Connection with Cultural Roots

0:01 This program is designed to provide general information with regards to the subject matters covered. This information is given with the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors, or station are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial, legal counseling, professional service, or any advice. You should seek the services of. Competent professionals before applying or trying any suggested ideas. Hello, and thank you for tuning in to a Sharp Outlook on pay for HD Radio and Talk or TV. I am Angela Sharp, your host our arm chair discussions with industry experts will give you the steps, tools and information to be successful in business and to prepare you to be your best self. Hello, I'm Angela Sharp, and I'm so glad you were able to join us. We're going to have a really interesting conversation today about connecting with your cultural roots, and it's really vital to get an understanding, celebrating and maintaining ties to one's cultural heritage.

1:18 Through compelling conversations and insightful discussion, we explore the diverse traditions, values, stories and experiences that shape our identities and connect us to our past and inform our future. It's hard to know where we're going when we don't know where we've come from, and it makes it difficult to make the right decisions or the right choices. But just going back and connecting and getting involved in those cultural things, it gives you a real perspective of what's going on in your life. So I'm glad you're able to join us as we uncover the richness and resilience of cultural roots and examine their profound impact on our lives, families, and communities.

2:05 Well here from an expert and elder and every day individuals who are actively engaged in preserving and revitalizing their cultures, it's very important to keep your culture and to be able to share that culture. Today. I am my guest as Vicky old Man, and she is a highly respected cultural and passionate community leader dedicated to preserving and promoting indigenous traditions and cultural heritage worldwide. With over two decades of experience working in partnership with diverse communities, Ickey possesses a profound understanding of the critical role cultural heritage plays in fostering individual and collective identity, resilience in the face of adversity, and strong social cohesion.

3:04 Vick has been an education facilitator, skilled trainer, working in areas like strategic planning, community and organizational development, board development, and team building. And as a consultant, she has provided technical assistance, curriculum writing, and program coordination in both urban and rural environments. She has worked in asset building. Native CDFIs nonprofit organizational development train the trainers, communications and coaching, and she is founding and managing partner of Seven Sisters Community Development Group seven Sisters CDFIVE, serving low income families in Native communities, Owner of The Real Native Roots Untold Stories, a podcast bringing healing stories to communities and the next generation.

4:03 And I'll tell you this is a wonderful program to listen in to and to get educated and also enlightened as to how important cultural background and information is. I'd like to invite Vicki to join me so we can begin our conversation. Yata, oh yeah, day hello, hello, hello it is I'm like, I'm arriving starings and my ancestors and my cultural groundness. Yes, yes, it's so wonderful. It's so wonderful, and it's great.

4:46 I've been watching your show and it's a well, I listened to it and I'll tell you, I've just enjoyed every moment of you sharing untold like the untold stories, stories a different things that aren't written in most books. They're stories that are passed down and those are some of the best stories you ever want to hear. You know, if Hollywood actually wanted to be successful, they'd be trying to tap into some of the stories because they're exciting. They just grasp every emotion that you have within your being and then they bring it to resolution and you say, now I know what's in my system. And then you have great poems that you always read. Do you have a poem for us today?

5:41 I do, and I just want to say yahat, thank you so much for bringing me on. I just think anytime we can. Connect with people deeply and share story, that's medicine in itself. And I just ask those anyone who's listening in here, just to take a deep breath with us before I read the poems. So, yeah, deep breath together and excel. I always like. To do that because you know, I don't know where everyone's coming from, whatever conversation they may have had, or what they're sitting with. No one of my favorite authors, I love this man. I wish that I met him, but he's already in the spirit world. Is Shirt Wogames, and I'm reading from a book called What Comes from Spirit.

6:35 He's a great, great writer, and I just I love this man. Okay, So here we go. It starts as we all have stories within us. Sometimes we hold them gingerly, sometimes desperately, sometimes as gently as an infant. It is only by sharing our stories, by being strong enough to take a risk, both in the telling and in the asking, that we make it possible to know, recognize, and understand each other.

7:18 That is true. That is so true. And sometimes it does take courage to become that vulnerable to share those stories. But you know, I've gotten to the place where I have to share stories because I know there's someone else walking the same path I've walked, and if I can help them by sharing my story, I think my life was worth living because someone has learned and gathered some wisdom from maybe my stupid decisions. But it doesn't matter, good, bad or whatever. It was a choice when we're walking down the path. We turned right and still left, or we backed up or whatever it is.

8:04 You know, Yeah, yeah, absolutely, And I feel like when you had shared about our learnings. Right. I feel like even watching. A baby an infant, that is story watching right, And as an elder, I receive that acknowledgement. As an elder, when I watch a tile, I'm. Also receiving and learning from them. Like I feel like sometimes it is important we listen to our elders. And recently my dad actually was like, we're going back and forth and talking and he's like, listen, and I was like, like a little like a Chile, I'm like, oh, I'm over talking, Papa.

8:46 I need to listen, you know. And it's the same thing with the baby. A child, they can scream and yell like and they're trying to tell us listen, you know, I need something or I need to tell you something. And I feel like even when we're in nature, nature is also telling us that, like listen. So I think. Wherever we're at on the spectrum of our life journey that we are, if we're open, right, if we're open and vulnerable to receive, you will get the message. You will get the medicine that is needed. And part of that is just being fully present and really listening and not being distracted. And gosh, that's that's hard these days.

9:29 There's so much going on in so much. Destruction, a lot of a lot of noise. There's a lot of noise out there, and some some of the things going on I refuse to listen to because it's not it's not healthy, it's it doesn't promote, you know, positivity, And so you know, I'm also cautious of what I let into my spirit because even sometimes you know, even people that you know, you have to say, oh, you know, it's been it's been good, but I got to go my route. You need to go the direction that you're going, because it's not my place to try to change your mind.

10:14 You'll find that out on your own as you keep walking down the journey. But yeah, it's really, really, really important, so exploring what it means to be native in a modern world, because I noticed recently there's a lot of younger and I'm so proud of our youth, the younger Indigenous people are. They're coming up strong. Where maybe I would have been really quiet and feeling my way, they are very vocal now and they are really speaking some things and I'm so proud of them. And they're taking they're picking up the mantle and their continue and to you know, fight the good fight. And they're making the noises and sitting down and at the table and making sure there is a table for them. I mean, the youth is really really doing some great things. So what does it What does it mean to you?

11:18 M I feel like what it means to me is like our ancestors. Prayers are showing up. You know. I think about my grandparents and even my parents and they've taught me and how I you know, pray to universe, creator, spirit, whatever people use in terms of language. We're always praying for currently right, we pray for going forward. We pray for our young people. We pray for the generation. We pray that they stay in tack and be healthy. So I think that one is one of them. In my humble opinion is my foundational thought is prayers are being received, they're happening, they're in motion. And I also think, you know, our young people they're just so they're smart, They listen, they observe, and they're also not afraid, which I love because they're pushing back on like old ideas, and you know, because science also comes into play in showing evidence. And this is why I love about our indigenous and our cultural ways, is that we have known since time memorial, what the land does, we know, what why we do certain things, what we believe. People thought they were superstitious, and now scientists catching up and realizing, hey, there's some validity here with smudging, there's some validity here with you know, internal trauma. So when they think of because I remember

12:53 my aunts, like my grandparents and my mother, my aunties. When I was caring, they would always say to me, we. Care for what you think. Be careful what you put in your mind, you know, watch be careful with how you move and how much. But don't be lazy, you know, because they understood trauma. They didn't have those words, but they knew that if I was hurting and crying and aching, the baby's going to feel that. And the baby's already you know, getting that sense. So I feel like young people are also learning about somatic work about trauma, historical traumas, societal trauma, and they're trying, they're flipping, they're flipping the narrative. They're not owning being victims anymore and saying, hey, we have we have the medicine, and that's our songs, our prayers our language, and I love it when I see young people, like on Instagram or on TikTok and they're practicing the language and they feel like, I don't know how old you are, but you're probably younger than me. When I was speaking and try to speak my language, I would get shamed, like it was like the elders. Some of my relatives would, you know, get on me. They would tease me, and then that would make me feel discouraged to try practicing. And so I make it a point to really try to encourage our people. When you see our young people trying encourage them, show them gently, don't

14:25 shame them. And I think that's. So I'm like, I'm so happy for our young people. And I also think though they need to practice more listening skills. Though yeah, I'm hurd they're listening, but like I said, they I mean just recently, they had a canoe journey on the blackham A River out here in Oregon. It's like one hundred and thirty miles. They paddled that whole way and I was like, whoa you know, and nobody said, oh you guys, you get up, you go do this. They decided themselves and I've been seeing a lot of it because I'm in the Stay Outle area, but no closer to Portland and near the water, the ocean, the rivers, and I see a lot of the journeys being done by different tribes so that the youth can find out this is what your ancestors endured. So did you be here?

15:27 And it's just incredible, you know, to see that, And that's why I love you know, some of the stories that you have on your podcast. You know, you know, why did you decide to do that podcast? So the story is, this is right before covid it maybe a year twenty eighteen. A friend of mine on Instagram would always see me post little stories on there, and then he inboxed me because you should do a podcast, And honestly, I had no clue. I wasn't listening to any podcast then. So then I researched. I'm like, what what am I going to talk about? You know, And because my stories back then would just be little journeys of you know, me trying something new or experimenting or commenting on you know, a dish or whatever, and so I really it wouldn't let go of me, you know, when creator drops the seed in you of an idea, you can't let it go, Like your mind goes back to it and you're like, h there's something here, And.

16:29 So I wouldn't it wouldn't leave me. And I'm like, okay, I'm hearing you spirit, right. So I started researching and then then I really sat with what am I going to talk about? And then it landed. I was like, Vicky, you love stories. You love when your. Mom tells you her story about going to the dump yard when she was little to find toys. And she tells a story because she says her youngest sister would go way down in the dump yard to get the best to and one time that happened and the aunts and uncles are like, let's go. We're going to you know, dairy Queen or something like that. So they all go and they there's a lot of kids, and so they didn't realize my aunt wasn't in there. So they're like, they realized she's not here. So they go back and she's standing there crying, but with a really cool doll.

17:20 But everybody's seeing their ice cream. So those kind of stories. I was like, oh my god, and I'm like, well, IM tell me that story again, and so that I was like, those are untold stories. Those are stories that she. Would not share, you know, and my grandmother as well. I would say, Grandma, tell me the story about that rock again. So then I was like, Okay, I know untold stories, but what what's the first half of this this podcast? So the goal really was to interview. I didn't even like to use the word interview. It's connect and tell me story. Tell me tell me a moment and time in. Your life that was hard or that was special, or that gave you insight. And I also really believe that stories heal. So once that all came together, I bought the equipment and this is what I was going to do, was that I was going to pack the equipment and all my business travels. I was going to stay a day later or come early and then find local stories from community people. And then COVID happened, I launched it, I still did it, and it was really good. And so now I try to think about, you know, while I'm in the community, can I get a story or at least meet somebody to you know, schedule a story connection going forward?

18:40 And I will just say it's been such a joy. I love it and. It's a hobby. It's a love it's a love project. So I'm enjoying it. I do have some ideas about what I might want to do with it later, but for now, I'm just you know, doing it when I can because I. My day job, which just keeps you pretty busy too. But it is h that's that's uh. I mean, that takes us way back to Oista. I know all of the things I mean, and that's how I remember you. You were always so involved in you know, training and training the trainers and sharing knowledge and information, always out there sharing knowledge and doing capacity building, building up communities.

19:32 So they now had the tools, they now had the skills, they now had the understanding of how to navigate, you know, in this you know capitalistic you know society. I mean it's just, yeah, you have done some wonderful work. And I give you that all to you know, honestly, I I give that to spirit because I feel like we're a vessel. So when we're talking and feeling and expressing like it's information coming through coming out. And I also give credit to all my mentors, people who have spent time to shape and encourage me and also pushed me, and I feel like my lived experience, but also my connection with my community, which is the community people, the practitioners, you know, leaders who who saw something in me to give me enough time and encouragement to continue to do this work so I can reciprocate that back.

20:38 I feel like if we don't follow and live. Through our values, that then things don't fully align or it makes it harder in our life. And I try really hard to live my life through values in looking at community, looking at reciprocity, you know, intuition where I really feel try to listen to what is being said and really try to follow that then to be in my head because our head always, our brain wants to make sense and sometimes things we may not make sense of it, and so that's where we tap into our body. And I feel like that's cultural. Like I think about my grandparents and my particularly my grandparents, and how I watch them make decisions and how they move about their life.

21:24 They I see them. When I was little, I would see them and how they would move and even like healers watching them, and it's all like intuitive, you know, it's really staying grounded. And if we're not grounded, and we're shaky and you know it makes work relationships harder in our life. Oh yeah, well it's it's like we we end up we did like you said, we have a we have a path that was designed m hm this and and creator has f us made us, tested us, prepared us to walk this specific path. And getting off of that path, you're going to have, you know, conflict, and it's going to make like you said, it's going to make things harder because that's not the road you're supposed to be on.

22:15 That's not the work you're supposed to be doing. And some of us, we we took on work that it paid the bills, but it wasn't our purpose. And so as I tell young people now, you can be spending an awful lot of years working, make sure it's something that gives you joy, makes you fulfilled and actually, like you said, serves others other than yourself, you know. And and because you kind of want to leave footprints, you know, you want to leave footprints so that someone's going to remember your name, they're going to remember what you did, They're going to remember a story you told. They're going to remember a poem that was written or a painting that was painted they're going to remember because, first off, when you're in the right realm and you're walking in spirit is guiding you. When you speak, there's an energy that comes from you that blesses those people so that they now become energized to do some of the very same things. And yeah, I'm just listening. It just seems like, you know, that was something that was just in your DNA to be out there, you know, working with communities, bringing things together, bringing skills together, and now bringing the culture together and telling stories about you know, who who

23:46 y'all who we are as people. And I believe in culture because, like I said, it took me a while to accept accept it because of just some of the things that I experienced or I saw when I was growing up and then moving into a corporate environment being so strict and so and me being the only woman there in finance and tech and them actually not wanting me to be there. But I didn't care because I was going to be who I was going to be, And I just let them know, You're not that important.

24:26 You are replaceable. In fact, all of us are, so get you know, get off your high horse and let's sit down, let's work through some you know, solutions here. And because you know, I'm just here for my paycheck, I'm not trying to be friends. So let's let's get to work. I mean, I really had to put on a hard exterior to be working in an environment when it was just all men and and men that did not want women in their industry. The things that I heard, you know, and I I spoke, I spoke up. I remember there was this one VP and so disrespectful. He would go down the halls and wink at them, at the women, and they hated it. So I waited until the CEO flew in from New York. Now this was a Fortune ten corporation. He flew in for a meeting and I saw them walking down the hall. I thought, I'm going to break this habit of his. So when they were walking towards me, and before I went past, I winked, Oh man, I'm telling you. Everybody was just flustered, you know, And I was like, well, bet you won't do that again. And you know what, never did it again.

25:49 Sometimes you even have to you have to understand that's not how you're supposed to behave towards others. Regardless of what their color is or regardless of what their color culture is. Everyone deserves respect, refect respect mine and so yeah, I've fought a few fights. I love that I put my hand up because that means I was like, you mirrored what you did? Was you mirrored back to him? Look at this behavior. Yeah, you're doing the only way to make him stop. And he was just so embarrassed because then the guy looked at him and I was a standard looking and I know he wanted to fire me. How are you going to fire me from Lincoln? That's what you do?

26:33 And so, uh didn't do it again, never did it again. It's like, you know, it's it's just one of those things and just little little things like that. I remember of just you know, taking that path and what I had to do. But I have freedom now, I feel free, and so now I want to give back information and things like that. But you know, from your extensive experience of working with diverse communities, what do you see as some of the most pressing challenges they face and in maintaining their unique cultural traditions in today's rapidly changing, an increasingly globalized world. Do you see any challenges so you know.

27:18 I work directly, so I work in two spaces now, like with organizations directly or with intermediaries that give resources to these organizations. And so what I'm finding, particularly with. Our organizations, like our Native Indigenous nonprofits, particularly that you. Know, the way we the way they. Run an organization which is a nonprofit five oh one C three status was not designed in a cultural lens by all means. It's it was not set up that way with us in mind. And so we have been we have been constantly like code talking right, trying to figure out how a system that is so boxy and structured and not with the cultural lens, and how.

28:16 To navigate that, and some have you like, you know they're getting through it, but it's still rigid because when you think about our culture, we're about relationships. We're about we're about We're not about scarcities. You think about nonprofit sector, it's about scarcity, like enough income, We got to bring in money, and like it's this scarcity mindset. But when you think from an indigenous list lens, there's no such thing. We have plenty. There's plenty here, and. How we share generously is also different, which is a different mindset and how provides services. Right, It's like you have to have certain requirements, you know, you have to have a certain amount of income. So they have these strict guidelines. And when you think about how our mindset is, it's it's no wonder. It's really tricky. So I'm like, you know, us trying to noodle through the waffle and how to design. But I'm seeing now more and more organizations, which I love. They are rewriting their policies. They're rewriting what they feel is true to their you know, community people, but their employers. So for example, you know, having time for ceremony, you know, having time for different like for self care, whether that means going to sweat or something

29:46 like that. Excuse me not having a sense of urgency looking at their time and how they do their work differently, not a straight you know, Monday through Friday from eight to five, you know, And I think they're experimenting. They're experimenting, and they're also experimenting with structures of their leadership in terms of their board of directors and trying to look more of a flat structure and looking at you know, here are anchors are, here are councils, from different places that we need to work with versus here are the you know, five oh one C three kind of board board status. So I'm seeing folks experimenting their prototyping and trying things out now because they know what's in place.

30:36 It has been challenging. Oh yeah, oh gosh. And believe me, I'm quite aware. Being someone who's worked in finance and then worked in tech, which is all rigid, all boxed in, you know, no no no ways of maybe changing it or going outside the box or this, that and the other, I can see how it Well, it conflicts with a communit community mindset because you're right, the way they're written, there are no communities involved. It's like, Okay, these are your funds, this is what we expect you to do, This is what we want you to report, this is what we're going to end up reimbursing. This is what we're not going to pay for. I mean, just you know, all these different things instead of saying these are your needs.

31:25 However you feel you need to administer this this award so that you meet your goals and objectives. You know, as long as the funds are spent on your project, that's all. That's necessary, but to narrow it down to you need to see two people. I want how many people and you know, counting the numbers of people that actually got served and all those things. How about caring more about the quality of service instead of how many numbers you got and that, you know, it's almost like you you dehumanize even the projects that you're trying to fund.

32:06 And it's and I know you have to have rules. I know you have to have regulations, but you can have humanity and sensitivity and those rules. I mean, I'm I've got a lot of people lying up. I'm We're going to do whatever we can to change the corporate environment. So one thought came to my mind recently, and that is looking at the nonp nonprofit arm and when you think about our communities before these systems were in place, we were in smaller community hubs, right, like family pods, you know, and then you know clan pods, name pods.

32:47 And when we were living in that format, we helped each other. So if people went hunting, people come back and then they disseminate, you know, to everyone, not just to the family. They thought about the whole family. So back then I feel like we we were providing these needs and services and gaps that we don't have as much now, Like I know, communities are still trying to bring that like build that connection. It's the connection of the community to support and help one another. And what happened is, you know, the nonprofit you know, comes into this system like, well there's a need because people were starting to isolate and not provide service or help with one another.

33:36 So that disconnect. You know, it's a strategy, right, a disconnect of putting us in different places, cutting off resources. And so now we have the nonprofit nonprofit sector trying to fill that when in essence, we can really do that for each other. But part of that is us reconnecting, us coming back into community, us working and helping one another. So then you know, the nonprofit you know, doesn't need to be in that place. It's like it's filling that gap. And you know, and what had happened though, is the disconnect. And so what I'm noticing particularly now is that a lot of organizers and community are realizing we're trying to be placed in a space of fear of being isolated and not being in community, and we need to go back to being in community. That's why our ceremonies are so important, because that's when we're there. We're quiet, we're praying, we're connected, We're in a whole different mindset.

34:42 We're not thinking about work. Right. And then the last thing I'll just say about the intermediars've been working with a lot of foundations and funders. There's a lot of interest in the past six years of them wanting to do work in our communities. And at the very beginning, I ask them, is your board on board? Do you have a plan? Is this just a moment or is this a long term strategy? If you don't have any of these things in place, or have you all did some cultural training, training about our people in the community, do you got any of these things, then you've got some work to do, because we don't want people coming in for a moment because it seems sexy or it's a requirement, like a checkof and then they leave after a couple of years. Right. So so anyway, there is interest, and there's also hesitation because they're like, we know we've done harm, but we don't know what to do. So that's an interesting, you know shift that I've seen when I.

35:45 Knew you back then. Six years of you know, philanthropy funders are wanting to but they're not sure, and they also know that they've done harm and they don't want to do more harm, but they still got a long ways to go. Yeah. Well, and the thing is if they and I'm just going to put this out there, if you're wanting to do something in the communities, then you need to bring people from the community to sit at the table to plan, to help you with the planning, to help you with with the design of the program you're trying to do, to help you with finding out what really is is needed. You know, you've decided without even talking to someone what the need is, instead of bringing people to the table coming up with a whole plan together that now you can be successful. But when if you don't know anything about the culture, you know nothing about the traditions, you know nothing about the historical trauma, you know nothing about the economics that's there. I mean, you know nothing about the hierarchy, you don't know anything about it.

36:59 You don't know about the community. And then you want to come in and uh and help because you know, yes, there has been harm, there's been a lot of harm. But then what you need to do is go to the leaders of those communities and get information and better yet, find out exactly what's needed, and then find out who would be best to facilitate that program from your community. How about that. You know, we've got to sit at the table or you're not going to be successful. So bring us to the table, not after you've made decisions, but at the beginning of the thought process, and then it would be a lot more successful. I know that.

37:48 I know that. You got to you know, you've got to change your mindset on how you've been doing business. If you want to do something somewhere, you need to bring the people in that you want to do the work with. Because you're not dealing with children. You're dealing with adults. So they have ideas, they have thoughts, and they know what works. I yeah, I've been there. You know, I've been through all of that. It's hard work, and I'll also say it's it's also rewarding when an organization, whether it's our native group or the non native organizations, make headway. Even the small winds are like yay, you know, particularly in this environment, and you know, I just have to hand it to our people like we do so much with so little, and we are so freaking amazing and creative. We have we have, we have challenges and we're still working through it, and I have hope, and I, as I said earlier, I believe some of these prayers are you know, some of the that are happening is because of the prayers that are parents.

39:03 Yes for us, Yeah, I mean, we're just you know, a continuation of what the ancestors designed many many years ago, and we're just carrying it on. You know, sometimes you don't know why you're thinking the thought, but it's like you hear something and it's like, yeah, that's right, that's what I really need to do. And it's just like you're just continuing the work that was started and uh. And it's something that's just totally outside of the normal education programs and different things like that. It's just so so different, so different. And what specific ways does cultural education contribute to fostering a strong sense of identity, belonging and self esteem because there's you know, there's some youth that still seem i mean, just from what I'm reading and things, they don't seem to be connected to their cultural traditions there and they don't have an identity. Oh, they're struggling with trying to get identity. Can you think of some just some ways to get connected and be able to have that sense of identity and belonging.

40:23 I think, honestly, it really has to start with their desire. We talk about the word vulnerability, and it's vulnerability in both places and like reaching out, but also for individuals in the respective communities to also reach out to to see. Like there's a need here. And I found out recently here in Albuquerque, there's a program where they were teaching young people how to butcher. And anyway, my mom knew that person, and so she goes. I'm gonna go over there. He told me to come to go eat. So she goes with him and come to find they hired somebody to teach him how to butcher.

41:09 He was really late and my mom. My mom is a master butcher. She's seventy five years old. Boy, they give her the knife and she was there teaching. She didn't even expect to be teaching. But sometimes I feel like those kind of opportunities are like I was like, Mom, you should get involved, you should go there. Because she's retired, she lives with me, and you know, I'm like, mom, you. Should do that. You know. She's like, I can't do it, and I'm like, yes, you just did. You butchered her sheep. For everybody, and they were and the young people were just so intrigued, and she was talking about why you can't do because they had the sheep tied up for a while and it was getting hot and you're supposed to do this early in the morning, you know, walking about the science of it and then anyway. So that's an example of like there are things in our backyard we don't even know about, programs and people who are there to help, and part of it is taking the first step. I think we as individuals too, Like I have two young young men, my boys, twenty seven and twenty three, and I do my part to try to like say something in Navajo to them, or send maybe a video about someone who's talking about maybe the money, the coyote and where it goes. You know, I tell them those things. But what's important is repetition. They need to hear it, they need to practice it, you know, learning a song, practicing your language, even if it's one

42:41 or two words, you know. Putting that because your body. It's in your DNA and we just have to practice. And I think there's so much content out there, it's amazing. You cannot say you don't know. It's right at our fingertips. But the best I think is find people in your community, finding programs that do the learning, the lived experience, like the butchering sheep. Right. I know there's I recently found out there's somebody who does rug weaving, and I'm learning, and I'm like, I want to take that hat so I can sharpen my skills. So I think being in the arts is like as Indigenous people, art and music is like in our DNA.

43:23 It's going into. That because it's healing and you just don't know what's going to come out of that. Oh, I tell you I had. I took vacation years ago. I was going to bring my mother, but she got ill and wasn't able to travel. But I spent two weeks there at Navajo and Hope, and then I went over to New Mexico and oh my gosh, the rugs are just incredible, Oh my goodness. And then I, you know, got a lot of turquoise and silver and love the blue corn flour and making bread from it and corn bread from it, and and you know, the beans. And I recently was looking for choke cherries and it's like, oh my goodness, it was just it's just you know, incredible.

44:18 You know. Right now, a lot of the tribes have their website where you can take lessons language lessons online, so the youth can can those that you know don't know the language can learn the language. A lot of the elders have gone in and actually written a book. If they have them on Amazon, then they can get the you know books that they can take the lessons, but then they actually have you know, someone actually doing the annunciation and all of that stuff, so they can learn the language if they don't have someone who's speaking it, you know, on a regular basis at home, so they can you know, capture it. But so they have opportunities now and then I think in some of the some of the schools they're taking teaching language also so that they don't lose you know, the language and part of the culture and stuff like that.

45:21 Yeah, you know, when you're saying that, it made me think about like when I grew up, right, my my parents were a part of the relocation they got pulled away. My mom, I think, when she's seven, got pulled from her home and was placed in Shemaha Orgon and her her her history was really rough. It was not pretty. It was rough. Her mom died when she was like seven, really young. So and my dad his his was so different. He was very culturally he grew up in a very culturally grounded home, and he got placed in organ not organ utah Ogden when he was more like, I think in tenth grade.

46:03 Where he started first grade. It was tenth grade. Anyway, The point of what I'm making here is like I remember when I was little. I remember my mom was saying, you're learning English. It's important because she would get beaten, you know. So those are her stories, and I'm the next generation. And I realized I spoke pretty good Navajo when I was growing up. But then when I went away to college and I don't practice it, it got really choppy trying to like practice it again with my mom and again it's like coming back to practice. And at one point I would blame like, will you guys blame me my parents? You practice with us, If you guys talk to us in Navajo, we'd be like you know, you know, expert.

46:51 And then I realize, now I'm at the age where I'm like, I have no one to blame but myself. I can learn it. There's tools there. I just practiced it, and you know, practice with my parents, and there's still hope. So I leave that with anyone who is learning the wants to learn the language. There's hope that people out there who are willing to teach. It's just up to us to make that decision to incorporate the language back into our day to day and the songs and the art and the music and the food. As you were saying, food is an art, it's medicine. And so there's so much around us. We have no.

47:32 Excuse, right And the thing is what I've after all these years I've been here in the earth, I realized that especially Native indigenous peoples, they understand not only the earth, but the gifts from the earth, the roots, the play ants, the trees, the leaves, the different parts of plants and things, the healing that comes from just the nature. This out there. Not rushing to some doctor and start taking those pharmaceuticals, but there's medicine in you know, a particular bean or in a particular root, or in a particular plant, or And in fact, I was trying to learn it from a lady from Warm Springs years ago. She helped me and gave me some advice and roots and things. And when I had all sort of colitis and I had been on medication for eighteen years, she gave me this devil's claw and I never had another episode. And it's been almost forty years. I've never had another episode. And it is such a vile disease. And so I practice

49:02 teas and roots and plants. I got a pantry full of that's my medicine cabinet. And I tell the doctors, don't talk to me about pills. Just tell me what's the problem is, and I will find something to take that is going to make my body healthy because I'm not going to do the pills and all of that stuff with the side effects again. And so I think, I think, you know, other cultures are missing out when we're not communicating between indigenous peoples, you know, from different you know places, because some know medicines, some know you know the earth and maybe you know mining or something like that and doing it without destroying the water. Some know you know other particular things, and we would be able to probably be healthier, happier, more sound, more peaceful people.

50:02 If we were communicating with each other's cultures, we would be grasping all of the knowledge and all of the wisdom of the creator. But you know, there's just been so many, so many things that have happened. It makes it very difficult to say you don't have a reason, you know, to feel the way you feel. Well, okay, then I'm just gonna understand that you just don't know what you're talking about. Then maybe I need to tell you a few stories and then we can talk. But I think probably, you know, I think all the time, how can we as individuals and communities, you know, actively create more inclusiveness without being harmed, and more welcoming and respectful spaces so that we can all share. We need to learn from one another.

51:00 Yeah, it starts with It starts with themselves. Everybody has a responsibility in how they show up in whatever spaces they are, whether it's in a relationship and a home and a business and a community. It starts with self, and it starts with people working on themselves. Looking at the mirror, Like the mirror you know, like looking at like ooh, I don't like that, right, and accepting who you are, loving yourself, trying not to beat ourselves up. You know, heal the past. It's done. So how do I move from here? You know?

51:40 I all of us have been through heartbreak, oh people, And but there's learning. Those those relationships were learning, right, even like we've gone to the next plane. We have to start with us. Yes, And I'm going to just read this real quickly by Richard so here goes. Creator does not tell us. Who to love, only that we learn how love is spiritual. It comes from the spirit place. There is no color there, no gender, no skin, no history, no time, no right, no wrong, no better, no best, and certainly no politics.

52:29 Is a place of pure love. It is our common home, and we all return to it someday. So it's our soul's mission. To learn love. Remember that we spring from love, and houl your loved ones close. When you trust your life to Creator and become willing to take the next indicated step, all matter of miracles become possible. I remain in slack jaw wonder at the richness of my life. Oh that's a beautiful poem, and that is the last word to close our show. Thank you so much for being with us today, Vicki, and thank you everyone that tuned in, and please join us again next week at eleven am Eastern time eight am Pacific time at a Sharp Outlook and whatever you do, stay informed. I want to thank you for joining us on a Sharp Outlook.

53:27 We have been informed and energized to take the next steps. We have posted links to websites and videos to learn more on today's topic. Please join us again next week for another thought provoking conversation right here on key for HD Radio and Talk for TV. Listen to the podcast on all the podcast apps, and until next week, stay informed.