more about business development but the strong linkages between lifelong education and workforce education need to be cultivated. Many tribes still need the most basic infrastructure to be built in their communities, many tribes still have incredibly and heartbreakingly high unemployment. The experiences of poverty of our families need this infrastructure and employment opportunities that could be built on that infrastructure in order for us to live in healthier and more productive environments.

Tribal educators and tribally controlled institutions are vital to the well-being of a significant number of reservation based families and communities. Tribal colleges and universities in particular are able to serve as facilitators and conduits for economic development and building of enterprises of all sizes and with greater diversity. Sustainable reservation based economies come from the gathering of resources and TCUs are fine role models for meeting demand with limited resources. Sustainable economies ensure both the production of goods and services and the opportunity to spend generated revenue such as profits and salaries in the communities.

Learn more about NCAIED and the TCUs. You can learn more about TCUs at www.aihec.org.