The concepts of communication that we had to practice in Mexica Flower Wars with Hector made me realize that as long as we work together we can get things done!!! I loved that we came up with strategies together and if they didn’t work we discussed how to improve them as a whole group. 
communication has a lot to do with being open to new idea’s. young minds have astonishing ideas that deserve to be heard. Not being open to new possibilities is turning down change. Change is something that no one should be scared of. It is something that can be presumed.
Today we played Mexica flower wars and we also started a projects about our tribe. one way that these two can relate is because you have to use both communication and trust with your community. this is how today has been.
Hey everyone! Today was a very interesting day with all of our classes and lectures. the day started off with a writing class with Ricky. In the class we shared some environmental issues we were concerned about and what steps we can take to make our concerns disappear. We also talked about some laws that we’ve had problems with and would like to change due to the effect it had on us. Later on we picked topics to research and present on. After that we did indigenous games with hector where we were taught communication and many other skills such as learning from your mistakes and coming back from failure. these two classes related to each other because they both teach us the same concepts in the end.
Yesterday was a very important day for my family. It was a day where one is coming of age. In other words it was my brothers naming ceremony and all the students were invited and got to go. My brother Is a very important figure to me because he is my oldest sibling and inspires me to be the best I can be although we may be very competitive with eachother. My brothers old name had been little dragon fly and recieved the new name of spirit eagle. These ceremonies are important to my tribe and to the families who are having a child being named. I hope that the experience of the students going to the ceremony gave them an understanding of what different tribes do to celebrate coming of age.
Today we learned how to solve big problems by uniting together for a cause an example such as protesting and just to be persistent until your common goal is accomplished. Another thing we did today was when we participated in Flower Wars which is basically a very sacred game which you have to touch the crown of the head and you have to defend or attack in Quecha martial arts this game taught us discipline, unity, and how to work together these attributes can also help with solving big problems. But on the other hand today was a great day in the beginning of the day we wrote about environmental issues that are close to our communities or even in other indigenous communities all around the world. Mayan math today was pretty good because our instructor taught us how to write the date in the Mayan way which was pretty interesting.
The concepts of communication and community that we practiced today in Mexican Flower Wars are teaching people to not only watch out and protect yourself, but also protect the people that mean a lot to you. The game taught us coming together as one and value everyone’s ideas and suggestions; I think that’s what makes a good leader a great one.
As I was actually thinking about what environmental and law issues the Navajo Nation has, I feel more aware listening and reading more about the abandoned uranium mines, how to protect the Bear’s Ears National Monument, and even going back to the past and analyzing how The Long Walk still has an affect on our Navajo people today. This has taught me that my generation and others after are the future of the entire community, country, and even the world. Listening to the issues that are going on inspires me to at least read and learn more on about what I can do to help people.
Dream pillow with Julia Bogany: last year I remember we made soap stone necklaces, clapper sticks and baskets. But this year we did something completely different, we were given a little bag which Julia said was called a dream pillow and we didn’t make it but we awew able to color them and decorate them anyway we chose. What I did was I put in the aztec numeral 13 on each four corners of the bag and what that was suppose to represent is that when you multiply 13 by 4, you get 52 and the number 52 is a sacred number in my culture because it is associated with year cycles and correlated with growth and the gestation period of humans. And just for decoration i put in the aztec glyph for Turquoise which is a highly valued stone in my tribes culture along with jade and obsidian. I colored it red because red is a sacred color and is associated with blood (Eztli) and we blood is a very profound and sacred thing and is also representative of the sunset.
DR.Val Thomas: We were sitting in circle and we were talking about some of her history and background as a person of mixed ethnicity and heritage which to be honest was very interesting. She also talked about what she does and teaches in her classes which includes Afro-futurism, decolonization and general history. She also got into genetics and mental fallacies where she started talking about Intergenerational trauma and imposter syndrome which i found to be really cool.
Indigenous games with Hector: It was really cool to be able to re-experience Qechua / Aztec martial arts and discipline and it was really cool to experience the Unison of movement he was talking about. We learned how to do upper, lower, outer and inner blocks and how to shift attackers energy and weight distribution to defend yourself. We also learned how to count in Qechua which was really cool.
Blogging: It was chill, im blogging right now…
Today was alright. It was kinda slow but it was fun learning about the flower game. we did a couple of rounds and go t to come together as one. we all had a part to do when we played the flower game. the last activity of the day was alright we got to learn about what the US has been doing trough out the years. for example they have been trying to bring down the of the illegal immigration. i got to learn a little more about mayan math. i didn’t get it at first but after today i kinda understood it a little more then what i did the first time.
Today i was practicing more Martial Arts and then we went swimming . then at our last class we talked about The US immigration and how it affected us but at the end we talked about something that i didn’t agree with and made me really triggered so yea bye
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