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This morning started with me waking up at 4:30 to take a shower even though our first activity didn’t start till 6:45. At 6:45 we took some traditional training with passing sticks around and then blocking attacks. After breakfast brainstormed about a topic for an essay to fit the common application. I wrote about beach pollution and brainstormed my ideas. Next we had a presentation on scholarships and learned that there are basically  unlimited scholarships for us to find. In the middle of the day we shot arrows with Elder Marcus then made mesquiet pancakes. Lastly tonight we made an altar with items  that meant a lot of us. It was a every interesting activity and even those who didn’t speak, it felt that we all learned a lot about each other.

So, before we started making some bomb food, we shot some arrows. I just heard that we were playing indigenous games. Little did I know, we were shooting some bow! I was ecstatic when I found that out. I love shooting some good ‘ol fashioned bow and arrow. Anyways, back to the food. We made Mesquite pancakes and boy was that delicious. I got to see and was told where Kim Marcus got it from. A food tradition that I have in my family is we make a type of fry bread we call Palilis. I love it sooooooooo much.

Indigenous games with Hector was very important in progress for me. Being able to improve over the short amount of time we have with him in the morning is impressive. The story he told of his knowledge of where this game wasn’t going to last because warriors/teachers were being killed so, they went underground to continue practicing and teaching.

Writing common app class, it was a lot of knowledge about college opportunities that are open to anyone. Free money just by writing an essay expressing myself and sharing my story.

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The native foods that are made around my house is fry bread and hamburger soup by my aunty. She sells her food around the tribe to make money to buy gifts for my little cousins that mean the world to her. I love her a lot. Her fry bread is unique because she takes her time or rushes and I can taste the difference between them.

Also my step-mother Lisa makes her fry bread taste so differently than my aunty’s. They can be different in taste if they were made with the same ingredients but different amount of each ingredients.

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My slow healing scar on my knee (/.\)

Today was fun and interesting. I liked the bow and arrows, it was fun to launch it really far. Also we made pancakes using a recipe and they were pretty good. We had a talk about neuroscience and I liked the ideas of how the brain works with depression, seizures, and autism. Also the martial arts against the sticks which was good to know. The odds were too much too.

TODAY: Indigenous Games  with Hector Pacheco • Writing Common App with Shelva Hurley and Lynda Estrella •  Native Food with Elder Kim Marcus • Building an Alter with Rose Portillio.

Questions:

What comes to mind while making your own food from  the source today – getting to know your food intimately .

What food traditions do you have in your family or culture that have special meaning or memory for you?

Idle No More with JOE PARKER

Today I liked talking about how a group of people stood up against the Mexican government from taking over communal land from indigenous peoples to the land in Chiapas. The United States government passed a new law with the Mexico and Canada called NAFTA(The North American Free Trade Agreement) which allowed the governments to disallow ejidos, communal land, and sell it off to each other. But a group called The Zapatistas went into Chiapas which was the next target, and took back a few cities in the state of Chiapas to protect the lands of the native people to that land. What really interested me about them was that they protect themselves from the government by bringing celebrities or people of importance from all over the world. I was very intrigued today, The Zapatistas were the most intriguing thing to me today.

In the Morning we used all the skills we learned in yesterdays martial arts game in todays native version of capture the flag. We had to resort to a tie breaker by doing the little martial arts competition and I won again and I received a gift from Hector our instructor which was a bracelet. We also did this really helpful activity in the computer lab where we had to research 5 colleges I want to apply to and I just learned a lot if information that I didn’t know before. I researched the graduation rates of Native Americans in college and I learned about different majors that these colleges have, some of them really appeared to my interest. Today what Saginaw Grant spoke to us about had a huge impact on me. It had me really thinking and I found myself directly relating to the story he told us. The moral of the story was to live life slowly and to learn different things as you go on this journey of life. I often see myself growing up to fast and I need to slow down and process different experiences I go through and really find the importance and knowledge of each experience.

Hey,

Today felt better than yesterday. We did the martial arts in the morning, and we played the flower war which was actually really fun. Our team lost but I enjoyed myself. After breakfast we went to the writing class and worked on sensory details and stuff. I liked the worksheet that we did that asked different questions about us like “who is the most important person in your life?” and “Where is the coolest place you’ve traveled to?” Because after we built on the answers, it ended in a really detailed story or memory.

During lunch, I had to leave to go take a nap because my body felt sore and I had a headache again; I felt much better afterwards. When we listened to Joe Parker on Idle No More after lunch, I found it really interesting because I knew of the Idle No More thing but I didn’t fully understand what it was for or why it was going on. I just got a deeper understanding of what it was and it made me want to go to the rallies when I get home if I ever get invited. Also, listening to Saginaw Grant was a real honor. Just listening to him talk and shaking his hand and taking a picture with him made me feel really good. I liked what he said about not growing up so fast and realizing what was going on around you because that’s kind of similar to what I say. I say that people need to prioritize their happiness and focus on the now rather than the past or future.

An issue that I am passionate about is that I want people to tell the truth about what happened in boarding schools. I don’t want schools and elders to sugarcoat what happened. It matters… it affected our elders, our past generations, our current generation, and our future generation. I think that the more that we get the truth out there, the more willing people will be to help us regain what we lost, and help us recover as a community and I think this because when someone told me their truth of what happened to them, it completely changed my perspective on so many things. Boarding schools changed us completely and we need to do our best to fix what we lost and that begins with knowledge being passed down and restored rather than forgotten.

Today was another AWESOME BEAUTIFUL DAY grrrrrl again . Today for me was a very emotional inspiring loving day for me I was lucky to here special speakers and elders talk about Native culture and battles  and life in a very special informative creative way. I got to hear Joe Parker and he was a professor at Pitzer college and we did an activity where we had to act or do a little play you can say anyways it was cool and funny. He said he was like 59 years old but he didn’t look like he was 59 years old to be honest but it was awesome to have a little taste of what he does in his class room with his college students. Then my FAVORITE part of the day was hearing Saginaw Grant he was soooooo f***en cool I’ve actually seen him before lots of times since I was really little like at Pow Wows and ceremonies and etc. but I really enjoyed what he had to say man like he was so inspiring and such a beautiful motivating elder. I was really happy that I got the opportunity to hear what he had to say and the message that he wanted us to leave with. An issue that I’m passionate about in my community is the lack of motivation and resources for education thats something that I would truly would like to change in  my community and for my people as well.

Sunnnndddaaay funday! is defiantly a real thing. It was proven today. We had the chance to talk with Joe Parker. Joe Parker discussed two social justice movement; Idle No More and the Zapatista movement. It was really intresting reading about the major events and failures that accrued to two movement. Honestly, at first I felt a little challenged in Parkers talk because how different and unique both movement’s dynamics are. As Parkers talk went furthermore with background history about the two movements I began to imagine the fight and the people in the fight. Made me remember the strength of our ancestors. Right after Joe Parker’s talk we had a bit of free time, which I used to go swimming. On a supper hot day like this swimming felt great. I felt like I was really living in the moment with my friends. Then we had a talk with a vising elder Saginaw Grant, which was a real honor. He shared with us stories that were once shared with him. Just being able to hear his stories felt like a privilege.

Over all I felt really thankful and honored being here today.

Thank you!