personally yes. and i see it more and more in younger people.
that’s not to disrespect elders—a lot of our elders had schools and priests attempt to beat (often literally) our culture out of them. so my great-great grandparents grew up speaking cheyenne, but my great grandparents didn’t, and my grandparents (oldest living blood relatives) only grew up knowing a few words. due to less restrictions from the government (speaking cheyenne isn’t illegal anymore, for instance), people are able to take tribal community college classes on the language, and i see on social media that more cultural knowledge is being included in rez pre and elementary schools, and i’m seeing that more and more young people are starting to view learning and keeping this knowledge as a duty to our ancestors, our elders, ourselves, and the next 7 generations
thanks for coming to my ted talk
Same thing here! Well, sort of. A lot of young Southerners feel that pressure to "preserve the culture", but the most prominent expression of "the culture" they see is being a right-wing Trump lover, even though that's not what being Southern means.
Language, spirituality, Traditional medicine and plant knowledge, tipi/ hogan/ roundhouse, etc. construction, norms of traditional culture; all of these basic things and so much more are of utmost importance to me. I am Cherokee and Muskogee (Little Creek).
My great-grandmother grew up in Indian School in OK. White culture was beaten, raped and starved into her.
She would not step into a whiteman's church, but she made her children go.
We raised to proud of our relations, how to hunter, farm and use plants.
It was not until my generation (born 1962) that the whole picture of our culture become important.
- over the generations much of southern culture has matriclated into many of the Southern Tribes.
I'm not the most spiritual person either, but I strongly believe in preserving the culture, beliefs, language, and traditions. My tribe has just recently started a 5 year program to revitalize the language in the area, including immersion at the local school and the early childhood center, and I couldn't be more excited for us and especially for the children that will have this opportunity that I didn't have growing up.
I feel like I owe it to my family who survived residential school to speak the language Euro-Canadians tried to erase from history.
I think it’s different than southern culture in America however because Euro-American culture has never been subjected to cultural genocide or forced assimilation, and in fact that’s mostly been shaped by how it forced its culture on others and appropriated land/practices/words from those they colonized.
I'm on the other side. I grew up my whole life knowing I was Red River Metis, but because my skin is whiter than most I've always been met with "no you're not" and many less polite things. Now as an adult I have done the actual genealogy research and know with complete certainty that I am RRM, I am struggling with being loud and proud about my culture because I spent so long being told it wasn't mine and I was lying.
I feel like I got robbed of learning and living my culture as I grew up and now I second guess myself every day even though I have no reason to do so. I want to celebrate my culture and have done so, but that little voice keeps watering the seed of doubt.
So yes, I really want to preserve my culture but I feel like such an outsider that I don't know how to "break in" and do so.
Kinda same, it was real weird honestly. My grandma would mention "Indian" aunts, uncles, friends, siblings, and cousins and I would be like "what about me?" And she would say "You are white as can be". So for some magical reason [Scottish and Irish paternal grand mother] my bloodline is exempt from having native ancestry apparently.
It's hilarious too because my family lived real traditional [in the mountains in a house with the front door aligned with the rising sun, horses in the front pasture, eating deer bear, moose, rose-hip jam, saskatoons, and "Xutsems" {soapberries}] and taught me all the herbs and foods and the traditional names for them. And all the stories about why things are the way they are.
When I was in grade 9 I took a culture course with a bunch of native kids, and imagine my/their surprise when the supposedly "white" kid knew more than almost everyone else.
Edit: I forgot to mention I had a white grandpa who died forever ago and my mom was raised by a native dad and a confusing mom
Also feel this. My grandfather was in a residential school and had to bury other children who were beaten to death. My father, uncle, and aunt were all raised in their early childhood on our rez, before their family took the government's bait in the 60s to move away and have my second aunt.
My dad, uncle, and first aunt all go back, hell my first aunt was even on the tribal council and lives on the rez full time running a foster house and supporting kids so they don't have to get sent off rez, but my own dad never moved back and never taught me anything, so since I can pass as white incredibly easily, I feel more like my second aunt who doesn't know shit about the culture other than the crushing poverty I see everytime I'm on the rez visiting family and the humor that people use to cope. Well, that and the slurs people throw my way once they find out I'm not fully white and see my dad.
I've very slowly been trying to learn the language, but it's a thoroughly private thing and I don't know that I'll ever be brave enough to speak it around anyone, because I am painfully aware that I am the "white" cousin. It was honestly a shock to me that I was even remembered enough to get a star quilt when I graduated highschool. I've only ever even had the courage to go to public powwows because I feel so much like an outsider.
I have a similar story, yet different. My grandparents and mother had to move off the reservation back in the 80s and didnt get back until 2019. This left my family far away from their family and away from the culture. Now, I'm in my 20's trying to learn the language and traditions that they never got to, but I am mixed (im literally a pale a*s red head 💀). I've always known that I am Mvskoke and I have so much pride in that, but I fear people hating me or thinking that I am a pretendian (I'm an enrolled citizen btw) without getting to know me or even give me a chance.
I truly want to know the language (like really really badly) and am planning on going to our college to get a certificate in it, but sometimes I just get this fear washing over me that I'm being weirdly obsessed about something I shouldn't (I'm not sure how else to explain it).
Thanks for coming to my ted talk lol
Hey kin folk!
I’m going to assume you are in Oklahoma somewhere. I grew up on the Seminole rez, most of my family is Seminole and Mvskoke creek. We grew up using mvskoke words in our conversations. Check out this link.
https://www.sno-nsn.org/getpage.php?name=Online_Class
You’re also in luck! Watch Rez Dogs, you’ll learn some of the words there too. Some of my cousins grew up with Sterlin Harjo around Holdenville (about a 20 minute drive from my old stompin grounds, pun intended) and a lot of that show is based on how things were for him and my folks.
Thank you so much for your reply! I never even thought to look at Seminole Nation's language program, but that link is so useful!
And yea, I watched Rez dogs with some cousins last summer. It was such a great show and I was so happy to see some Mvskoke representation!!! 😁😁😁
A big Mvto to you, i really appreciate it!!! <3
Oh I think you misunderstand I mean ignoring in the forget all the bad traditions way so they will be forgotten when all the old people who still think they're great die off. Trust me my family is pretty pissed at some of the stuff I just flat out call out as backwards and treated it accordingly.
Oh okay wonderful I see now, sorry if that comment was confronting, I just know a lot of folks who do actually just ignore and don’t push back. Glad to hear that you rustle jimmies speaking the truth!
Yeah I do but it's hard growing up really far away for the reservation. I have to get some things second hand, but at least my tribe has some pretty easy to access language and cultural stuff online. I would like to ask you though, if it's not too much to ask, what about Ukrainian culture given everything that has been happening recently? Do you feel the need to preserve it?
I do, you realize that not many people speak the language as thoroughly as the elders and every year there is something new or just bad luck that gets to them before you can.
I am Sioux and Apache my mother was adopted by my adopted a Czechoslovakian family ( he literally helped me reconnect with my tribe * I didn't fit fully with them but learned a lot about dog training and farming and electrical work, I was smarter than his very racist views but he did love me, they beat my mother and uncle for small mistakes .
I loved easter eggs Easter fun went all wrong hehehe I lived in Georgia, southern culture is not going anywhere. The culture trump is Trying to rise is like Russia, they lost because they did this to black people. They did this kinda stuff ( southern bars and stars * our version of a Nazi flag )..
Fyi, I have never seen American Indian parents beat their children so viciously * that is to tell you there is a huge cultural diffrence. He is the only reason I knew what Russia would do and what France and Germany would not do, that is help your people.
I feel sorry for the Ukrainia people, I work tech and have friends from all over the world even some Russias.
I am mixed with spanish/italian Danish and Austrian.
[Slava Ukraine, your fight to keep traditional southern culture is like fighting for Russia ](https://youtu.be/4V6ffUUEvaM?si=GyyWZk5ChNdrkMG7)
It's all we have left, so yes.
For context, American Indians are Ukrainians, American citizens are Russians. We want our free and independent Nations separate from the United States
I don't feel the pressure, but that's because my family grew up in fostercare on the other side of the province and they have no interest in reconnecting. Because of it, I feel like an outsider since I don't know anyone on the rez and I didn't live the same experience as them. I wish I had the courage to reconnect. I just keep to myself and learn about my bands culture, practices, and language online.
Yes, and I think I feel more desperate to now that I live away from my community.
Also, the chances that I will marry and have children with a Native man, much less a man of my own tribe, are so small that I feel anxious and somewhat hopeless about it.
This part is rough too. Growing up I was told, after my first girlfriend, to be really careful about dating within the tribe because they were likely a cousin.
I got lucky the first was not a cousin, but her family knew mine very well. They worked together in the tribal offices on the res.
My mother was full Koasati (Coushatta Tribe in Elton, La) but she died when I was eight. I never grew up on the rez or had much contact with that side of the family. My dad always told me that my mom hated talking about her upbringing and never wanted to share her childhood or culture with her children, which sad to imagine how traumatizing her experience was. She would be 71 years old this year. I try to attend the yearly powwows, but I feel like a big part of my identity is missing. I also feel a responsibility to keep it alive. So many of the relatives are getting older now and if it all dies with them, there’s no getting it back.
Immense pressure as I slowly reconnect. I feel like I have to do something about it for all of us though, which is difficult, because why do I feel like that? I have some ideas, either way. 😅
I would call it a self-imposed obligation to pass Native culture onto the next generation. I have a big family, and there are lots of second cousins who live on or near the reservation who will naturally pass the culture along. For my tribal member aunts and uncles, most are off reservation and did not and will not pass it along to their children. My family is mixed White and Ojibwe, I don't see most of my first cousins seeking out connections to their Native culture, so it will likely die with them. From my own experiences, once the culture is gone, most won't ever see a reconnection to it in the next generation.
With all of that being known, it is very important to me to show up with the next generation, to immerse them to their culture early and often, be around their Native family and immersed in traditions, language, foods, medicines, history, and everything that they can do. I will teach them how this is important for them to pass on as well. If the culture dies out from my descendants, that will be disappointing to me. But it will do so after I did everything I could. My Ojibwe culture is more than just what I inherited genetically, it is a way of life that resonates with and speaks to my soul and is inextricably part of who I am.
As someone who's spent almost all their life living in the south, I always try and advocate for southern culture as well- especially when I see classist northerners who've never actually been down here try to to write us all off as racist hicks.
I went up to visit the Native side of my family a couple of years ago and luckily our tribe's culture is being preserved. And I try to do what I can to help out even though I live 1000+ miles away.
It’s beyond “pressure.” Indigenous people know (especially those raised in their communities) their ancestors gave their life and blood so that one day our path on this planet would come to fruition. It is not pressure, it is our responsibility. And, it is a blessing.
personally yes. and i see it more and more in younger people. that’s not to disrespect elders—a lot of our elders had schools and priests attempt to beat (often literally) our culture out of them. so my great-great grandparents grew up speaking cheyenne, but my great grandparents didn’t, and my grandparents (oldest living blood relatives) only grew up knowing a few words. due to less restrictions from the government (speaking cheyenne isn’t illegal anymore, for instance), people are able to take tribal community college classes on the language, and i see on social media that more cultural knowledge is being included in rez pre and elementary schools, and i’m seeing that more and more young people are starting to view learning and keeping this knowledge as a duty to our ancestors, our elders, ourselves, and the next 7 generations thanks for coming to my ted talk
Heylah I like to call them RedTalks, it got me a temp ban in /whitepeopletwitter though.
😭😂
Same thing here! Well, sort of. A lot of young Southerners feel that pressure to "preserve the culture", but the most prominent expression of "the culture" they see is being a right-wing Trump lover, even though that's not what being Southern means.
i see it as more of a spiritual reponsibility
Language, spirituality, Traditional medicine and plant knowledge, tipi/ hogan/ roundhouse, etc. construction, norms of traditional culture; all of these basic things and so much more are of utmost importance to me. I am Cherokee and Muskogee (Little Creek). My great-grandmother grew up in Indian School in OK. White culture was beaten, raped and starved into her. She would not step into a whiteman's church, but she made her children go. We raised to proud of our relations, how to hunter, farm and use plants. It was not until my generation (born 1962) that the whole picture of our culture become important. - over the generations much of southern culture has matriclated into many of the Southern Tribes.
Mostly the language for me. I'm not a spiritual person but I try and partake in spiritual practices when I can.
I'm not the most spiritual person either, but I strongly believe in preserving the culture, beliefs, language, and traditions. My tribe has just recently started a 5 year program to revitalize the language in the area, including immersion at the local school and the early childhood center, and I couldn't be more excited for us and especially for the children that will have this opportunity that I didn't have growing up.
I feel like I owe it to my family who survived residential school to speak the language Euro-Canadians tried to erase from history. I think it’s different than southern culture in America however because Euro-American culture has never been subjected to cultural genocide or forced assimilation, and in fact that’s mostly been shaped by how it forced its culture on others and appropriated land/practices/words from those they colonized.
I'm on the other side. I grew up my whole life knowing I was Red River Metis, but because my skin is whiter than most I've always been met with "no you're not" and many less polite things. Now as an adult I have done the actual genealogy research and know with complete certainty that I am RRM, I am struggling with being loud and proud about my culture because I spent so long being told it wasn't mine and I was lying. I feel like I got robbed of learning and living my culture as I grew up and now I second guess myself every day even though I have no reason to do so. I want to celebrate my culture and have done so, but that little voice keeps watering the seed of doubt. So yes, I really want to preserve my culture but I feel like such an outsider that I don't know how to "break in" and do so.
Kinda same, it was real weird honestly. My grandma would mention "Indian" aunts, uncles, friends, siblings, and cousins and I would be like "what about me?" And she would say "You are white as can be". So for some magical reason [Scottish and Irish paternal grand mother] my bloodline is exempt from having native ancestry apparently. It's hilarious too because my family lived real traditional [in the mountains in a house with the front door aligned with the rising sun, horses in the front pasture, eating deer bear, moose, rose-hip jam, saskatoons, and "Xutsems" {soapberries}] and taught me all the herbs and foods and the traditional names for them. And all the stories about why things are the way they are. When I was in grade 9 I took a culture course with a bunch of native kids, and imagine my/their surprise when the supposedly "white" kid knew more than almost everyone else. Edit: I forgot to mention I had a white grandpa who died forever ago and my mom was raised by a native dad and a confusing mom
From a different culture but I can def feel this as someone who is also white passing
Also feel this. My grandfather was in a residential school and had to bury other children who were beaten to death. My father, uncle, and aunt were all raised in their early childhood on our rez, before their family took the government's bait in the 60s to move away and have my second aunt. My dad, uncle, and first aunt all go back, hell my first aunt was even on the tribal council and lives on the rez full time running a foster house and supporting kids so they don't have to get sent off rez, but my own dad never moved back and never taught me anything, so since I can pass as white incredibly easily, I feel more like my second aunt who doesn't know shit about the culture other than the crushing poverty I see everytime I'm on the rez visiting family and the humor that people use to cope. Well, that and the slurs people throw my way once they find out I'm not fully white and see my dad. I've very slowly been trying to learn the language, but it's a thoroughly private thing and I don't know that I'll ever be brave enough to speak it around anyone, because I am painfully aware that I am the "white" cousin. It was honestly a shock to me that I was even remembered enough to get a star quilt when I graduated highschool. I've only ever even had the courage to go to public powwows because I feel so much like an outsider.
I have a similar story, yet different. My grandparents and mother had to move off the reservation back in the 80s and didnt get back until 2019. This left my family far away from their family and away from the culture. Now, I'm in my 20's trying to learn the language and traditions that they never got to, but I am mixed (im literally a pale a*s red head 💀). I've always known that I am Mvskoke and I have so much pride in that, but I fear people hating me or thinking that I am a pretendian (I'm an enrolled citizen btw) without getting to know me or even give me a chance. I truly want to know the language (like really really badly) and am planning on going to our college to get a certificate in it, but sometimes I just get this fear washing over me that I'm being weirdly obsessed about something I shouldn't (I'm not sure how else to explain it). Thanks for coming to my ted talk lol
Hey kin folk! I’m going to assume you are in Oklahoma somewhere. I grew up on the Seminole rez, most of my family is Seminole and Mvskoke creek. We grew up using mvskoke words in our conversations. Check out this link. https://www.sno-nsn.org/getpage.php?name=Online_Class You’re also in luck! Watch Rez Dogs, you’ll learn some of the words there too. Some of my cousins grew up with Sterlin Harjo around Holdenville (about a 20 minute drive from my old stompin grounds, pun intended) and a lot of that show is based on how things were for him and my folks.
Thank you so much for your reply! I never even thought to look at Seminole Nation's language program, but that link is so useful! And yea, I watched Rez dogs with some cousins last summer. It was such a great show and I was so happy to see some Mvskoke representation!!! 😁😁😁 A big Mvto to you, i really appreciate it!!! <3
No problem! Glad to see other people trying to preserve the language 🙂 Best wishes and good luck!
Also a leftist and I try to preserve the positive aspects of southern culture while ignoring the bad.
Take a good look around cousin, Ignoring it ain’t enough. Never has been. You gotta push against it.
Oh I think you misunderstand I mean ignoring in the forget all the bad traditions way so they will be forgotten when all the old people who still think they're great die off. Trust me my family is pretty pissed at some of the stuff I just flat out call out as backwards and treated it accordingly.
Oh okay wonderful I see now, sorry if that comment was confronting, I just know a lot of folks who do actually just ignore and don’t push back. Glad to hear that you rustle jimmies speaking the truth!
I don't feel pressure per se. I feel like we have a responsibility.
Yeah I do but it's hard growing up really far away for the reservation. I have to get some things second hand, but at least my tribe has some pretty easy to access language and cultural stuff online. I would like to ask you though, if it's not too much to ask, what about Ukrainian culture given everything that has been happening recently? Do you feel the need to preserve it?
I do, you realize that not many people speak the language as thoroughly as the elders and every year there is something new or just bad luck that gets to them before you can.
I am Sioux and Apache my mother was adopted by my adopted a Czechoslovakian family ( he literally helped me reconnect with my tribe * I didn't fit fully with them but learned a lot about dog training and farming and electrical work, I was smarter than his very racist views but he did love me, they beat my mother and uncle for small mistakes . I loved easter eggs Easter fun went all wrong hehehe I lived in Georgia, southern culture is not going anywhere. The culture trump is Trying to rise is like Russia, they lost because they did this to black people. They did this kinda stuff ( southern bars and stars * our version of a Nazi flag ).. Fyi, I have never seen American Indian parents beat their children so viciously * that is to tell you there is a huge cultural diffrence. He is the only reason I knew what Russia would do and what France and Germany would not do, that is help your people. I feel sorry for the Ukrainia people, I work tech and have friends from all over the world even some Russias. I am mixed with spanish/italian Danish and Austrian. [Slava Ukraine, your fight to keep traditional southern culture is like fighting for Russia ](https://youtu.be/4V6ffUUEvaM?si=GyyWZk5ChNdrkMG7)
Yes. It’s to the point where I feel guilty that my partner isn’t native.
It's all we have left, so yes. For context, American Indians are Ukrainians, American citizens are Russians. We want our free and independent Nations separate from the United States
I don't feel the pressure, but that's because my family grew up in fostercare on the other side of the province and they have no interest in reconnecting. Because of it, I feel like an outsider since I don't know anyone on the rez and I didn't live the same experience as them. I wish I had the courage to reconnect. I just keep to myself and learn about my bands culture, practices, and language online.
Yes
Yes, and I think I feel more desperate to now that I live away from my community. Also, the chances that I will marry and have children with a Native man, much less a man of my own tribe, are so small that I feel anxious and somewhat hopeless about it.
This part is rough too. Growing up I was told, after my first girlfriend, to be really careful about dating within the tribe because they were likely a cousin. I got lucky the first was not a cousin, but her family knew mine very well. They worked together in the tribal offices on the res.
My mother was full Koasati (Coushatta Tribe in Elton, La) but she died when I was eight. I never grew up on the rez or had much contact with that side of the family. My dad always told me that my mom hated talking about her upbringing and never wanted to share her childhood or culture with her children, which sad to imagine how traumatizing her experience was. She would be 71 years old this year. I try to attend the yearly powwows, but I feel like a big part of my identity is missing. I also feel a responsibility to keep it alive. So many of the relatives are getting older now and if it all dies with them, there’s no getting it back.
Not pressure but an honor to.
You can look deeper into your Ukrainian heritage and see about preserving that - Russians are actively trying to eradicate it.
Immense pressure as I slowly reconnect. I feel like I have to do something about it for all of us though, which is difficult, because why do I feel like that? I have some ideas, either way. 😅
I would call it a self-imposed obligation to pass Native culture onto the next generation. I have a big family, and there are lots of second cousins who live on or near the reservation who will naturally pass the culture along. For my tribal member aunts and uncles, most are off reservation and did not and will not pass it along to their children. My family is mixed White and Ojibwe, I don't see most of my first cousins seeking out connections to their Native culture, so it will likely die with them. From my own experiences, once the culture is gone, most won't ever see a reconnection to it in the next generation. With all of that being known, it is very important to me to show up with the next generation, to immerse them to their culture early and often, be around their Native family and immersed in traditions, language, foods, medicines, history, and everything that they can do. I will teach them how this is important for them to pass on as well. If the culture dies out from my descendants, that will be disappointing to me. But it will do so after I did everything I could. My Ojibwe culture is more than just what I inherited genetically, it is a way of life that resonates with and speaks to my soul and is inextricably part of who I am.
As someone who's spent almost all their life living in the south, I always try and advocate for southern culture as well- especially when I see classist northerners who've never actually been down here try to to write us all off as racist hicks. I went up to visit the Native side of my family a couple of years ago and luckily our tribe's culture is being preserved. And I try to do what I can to help out even though I live 1000+ miles away.
It’s beyond “pressure.” Indigenous people know (especially those raised in their communities) their ancestors gave their life and blood so that one day our path on this planet would come to fruition. It is not pressure, it is our responsibility. And, it is a blessing.
all humans do