Cultivating Wellness Through Native Culture

 Today's guest is Donell Barlow. Donell is a prolific author. She's published a memoir called Medicine Tracks, two children's books, one called Bigfoot and Lightning Bug, and the other called Creature Teacher Yoga, and a poetry book titled Words Have No Meaning. Donell is Yurok and an enrolled member of the Ottawa tribe Otter Clan.

She works with native communities as a research and training coordinator and a certified holistic health coach. In our interview, Donell talks about all the dynamics present in diet and nutrition. The benefits of embracing different forms of medicine in life, including food, Native practices, dreams, and animal encounters, how suffering and grief are their own important lessons, and the ways in which Native communities are embracing and rebuilding their cultural identities and practices. 

Donell, it's so nice to have you here. Thanks for being here. Thank you for having me. I know that you're really big into nutrition and holistic healing, and I think that that's a really interesting topic to me. I think it's really difficult in today's world for a lot of people to figure out what to eat, how to put a diet together.

It's just, it's tough. You know, people are busy. It's not that easy. Maybe if they didn't have the time and energy, they couldn't do it, but, you know, with everything that's always going on, what's available in grocery stores, all of that kind of stuff, it's tough. And I know you've really devoted a lot of your time and energy to figuring this out and helping people with this.

So tell me a bit about that.  You know, when I'm working with people, what I always begin to is thinking about, like, what is your relationship to food? And the start of that comes with how that relationship was cast down from your parents and generations before you. That's really critical because it's not about a diet.

It's a lifestyle, and we also have to just truly understand what are the things that have us make the choices, you know, each and every day. They say that each decision you're making, whether it's food or a beverage, you're one step closer to disease or one step closer to prevention. So it's really important that we begin unpacking that relationship so then we're actually able to understand why we're making the choices that we're making and start kind of just changing some of those thought patterns.

In particular, you know, because I am Native and I work a lot with Native communities, we go back and talking about intergenerational trauma and how we used to eat our traditional foods. And that's what we thrived upon, you know, and that's what our bodies we were hunting. Well, all of us were hunters and gatherers at one point.

But we ate the food of our ancestors, and so when that relationship changed, we see a huge decline in health. But it's not just that. It's also looking into what are, what do people have access to? Because not everybody has access, right, to healthy food, and healthy food is expensive. So that's also something that I have to really consider when working with different individuals.

But I always tell folks, like, Think about like, you know, we, we know that we pass on certain traditions, right. And how we manage stress to our kids, but we also pass on our relationship to food. And so when we're thinking about, I think I like to have people list, what are the foods that you ate growing up and what were the foods that a good memory might, they might be positive memories.

They might, you know, be food around scarcity or having to eat as much as you could, because you didn't know when your next meal would come from all of those things are super important. When we start unpacking that relationship, because then we're able to really understand exactly, you know, why we're doing why, you know, what we're doing.

I don't believe in one particular diet at all. I think that we're unique and that we should eat also for the region that we're in, you know, as much local as possible and support. If you're able to grow your own food, that's amazing. But supporting a lot of local, I also think that your diet changes as you go through different stages of life and different stress responses.

You're going to need certain foods more, you know, when you're going through stress or pregnancy or after pregnancy, there's just different things that happen where our diet needs to shift a bit. And so that's why I also try not to stick to such a regimented format for people. But I do say like 90 percent eat for your wellness and your health and 10 percent Eat what you want within reason, because the biggest thing that we can do that's really going to deter us from having that healthy relationship is putting shame and fear and guilt associated with food.

It's just going to contribute right to that. And so if we can start reframing the way that we look at food, it becomes, it really gets down to what is our relationship. And that's kind of how it works when I was help, been health coaching in the past with folks and working with communities. There's a lot in there that you said.

It's a lot of really good stuff. And there's one thing that you said that I have always felt that there isn't one diet and there isn't necessarily one diet that would work for a certain person through their lifetime. You know, it's like that people could have different times when they might need something else, but also that.

different people's bodies react differently to food. How does that play out in your work? Well, I've definitely seen firsthand where some medicine for one person might be something that's really detrimental for another too. So just because something's healthy or, you know, we define it as healthy doesn't mean that it's going to be beneficial for somebody else.

We all have also different food intolerances. not allergies, but intolerances where your body does have a difficult time breaking it down. And sometimes that can be really hard to decipher. If you have a lot of inflammation in your gut. Then you become really easily reactive to a lot of foods. And so it can be hard to know which ones are causing those flare ups.

For example, like for some people, dairy is really beneficial for them, you know, depending on where they're getting it from and the quality. But for some of us, like, especially a lot of indigenous people, dairy was not a part of our diet. And so we have a hard time breaking it down. And I also see certain groups more sensitive to like, we're really sensitive to sugar as well, because that's not something that was in our diet.

You know, some people can do okay on caffeine and can have benefits from caffeine, depending on what the source is, but other groups, that might be something that, you know, they really can't handle well.  So, I think it's important to look at your ancestry and the foods that your ancestors ate and where they came from, you know, and what were the things that they utilized to create longevity, to help with prevention, because really I look at food as it's prevention and it's preventive medicine.

And you know, I always say food is medicine, depending on how I'm utilizing it. Uh, so, but I, I have, I've seen some people be able to eat certain vegetables and it's awesome for them or certain meats. And then other people, their body has a really hard time breaking it down. Maybe they feel sluggish or they feel tired or they feel brain fog.

And so that's kind of what I mean, where like people have different reactions, but in order to understand that, we really have to unpack. And be tuned into our bodies so that we're able to receive those chemical messages. So when we're digesting food, our body is sending those chemical messages through a nervous system.

And so it's telling us, Hey, maybe you might feel bloated, or you just might feel brain fog, or maybe you feel tired. That's a really unique and beautiful way that our body communicates with us. But we become so conditioned to sever that relationship. And we take things that maybe mask some of those symptoms, or we think this is normal to feel this way all the time.

And so that's something I see a lot. That makes sense to me. Yeah. And the other component, you did mention, I think, something about stress passed from parents or, you know, family members. When you're talking about that, is that around food? I mean, because I know that's one example you gave is, like, how did your parents eat or what foods did they provide?

But also just stress in the family home and that sort of thing. Is that all a part of, you know, What you're looking at as well. Yeah. I mean, well, stress is going to create inflammation, right? And so people don't realize that they, the number keeps rising, but it's initially around 70 percent of our immune system is in our gut.

So what, what's going on in the gut is going to essentially affect our overall health, our mental, physical, emotional, and in some cases, spiritual health. So stress is also going to contribute to that. And then. How your family members in your given environment, how they manage stress, and that can also be tied to food, whether it's eating foods that might not be the best choice or choosing not to eat.

So, you know, those different things are modeled behavior to your kid. And so your kids start kind of picking up on how that's your, you know, how you relate to stress or how food connects to stress. Or maybe food's a celebration, which it is for many of us as well, or, or reward. Okay. You know, so we got a good grade today, so we get, this is the reward that we get.

And so we start making these connections with food outside of what its given purpose I feel like is to provide nourishment and to have a relationship with the land. That's really, really key. I think that a lot of us don't get that opportunity to connect with the land that way and just realize that, you know, just the whole process of growing food and foraging food and working with food in that way.

It took me a long time to get this relationship myself, so I want to make that really clear. I talk about it in my book a lot, how I, you know, I grew up on some traditional food, but I was also raised by a single dad and I had a lot of digestive problems and had to go to a gastrologist and wasn't finding the answers I was looking for.

And I, I had, you know, really compromised my physical activities and I had a lot of fear around food for a long time. And so I had to learn on my own this process of unpacking my relationship to food and eliminating certain things and trying different things and really listening to my body so that I was able to heal my gut.

It's something that is not emphasized when we're young, most of the time, and we kind of have to find out the hard way sometimes, which is frustrating, but it's never too late to make those changes. That's one of the things what you just brought up is one of the things I was thinking about, too. is when you mentioned disease, like you actually did have real physical symptoms because the stuff you were eating was not a good match for, for you, maybe for not a lot of people.

So you saw in your case where that actually became like cured, like that became better. Is that something you see when you work with people as well, where they have some conditions or ailments and then they've changed the way they eat and they actually really do start to feel better? Oh, definitely. Yeah.

I've seen it many times. Oftentimes it's things around like IBS, irritable bowel syndrome, you know, syndrome, things around that nature. I also worked with people that will have skin conditions, you know, rashes or acne or just different things because we don't realize that our skin is our largest organ in the body.

So if you're having some type of inflammation from the gut, it's expressing itself through your skin. So oftentimes when we're having those ailments, it's really important to look at what's going into our body and then that's, you know, that's the messages that that's coming forward. It's just inflammation expresses itself in different ways.

And so it looks different for different folks. And so that's why oftentimes we don't think first, like, what is it in my diet that could be contributing. To what's currently, you know, happening. There's also a lot of research out there, so I was talking about how inflammation, it can travel to different parts of the body.

For, for some of us, they're even saying that when it travels to the brain, it contributes to early Alzheimer's, or they call it type 3 diabetes. So, you know, it can affect any part of the brain. I see it with arthritis. Oftentimes, people are really susceptible to joint pain. Often, it comes from that inflammation in the gut as well.

And it really is. It really is such a, such a thing, and I, I think you're right that it's not something we all think about on a regular basis necessarily. And like I said before, it is really tough. It can be really tough, even if you want to be mindful, the expense, or trying to educate oneself. And I, like you said, I'm sure you have to factor that in as well when you work with people because it can be very expensive or difficult to find things.

Thanks. Yes, it is. The system definitely isn't designed necessarily for healthy foods to be accessible or affordable. So, you know, you just kind of start with where you can. And there are certain things that you can get, especially if you're trying to If you're growing it or if you can get it straight from the farmer's market or the source itself, it's going to be more affordable.

It's also going to be better quality and fresh. As soon as it's pulled out of the earth, it starts losing nutrition. So the farther it has to travel to your plate, the less nutrient dense it's going to be. So the closer that you can get to that source, which is why I love foraging so much traditional foods in that way, the better quality you're going to get.

But it's not just that, it's that relationship. Like I said to  And respecting that process, reciprocity. And so, you know, when I'm out there and working with traditional foods, I'm able to offer something back to the earth. And I have a certain mindset when I'm in that. And then as I continue to process it and work with it and give it out to community and different people, you know, it just has a whole, it takes on a whole other name, think about a home cooked meal, you know, and all the love and the work that goes into that, right.

And just how it nourishes you in a different way. The foraging is interesting. In your book, in your memoir, you talked about that working with Native youth to forage and teach them where to look for things and what sorts of things were out there that were good or bad with mushrooms, especially I would imagine if that's one of the things you guys are foraging for.

But I feel like, gosh, that seems like it would be difficult to find places to go to. How does that work? I'm curious about that. The foraging. I mean, you definitely have to, there's certain protocols around foraging. Of course. You know, you definitely want to be in areas where there's not a lot of congestion.

You don't want to be having a lot of traffic moving through or anywhere that it might be sprayed with chemicals of any kind. So you do have to be mindful of those types of things. I'm lucky to live somewhere where we are surrounded by quite a bit of nature. It's not that hard for me to get to the state park like 15 minutes away and be able to identify things.

I also go out to the local, you know, reserves around here. With my community and we know where to go to forage certain things as well, but it's a learning process. And so I've been taking my daughter with me since she was born. And so she knows how to identify different plants and different roots and things like that.

Because like I said, it's like that relationship is so important. And so if we can get the kids out into the dirt and out to nature with us, even if it's just an herb garden, it's really significant and it really starts to reshape our, the way that we view food and our appreciation for it. Yeah, that's really cool.

That's cool. I love that. So speaking about your memoir, let's shift gears a little bit. Your memoir is called Medicine Tracks. And so, let's start there. What exactly does that mean to you, the phrase Medicine Tracks? Well, I first want to explain the word medicine. I use, like, oftentimes when people think of medicine, we tend to think of it very much like medicine you would get from a doctor, like a prescription.

But I like to, the whole entire book talks about different forms of medicine that we often tend to overlook, right? Like It could be laughter, it's food, for example. Medicine can also be time spent with family or elders. And so it was important for me to broaden that aspect of what we view as medicine.

And so the medicine tracks is really in reference to being aware of like the signs and the messages and the symbolism that might be around you. So when you're in the present moment and you're tuning into your surroundings. Then you're paying attention to the medicine tracts and those messages. And so you're following that path that's been divinely laid out for you.

That's leading you to whatever, you know, your purpose is or, or whatever direction that you want to go in life. And sometimes medicine tracks can bring suffering, you know, and, but maybe that's exactly what you needed to experience to grow and to evolve and to transform. And I kind of liked the word, I liked tracks because I do reference a lot of people in my book.

I use different animal totems to kind of describe. Their personalities and their characters. And I also use a lot of animals in my storytelling and teaching, and it's just how I grew up was learning a lot of teachings through the stories of animals. And so that's why I use the word tracks as well. Yeah, that's cool.

I love that. And I think throughout your book, you really did, uh, you have several traumatic events and you lost several family members and we'll talk about that, but you know, when you said be present and pay attention to the signs. You, you can tell throughout your book that you were doing that, like even through traumatic events and grief and all that, it seemed like you would take that time to go for a run or go for a walk when you had an injury and you couldn't run.

You know, you go and you call it smudging, which I don't exactly know what that is, but you know, taking that time to have that present time and pay attention. That's what I'm thinking of when you talk about that is, is that was all through the book, even through the really, really tough times. What do you think taught you that?

How did that become a normal practice for you? Well, okay, so smudging, just to explain real quickly for anybody who else might not understand what that's about. So smudging can look different for different folks, and there's different protocols around how people are taught to do that, but it is a way for me to really tap into centering myself.

Sometimes it's about clearing energy. It's definitely also sometimes about praying. So I might be sending prayers up to, I call, creator. But, you know, you smudge with different plants because they have different purposes for what they're used, but typically I smudge with sage. And so I burn like a sage stick.

I also work with my medicine, so I gather my own medicine, or I get it straight from the people that gather it themselves. That's also really important to me, because then I know kind of within what realm of energy of people that it's been around. And I do strongly believe that when you gather your own medicine, it is stronger.

And so I burn the sage and I, you know, fan the smoke over my body, sometimes under my feet, and that's just kind of helping me clear anything, any type of energy out, but it also has a calming effect to it, right? Because of the smell. Sage also will clear the air, will actually help purify air as well. And then I'm sending with that smoke, I'm sending whatever it is I'm trying to release or whether it's a prayer up to creator.

So putting it into their hands. You know, there's some different other types of teachings around smudging, but that's kind of real quickly, just kind of break it down as far as present. The funny thing about being present is I actually find it easier, not easier, but. I would say I'm even more present in times of distress than times of joy, because it's like, it's when you're in those tougher moments or, you know, where you're suffering, when you're deep in your grief, I feel like.

It's easier for me, at least, to be fully present on everything that's coming because I'm trying to understand. And I journal a lot more too, right, when I'm upset than when I'm, everything's going great,  you know, as well. And I tend to, right, I mean, we just kind of do, just naturally. And so when I'm in that grief and trying to understand why these things are happening or connect with fear it. 

Or connect with my ancestors or connect with the people that have crossed over. That's when I turn to those things even more. That's when I'm more present looking for those messages. When I'm praying more, journaling more, smudging more, doing sweat lodge, you know, whatever it is that makes me feel like I'm hypersensitive, more hypersensitive and more alert to what might come through.

Yeah, that does make sense. I mean, there's that. I think there's that famous phrase, suffering brings us closer to God. I think there is, there is something to that. There's to, to spirituality, whatever that looks like for people. There's something there. So talk about that. Talk about the grief though, that, that ends up being kind of a theme in a lot of my podcasts to some degree, just because people all experience it and in one way or another, it, it hits us all.

But in your case, I felt it so strongly in your book because you lost your mother when you were very young and he lost an adopted brother before that. You lost your sister who kind of became your second mother. I mean, these are all, this is a lot and you had your father and he raised you and, and it was wonderful.

But. My question is, being sort of alone, feeling alone in that way, that you're losing people, especially at a young age, like just how did you navigate that? How was that? And then how do you look at it today?  Okay, that's a great question. I navigated that. I mean, it definitely was very lonely, you know, growing up, losing siblings and being just my dad and me for a very long time, it was very lonely.

And I didn't have a lot of understandings around it. My dad helped, you know, he definitely tried his best to try and facilitate. healing for me, but it didn't come like when I was a teenager is when I lost my sister and that's where I really did not handle the grief in a healthy way. You know, I was already kind of rebellious and like to do my own thing and pretty wild actually.

And so that went,  that definitely increased quite a bit when my sister died. I was very angry and I wanted to be numb and I wanted to forget and I wanted to  And so that's how I chose to handle the grief at that time. And then what really progressed for me was going into adulthood. And then my dad, you know, he got diagnosed with dementia.

And so that was a huge shift in our roles. And I actually had to, I don't know that I talked about it in my memoir. But my dad, when he was going through his dementia, he relived the death of my brother and my sister and my mom. And so I had to kind of roll reverse with him some of those connections and those relationships.

And there was nothing unresolved because he was just feeling all of this like guilt and remorse and, you know, just the grief again. And my dad was also a grief counselor. So. So, that was a really interesting dynamic for me, but through all of that, I realized once my dad had passed that he was teaching me how to grieve in a healthy way, even through his dementia.

So, he was preparing me through kind of that role reversal and just also how he had handled grief. Because my dad lost a wife and two children too, right? And so, through all of that, I was able to, as an adult, when it finally came, I was, prepared somewhat. And I actually had a dream about it. I talk about it in my book.

I had a dream that my dad was going to be passing soon, about a month before it happened, that I knew it was coming. And that's also what I say about your medicine tracks. Your dream medicine is such a significant, beautiful way to tap into things that might be happening, things that are within our unconscious, and also being able to connect with people that have crossed over.

And so while it hurts, I was so happy for him to be with my mom again and to be with my family again. And I felt this like overwhelming presence that they're united and they're on the other side like protecting me, you know, more than ever and looking out for me and guiding me. And I think you even talk in your memoir about instances where you feel that you really feel that presence and you might, you might've seen an animal or a couple of animals that are at just the right moment to send a message.

And, and I, I think that's something that I don't know if a lot of people experience that or talk about that, but tell me just a little bit about that, the awareness you have of messages. I mean, definitely like I, I mentioned just briefly was dream medicine. I'm someone who does have prophetic dreams and it's happened many times.

And so for me, that's, and this is something that, it's a gift that we all have, but like anything else, you have to practice and utilize it, right? And fine tune it. But it's something that's innate within all of us. And for me. It came out of missing my family and wanting to connect with them too. And so it was a way for me to work through my grief of my divorce and be able to have interactions with those people that I wasn't going to have interactions with in this reality.

But it also became a way for me to connect with my family. And work through some of the stuff that I thought was very unresolved before their passing. And as far, you know, in animals, like, you know, animals have such a strong significance in my culture and what their meanings are. And so I take that stuff quite seriously.

And I, and I really look in and I feel like, you know, animals are so connected. They're connected to the land and they're connected to creator. We just have to give him that moment to be present. And I write about this, how I found this love letter that my mom had wrote my dad. I had never read it before.

I'd never seen it until after my dad passed away. And so I was, I didn't just read it in the moment. I knew I wanted to set up kind of like my own little ceremony, my own little sacred space. So I took it to this place on the river that I was going a lot during this time.  And I smudged and I prayed about it and I started reading it.

And.  As I was reading it, I saw these two squirrels that were just like,  they came up to me, directly came up to me, and were just staring at me, which was kind of strange, but then, it just felt like this playful exchange, and then they went off and they were running through the trees and jumping and playing, and it just, to me, it felt like this reunites, that my parents had reunited, and that was something my dad wanted so much.

And so it felt like, and I told my girlfriend about it. She thought I was absolutely crazy.  She's like, you think her parents are squirrels? And I was like, no, I don't think my parents are squirrels, babe. But what I do feel is that through observing their playfulness and observing that connection, it, I felt a message is what I felt, you know?

So it's not quite literally saying, oh, they've now they're squirrels or now they this type of animal.  Right, it's, it's looking into what can I learn from this, this unique experience that I'm having with this animal right now. And it might come in a dream too, it might not be necessarily in your waking state, but I, I encourage people to kind of look into some of those meanings and figure out how does this possibly relate.

To me, is there, you know, something that I can take from this interaction? Because everything's connected. There's an interconnected with us, with the land, with the animals, with people. And so we need to, to look into that a little bit more, I think, than just passing it by, Oh, you know, that doesn't really mean anything.

But if, if you have a strange interaction with an animal, there's usually something that might be a little bit deeper behind it.  Yeah, and I, I, I really very much relate to this. I live in a place where there's animals around and, and it's sometimes it's like they're actually trying to get your attention.

Like, you know, it's not, again, it sounds crazy, but it's like where you can't miss them. You know, you can't miss them. And if you're mindful, if you pay attention, I mean, I feel like I went years and years without, I would have never even noticed, and then if you pay attention, if you're present to it, yeah, it can, it can be very meaningful, I think, depending on what you're going through.

So I, I really, I really related to that part of your experience and I would love it if other people also do. I think it's cool. Yeah. They have a lot to offer us. Animals are resilient and animals are also very kind and forgiving. And they're very much connected to the source, I call it the source, and, and they are stewards of the earth.

And so there's a lot that we can learn from the way that animals exist and choose to, you know, be on this planet. And that's why our creation stories, they're all based in animal teachings because they were, you know, they were here before us. And so there's a lot that we can take from their wisdom and just how they, how they You know, just how they exist really moving on a little bit to you talked about your father and he did raise you and then he got as you spoke about he got dementia and you went through that whole experience when you look back now at your relationship with your father and what I guess it taught you.

Looking back now or what it meant to you or means to you now, what would you say?  Before having my daughter, and this makes me emotional, but it's actually happy tears. It's not, it's not sad tears. It's actually really happy tears.  Um,  I realized that was the greatest love of my life. 

And,  yeah, my dad was, I mean, my dad's the reason I wrote my book.  I wanted to.  I wanted to honor him. You know, men, it's very rare, and especially in our Native communities, for a single father to raise his kid on his own without a partner. It's not something you see. I never met anybody who was raised by their dad outside of myself growing up. 

And so, I just want to give, you know, him a lot of credit.  I realized too, because, you know, I've become a parent since then after my dad passed, and I've been a single parent too the whole time. And so I've had a lot of reflection and just profound moments  understanding kind of what his experience was raising me.

And so now I'm experiencing, once again, the greatest love of my life, being a mom. And I also came to realize that we often, when we think of love, it always goes to a romantic type of love. We often don't think about those other familiar relationships or friendships or, or just other ways that we're able to receive love.

And so it just was, it just really hit me hard once my dad had passed, like, man, that was like the greatest love of my life, you know, that I, that I've ever experienced and I wouldn't change a thing about it. And he definitely.  Stay here for as long as he could to teach me what he needed to. And I just, I'm so grateful that I had, not everyone has one parent to be there.

And I know that I would be a very different person had I not had such a strong masculine, you know, um, but also my dad can, could embrace the feminine energy too. And that's really important as well. He had that because he was a counselor. So he was able to have our conversations and communicate with me and was very patient with me.

So I was incredibly lucky and, you know, he continues to, my parents visit me in my dreams and meet my daughter, which is really beautiful. So, you know, that again, the dream medicine comes through again. That's how I'm able to have them have some type of connection with her in some way. I just think it's really important as, you know, we lose folks and it's really hard and we all grieve in different ways.

Depending on where we're at with our healing and our understanding and what that relationship was. But it's not over. There are still ways, if you're open to it, to still connecting with those loved ones beyond this space. Yeah, you know, I, I look at it like a, Like our consciousness is so much bigger than we necessarily realize, you know, and there are, we could call it magical or wonderful things that are available to us that are beyond just sort of like getting through each day.

And I feel like that's when, in your book, I mean, that's so much of what you're talking about, that is like all of these other ways to experience and to understand things and communicate with other parts of consciousness. Maybe I'm, I'm not saying that right, but that's kind of like, Pointing at what I'm trying to say is, you know, you could call it spirituality, or you could just call it like parts of our consciousness that we can begin to have access to.

I mean, we spend so much time sleeping. And so, you know, why not put some effort in? I feel like there's so much. On that, but you have to be, the thing is, is you have to be open and so if we're not open to the possibility of having these interactions, then we're really limited to what we can experience, you know?

Or some people, like I know a lot of people, will associate certain animals or certain things with loved ones. So if they see a certain type of butterfly, right, or a certain bird, to them, that's a message.  So there's other ways that it could be. Right, right. And I'll have someone out of the blue be like, Hey, I knew your dad.

And we'll start telling me a story.  And my dad loved it when people would bring him up or knew him, right? He'd ask me after work, did anybody know me today? Did anyone bring me up? Cause my dad was pretty well known in the city. And so when those little things happen, right? I'm like, Oh, I know he's right here.

Just loving it.  It's really pretty cool.  You know, I think people are always curious about native culture today. I just think people don't know a lot about it or. The challenges or wonderful things about it. For Native folks, it's like the experience and the reality for us is so diverse depending on how you grew up and where you grew up.

And I can only speak from my experience, you know, and I come from, my mom was raised on her reservation. My dad was not raised on his reservation, but his parents, you know,, were. And both sets of my family, were, , assimilated into organized religion. And so, , I grew up within organized religion, , and  that within itself is a very heavy topic throughout Indian country.

And it gets into, , some very difficult, , things that I won't get too heavy into, but it definitely changes your experience, and your connection. Because oftentimes you, when you're going more of that, that other route of organized religion, it tends to be less culture driven for some, but not always the case.

And then some people, , choose to lead more of a traditional lifestyle that's really rooted in ceremony and culture. But that can look different for different folks. And so a huge part of my healing in particular, a lot of that book, Medicine Tracks, was reconnecting with my culture, in a way that I hadn't before.

And while I was raised in some of those traditions, I was also not because, I didn't get to grow up going into a sweat lodge because my family was very religious and that was not a part of our practice. And so. That wasn't something I got to experience until, which I felt like the timing was so perfect was about four days after my dad passed away.

You know, And I have a sweat lodge even on my property now. I mean, it is a very significant part of my life and my daughter has sweat at four years old with us. So your experience can look very different. What I do see, cause I do work with youth still, and, , one of the things that I see them really, really struggling with is cultural identity.

And so oftentimes for,  those of us who aren't raised on the reservation or don't learn our language or don't have access to family members that can teach us, there's this huge cultural identity crisis within. And it does make you feel like, like you're an imposter, you know, we often get a lot of that imposter syndrome or that you're not enough.

 And this whole blood quantum argument is a colonial concept, , for us, blood quantum wasn't a part of the, piece of what made you native. And it, it was, it was introduced to really to, to wipe us out, you know, and to create more division. Um, And then what we see today in our communities, which is so harmful, is that lateral oppression, because we'll use that against each other in our own communities, and it's quite harmful and impactful, and I, I see that, I've experienced it myself, and I, I've seen it a lot with the youth that I work with, and it's very detrimental.

And so what we do know is that culture for us is really our, is what brings us healing. Whether it's, you know,, addiction or suicide,  or dealing with different mental health. For us as Native folks,  the  more that we can tap into culture and have access to those resources, that's what helps center us and gives us, , that empowerment and, really helps with our resilience and promotes.

More community and, , it helps us heal and move forward. , it's culture. Culture is, is everything. And so we're still recovering. We're still recovering from the boarding schools. We're still recovering from losing our language. And  these health disparities that I've been dealing with within our communities, cause we do have the highest diabetes in the nation is all directly from colonization.

And so. Oftentimes people will think, you know, well that all that stuff happened so long ago. But, we still have elders that went to boarding schools. , it didn't happen a long time ago. And so I think that's something that a lot of people fail to recognize. And it's still happening, ,, there's things that we still see today as a direct result of all of that.

But it is culture that will lead the way towards, the next generation and I just see such an amazing movement, not just with Native youth, but just of the youth of this generation. I feel like they're changing so much, right, with, you know, Being inclusive and forcing us to look at things differently and changing the way that we have done things for so long.

I feel like this generation of youth is just really powerful. And I'm, I'm inspired by the things that I see at the forefront of how I feel like as collectively we are, evolving. And starting to see people more, I would say, for who they are and not so much, you know, gender, because gender is a construct , and within our community too, like, for, for people that identified maybe as they, them, we would call them a two spirit person and that's a beautiful gift, to be able , to access both the feminine and the masculine, that's not something that should be shameful.

That's something that should be celebrated and it's something that's powerful. So I just love. , some of the things and the changes and the shifts that I'm seeing with the youth of today, in general. But yeah, not one native person speak for all native people.  So I'll say that. Yeah, you know, when you're, when you're talking and I'm thinking about the boarding schools and the, pushing into organized religion and then you're saying how important culture is.

So  I'm thinking of a big picture. You have this culture, this very strong culture with these things, even this two spirit example that you give. And then it's like a cutoff, , it's like there's this cutoff of, okay, now we're indoctrinating you into something completely different. And so then this idea that there's a recovery and a relearning or re embracing the culture.

And so  I'm wondering where do you get those pieces from the elders? Are there books where is that accessible to sort of relearn or re embrace the culture? And then with some elders,  they never recovered. Like, it was so ingrained in them to not speak their language, to not share their culture, that that was evil and shameful.

And they were brutally disciplined. For that, and so some of those elders, when they became, well, children and they became parents, they didn't pass on any of that stuff to their kids, right? Because that was ingrained in them. So what we have today is, I mean, we do have elders that do choose to pass on those traditions.

We do have individuals that have made it their, life's work to bring language back. Some languages, became extinct. But language revitalization is a huge movement in Indian country right now. , I'm actually, , I am a part of that too. My daughter goes to immersion school.

She speaks her language fluently at five, , and I take classes a week,, which is incredible and such an amazing thing. Like I would have loved to learn my language. It's a privilege to learn your language. Food sovereignty is also a huge movement, in Indian country as well.

And so I think that what we're doing is we're just really kind of, compiling our resources and then looking at how some communities have also been able to be effective and, , helping one another, with,  those types of, , strategies, , and really leaning into our elders.  For care and, and for,  teachings and, you know, and some of it, , sometimes you are reading about things as well, but, , the best way is, you know, if you have access to those resources, being able to be in a community, , being able to participate in ceremony, but not everybody, , has , those resources available to them and , I understand and I feel very blessed to have the resources that I do have because they weren't necessarily there growing up sometimes.

And so for young people, I do get people reaching out to me and asking, are there ways and I tell them,  if they're able to find a native community, that's the first thing I would do is try to find that community. , are there people within that you can, um, go and participate in some of these things?

And sometimes it does take a lot of legwork to go put yourself out there, it's kind of crazy though. It's like with Tik Tok and stuff,  native Tik Tok's pretty huge and there's people on there doing tutorials of how to make a drum, how to Tana hide, how to bead. So, I mean, those things were not available before.

Yeah. Yeah. So, you can go into those platforms and actually learn from somebody, , right then and there. There's language apps, you can learn languages online, native languages, when you're a part of that community. You know what I mean? So, there are resources for I think COVID is actually what really shifted some of that.

Because before, a lot of those, practices would not have been shared in a public space. Yeah. But because there's some of those platforms, people are able to do that now. Yeah, it's like one of those  positives of social media, you know? There's , obvious negatives, but there's also, there are definitely positives as well.

Yeah. And it's great. I love it.  Even just sharing a song. You know what I mean? So for, for some kids, like that's everything, just to be able to learn a song and to carry that with them. That's awesome. Um, can mean so much, , when they didn't feel like they had that connection to culture prior.

So I have one final question for you because I know I've kept you a long time, but when you talk about the Native youth , and I am imagining, like you're saying, not everybody has resources or not  everyone might even think from the Native culture to go towards those communities if they've been so isolated from that and pulled from that.

so much. , so have you seen instances where a Native youth or several where they're actually kind of rejoining? And learning about, maybe even through those dinners, the feasts that you would make, the foraging, , where you can start to see them finding this sense of Native community.

Oh, definitely. Currently I work at a, , in treatment center for Native youth. Though it's, it's Native youth that  have substance,  abuse issues. And you'd be surprised that some of those. Have never, they're native youth, right? But they've never had any prior connection to their culture.

And so blessed that because we're a facility, that that is our pri, you know, our priority is the residents and giving them these resources that, you know, oftentimes we are teaching them their first song or drumming or sweat lodge or, , whatever, , that we're offering these things. And that's what I'm saying.

Culture is huge. We see that firsthand with  these residents that the culture is helping them really go through that process of dealing with something like addiction and finding a healthy solution that they can tap into for that strength moving forward, and so that's why culture is such a huge, significant part of the work , that we do there at the lodge.

But yeah, I have definitely seen it firsthand and for some of them, culture could actually also be a trigger though, too. depending on, you know what I mean, how it was introduced as well. But then it's about, about reframing that, , and what does that look like?  And, I think that culture is what's missing from a lot of people.

Not native people, but I'm just saying in general and society collectively. What I see a lot of people struggling with is  just that feeling, that connectedness of knowing where they came. I think it's so important for all of us to know where we came from as much as you can. And if you're able to connect with the land from which you came from, if you have that resource, I highly, highly encourage you to do so, 

and knowing  the stories of your people, knowing, you know, who your ancestors are, it really, really, it's beneficial in helping to understand and reframe who you are as well. You know, when you talk about, intergenerational trauma that exists within all of us, because we have generations before us that experience different, quite different lifestyles.

And,  through epigenetics, through the study of epigenetics, we're seeing that. Some of these things that these past generations had experienced is ingrained in your gene.  So it can show up generations down the line, even though they didn't experience it firsthand. And so it's important.

We always look, we talk about the seven generations  and the ones before us and the ones after us so that we're currently doing that work, that inner work on ourselves so we can begin in that healing within our DNA. Right. So we're not passing it on to those next generations and that applies to all of us. 

This is really cool stuff. And  I love that example that you provided about using culture with the young people with substance abuse issues because it is what you mentioned earlier and then it was like, okay, I get it. That helps me get it. Because it totally makes sense to me.

They're hurting, they're struggling, and they're turning to substances. And then it's like, here's this whole world out here that could be a healthy, positive way for you to experience life and feel support and feel like basically just a whole new dimension to life. I, I see it as. And I know there's the other part where it could be a trigger, but,  I could see how that would be very healing, very healing for people.

I think that just in general, being able to express like, you know, it took so many, I forgot what the exact number was, I used to know, but  it took a lot of ancestors for you to be here today. All of us, right? It took a lot of people. And so just  going back and acknowledging that, 

and , it's a miracle for each and every one of us to be here and to exist and for the things to happen for us to be here and what all of, you know, them had to be, all of our ancestors had to be resilient at one point. At least for us to be here. And so really tapping into that and what were the things that they utilized, , to feel connected to the places in the land , from which they came.

So, , if we're able to do that, then, , it's just a beautiful, a beautiful resource for healing for anybody. Even if  to the land where you live, , even if that's not the land from which you came, connecting with the land with which you reside is powerful as well.

I agree. I agree. I think this is all really, really good stuff. And I so much appreciate you being here and talking about this today. Thank you for your time. I appreciate it so much.