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Arella LaRose, Kashia Band of Pomo Indians of California “I’m with the Kashia Band of Pomo Indians, we have a little over a thousand tribal members. Bodega Bay and Russian River north of San Francisco are our ancestral lands. I’ve always lived in our homelands. We’re very connected to the coast and to our redwoods and our river. It’s very important to maintain that connection. So we’ve never moved away from our home. We keep our faces covered when we’re in ceremony, when we’re in our roundhouse. It’s for protection from spirits, and also because sometimes people will unintentionally send you bad medicine. The Native blood comes from my mother’s side. My father is from Mexico. I’ve never gotten in touch with my roots in Mexico, but I know my grandma out there speaks a native language, but I have no other knowledge of that side of me, which is unfortunate. She didn’t pass it down to her children because back in the day they wanted to assimilate. So she didn’t want her children, my father, to learn that language. She wanted them to speak Spanish.”

Junnez Gadwa, Plains Cree and Kehewin Cree Nations “Me and my mom drove down here from Canada, it took us over twenty hours. My cousin Jalen has 11 siblings so we came in four cars. This is funny, me and my mom slept together in the car and I almost kicked her off the seat. Sometimes we switch cars to hang out with different people. It’s a lot of fun.”

Gerry Runnels, Oglala Sioux and Yankton Sioux Tribes “A lot of sad things are happening on our reservation. But you have to see the positive things, because if you can’t see the positive you can’t move forward.”

Liza Bird, Cree Nation “I am 80 this year. My dad’s family name was Big Ear, my sisters and I were known as the Big Ear girls, but nobody laughed. I grew up and married on my mother’s reservation, then I moved to another one, I have been there for 56 years. We are all Cree just different groups. I participated in all the ceremonies growing up and we only spoke Cree at home. Now it is difficult with the young people. But we are trying to come back, but we know we can’t completely come back the way I was brought up. But we’re trying. The elderly people now are trying to get the young to participate. We never let go of them. That’s where we are at right now.”

Jack Bird, Cree Nation “Coming to this Pow Wow is a life-changing thing for me, I am just starting to learn more and more about my culture, it’s what I have been missing my whole life.”

Aislynn Arnold, Navajo Nation, Oglala Lakota, and San Felipe Pueblo “My mom and I did all the bead work for my regalia. I compete in the Fancy Shawl dance here at the Pow Wow in Albuquerque.”

Jerry Geronimo Martin, Chiricahua Apache Nation “I am the great-great-grandson of Geronimo. His Apache name was Goyathlay, Geronimo is a Spanish name. It was given to him on a victory chant down in Mexico. He was taking revenge for the massacre of his family, the Mexican army had killed his mother, his wife, and his three sons. The last time he surrendered he was supposed to get four years, but he died as a prisoner of war. He was very famous, they would put him out on display. But you know what? He was an entrepreneur. On the train every time they stopped he would get out on the platform and he would sell his buttons and hat, feathers or whatever he could sell and they would give him money for it. Then he would get back on the train and at the next train station he had new buttons already sewn back on and got a new hat and feathers and started selling it all over again.”

Miguel Herrera, Navajo Nation “I grew up on the reservation, all of my family is Navajo. I go to Pow Wows because I enjoy dancing, it makes me happy. I go pretty much every weekend.”

Navi Ho, Navajo Nation “I am part of the Two Spirit community and we are leading the Grand Entry this year [at the Gathering of Nations Pow Wow]. It’s a big honor. It’s very good, because in the indigenous community LGBTQIA+ people have been left out. The two spirit term, which is very new, basically, it mimics what a non-binary person is. We have two essences, two spirits within us. I was scared to be a part of this Pow Wow. I have never been out in the community dressed up. And knowing that there’s going to be so many indigenous people from all over the country, how is that going to be? But I am just overwhelmed with the support that I’ve gotten. And they are very happy that I am here.”

Audra Wesley, Anishinaabe and Cree Nations from Manitoba and Alberta, Canada

Tonanzin Hernandez Rosas, Aztec/Chicimeca Nation from Mexico Tenochtitlán “In Mexico there are no reservations, there are no benefits for Native people. We can’t speak our language fluently. We know some songs and some dances. A lot of it has been lost.”

Michael Roberts, Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations “In the state of Oklahoma, the 39 tribes that reside there, only maybe five or six of them actually are from Oklahoma. The rest of us are all from as far away as Oregon and Washington, even New York. My tribe is originally from Mississippi, we were all forced into Oklahoma, because they thought Oklahoma had nothing to offer. Then come to find out they struck oil there. The movie Killers of the Flower Moon, the Osage murders, that was during the same time as the Tulsa Race Massacre. They had things going against Black and Native people. It’s crazy, you know? Our governor now, he’s really against the tribes. When he was running for governor, he went to all the tribes and asked for their support. He was going to do all this stuff. And as soon as he became governor, he turned his back. Typical government. You know, it’s been like that since day one.”