Presents “What Culture Means to Me”
Chicago Title VII loves hearing from the community directly and will often ask for their opinions. Earlier this month we asked various community members, T7 participants, and students what they think culture means to them. Here are their responses. Jolene Aleck Northern Pauite/Shoshone Culture means so much! Working with many people of varying descents i.e. Latin, Irish, Middle East, African, and many indigenous populations this becomes a larger topic. Does culture “make” you? Working with many academics it seems we value the “place” that gives us our names’ sake or tribal status. However, in this day and age there are nuisances to this and that being the “urban” dweller the lost birds, displaced by a system that relocated families of the 50s or the first Natives who left the island, nonetheless, there is that strong “cultural” bond of knowing “the Rez” and various things about Native American or Indian conditions. So place to me has to be the key factor and that defining factor in what does culture say about you. For myself and my daughter, we stay connected to our family in Nevada, I am from Pyramid Lake, a place that holds my ancestral bloodline. And will continue to hold the bloodline for years. Everyone returns home, or never leaves, as a friend said. Culture to me means holding close to your homeland and their values. Georgina Roy First Nations Ojibway It means that my grandparents, mom and dad live on. In the Ojibway language, traditional ways, and throughout storytelling are our experiences and are alive in our home. The most valuable gift is our languages. What does culture mean to me? Knowing who I am and where I came from and knowing my culture, sustaining a relationship with my peoples’ ways. 2 Dorothy Roy First Nations Ojibway In Native Country it means “we.” It means our shared history. It stretches from the reservation to the many cities and towns we live in. We are a strong and creative minded people. Fawn E. Pochel Cree/Lakota Culture is the building blocks of who you will become. Culture is the backdrop of life. How do you explain who you are or how you think without mentioning where you came from, where your family comes from? Culture is our traditions, our values it shapes how I chose to live in this world. Without culture I fear I would lack perspective of who I am and my identity. To me, culture means everything. Norma Robertson Dakota Culture is defined as something practiced on a daily basis. It includes language, dress, spiritual, a thinking process of our actions. How we conduct ourselves in private or in public also expresses the culture we choose. After our definition is refined to our liking, we pass this information unto our relatives and others. We continue this pattern until it is changed by other influences or we stop doing whatever the practice is or was. Janie Pochel Cree/Lakota My culture is the very essence of my being. It has manifested to create me. Everybody’s culture is unique because every person has put 3 themselves into different types of cultures. I’m simultaneously a part of many, many different cultures melding into my own traditions the way we pray, the clothes we wear, the food we eat, our values. Anthony Roy Anishinaabe Having Culture, being cultured, means not stabbing in the dark at what it means to be you. Sure as we age being cultured can evolve but the state of walking cultured is to walk with a certain level of tolerance for other's traditions and ways, that has so haphazardly voyage the minefields of Americana. Too often than not we are reminded to give it all for an all encompassing communing of a culture, the reliance to that is the foundation of culture. Lisa Bernal Sisseton Wahpeton Culture is how we carry ourselves day to day, how we treat others, how we raise our children, and our connections to the earth we live on. When we are raised as children we are taught to respect everyone but always respect and listen to our grandparents. Culture is how we are raised, how we are taught to learn from everything we come in contact with throughout our lives. Culture means to be well educated about your family’s history. That you have a purpose in life, not just to live and get by but to keep an open mind and helps others. Culture keeps our family together and keeps our community alive. We are dancers, singers, artists, crafters, performers, cravers, sculptors, silversmiths, ironworkers, motivators, leaders, and mentors for our youth. We are Native people that are conscious of how we contribute to our daily routines always trying to stay on the Red road. Culture means to me all of the above… 4 Monica Rickert Prairie Band Potawatomi/African American/German “Know thyself” best describes culture to me. This means knowing where you come from, your history—be it family or race, acknowledging how you were raised, and understanding why you are the way you are. Traditions and beliefs are passed down throughout generations along with traits and genes, blessings and curses, acceptances and prejudices; all of these are alive and innate within us. I grew up knowing I came from three different races all of which had different histories and philosophies about life. Both sides of my family are big and boisterous and will not let any of us (the family) forget where we come from. Amber Roy Ojibwe Culture means to me is that I learn how to speak Ojibwe. I want to expand the languages, I really enjoy visiting my Rez and my friends. Dancing means that I get to express myself like fancy dancing. Alexis Roy Ojibwe Culture means to me going back to the reservation and making memories, swimming, dancing, singing, and drumming. At school I hide who I am and when I go back to the Rez or to powwows/appearances I don’t have to hide who I am. I love to listen to elders and their stories and when they sing/dance. I have a lot of friends and family who are Native American. I dance because it makes me happy and I express my feelings while dancing. I love Native food especially my favorite, fry bread nobody makes it as good as my Grandma Roy. 5 Pheji Cosson Navajo Culture means to me that nobody knows me. That nobody knows me that my culture is Native American. Eli S. Culture is your foundation, who you are, where you come from, and most important who you are related too. Charlie Roy Ojibwa What culture means to me is sharing similar experience, values, and art with a large group of people. And these similar aspects are passed down to the next generation. One of our biggest things, I think we hold close to our hearts, is the love for our children. We also hold a hilarious sense of humor that attributes to our resilience to our survival. I also feel that our art is so unique to us. These things are just a few things that make our Native culture special. Chris Pappan Kaw Nation Culture is something our ancestors have created. Hopefully we are creating and continuing a culture for our descendants. It is something that we as a community can share, and recognize as our own collective identity. Its something that we can be a part of, something that we can call our own, while at the same time, share it with others and invite 6 people to join in and experience a feeling of belonging. We can also recognize our differences within our respective cultures and celebrate those differences. Ones culture is never stagnate, it is always evolving. I share my culture by creating artwork: drawings and paintings. I am also always learning more about my culture through my artwork. Through this learning I am able to pass it down to the next generation. Randy Culture is tradition, it is history, it is a way of life. It is what binds a people together in harmony. It gives us meaning and purpose as we go about our daily lives. It is art, it is music, it is ritual, it is custom. It is values and codes that give us direction and guides us to oneness and unity as a people. Timothy Canezaro Minniconjou Lakota Culture is an embrace of: one’s ancestors, elders, language, creation stories, and a place in the world. For the Lakota, this involves learning about the White Buffalo Calf Woman. She brought the Lakota People the Sacred Pipe and made the ways of the The People holy by teaching them how to do things in a good way. Starting in youth, learn the songs! Learn the dances! Learn the language! Ask elders many, many questions. The elders are the keepers and beacons of your culture! Respect the Drum, learn and use the four medicines; sage, tobacco, sweet grass, and cedar. The number four sacred. Four Directions. Simple Lakota prayer to learn and use always: Mitakuye Oyacin. All my relations, all my relatives. I am related to all that lives. 7 Maria Guzman Mexican (Laredo, Zacatecas)/Menominee/Stockbridge-­‐Munsee As I’ve grown older I realized the knowledge and influences I retain from my heritage are entirely my own responsibility. Culture is a gift that connects me with my blood family. I don’t believe it is a direct tie with my destiny in life but it flavors my identity. I’d much rather focus on having a clean, serving spirit and work hard to achieve my dreams, than blame my cultural history for why I haven’t accomplished certain goals in life. Growing up I was raised primarily within my Latino family. Although my siblings and I were never taught any of our languages, we were raised with morals and traditions and to respect others. My Latino and Native heritage are the salt and pepper in the pot; I do feel I could survive without either of them but life would taste relatively bland. William Culture to me means blood, tradition, the Drum, Flute, Family most of all our family tribal and all our relations. Taz Johnson Cherokee Culture means to me where you came from. To me culture doesn’t limit where you can go or what your values are, yet where you came from and what gives you the blood in your body. Culture means family, friends, people you belong to. Culture is your backbone and the blood in your veins. Naakaii Smith Navajo/Ponca/Pomo/Shawnee/Otoe/Irish To me, culture means expressing what race you are to others. Like most of my family doesn’t go to Peyote meeting and my mom and I go whenever we can. We haven’t been able to go to a lot, so we would just 8 go to some in Oklahoma and other close states to Illinois. In non-­‐cultural activities, I would go to church with my friend (Ndumiso) on Sundays to see how it feels to go to a regular church that talks about god. But when you’re at a Peyote meeting you talk to go because god is always with you. Holly Sac&Fox/Muscogee Creek/Standing Rock Lakota Sioux Culture means the ways of your people, your community, it is the language, the customs, and the traditions of where you are from. The ways I express my culture are learning the language and the stories of my tribes. Since I don’t know much, I want to learn and be able to educate others about my culture. I think especially now, everyone needs to make an effort to learn about their culture so it does not die out and it will help other non-­‐Natives learn about the uniqueness of each individual tribe. I think helping others to learn about each culture the right way that will help stop generalizing Indians and misappropriations. Beverly Smith Diné Culture means identity, a way of being and knowing. A sacred foundation unifying people, nature, and natural elements to value lifeways set by our ancestors. Culture has made us resilient as Native people because we were able to unify inter-­‐tribally and embrace the unique characteristic as being the most diverse group of people. Anthony Pochel Cree/Sioux This is what culture means to me, culture means your background culture also means you and you are culture. 9 Adrien Pochel Cree/Lakota Culture to me is hand drumming. Shawn Canning Sioux, Sisseton, SD Culture means to represent your ancestors the best way you can. Harley Cain First Nations Ojibway 10