it so this is a way i was taught to introduce myself from my mother's claim to people my father is shown to be born here i am in the middle and i want to pay my respect i'm hoping i can earn  day what it means and what i chose to do this many times you hear people talk about seattle you hear people talk about chief seattle you hear people talk about his speeches the environmentalists love to cite his words about taking care of the earth we do not be long or the earth does not belong to us we belong to the earth they left that line and yet the descendants of she seattle are never mentioned all these things happened on this land on the dust of the ancestors when i was raised in about a when i was in the village in alaska they told me it would literally when we talk about our ancestors we've been in these lands so long so many of our people have lived and i'd hear so many of our bodies have returned to the earth that is the dust of our ancestors we walk upon way this long houses built upon the dust of the warm ocean ancestors and so these cedars grew in the dust of those ancestors that's how they come back to us and they build the bones of this you know this this long house that used to be ninety third around this puget sound they were burnt down one by one during the colonial process it's good to see that at least one has come back to this area as so this is a long process as indian lost in india and i was very frustrating this is this is being the jews if you get there that one world war two the holocaust would never be spoken of the effects on the jewish people would never be spoken of and that's what happened to native people people ask why don't we just get over it they don't aspect to the jews  members of my family were taken into the boarding schools and beaten members of my family my immediate family where adopted out my grandmother was sold as a slave to five of my aunts and uncles have been murdered i don't even want to recount the rapes none of that was ever prosecuted i remember wondering you know when i was little why it became this way how this all happened to our people only really learned it i was one of those one of six men in a native dance group in my senior year of high school and by the end of my senior year i was the last one left the rest had ended up locked up and one was dead and i was the one that made it they always said earlier going to be the one who makes it they are already given up for themselves the pain inside them was too much the things that happened to them were too much and too much anger even we're learning our own history we go through the stages of grief and i want us to watch for the young ones young ones out there that are learning their history they're going to go through this process it's shocking to them they have to learn what happened to us so we can change it but at the same time we have to understand what it's going to do to them to learn to us to learn what's been taken from them i really appreciate being able to be here today and see that the warmish people coming back stronger you know it's nice to see  but these things these days they had to continue they have to this is this kind of a day this has to be every day and so i'm hoping that as this trailer was over i know that there's many different ways that our people have to heal and this takes evil work yes but it also takes legislative work and soul i am working in the course of there's a case before judge cohen our and there's also a bill that representative mcdermott has introduced and i've been speaking with tribal leaders and trying to get more of them on board with support and so as this moves forward and we all stand together you know we have to remember chief seattle talked about also this time he saw that i am when he said that those people would be walking among you know one of the cities and they said he said the streets of seattle the people that would think they were empty but they're not the posters the ancestors are still there and so that's why we're able to be here today is because those ancestors are strong in that want they want the people to continue this is not something that and it is an honor to be here working for the no one most people healing is our heart on process and ceremony is a large part of it and i can do what i can in i'm only there because my people prayed every they wanted there to be at least one member of the fish on who made it to law school not many members of that tribe make it out of high school but i was the one of the elders took it would have me sit in and so these kinds of things how to have been more we have to take our names back we have to take our culture back take and be proud of who we are again we're not a didn't eat it people we're still here they didn't want us to be there and sold the fact that this exists that shows that we are not a defeated people we need to tell our youth we need to reach out to the other so that they can grow up and say yes i am in i am out my people have been here forever and all these other races all these other ethnicities have cannier and will welcome them on to my land i am that ambassador of my people i carry my culture with me and i want therefore to introduce someone else also working on on these topics i can work in the kurds i can work in the legislature but in the old days there was always the village and there were still the workers who would go out and buy and in in my family those were cases it was that we would go where we stand we'd be that barrier would be that barrier between the outside world that's always trying to consume what's left of us and it's not even always that these other groups do it in a negative way it's just that they're all fighting for the fair share of the pie but they forget that it was our p hard to be years among people who would make a lot of very pleasant statements about native people and i knew i had to be there to get that knowledge so that i could go and be a barrier and it means that i can't always be in places like this i can't always be part of the ceremonies but when when those four years we go out there and protect that it's because the people back home were still able to tell stories that the youth were still able to eat the traditional foods and learn their stories and spend time with the others and still i'm doing what i can i cannot promise anything except to do my best and and i'll keep praying for the right way to approach these things and i hope that the second time that the moment you get recognized it won't be taken away but we've always and i will try to do my best and i would like to interview someone who is working on the other end of things as i head out and try to be the area there's there's people working to heal our villages back home so that those of us or go out to protect things there's actually something to protect jay would like to come forward and speak about or work on a dealing i think that this is very appropriate for everybody here we were just down among a lot of the tribal leaders of this and ten year old gordon the question coming i worked at sonoma scouting and helped i've used councils and to use groups do community work and fight their adversities we did campaigns about suicide prevention and that's when it all changed because they realized the suicide rate in indian country and i know why it happened and i know what's wrong and i seen the studies and i know how to help my grandparents raised me they're all in their seventies and eighties they've all passed alaska became a state in fifty nine my god father that raised me was born in thirty one my grandparents not to speak their language they threatened their families if they didn't we lost a lot of family members that didn't want to come and they'd rather die so now being here and it was really hard being away from home i came here for to give my children a better life but somebody told me there's ninety thousand natives in seattle you think you're the only one that feels lost you think you're the only one that feels lonely for that culture and i'm not so what i'm trying to do is inform people about the study the study is real it's a science and it shows whether you're a boy or girl at what age what stage of your life there's ten adversity studying three forms of abuse three forms of manipulation and there's other factors whether you had a mentally ill parent behaviors these people are suffering when you see people on the reservations and they're engaged and they're an alcohol and they're on drugs it's because they're feeling a void and it's a very unfortunate  dysfunction that gets passed down through the generations because of what is happening to our culture i know because my family suffered the same dysfunction i'm here alone in the city it's my kids and it's very important for me to bring that culture back and i have a plan i will inform all community agencies and all childs about adverse childhood experiences studies tell them that there is a way to approach these people in a way to help these people and all i want to do is be the link that's all i want and the way to combat that bring us back and bring them back from that is to reintroduce their culture daily every single day my kids should be in their regalia going to school respected by their peers respected by the faculty and maybe that would bring about some accurate education about our history because there's swept under the rug nobody talks about it nobody wants to talk about what happened in the natives but it's important that they know i teach my children what happened to my grandparents i teach them what happens we why my life was so hard wired my family was so dysfunctional and all the things that i have learned helping all these youth around the county and state homesh i'm going to try to bring to seattle to the natives i think it's very important to empower our culture on a regular basis implement cultural hobbies on a regular basis and not be afraid to share it with the community if you can give these people back their pride you can encourage them to find ways to a accomplish their goals to get off drugs to get off alcohol it will give them what they need the hobbies will give them what they need and at they know what is wrong with them they could heal themselves and they can turn around and know how to approach their peers and he they need to know the culture they need to know what has happened to our family and how we can gain it back i make them cultural ambassadors that carry their culture inside them will be the example for what i'm trying to do and it's time for a change it's time for healing it's time to reclaim rebuild and we buy our culture and that's what i'm going to try to do show the in the new yes although we live each and every one of us as a precious child of creator and i live in seattle for eleven years and in that period of time i learned that the japanese surely told masters came into this area and they were able to diagnose that many many people were poisoned with food food in this area the pitch accel that's something we don't read about or that we know and those japanese shinto ministers took care of those those people so i wanted to say that to you that something i know about the area having lived here and i have traveled to eight different countries who teach when when decision making or using our creative imagination we call it horse the means our whole brain thinking is for the creative solution so right now we're destroying the planet and the environment of humanity with windows i have to kill you so i can live but i have to steal from you so i can order and so that's my message all the way from the next big here is where i'm born where i grew up i'm up i also went to boarding school my parents went to boarding school thank you for your interest and this next generation is that the empire has taught indigenous people all over the world to fight each other and kill themself and kill each other anyhow i've been living for a few years back in a place not too far from some of my heritage and  i can he ozarks the people love through there on their way to oklahoma a long time ago and in the first year that i was back there  your long ago a foot driven from their home by harry faced soldiers did our presence occasionally see the same blue sky one didn't grant them a bit of comfort this morning hours before dawn star stats on my black coffee reflections from the sky of the same pure wise  stories voices from forgotten campfire stuff was the sky days long past whispering again harmony with  dark skin and