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We got a few papers from Joe Parker one that was titled “Zapatista Movement Major Event” which told us about the organizations within the Zapatista movement, and one of the things that stood out to me the most was the resilience. One thing that I am passionate and want to see a change in the world is racism, to me it feels like it causes people to question themselves. Racism creates an environment where people do not respect or trust each other racism really discriminates people and can reduce them from achieving their goals.

I have seen protests of Idle No More and never actually knew what they were protesting for just the name of the Bill they were protesting against. Joe Parker, our keynote speaker, really cleared things for me and I finally knew what we, as a people, were fighting for. First Nation people of Canada were having everything taken from them. All of us, native americans, stood by our relatives to help them and keep mother earth safe. And it makes me want to stick together as one because we are stronger that way.

Saginaw Grant is someone I really look up to. He is a Native American who made himself known and who is very passionate at what he does, even though acting wasn’t his first choice as a career. He told us to stay in school and keep practicing our tradition because if we lose our people’s morals than we lose ourself and become a problem that Native Americans have fought against for hundreds of years. We find different way of healing that aren’t meant for our bodies and spirit and he warned us against the dangerous things that lead us away from the path we walk.

One issue that bugs me is pollution to the world. We mistreat it and wonder why our world is dying. There isn’t much to do about this problem except decrease what has been done and keep on fighting for a change.

Well today I felt that it was a blessing that Saginaw Grant came here to talk about the importance of Education and keeping our Traditions alive. Also to take your tradition were every you go in life, like when your away from your people. I felt like he has hope for our generation to be more educated and traditional because slowly our traditions are fading, and I feel granted because he is trusting us to do so. I really like the moral of his story he told us “Take your time, Don’t grow up to fast” that really captures me to live life day by day and to gain as much knowledge as possible. To make my people proud. Also today I was talking a bit more often than usual, which means I’m getting more comfortable around other people and not as awkward.

“Life has knocked me down a few times, it showed me things I never wanted to see. I experienced sadness and failures. But one thing for sure, I always get back up.”

An issue I’m passionate about and want to change is stuff on our reservation, it’s not only on our reservation but other reservations around the world, I can’t change it for every reservation but I can try and change it for ours back in Lummi. One that I really think about is how Lummi encourages kids to go do things and  face this big world. Yes I’m going back to this topic again but this one always gets to me because there are somethings they will take credit for they didn’t know about. I want to turn that around and try and make things just a little better for the future generations behind me. That’s all I can really say about today. If your really want to hear about my day I’ll tell you and sorry if you guys get annoyed with me I’m just an annoying person sorry. I honestly had a hard emotional day! Today has been exactly 1 month today since my dad passed away, so it was really emotional for me and this evening wasn’t such a good day. Really emotional and stressful so it’s been a hard day for me.

I just want to go be in a canoe with my cousins LeAnne, Amanda, and Treena and the rest of the gang, it’s something I really need right now! I need my Ultimate Warrior family right now. I need to be in the water and just paddle, sit out there and cry and just let things out so I can get back to myself, after I get off of the water and out of the canoe I feel like a great new person it takes so much away, you may feel a little sore after but I just feel like I need my canoe family right now I need all of them I need to be on the water. Canoe pulling is really eye opening for me honestly, its just something about being out on the water. It’s like you can feel our ancestors with us guiding and watching over us, whenever there is something wrong with me or I feel upset or something I think about the canoe, it’s like the canoe is my happy place and that’s where I need to be right now is my happy place. So yeah that was my day, maybe when I get home I can go out on the water and go out on the canoe with my Ultimate Warrior family.!

Saginaw Grant is a wise elder, the wisdom and care that he shared with us today warmed my heart. Today was the first time that I met him, but he spoke to us as if we had known him forever. He wanted to inspire us and that is exactly what he did. I tried to listen to every word that he spoke, and I loved hearing his stories. I even got to chat with him after dinner. I talked to him about the Native American Church and if he knew my grandfather Alfred Driver. He told me that he traveled a lot up to Montana for meetings throughout his childhood and his adult life. I will definitely cherish everything he shared with us and I hope to see him again someday.

Today, we had a talk with Joe Parker which was really good content. We talked about the Idle No More and how it started and began a movement. It was first used as a hashtag and grew within the community. I think that we should’ve been more active and be more communicative. Good content though. Then we met with Saginaw and we thought us that education and culture was really important. We need to have an education to get a key role in the native community. We are the generation that need to take the role now of stepping up for your nation. A change that I would like to see in the community would be seeing everybody know and be proud of they’re culture and nation. There are a lot of people who don’t now anything about their ancestors and where they’re from

Today was a really interesting day that stared with a traditional game named Flower Wars. we had teams try to protect a staff from the other team by not letting them touch the staff holders head. After our fun game we learned some tips of how we should construct our essays. After we brainstorm ideas for an essay to fit a common application standards well. Next we looked up colleges and looked at their graduation rates and causes we would like to take there. We had a talk with Joe Parker talking about the struggle with natives in Mexico who had to fight extremely hard for rights that were wrongfully taken. They were really smart and thought of ideas to keep them save while making their point hear loud and clear! We also had a talk with Elder Saginaw Grant who had inspirational words for us along with stories.  One thing that really stuck with me and meant a lot was just to take times to enjoy things, You don’t have to rush through everything because you can miss alot of stuff that might be really awesome to see or discover.

Hey! Today I think almost everyone was ready to go to bed at any moment. Besides the amount of tiredness most people were experiencing, today was pretty fun. We started the day off really well, by playing flower wars (tribal games). We got the privilege of having Saginaw Grant talk to us about good things to remember in life. One of the main points he made was that we need to grow slower and try not to just go through things super fast. If you do just speed right through it you won’t learn and see/experience important things in life. For me the two best parts of the day was swimming at Scott’s house and being able to hear some of the stuff Saginaw was saying. Like always though I like bonding with other students and the mentors that way we can all start to get comfortable with each other. Theatre today was really cool. We got to connect with each other without saying anything. Also getting to see how people feel about certain words and just in general.

After Joe spoke about the Idle no more movement has shown the effort that was put into the movement and how it was effected by each nation.

Saginaw has told stories about his history and culture. He talked about his life history of being an actor and how it wasn’t really his dream that it just happened. The story of the turtle taking its time up to the top of the mountain to reach his destination at the big tree. The lesson I took from the story was not to rush through life and that we should take our time and figure out who we are and what we can do for the community.

The issue that I’m passionate about is being disconnected with our friends and family. I think that technology is making individuals able to hide behind a screen all day and not communicate as much as we need to. Even when I’m apart of this issue by facing my screen and not the people I actually want to have a  conversation with. That social medias have put us in a stage where our brain is processing just to like a photo by, pressing a button on the screen and not expressing our feeling to the person in the picture.

The talk with Saginaw Grant was good because he was giving good advice to the youth and giving a story to us. I liked how he was giving us a inspiring story for us. We also talked to Joe Parker on the Idle no more and giving us more information and the background to it and I really liked it.

-jess