Unique Identities - Cheryl crazy bull, part 1

For tribal people it’s very important for us to be honored for our unique identities. There’s an incredible diversity among tribal people in the United States, and having that support to maintain our identities, our languages, our culture, our traditions, our practices, I think that’s very important. I think the other important thing is that this can't be done by us by ourselves as native people; we need allies who support us, recognize that we need people who can bring some of our curriculum into their curriculum and just support us with other kinds of policy issues and things like that. There are resources out there that could be used to introduce to students who will be the future leaders of this country about the history of the relationship of the United States to indigenous populations. I think teachers can bring that kind of information to students. I also think there’s a tendency in the United States to view indigenous peoples as part of the historic past and not part of our contemporary lives. And so even being able to help students understand that we really exist and that we’re all different from each other--that people of the Plains are not the only kind of Indian that there is in the United States--that there’s all kinds of other tribes. And many times people live in places where there are tribes and they don’t even access any information about them. And so I think teachers could reach out to those kinds of environments and bring more of that knowledge to students.