Details

Storyteller: Jaylen
Tribe: Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe
Created: 2018
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Transcript: Growing up on the rez, I always had family around me. I was taught at a very young age that we stick up for your family and to help your family any way possible. We stayed with the family and did what the family did. One of the problems with that was there was a lack of traditional activities in the house. This started when my grandparents went to a boarding school near the rez. Although they claim that they weren't abused in any form, the system still worked in that they stop speaking the language and stopped participating in ceremonies. The products of the school did not turn them into CATHOLICs but also took their traditional ways away. Passing this on to their kids, the kids were told that they were being traditional with the things that they still did. The kids learned how to introduce themselves in the language, learned the names for animals and food but not much more than that. The kids continued to put tobacco out before hunting, fishing, and gathering. And when the kids grew up, they attended powwows, played sports, and learned to become part of the colonized society. That's where I come in, I was raised in a "traditional" household. We continued the activities that the people before us did, like hunting, fishing, maple sugaring, and ricing. I always had the mentality that I was traditional. I thought that I was doing the right thing, I had brown skin, watched at the powwows and made the elders happy with the things that I did. I wanted to be a dentist, a basketball player or business owner. Then I came to college and to a big city where my identity of being Indigenous was even more rare. I felt as though I had to blend in and conform to the standards that society had set for me. I felt like my only options were to assimilate or to stand out. I chose to stand out. I chose to learn more of the language and participate more in ceremonies. I have grown to think differently about learning the traditional ways than the rest of my family. I am no longer fine with only knowing what I do now and am open to talking about ceremonies. Now I plan on being a language teacher, someone who works to help strengthen native causes and educates others.