Finding your Tribe
It seems there is something to celebrate everyday these days. We celebrate everything from the important like births, weddings, anniversaries to the mundane like french fries and national boyfriend day.
This past few years Indigenous Peoples Day has started to mean more to me for varies reasons. First, real history is important, finding out the truth instead of what we were taught. Isn't the saying true "history is written by the victors." Those that won or conquered write the encyclopedias, school books and create holidays to support their truths.
Being a Native American is more then a DNA profile, it is an honor to be from a people resilient, a people those fought to eradicate, a people that is still here, a people dancing once again.
Identify was always somewhat of a struggle in my youth. There was always confusion as to the origin my olive skin, slanted eyes and shiny dark hair. I found it odd that people of other ethnicities thought I belonged to their people, every asian community thought they could claim me and those that weren't sure just thought I was "exotic."
At a young age my birth name was for a lack of a better word was
"stolen" from me, it was changed to something that made me unrecognizable to those that might understand my origins.
Being Native American makes me proud, it makes me stand taller when I am down, it makes me seek guidance in the eternal flames of those behind me.
Over the course of years I have come to better understand the links to my native roots, where my tribe is from and how my gifts manifest in this life. But most of all I have broadened my understanding of tribe, and know that the tribe I have built as mine is made up of peoples just as resilient, not erasable, still here and dancing once again.
Today let's celebrate just knowing, knowing who we are, knowing where we came from, knowing there is a tribe waiting for us and that we will always be part of it no matter what.
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