Aya ceeki! Neewe for joining me on this journey. I bet you are wondering where we are going to on this adventure. Well, let me tell you. This will be the scenic route. The gorgeous mountain vistas, the lush rolling valleys below, the rushing rapids alongside our trail, the dense, wooded forests with the sun peeking through the trees. On this journey you will meet many two-legged relatives and some four-legged relatives. Perhaps some with wings and some with no material existence at all—just a whisper in the air, a sense of existence long ago. It is a journey that will travel in and out of time, from the past to the present to the will be or the may be. For me, it is always about the journey and not the destination, for the journey is where we find all the knowing, the understanding, and the self. I’m glad you will be my travel partner on this trail.
This journey will cover many topics like Indigenous identity, Indigenous history and education, some will be a little on the academic side, and many will be personal stories about my own experiences as an Indigenous woman. At times, I will invite some of my friends and colleagues to share their own thoughts and experiences on topics related to Native Americans.
I want this to be a digital council fire. A place where folks can come together to talk about real issues and explore our differences as well as our similarities. Ojibwe scholar Anton Treuer once wrote that Indians are more imagined than understood. Part of the reason for this he explains, is simple math. Natives make up only 3% of the population and so most folks have never had an opportunity to interact with a Native person, so they then rely on stereotypes and imagination. I’ve made it my personal and professional mission to elevate Native voices and to give everyone who wants it, an opportunity to know me and to learn about Indigenous peoples as real live human beings and not figments of the collective imagination.
Are you ready? Let’s walk….
To learn more about the Miami Nation of Oklahoma, click here.
oowaaha myaamiaataweenki (Miami is spoken here)
myaamiaataweenki—Miami language
oowaaha—here
aya—hello
ceeki—all
neewe—thank you
