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I was able and honored to participate in the native blanket experiment. The main idea of this experiment was to show us the hard times our people went through. The way they demonstrated this was by having everyone stand on blankets. The blankets resembled native land. So they had Scott as a european colonist who was going around doing wrong to the native people. Then it came to my time to die. What I mean by this was they had given me a yellow card to resemble the indigenous people who had died from small pox. This effected me greatly because it allowed me to step in the shoes of my ancestors and see what they faced. In the experiment I was able to see and experience the struggles that my people and ancestors have gone through. This was a very emotional experiment because I was able to physically see what my ancestors went through with losing their land. I felt that I was able to create a stronger bond with my fellow peers after the experiment because we were able to share our struggles that we’ve been through and see that we aren’t alone. We all have some sort of struggles that we’ve been through. The key concept is that we need to see how much struggles our people have gone through and understand that when we say things are today, we need to look at the situation again. What I mean about this is that the things that we go through may be hard but not as hard as the things that our ancestors have gone through. We can’t put ourselves down because our people are still fighting today. They haven’t stopped and this shows dedication and commitment to reclaim our land and show today’s society that we won’t stop until we have what we want. I also was able to show my emotions with out being judged, because in today’s society we are taught that us native men can’t show our emotions and we need to be tough. It felt so beautiful to be able to cry and know that I had people there for me and they weren’t going to judge me. I felt connected with them because there was so much energy in the air. At the end of the day I was able to accomplish one major thing. I was able to be one with myself and make a commitment. That commitment is only for me to know but I feel that I have come to a realization that I am not perfect and we all have struggles in life and I just need to accept that. I was so happy to have this experience and I am looking forward to having more experiences like this again.

Over these 4 days I have learned more than i could possibly imagine. In each activity I can see many different ways and opportunities that I can express myself as a native american.  When I was little I used to dance for my tribe Gablieno Tongva, and I can barley remember how I danced or where i danced, but when I started to learn Aztec dancing I remembered and I felt in that moment how small I was and how important the culture is to me. I was also interested in the Aztec math, and how there was different connections to the way that the Aztecs shared with animals. I also, got to make a story out of a picture. As i was looking at the picture i saw happy faces from native americans that had many struggles and battles that they faced, but thier spirit was stronger. The story i created made me feel lucky to be here, and i appreciate all of the adults who came out to teach us youth. Recently i have been learning indigineous games, and how our people used marcial arts to defend themselves in many different ways. As i was doing the different exricises in the indigineous games i felt strong and i was not just recognized as a women who takes care of the house hold and kids, I thought to myself that I was very strong and independent. I also got to learn about what type of person i am communicacial wise. I was in beetween being independent and being a collectivist. Later on in the evening the youth students did a blanket exricise with Sylvia and Gary Scow from Canada. This blanket exricise impacted me the most out of these 4 days, because so many people got to share thier personal expierences either when they are younger or what they are going through curently.  I cant imagine how much guts it takes to share that with the 40+ people in the room. I am now more self conscious and aware of my surroundings. Each person in the room had a story to share that touched me one way or another. I was also touched when my Nana was sharing about my position in blanket exricise, and how i did not get to come home in my role. That on its own opened my eyes on reality. Also, there was quite a bit of blankets/land on the ground when we first started and as we went through the story more and more pieces of land got tokent away from the canadians, and thats also reality. The youth students are here to make that next generation better and more aware of natives, because we are here to make the reality back to how it started. Another thing that touched me when when i heard about how many children got damaged, and how few got to go to school, or even speak thier own languege. This was my second time doing the blanket exriscise, but each time someone does it they gain more knowlege about the anscestrial history for us, and things they went through. These past days have been such a great expierence for me. Ive gained more knowlege than i can possibly imagine, and i hope to keep learning in our remaining time.

• Marissa Aranda

The day started very well with Hector Pacheco teaching us his cultural games. Learning how to properly strike an opponent and block their strikes were very important. The game implemented these actions along with the rule of having each opponents toes touching while turning in a circle. The objective of the game was to touch the others head and that would be a point. The first one to three points won that leg, but there are two. Later on in the day, we carved soap stones of different animals, with Elder Julia,  to create necklaces. I carved my soap stone of a bear.  It was a really relaxing atmosphere and I enjoyed spending time on this activity.

Towards the evening, we did the blanket exercise with Elder Garry and Elder Silvia that was based on the taking of land from tribes in Canada.  It was a saddening and heartbreaking experience to be involved in this activity. Their was so death and misery that was mentioned. I could only imagine what the native peoples of Canada had to through. Once we finished, we had a talking circle about what our thoughts, connected experiences or opinions about the activity. What was shared in the circle was so powerful but very emotional and numbing. At that moment, I felt so close and trusted by my peers which made me very happy. TODAY WAS A GOOD DAY.

Day 3

07/13/17

On day three, we all had the amazing opportunity to experience “The Blanket Game” lead by the elders from VIU (Vancouver Island University) located in Nanaimo. This game was about the Indigenous people from Canada, their land and how it was taken from them by the government. For me, this was very emotional and I could tell all the people around me were experiencing a variety of emotions from anger to pure sadness. Being a part of Tla’amin Nation and doing this exercise hit me hard. Hearing all the horrible abuse and discrimination that happened in my home, my community was life-changing. Not knowing about my ancestry until later in my life has lead my lack of knowledge about what happened to the indigenous people of my Nation. I have heard bits and pieces of peoples stories about residential schools, but I have never experienced feeling the emotions firsthand what this must have been like for my people.

After the exercise, we gathered in a circle and talked not only about the exercise, but also about past experiences of things such as abuse and discrimination. This hit me hard. I was overwhelmed by the emotions that I felt during this sharing activity. Ranging from anxiety and sorrow, to anger and bitterness. I felt guilty for not knowing about how my people were treated sooner and about how other people still face similar issues to this day. Although residential schools are no longer a “thing”, there are still many of the values that residential school held in this school system today. Bullying and discrimination based on ethnic background and skin color is still present along with other types of racism. I am shocked that the whole group was so open with their past and trusting. It just proves that everyone has a past that you do not know about. I felt that the exercise helped us grow closer as a group by trusting each other.

Day 4

07/14/17

Today, my roommate (and friend) Violet and I started off our day by going for a run at 6:00am. We ran a mile around the track feeling out of breath yet rejuvenated. It got our day off to a fresh, new start and woke us up.

One event that stuck out for me today was Aztec dancing. I enjoyed every moment of this activity and would love to learn some of my own Nations cultural dances. Coyo took the time to put on his traditional regalia and help show us how to dance. These cultural dances made me appreciate all of us together. Although we are all from different cultural backgrounds (and for me continents), the unity that we formed was amazing. Dancing in a circle with everyone and hearing the beat of the drums through my own ears rather than through a computer screen made me appreciate being able to take part in this program; meeting new people.

-Sylena

During my four days I have been at the Native program I have learned: creative writing with Shelva and started brainstorming and researching colleges, Vicente and Coyo shared Aztec Dance, we colored and beaded with Julia, the blanket exercise, soapstones,  and clapper Sticks. With the creative writing and brain storming for colleges, it was really interesting for me because I really got the experience of searching for the colleges I want to got to, and it me think of how college time is coming soon and how much more serious I need to be. When doing the blanket exercise I felt like this made everyone in the program closer because it was such a touching subject that really spoke to all of us on different levels. As for me I was grateful that we went into the subject of Natives losing their lands and getting put into boarding schools, because it opened all of our eyes to what happened and what is still happening. My favorite experience so far has been the Aztec Dancing that we did today, because it was so beautiful to learn other peoples traditions and the way they give thanks to the creature. I also liked it because I haven’t really got the experience of learning native dances like in my own tribe so to learn these dances was wonderful and it made me want to be more into my culture.

Yesterday was day 3 and it was a very powerful day. We started off by making soap stone necklaces with auntie Julia. It was very time consuming ( I just finished my bear during my free time today ). Actually we had 2 classes before we started the activity with auntie. Our first class was with Shelva working on creative writing and researching colleges that best suite me. During the creative writing I pushed myself to be as creative as I can and seen my after product of if i put my creativity to something how good my story would sound. The second half of the class we were on the college bound website. We had the choice of putting in certain qualities we want in a college. It added a couple more colleges to my options. Than we ended the day with the blanket exercise. This was my first time experiencing something so powerful. The instructors first layed out a few blankets to represent the land native people had in Canada. Through out the time my peers were reading cards given to us at the begging. Each card said had something written on it that greatly impacted our people. Which caused for the instructors to cut down the blanket space. At the end of the exercise there were about less than 75 percent of the blanket space left for us to stand on. It made me tear up to have a physical presentation of what happened to our people and our land. I explained during our discussion time that all of us here at this program and many more are part of the 7 generation. Which our ancestors said that this generation would be the ones to do great things. That we were going to lead our people and bring back our cultures, traditions and language. I hope that all of us live up to this expectation and make our ancestors and future people proud. Today day 4 was a very fun day as well. Today we had the great opportunity to work with one of our great elders Vicente. He taught us Aztec dances it was really cool to learn another indigenous dance other than pow wow dances. I also participated in making bracelets and coloring with auntie Julia. It was a very calming and relaxing part of my day.

 

 

So far I feel very comfortable with my peers.I am really glad we were able to talk in a group about very intense topics. Everybody in the group is very mature and took everything really well. I feel in a safe place when I speak, just as everybody else. After the activity with Elder Gary, I took some time to reflect. Everything that happened in the past is really traumatic and I can now see the effects of those events. We talked about personally issues or events that had happened in this activity and that really helped the group toped up to each other. The atmosphere was intense, mostly everyone was crying. When I talked I was nervous, but something about the room made me speak up and talk. Maybe it was the positive energy within my group.

Before all that, we had indigenous games in the morning. It was really fun to spar with each other. Even though I lost most of my games, it was still really fun and interesting. Many people last, but I really liked how everyone took the L in a nice way. I think we do a really job at following instructions and meeting our goals. We ave gone over discipline and unity. So far, we have achieved those goals. We practice discipline within the practice of indigenous games and I can see unit outside of the indigenous games.

My favorite part of these two day was making my necklace. I have always wanted an indigenous necklace with a meaning, but they are all too expensive. Now that I made one for free, I can say it has a lot of meaning considering that I made it and how. I made a healing bear necklace, which represents me in a way because I like to help others and help them with their healing. First I got a rock with the drawing of the healing bear. There was no more tools to scrape the rock so I got a really small one. It took a while to carve part of the bear, but luckily my friend Tekpatl let me barrow with big tool for scraping and I made some decant scraping. Then when I got the outline of the bear, I needed to do the gap between the legs. I had to be really carful so I took my time. After I was done, I starting scrapping sand paper on my bear to make it smooth. I later began to use it on the sharp edges so I can give it some curves. Finally, elder Julia put oil on my bear to make it shiny and smoother. That was my process.

 

Today was my fourth day of camp. In the morning, we did Aztec dances under the rising sun. The heat was very intense, but I believe it only amplified the experience, like the creator out of respect sent that blazing effulgence to make us truly perform these dances of the people of the sun. At midday we listened to an elder speak of the power of women and the importance of men to respect them. These teaching really removed from my western mindset and returned me too that of my people, pre-contact, a mindset I often stray from. I again encountered this elder from before at the dinner table, he was alone and the tables of people whom I would usually sit by were full, so I sat across from him. We discussed many topics, such as the preservation and necessity of culture, the Aztec creation story and ceremonies, and also the importance of listening to other people and differing views or beliefs; now this last piece of wisdom from him finally revealed to me the reason as to how he became so knowledgeable and sagacious; he took the truths from everything else and applied them to himself.

-Zaryn Prussia

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times… ANYWAY, these past two days have been magical obviously because well it’s camp. My favorite time has to be when a lot of us go to the hammock and Cuauhtli plays his oldies and some homies and I just vibe to it. I got to learn a lot about a lot of the peeps here in the program this year and made stronger bonds quicker than I did last year which is super surprising to me considering that last year was one of the strongest bonds I’ve made with people ever in my life. This year is a tie with last. So good job @ whoever picked these students. Y’all did good. The mentors this year are pretty aight, haha. I really missed talking to Belly about everything. So now that I get to see him almost every day is just awesome because he’s the homie. I also really like chilling on the balcony area at night before we have to go to sleep. We just talk and laugh and chill and make stupid jokes. It really makes me wish that this program was longer so I could spend more time with everyone and hear their stories that they have to share. This year really made me notice that no matter who the person is, meaning if they’re always happy and being nice or they’re sad and depressed, they’ve gone through some shit. Everyone faces a battle and we have to learn to show respect to anyone and everyone to allow the the security of having someone in their life who cares about them as a spiritual being stemming from one place having a human experience and as an individual. I love talking to Huitzilin and Kat about everything. I also love talking to Jarrod and Tlaloc about stupid stuff. These next 11 days will be dope. Trust.

-Aolani