What Are you?

I get asked this question less often than when I was younger. As a teen and young adult, I'd get it at least once a year. With a family tree mixed with my Eastern Shawnee, Norwegian and Yugoslavian ancestors, and (a couple of other native nations plus several other bits of European nations), it's hard to put me into a box. What I've chosen to do is use these questions as an opportunity to educate in sharing my story. My best advice is to be curious and kind, like I shared in my blog post, "Honoring Indigenous People," which you can read here.


Where is home?

Last summer I was working for a Pacific Northwest tribal nation. While I spent the day learning more about what they do to support their citizens and the surrounding community, one of the leaders asked me, "How often do you get to go home?" She had just learned that I'm Eastern Shawnee. I asked, "What does home mean to you?"


She clarified to her meaning my tribal land. And, while I was able to answer her that we do our best to visit for Powwow once a year, it isn't an easy question to answer. You see, the Eastern Shawnee and many other Native nations that share our corner of the Oklahoma/Missouri border are not from there. We were forcibly placed there by the US Government. Last summer, I learned that our Eastern Shawnee ancestors signed 11 Treaties in the process.


Before all of the hardship and history making of our recent past, our ancestors called many territories in the Ohio valley and East coast home. We were a woodland people who spent time growing crops and then hunting, moving around not on one plot of land.


How do we honor our Indigenous Relatives, our ancestors?

This is the question I've been asking myself for years. I did a report on my most famous Shawnee ancestor, Tecumseh when I was in 6th grade. Back in the day when I went to the library and searched a database for the books that would contain the information. What I found was about a paragraph in a large old book. Then, someone suggested I read a novel by Allan Eckert, "A Sorrow in Our Heart: The Life of Tecumseh." It certainly was an exciting account of his life! And an ambitious read for my age. Later I would learn about his problematic process in that his research and writing were suspect and his work more fiction than historic fact based.


I did two more reports on Tecumseh, one in High School and another in College when the Internet was new and Google did not exist. Since then, I've learned much more and am so grateful for all of the resources available today. The Eastern Shawnee published their own history and collection of family stories in the book, "The Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma: Resilience through Adversity," Edited by Stephen Warren.


Today, I honor my ancestors by learning more, showing up and sharing my ancestors story. Last April, I had the privilege to do just that and honor my Great-Grandparents. My Great Uncle Theodore had held onto the records and many photographs that his nephew, my Uncle Michael, handed to me for safekeeping. It was a delight to visit and share their story! You're welcome to read and see more of this experience in my blog post, "Photos Bring History Alive: Eastern Shawnee Family."


I'm still learning. It's really wonderful to see my other relatives sharing their art and work as well! My encouragement to those curious is to listen, read and view our art. And, support the organizations who are make these opportunities available to us too. Locally in the Seattle area, I want to amplify supporting:


This list above is just four of the organizations I've witnessed doing the work and supporting Indigenous people near where I live. There are numerous others, and I encourage you to be curious and kind, and explore those around your community too.