My own experience with cultural identity

[ravenwoman_PREV (deleted)]

`THANK YOU mikmaq... I thank you from my heart!

[creehealer]

We must remember the symbolic meaning of the circle...unity. We are all humans no matter what color our "parts" are. Hard lessons can be disguised as opportunities for growth, the pain experienced by our ancestors lives in us to help us grow. Let's accept who we are no matter what, this will lead to being accepted by others, then we can heal...all of us.
Look to your personal medicine wheel for guidance.

creehealer

[yonausdimisha]

Sister Ravenwoman, you are not the only one who has walked that path of horror in your childhood and found out about being NA at such an advanced age. Many I ve met on 360 and glad that I did...not for our common suffering, but to understand that some of us have to deal with Great Spirit´s strong lessons in order to be who we are now. My german mother tried to beat my native being out of me, but never succeeded. I am blessed to have been guided and tought by our ancestors in Spiritworld as I can hear and feel them since early childhood, sometimes even see them, with many dreams and visions of my totem animals. Without knowing until much later, I walked our Red Path all my life. Here in Spain I was blessed to meet some Cherokees as well, but I did not know how very much I am Tsalagi at heart, until getting into deep conversations with our traditional brothers and sister, living in and out of rez, through internet.
If,in any way, I can help you or anybody else here,please, contact me privately. None of us should suffer fear of rejection, but we all have to learn to be truely ONE with All. May all your days be blessed.
Yona Usdi

[hupamattole]

.I am a half breed I have had to be strong all my life with both the non natives and the full bloods, I there for am a strong individual. I have learned my language of my father thru persistance and devotion to my culture. at first I was an apprenice of my ways now I am a teacher of such, teaching the full bloods or who ever wants to know as I see it. I speak several native languages as it comes easy to me. Its in my blood

[ravenwoman_PREV (deleted)]

`hupamattole that is wonderful! I am only now learning about my people! It is good that there are people like you out there for us. Perhaps one day I will have the time to learn my father's language. I would like that very much. I wish I had been raised knowing who I was. Pride for who I was. Instead it was hidden and lied about. Now, I have to put the pieces together and climb over the racial prejudice that I was raised with. Those of you who grew up knowing who you were, be glad. I would have given anything for that knowledge.

[choctawmicmac]

The Choctaw (at least the ones I know) say that you aren't PART Indian, you just ARE one. I learned a long time ago to stop letting people call me "part black" just because I have dark skin. These are not people who are holding any results from any DNA test saying that I have any African blood in me whatsoever or even looking at my family tree trying to find something in there that is NOT. They're just looking at the shade of my skin and WANTING me to be "black." So they can discriminate or whatever.

I find myself having to find whatever Native American stuff I can just to get a break from being around people who are trying to make me into something I am not and never have been and would never want to be, anyway. Sometimes it feels like I need to go down to the rez just to be around other people who look like me who also aren't "black" just Choctaws.

I WAS raised knowing who and what I was, but it hasn't helped yet. It's hard when every day, every waking minute is a constant struggle against people who want you to be what they want to see and they do all kinds of subtle things to make that clear to you. In my case, that means using the word "black" every damn chance they get in a sentence. I think that on the rez people are more just THERE. They don't go around calling each other "Choctaw" all the time because they know who they are, they're there trying to live their lives! Part of being Choctaw is NOT calling each other "choctaw" every chance you get for no reason except to, what, rub each other's noses in it? Or even "Injun." Sometimes I dream of somewhere "over the rainbow" where I could just be ME. A Biotechnology major and not "the Choctaw biotech major" or "the Indian woman biotech major" or whatever. Or even "the female biotech major."

Somewhere over the rainbow, huh?!?!?