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| Time travel Photo credit: Venaya Yazzie 2016 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED |
Generations of desert ancestors trekked the dry lands to find protection and solace from the chaos of america's agenda. My Indigenous ancestors lived and struggled daily to survive for me, for us, the coming generations. This is the truth I understand now as an adult.
As a child growing up in american society I was not taught this history in school, I heard these truths from my family. Our oral history accounts of the Navajo Long Walk to For Sumner, New Mexico are embedded in the line of my feet. My Navajo ancestors, my Pueblo ancestors are the example of the government tried but failed to terminate my tribal people.
We are a resilient people. We are created in Creator God's image. We are not descendants of monkeys, we were made and formed in the image of one Creator God. This is the truth of our lives. As ancestors of our grandparents we survive, we thrive because we have our land, we have our language, we have our tribal ways, we have our family and extended family. We are rich from these intangible things, we are therefore strong.
I share this with you because I see how mainstream society is continuing to diminish the true history of my Indigenous people. The plight of my tribal people has been and continues to be over shadowed by events that are conjured up by groups that continue to terrorize and colonize by force, the lives of my Indigenous people.
Our Indigenous experience in the present and past has nothing to do with what modern american culture has spitted out... we are not them, they are not us. That's how it is.
Everything I do and say is for my Indigenous people, for they are my heart and the reason for my resiliency. So I continue to pray and believe in act of prayer, for this a constant in my life, it is the legacy of my ancestors that blesses me.
Hozho naasha.
