The exercise was a teaching moment, learning the true history of the Firsts Nations people from Nanaimo. All of us had to stand on a blanket, which represented land for the people. Sylvia walked around the room reading a paper and as she read that, we all has scripts that followed a sequence to go along with the story. When she read about the land being taken, she folded the blanket and we had to stand on the blanket. So the smaller is got , the closer the people on it had to be. That was showing us how the land was getting smaller and smaller for the tribes that lived there. We found out about how they took the children for families and forced for adoption, this was called the 60’s scoop. When the kids went to boarding school, they were beaten or yelled at for speaking their language.We learned how the land was taken from them and how hard it was for the people that needed to relocate. As the people relocated, deaths accorded. The people weren’t near their natural hunting grounds, many diseases, and hundreds were killed by the intruders. Soon after this the activity was over. At the end of the activity we all sat in a circle to talk about how the activity affected us. Many had very strong stories and had lots in tears because of it. This experience brought all of us closer to each other, we have bonded really well these past days. The activity makes me want to keep learning about my culture, learning the language, songs, and the truth. This trip has been really fun, learning new things everyday, meeting new people, and making new friends.
Blog
Naui’s Blog Day 3/4
Day 3: we woke up and started the morning with Aztec Martial arts and we started by practicing what we remembered the day before which was learning about the discipline, self control, a defense routine and how the martial art correlates and aligns to animals, orbital cycles of stars and planets and mathematics. But anyways, Hector and john who were the people teaching us these martial arts showed us about the center point in a persons energy and balance which is their belly button, i will finish this blog later…
4th day- Isaac
since we have done the blanket activity i feel like i have gotten closer to everyone because they have trusted me and other with they emotions and what had happened to they in the past. i have not gotten to know everyone in personal level but i am looking into getting to know everyone in a personal level. also another thing that i liked was how we all got together yesterday morning and did the indigenous games. we all encouraged each other and had fun. the pool time we had was fun. when we are in the pool we just hang out with others and have fun. we played marco polo. i tried swimming to the end of the pool. i didn’t make it to the end but i am going to keep trying. today at pool time we played volleyball and that was fun.
Jarrod is Having an Awesome Time
I have been having a great time so far. I keep on getting closer to everybody but I don’t know everyone that well. I already feel like we are all a family. We have been going into the pool, learning Aztec math and just writing. We made a necklace out of soap stone. We also got closer together in the circle and I felt honored that they actually had the strength to tell things that would also be hard to talk about.I also learned about what happened to our ancestors hundreds of years ago. Today, we had a blessing in two separate groups, i haven’t really ever experienced anything like that. We also got to swim again but it was a smaller group that went swimming because everybody else went to town to get frozen yogurt. This morning was really great too, but we had fun, we played volleyball with a huge beach ball. I took my shoes off and placed on the grass. The connection with the ground made me feel much more connected to mother earth, because my feet started to dig into the ground, and every step i took while in the dance I was excited to see what we would do. When dancing i was turned around in most of the moves because everyone else would be going one way and then i would be going the other. The dancing really brought up my mood from being tired to feeling energized. I also learned that dancing was a big part of our culture, i don’t really know this kind of stuff because no one in my family has taught me anything about my culture. So i am thankful to be here and learn what i have been wanting to learn.
The talking circle, aleyah
Yesterday was a very memorable day for me, it was very inspiring day. I would never have guessed people that came to this program would have been through such trauma. I think the exercise really brought us closer, and it was a good ice breaker!To hear everyone be so open and emotional really hit home for me.
At dinner me and belmont had a very brief conversation. I told him were im from , but on a deeper note i told him more on my perspectives on my culture & traditions as a cherokee. Growing up i was raised as a jingle dress dancer in the arena along side with my younger brother daniel who danced as a fancy dancer. Looking upon my yunger self it was a clear fact that i was an indigenous 7 year old, who danced my heart out every single time i was in the urina. As me and my brother grew , so did our knowing on our culture. Around age 10 my mom began to question herself on a religious note if worshiping the creater and other spiritual symbols was the write thing to do, as a christian.
I remember my mom filling black bags with our regailia. She didnt fold it or nothing she just threw it in the bag. She took off the dream catchers from the walls because they were still hanging. She got all the jewelry that she ever made. Because she used to bead so all of her little tuppleware were filled with beads. She shoved them in the bags on top of the regailias and the dream catchers. She tied the bags in a knot and me and my brother were right there. We walked down to the car like we didn’t want to go but we had to. My mom opened the trunk. I think there were two bags. One at a time with doubt in her eyes, she was really hesitant. Then we drove to food-for-less quietly. We pulled up by the trash can. She got out of the car, while me and my brother were still sitting in the backseats. And I still remember when she was walking to the trunk she gave me a glance before she opened it. She got out one bag and she was looking at it while she was walking to the trash like her mind was filling up with all these memories. Everything was coming back to her, i mean it never really left, but you could just see the hurt. She knew that she put a lot of time, energy and faith in it. Because every time before we danced we prayed. In our regailias we danced for god. When she threw the first bag you could tell she was in that mood of okay there is no going back now. And she was really sorry for us because she knew that we didnt want to get rid of them. By that time we were already crying. She got out the second bag. Frustrated really because she didnt want to do it anymore. She got the bag and was dragging herself there. She looked slumped like a mother. All of our dancing, everything we have ever ever done, every single bead, every single cut, every single feather, everysingle tare, every single design was in that bag. All of our memories all of our faith and all of our dignity was in there. Because that made us who we were. She was basically throwing us away. You could tell that it hurt her as a mother. Because we were dancing in that bag and she was just throwing us away.
She got back to the car and we drove away from our culture and who we were.
Blog Prompt Day 4
We would like to start by thanking all of the students. We have tackled some pretty tough subjects over the past few days and you all have made wonderful, powerful contributions to every conversation and activity. We have also celebrated and come together through music and song, prayer and Aztec dance.
Today we would like you to blog on anything and everything you want. It could be something that has happened so far, or something you’re feeling and experiencing in this moment. You could dive into a single moment and describe it, how you felt both emotionally and physically in that moment. Describe your surroundings, the smells, where the sun was in the sky. A small moment can make for a big story sometimes.
So let’s recap…
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We’ve done some creative writing with Shelva and started brainstorming and researching colleges.
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We’ve begun to develop our voice with a couple of blog posts
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Vicente has shared some lessons on the Nepohualtzintzin
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Vicente and Coyo shared Aztec Dance
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We colored and beaded with Auntie Julia
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The blanket exercise
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Soapstones with Auntie Julia
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Clapper Sticks with Auntie Julia
- Spirit Game: Pride of A Nation
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Free time and self care
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The pool
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Probably lots more…
So don’t hold back, push yourself! Explore something by writing about it… never know what you might learn.
-Gina and Genna
Day 2 Spirit Game
Today was full of wonderful moments! It started for me at 6am waking up and walking outside to find Cuauhtli and Jasson ready to run. We ran around all the campuses and then went to Indigenous games with Hector. It was fun starting the day off in the early golden light and finding the energy in ourselves to run and run and run. Throughout the day we toured Pomona College, ate delicious food, swam in the pitzer pool and then watched Spirit Game. The movie was very inspiring and it just so happened that one of our mentors my amazing friend Phil who I love is from one of the 6 nations, whose team the film followed. I loved the movie because it had me hanging off my seat hoping the Iroquois team would win and taught me a lot about the history of the 6 nations and how colonization continues to affect them today. There was a moment in the film where the Canadian Coach was sitting next to one of the Chiefs. They were sitting in the tribal councils log building. The film had just discussed how the Kanadian team refused to get their passports stamped. The coach said it was just a big misunderstanding and laughed it off. There are subtitles during this sequence because the chief’s words are a muffled by one side of his lips. He explains that he recently had a stroke. The Kanadian coach says some words about how canada needs to treat its Native people better. It seems like he is trying to seem progressive, even though his team just refused to respect the sovereignty of the nations by getting their passports stamped. The chief doesnt look at the coach, but with clear eyes describes how men come to him and think they can spent a couple minutes with him and learn the history. They come to him without knowing anything about his people. They expect his people to sit down and tell them the history, quickly and then they leave. The subtitles roll across the screen and the coaches eyes flicker behind his fake smile. The chief continues describing the ignorant men who come. His eyes do not look in the coach’s direction.
The coach at the beginning of the interview smiles at the chief sickly sweet as if telling him youre just a sweet old man. But the chief smiles and shows that the coach and the country of canada are ignorant fools. Such ignorant fools. But so dangerous.
It was a great day. I cant wait for tomorrow.
Johanna – Day Two of Expanding My Knowledge
Today, on July 12, 2017, we the students of the Native Youth to College Program at Pitzer College, had the privilege to view an amazing film, Spirit Game: Pride of a Nation created and directed by Gayle Anne Kelley. Gayle was adopted into the Onodaga Nation because of the amazing work she has been working on and demonstrating her love and passion through the variety of events and ceremonies she has participated in. Her creating this film and sharing it with the world is very inspirational because it contains so much information that youth can see what our fellow natives went through. This film was not only focused on the game of lacrosse, but focused on everything that was connected to one another.
In the beginning of the film you see how the Iroquois Nationals from Haudenosaunee had the challenge of not being accepted into the international competition because they were not considered to be a nation. Eventually throughout the movie, you see how the nations come together and celebrate their differences culture and traditions form their nations. One of the moments that inspired me the most in the film, was the scene when the New Zealand nation and the Haudenosaunee nation came together and shared their culture with each other, but also the coach, Rich Kilgour from the Iroquois Nationals exchange a lacrosse stick made by family members of the players. The lacrosse sport was not only a sport to the Haudenosaunee nation, but it was medicine. Medicine for the: players, children, women, family members, but it was also used as a healing medicine, setting a prayer and expressing themselves.
So with that being said, I want to thank Gayle Anne Kelley for creating such a beautiful and inspiring film to our world. Learning new information and possibly show other fellow youth what I received from this film, because I know some young human beings can not connect to this movie because they do not know their nation and were not raised into learning their culture and language. Hopefully, I can be a leader to them. So once again, I thank you, Gayle for sharing this film and thank Pitzer College for having this connection with inspiring, beautiful human beings.
always happy, Johanna Osuna
Blog de El Azteca Flaco Dia Dos: The Spirit Game.
Around 7:30 all of the students gathered up at the Benson Theater because we were going to watch a movie. The movie was called The Sprit Game and it was about the Iroquois tribes traditional game which is what we now know as lacrosse. This game has been a game the tribe has played for thousands of years and is a popular sport in the americas. A group of Iroquois natives started a team and they are from new York and they all come from indigenous communities and reservations where they grew up playing lacrosse. The main goal of the team was to reclaim their own sport and show the world that they represent the game and all their ancestors who played this game before they. One of the most Controversial parts of the film was when the pope came to the United Sates and he eventually came to new York where he and other cultural leaders were going to met up and the chief if the Iroquois nation was suppose to stand amongst the leaders of these world religions and represent the Iroquois nation. He was going to speak about a document the pope has called the Doctrine of Discovery where it talks about how the pilgrims came to this land seeking religious refuge and religious freedom, but it never mentions the atrocities committed against not just indigenous peoples of that region, but they speak for all natives who have had these atrocities committed against them for the sake of their religion. Catholicism and christianity have all had a negative impact on Existing native peoples, cultures and religion and the introduction of these foreign religions has lead to the near extermination of indigenous peoples, cultures and religions and that is why the chief of the Iroquois nation and the people are trying to convince him to destroy the document because of its historical inaccuracy and its wrong ideas. The chief wasn’t allowed to stand amongst the cultural and religious leaders for the stupid fact that he had antlers on his traditional hat and they say that as a threat so they confiscated his has and it was dehumanizing because of the fact that they are taking away one part of your identity and its wrong because you wouldn’t take the popes hat away so that was wrong.
Christine – Day 2, Spirit game: Pride of a Nation
On July 12, 2017, The youth of the Pitzer pipeline program had such an amazing experience today from learning more upon college and there requirements to ending our day with a new indigenous movie created and directed by Gayle Anne Kelley titled Spirit Game: Pride of a Nation. It was amazing to learn the true history and origin of the game lacrosse and how from a young age the iroquois players would play. I learned that the game lacrosse had more meaning which was for medicine to express themselves instead of a game to just play between each other.
The movie was such an informational movie especially for the youth to inspire them and show them some of there history. The movie was so touching just to see how all 6 nations came together to have this home game in there reservation and how even though they lost there final game they all were still so supportive of each other because at the end of the day the game is just a way to show there creator the respect they have for him and appreciation for the game he created. I hope to see more films like this one day and to just see more of our culture and history being shared to the world.
Peace and Love Christine
nativeyouth2college.org 