During the last 150 years, Native Americans have overcome many obstacles in their struggle to survive in a changing world and preserve their ways.
I think the hardest part for native people is that we're trying to retain what little was left with us.
The Wind River Indian Reservation, home to the Eastern Shoshone and the Northern Arapaho tribes, has had challenges of its own. Each tribe works hard to maintain traditions and protect as much of of their land and resources as possible.
They've done this to preserve their identity for their children and their grandchildren.
These were used long time ago by early Arapahos.
To me, it's really important to know our culture on this reservation.
I was told if there's something good that you know that you need to pass on, go ahead and share it with people. - Today, many stories in the media focus on crime, drugs and gangs. - Nowadays, people think it's bad living on the reservation. It's not. We just want to live simple, in peace.
Keep our culture going and our ceremonial way. - (speaking native language) (children repeating) - Often, many other aspects of the reservation don't get the media attention they should. (speaking native language) (children repeating).
There's good points about it, instead of what you hear in the newspaper.
I think this is a really exciting time to be a Native person. When I grew up not that long ago, my mom was adamant that be very cautious in who you share your native background with, because not everybody likes Indians.
My mom and my dad, they were from that generation that were at boarding schools.
For a long time, my dad was really resistant on sharing information, because when he was in school, he was punished for speaking his language. He was punished for talking about his history. He was punished for even identifying himself as a young Arapaho man. - They were afraid to teach their kids. They might get in trouble for teaching them to talk the language. But I learned form my grandparents. - In the quest to preserve Native history, it's often family members, grandparents, aunts and uncles, who become the invaluable link to past history and culture.
I was very fortunate cause I felt like I had a lot of grandparents.
My grandmother had, I think, nine brothers and sisters.
As tribal members, we have that oral history that's been passed down from generations.
It was learning about where you come from.
I think that Native Americans today are at a very unique spot. We can achieve whatever we want if we work really hard at it.
As an educator, I see the desire for our younger people to want to reconnect with their past history. (singing traditional song)
I feel optimistic about the future of both tribes. There's a lot of regeneration of the languages, and the culture.
The Arapaho language, like the old people used to say, it's a gift from the creator, and it's sacred.
The Arapaho language is very important to preserve because it is who we are, it is our identity.
The Shoshone language is very important because it's like a bridge, it's gonna walk you across toward what you want to know in life.
Tell me what this month is, what the name of this month is. Cheyenne?
Humor, April. - Humor, April. Right.
I try to teach them everything that I grew up with, try to share to let it go on. (singing native song)
My children, they participate in ceremonies, they know a lot of ceremonial songs, and they do those things at a young age cause I want them to always have that connection and not be stuck on popular culture.
They wanna learn it. I think they're starting to realize now that they're Northern Arapaho, they're Eastern Shoshone, and that they're, I think they're starting to feel pride in it.
I like to teach my students just like the non-native, you have the computers, you have the books, you have the writing, the arithmetic, and the reading, but you also have your songs, and your dances, and your ceremonies. - We used to go to our ceremonies, powwows, and all that. That's how we kept in touch with our, our culture.
Our youth now though, one of the things that we're really trying to do is integrate media with our culture, too. So it's nice my daughter pulls up YouTube and she searches different powwows all over the country to watch people dance.
I'm very optimistic about the future of the Wind River Indian Reservation, because I think that there's more people chasing their dreams in a sense.
There's different Native groups on Facebook, on Twitter. I mean, so there's all these different resources now. The educational opportunities, and I just look at the differences in generations between my parents and me, has just grown immensely. - I think we're past that line of having people tell us who we are.
I never thought that I could ever become an attorney. - It's important for a kid to see somebody who looks like them in a certain position, whether it'd be their teacher, whether they'd be a doctor, like a kid can see that, and for them it becomes a reality. - And I just look at all these kids out there, and know absolutely in my heart that whatever they want to do, those resources and opportunities are available.
Never give up, it's what I was told.
Don't ever give up.
