Personal Narrative: My Native American History Lesson

Native American Ceremonies’ When I was ten years old I learned of my Indian culture. I learned I was of the Cherokee tribe. My dad had always hung Indian decorations in our home, but I have never given much thought of why he has done so. This peaked my interest, so I started asking questions. He told me we were part Cherokee and part Choctaw native American.

Heritage has impacted my life in many good and bad ways, growing up I was afraid to express my culture and ethnicity. My only concern about not expressing who I truly was is that I may not be accepted for who I am. Growing up Asian I went through a lot phases where I became the main target for racism. I would always question myself and ask “What is wrong with me and my culture?”, “Why am I the target?”, “When was it ever okay to bring someone down and make them feel worthless?”. At that moment I would not just only hide who I really am but I would lie to myself and say that, that’s not really me. Throughout my life I began to become someone that I am not, with false information I gave to my peers I never thought I would dislike my culture

Exploring your ethnic roots will enhance your understanding of how your background has shaped you. I am a 24-year-old heterosexual Hispanic woman that was raised in Fresno, California in a Catholic family. As an able-bodied citizen, I considered my social class to be middle class because I always had the necessary resources growing up. Being raised within the Mexican culture has helped me identify with myself. I seek information from my parents to determine their experiences in the United States and how that has affected me today.

Debate I believe the colonies and everyone living there should remain loyal to England. Many close people in my life agree with me, such as my husband, Sir William Johnson, a British official. My brother, Joseph Brant, a Native american who was with the British government. I belie the colonists will take our land, and England would never take our land.

I volunteer with the Shriners, helping every year with their annual golf outing. Although I am too young to remember, I was a patient at Shriner Hospital in Erie. It is my way of giving back, even if it is just a small token of my appreciation for what they have done for me. Their are so many children that the Shriner doctors and nurses treat every year, I am blown away the more I learn about them. It is an honor to me to be able to give my Saturday to raise money to help others.

Life as a Native American sucks. I realized this when I was a little kid. I’ve come to accept that what other people label or describes us as are true. I’m not happy to admit this they are right. My people don’t do anything to prove these people’s claims, or better known as stereotypes, about Native Americans wrong. Instead they do the complete opposite and just give these people all the reasons why they are right about how Native Americans are. I realized how my people being called as alcoholic, poor, and uneducated are all sadly true. For example, on New Year’s eve, my family had a big party which was suppose to be fun. It was suppose to be a good get-together family party, but as expected it wasn’t like that at all. My two uncles, named Adolph and Arnold, got into a very bloody fistfight with each other due to all of the drinking that they had. As a

Do I know who I am? Am I who I think I am? What makes me, me.? There’s a lot to know, and still so much more to explore and learn about myself. There are three main aspects about my life, that symbolizes who I am as a person. My cultural identity is based upon values, appearance and my life itself. I love who I am, and who I am becoming. My happiness and intelligence is what makes me stand out from others. I’ve always put my best foot forward and make the best decisions for myself. I am half Indian, Caucasian, European & Mexican on my mom’s side of the family. On my dad’s, I am Half Jamaican on my dad’s side of the family. Both of my parents taught me different ways around life and what is expected of me. But the three things that sums up my cultural identity are food, fashion, and family traditions.

I am a pioneer! My pioneer story isn’t your average Latter Day Saint pioneer story, as far as historical LDS stories go! I was raised by goodly parents, I was born and raised in Spokane Washington. I am the youngest of three children born to Jim and Shannon Newell. My brother James is the oldest and four years older than myself. My sister Kim is the pickle in the middle and the peacemaker, she is just two years older. Growing up my brother and I had a love-hate relationship, we enjoyed driving each other crazy. As for Kim and I, we have always shared a close relationship. Kim is the sister every sibling should have, she was never mean or hateful, she is the sister that I don’t deserve.

“Ma 'am, I 'm gonna try my hardest ta keep myself straight. I might’ve fell off the wagon, but I’s got back up, didn 't I?”

If my Native American tribe was to choose a side between the French and the English, I would pick the French. Firstly, the French have a small population in America. Therefore, they aren 't as demanding for certain supplies since there is less of them. That will leave more supplies for the Native Americans. Also, this means that they won 't take up as much land in America as the English do. They will leave some land for the natives, so they can share the amount of area they own.

If I were a plain’s Indian living in the 1900s my reservation would be the Choctaw reservation. I would explain to my grandkids that us as plains Indians we were great wanderers, travelers but we did not like farming. We were greatly known for being great warriors and fighters by using the tactic of gorilla warfare as a sneak attack. One of the many threats that happened to our culture, was the loss of our buffalo. We greatly depended on the buffalo for our food and clothes. Another threat was superior weapons we did not have enough. We also battled diseases. We did not have immunity to diseases and Alcoholism also came to play an important role in destroying our culture.

What have you done at Union that is in keeping with the goals of the Minerva Houses OR, with other schools/groups in which you have participated? One of the Minerva goals is to promote interaction between faculty/staff and students. I helped plan the Biology Club: Biology Student Faculty Jeopardy Mixer which was held at Beuth House last month. This particular event was an opportunity for students to meet many of the Biology teachers at Union.

Childhood barriers growing up and being Native American was growing up poor. Being raised by signal parent and eating foods that are far unhealthy. Food that was prepared or bought were so unhealthy which caused some family members to be overweight. Being poor made it hard for mother to provide proper nutritious foods. Food we eat where either fried, had to much salt, and high in fats.

I was a fourth grader when my dad told me that we were moving to the Unites States, “land of wealth, excitement, and fabulous cities.” But there clearly was a mistake; I was brought to the middle of nowhere in the arid region of the Hopi Native American Reservation in Arizona. Our family’s migration to the United States was not a well-planned search for lucrative opportunity, international education, freedom, or happiness. Rather, it was a call to mission. Yet I struggled to accept it, because I thought that I was only forced to follow my parents. They always told me, “you came to Hopi for a reason too,” nevertheless "Yup, I know. I know," was my sarcastic response.

I was born a mystery, no one thought a small Native American girl living in a tribe would grow up to be the most famous Native American. In 24 short years I would accomplish more than people would in their whole life.