Youth CAN Climate Summit 2015

Attending the Youth CAN Climate Summit hosted by M.I.T. in Boston. With Lake Placid Environmental Club and other North Country advocates. Club Advisor Tammy Morgan, The Wild Center of Tupper Lake, N.Y. and Brian Stilwell of A.C.E. have once again networked with the best and brightest and I appreciate the opportunity and the education I am receiving this weekend. Gave up Track Sectionals to attend, but choices gotta be made. News from Alaska Dispatch online newspaper just said Southcentral Alaska is in for a burning summer. People are dying in India right now due to the 117% heat. Lives and homes are lost in Texas this week due to flash floods. Update later. Seeing the bigger picture! Save the whales, polar bears, our human selves! Our HOME.

Athabascan country in Alaska

Visit Alaska Native Heritage Center online or in person for more like this graphic. Anaa' baase.

Koyukon Athabascan descended from Koyukuk-Nowitna band. Dad raised until 8 years old in Kokrines, Alaska. Alaska moved from territory status to statehood so off to Ruby in 1958 the holdout family went as a school consisting of two rooms was there. That ended the free roaming  outdoor life my dad loved so much. But after Mt. Edgecumbe graduation and serving in the Navy on the U.S.S. Constellation, dad settled into the seasons based in Ruby with traplines and fish camp sites. He became a single dad upon a divorce and that enabled him to perfect the art of snowshoe building over past 30 years. Some 15 years later, an art show and contest for Kindergarten thru the 12th grade created by my mom, Eileen McGlynn, introduced them to each other when she sought out the most authentic Athabascan craftsman in town to be the impartial judge-my dad. Opposites attract and I am the result. Proud of both my bloodlines and raised with solid timeless human values and a viewpoint encompassing a bigger world. And hopes for a better world.  

Dad nets Pike-subsistence food-traditon outdoors

Kaylee likes my dad's sweets.

Dad, George Albert, used a fishing net to catch this extra big monster. Believe me, just look at its teeth! Nephew Nummies and neice Kaylee touch it. Observe, Share.
 Good eating on the day after Memorial Day 2015!
 Native Americans and Alaskan Natives serve our country in higher percentages for their population than any other ethnic group in America, year after year. They love the ground of their ancestors. Some of this is economic just like firefighting for those with less employment opportunities. Some of it is the Warrior protect homelands viewpoint. Some of it is just we are Americans same as anyone with all of the reasons one could choose!
 I am off to a environmental workshop after classes today. We drive to Boston to the M.I.T. campus for a You Can workshop. High school and college youth will give workshops on eco-topics. I want to learn more about Climate Change. We visit an aquarium too, first for this inland Alaskan Indian.

Bush kids don 't get to visit Lower 48 much, or even much of Alaska as it is so big. And takes funds. But as you see, they have other adventures. Usually visit places where relatives are-other villages, potlatch/funeral/gatherings, the hubs of Fairbanks, Anchorage, Bethel etc. I've only been to Galena maybe three or four times! It is 30 miles on the Yukon River. Gas cost a lot for boat to haul us. Even trip by 300 air miles to Fairbanks can cost you round $275. give or take nowadays. Medical visits may bring you outside your village to "town(Fairbanks)." So even getting a hair cut is a hassle, you do without or make do locally. We were lucky if had a box of fruit and vegetable and "White Man's meat" if got a relative to ship it on bush plane. I could go a year or more without going beyond the small village of Ruby, 160 people, I grew up in. Many are relatives. We didn't have funds for 'sightseeing.'

Subsistence lifestyle from two parents making money from dad's snowshoe making, cords of wood, some carpentry jobs, catch some marten or beaver for the fur, mom subbing at school, Post Office. Just get by. So, you bet a Pike in springtime makes your mouth water and everyone talks about when the Salmon are coming in June. And my nephew shooting his first goose or spruce gouse 'chicken' is a Very Big Deal. It is what has always gone on. Thanks for photos from Real Alaska, Audrey and Vern! Not that 'city' folks don't also get off the pavement and into the woods-that is what is great about Alaska. 70 % of the population lives outside Anchorage but they enjoy the outdoor life. 70% of all Natives in America live in suburban/urban places says all  the statistics and I sincerely hope they have family, mentors, Tribes who create opportunities to get outside and have more than a taste of the wild. It must be. I had it for 12 years. I am receiving a solid education in  N.Y. and know I will use my skills gained here to help others have the connection with tradition and outdoor upbringing I had.


Sheldon got goose 2015 with 20 gauge. Nummies with his first "chicken' few years ago.
 



Town Clean Up Happens Only With Human Help

Town Clean Up Spring 2015.

I have been cleaning up my neighborhood every year since about age five. My hometown in Ruby, Alaska will soon clean up its own human created litter and such. They even recycle items including toxic ones like used equipment. Harder when you live surrounded by wilderness and things get shipped out by a summertime only barge. But still done the last week of school which is soon for Alaska. Every year we clean our neighborhood's long street in Lake Placid. This year, I volunteered to clean with my high school Environmental Club in another part of town. My mother helped so that earns me double hours as it is mandatory that students donate 40 hours to worthy causes by their graduation. I'll have more hours than that by 2017, I believe!  Try cleaning up your bedroom and inside your home too. Remember to Pre-cycle by consuming and buying less! Prevention is worth a pound or ton to the landfill! Live simply, so others can simply live.

INVASIVE BOOZE PETITION

                                               INVASIVE BOOZE PETITION

                                             Stop the Devastation Against Natives

      We, the undersigned, ask The United States Government, interested states and Tribal Nations to undo the damage President Teddy Roosevelt did in 1904 by his Executive Order changing the border zone protecting Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, which resulted in the "town" of Whiteclay, Nebraska, population average Ten (10!), selling almost Five (5) Million cans of beer annually        ($3 Million in sales).
      The Oglala Sioux Indians BAN alcohol on their reservation since 1832. Devastation has happened to their Nation ever since this Executive Order. Pine Ridge is widely known for its poverty and social problems. The vast majority a result of booze sold in Whiteclay but consumed on the reservation.
OVERTURN this ill-conceived Executive Order or PASS A LAW in Congress expanding the reservation boundary to absorb Whiteclay. Listen to the cries of the families and their advocates.


(Inquiries: Genizine@Gmail.com  Petition by student Birk Albert, Alaskan Native, in honor of relative's Oglala Sioux extended family. A "Challenge" taken up to fight the good fight inspired       by The Center for Native American Youth.)                                                                                    Take action and expand your voice. Print this or your version of this petition after educating yourself or go to my blog and comment with your name, town and state and I will add your name. Petitions to be sent to White House, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Tribal Nations.
                                           www.GenIzine.Blogspot.com

        FULL NAME                              TOWN,  STATE  OF RESIDENCE

Diatribe: Invasive Booze Petition-Close Whiteclay booze pathway into Pine Ridge

Brother Vern with Katrina my "Niester"

 

As long as I was going to do an Invasive dangers to my Ausable River Watershed display for Earth Day, it is not too far to extend that concern to Indian Country-be it Alaskan villages or on a never visited reservation. Why not help protect humans on this good earth and denounce the alcohol that flows since 1904 into the Pine Ridge reservation which has a BAN on alcohol consumption and carrying onto their lands since 1832. Former N.Y. Governor Teddy Roosevelt changed this into a tragedy for generations all with his one hand and the stroke of a pen in 1904 when he changed the borders of the buffer zone. He had the unseen hand of the trading post or booze distributors no doubt even back then.
 This "town" of  under 15 has no post office, school etc....it exists to live off and continue misery and tragedy that flows back into Pine Ridge to effect the relatives of my biological niece/adopted sister, Katrina's distant and extended family. That is how they ended up in Ruby, AK as part of a large foster family of cousins, sisters and brothers representing 3 family units. Another horror story is the foster couple (Natives) who were given charge of these kids, not a happy one.

My brother Vern met and was enchanted as a 17 year old with one lady and well, there is his daughter, Katrina, raised by my dad since she was age one. A good thing and then I was born. Early parents and late bloomers.
I collected some signatures on my petition and will continue at events. All President Obama has to do is restore the buffer zone and ban Whiteclay. It will solve some of the problems of 5 million cans of beer being sold for $3 million dollars of sales yearly from a handful of selfish folks in this 'town' and the heartless corporate distillers who are really the pirate stealing the health, dignity and futures of Oglala Sioux for too long. Sure, there will always be more predators, but why did Roosevelt do this to begin with I say?

 Send Name, Town of residence,  and State and I will keep your email and add your protest to the petition to be mailed sometime in 2015 to South Dakota, Nebraska, White House and the Tribal Council there.  I can send you an attached copy of the petition to close down Whiteclay booze suppliers. I am going to print the petition in the next post. Feel free to take charge.

Folks who want their name added to the paper petition: Genizine@gmail.com

In this case, every little drop of activism MAY help compared to the barrels of mayhem Roosevelt's solitary Executive Order caused.  See New York Times May 1st, 2015 article on suicide epidemic there as well. ENOUGH.  'Uncle Henry' continues namesake's legacy of action over words.

Environmental Justice in Adirondacks

Annual John Brown Day happens May 9th, 2 to 4 p.m. in Lake Placid.

The theme will be as always to continue John Brown's legacy of bringing freedom to those enslaved and unlimited effort to express those concerns. The John Brown Lives! Society continues those efforts. There will be a screening at LPCA of "Selma." On a related theme they will discuss Environmental Justice in this short seminar. How to open the Adirondacks to Indigenous children, children of color whether they live in urban areas or rural in New York and beyond.
 The book, The Adventure Gap" by James Edward Mills discusses this. However it bypasses the situation of Native America. It focuses mainly on African Americans. It is still a eye opener even though it is mainly about recreational adventures exclusive to pocketbook or cultured elite skill sets, unless you know a Sherpa willing to guide you for free. And right now they have more important concerns than hauling outsiders up Mt. Everest such as survival from recent earthquake there.

Be aware-by 2030 in America will not have more than 50% Caucasian population. It is time to enlist protectors of our Earth as well as let individual kids have the same chance to see, relax in and touch the 6 million acres of preserved wilderness that exist in the Adirondack Park and many other places in America. We need to train these future nature protectors and defenders who will speak for our animal and earth brothers and sisters. Instead of access to wild Alaska, I now am raised in an apartment surrounded by manicured private lots so I understand the lack of opportunity for children of color. I believe 70% or more of our Native children are URBAN residents. I did not know that. Now I understand. We, out of all people, need to stay connected to Turtle Island as well as have empathy for all Indigenous Peoples and issues facing their homeland on the planet. There is a Diversity Advisory Council now helping solve this problem in the Adirondacks and mom recently emailed them with ideas. They will hold diversity training soon to brainstorm ideas to open up the dialog. (AdirondackDAC@gmail.com)

To jumpstart my C.N.A.Y. (Center for Native American Youth) "Challenge" which really is this blogzine (a long term project), I offered to have a Watershed display during a Earth Week event called The Green Shindig which my school environmental club hosted. Using a canoe as a table, I put in several created poster boards using information from local agencies and Google research. Mom got the brochures and friends Henry and Trent carried the canoe to the car and set-up the display. There was a live band, slideshow by scientist/professor Curt Stager who informed us that Climate Change HAS hit the Adirondacks and bike powered smoothies and humans by a bonfire. Since I live in such a special (and White) place, we used the caption, "Stop non-Native Invaders" as the display was about non-native  invading and spreading destructive plants, insects, and fish diseases and how to stop or eliminate them. Activists can have humor.

 What dangers lurk in your own Watershed? We all have one. LOOK AT CALIFORNIA and their dire water level problems. We all need water to survive.
Here are resources to learn about Invasive Species in this area to protect the water from our mountains to our streams which flow into Lake Champlain. Mohawk country.
Clean your boat, fishing equipment, waders, kayaks and canoes before you venture into a different body of water! Learn the procedures.

www.adkinvasives.com
www.dec.ny.gov
www.ausableriverassociation.org
www.lawntolake.org

Happy 100 Years Birthday to Sidney Huntington

Happy Birthday to an Koyukon Athabascan icon of educational values, hard work, Native integrity and  Alaskan subsistence expert and advocate. Sidney Huntington turns in May after 100 years on earth after being born in 1915.
 He walks well in all worlds and is recognized all over Alaska. He is being celebrated with a potlatch in Galena on May 9th. He will be featured on the Today Show May 10th. He co-wrote the story of his life from birch canoes and steam ships to bionic man standing strong with folks around the U.S. reading his book, Shadows on the Koyukuk. 
I emailed the White House asking for an official birthday greeting. I wrote Sen. Murkowski, Congressman Young, Lt. Governor Mallot to also send him greetings. Now is the time to honor our Athabascan role models. We had George Attla, legendary dog sprinter from Huslia pass this winter. Make sure you find a way to see his film, Spirit of the Wind. You and wife, Angela enjoy your moment surrounded by hundreds!


Sidney Huntington family photo

On Raven Story at www.jukebox.uaf.edu there are interviews with Sidney. Send birthday cards only to PO Box 49, Galena AK  99741.
On www.ehow.com it tell you how to have the White House send a greeting to a elder over the age of 80.-search for Centenarian birthday greetings. Give Respect and surprise to a noted elder in your community!

Insert moccasin in mouth then put out (ideas)

My mom is a natural born talker, part of the Celtic heritage. It is not all mindless chatter. My dad is very stoic and sparse with words like the profile picture I have of the 'Cigar store' Indian statute that one finds here on main street hawking T-shirts to tourists! (Did you hear the one about the Native who welcomed again and again the invaders and all he had to show for it was a T-shirt? Give that guy a Fair Trade 101 workshop training!) You will be glad to know I never shop in that store, just on principle.
 So, we brainstorm after mom talks about the news or events around the world, I listen to her 'diatribe' and sometimes take action. Since I am 3000 miles from my home state of Alaska and the Native community of Ruby and Interior Alaska that I know just until age 12, I have to be creative with staying in touch with my roots and also being helpful long distance. There are many online resources for the armchair activist, even on Native issues. All should educate self and follow your interests as to when to insert your foot in mouth or pen to paper or fingers to keyboard! You have the right to do this. To be respectful when you are in the council and weighing in. All ages can give input. We are not powerless.
I am now writing letters with mom being the editor and inspirer (a word?) of ideas. I recently wrote the Ruby Tribal Council staff with some items we found online and ideas. I belong to the Ruby Tribe. It could have been a tribe with a Athabascan language word as there was a name for the place where this mining supply town was located. Instead 'Ruby' was chosen even though we have no rubies in Ruby, except for the potential of our youth continuing our traditions. The miners came and saw garnets and were blinded with gold seeking fever so they thought garnets were valuable rubies. Silly men. I haven't seen garnets either.
You too, can write a letter to your Tribe, corporation or community (adult) leaders. I wrote about grant resources we found for AK, told them about DoSomething.org website of youth driven actions, my concern about that 37% of all high school dropouts in Alaska are Natives and that is too much. I wrote about President Obama's new free e-book App being developed by the New York Public Library so low income books could be read by kids across America with no libraries, bookstores or funds to own many books. I mentioned KHAN Academy as a free educational source for summer classes that are self-paced. So stay informed by reading and learning about issues.
And I followed up this letter with a packet of info from the Arctic Winter Games so Ruby's kids could train for and earn a spot on the Alaska Team at the biannual Games for circumpolar youth. We want to see Interior youth, Native youth on those Athabascan made wood snowshoes! I suggested to my bother that he help get this project off the ground as he is a IronDogger racer as well as a Spring Carnival Snowshoe Racer. My dad could even make the custom sized snowshoes as modern snowshoes can not be used nor non-Native style snowshoe moccasins or commercial bindings!!

My big brother Vernon in a Ruby snowshoe race.

Give your input and feel EMPOWERED. Your fresh look on solutions ARE valued. You and I are the future. I told the Tribal Council about www.CNAY.com and Generation Indigenous movement and  how it is a new tool here to stay to help Native youth. I hope the adults spread the word.

Youth Driven Ideas but No Gas Funds

Sooo, you have a idea for your Native Community but need a bit $$of funds$$ of Green Leafy dollars

Nephew Nummies "volunteering" in Ruby, AK garden

to make it come to a reality. To the rescue is a online group created Just For You. American Indians and Alaskan Natives may apply for mini-grants with MINIMUM of adult driven help for ideas that help your community. The summer is coming up and kids need activities or you want to work with other youth on a problem your community or even the world faces? Be frugal and serious with these funds and still volunteer your own time.
 Here is the website: www. We R Native.com. Look for Native Community Service Mini Grant.

This We R Native website has interesting content for Tweens, Teens and In-betweens!! Plus monthly contest with small prizes. Even resources and articles that make you think about serious problems-and solutions- you or folks and friends you know that live in Indian Country face. It is a friendly website and here for Generation Indigenous! Make use of it.

Remember: The most important ingredient is your character, empathy, and action for our earth and all its beings. Keeping actions sustainable and successful is another goal.

ARM CHAIR ACTIVISM

Before I invite others to contribute I decided to write about some of my activities and interest outside of my normal day to day life as a high schooler. In order to graduate high school, all students here must complete at least 40 hours of volunteer activities. Many do much more. Some create their own opportunities that reflect their passion and skill sets versus just handing out plastic water bottles to racers during the Ironman race. I do the mundane and submit my hours.

Then I get involved 'Off the Path' and broaden my horizons like earning some funds to sponsor a student in Kenya. His name is Kennedy and he is just one year younger than me. My mom and me contribute monthly a reasonable donation for his meals, clothes, orphanage roof overhead, uniform and school books. A local non-profit was created just to support his school/orphanage and it is called Reason 2 Smile.org. Keela Grimmette started the support group when she went to volunteer teach and realized kids in Kenya need bucks not outsiders as their own people have better qualifications to teach Kenyans. My mom would remind me how I should appreciate the educational opportunity to learn in Lake Placid, NY instead of bush Alaska and to work my hardest. I then replied: "What about those kids in Kenya? They have it harder than in bush Alaska."  She decided to Walk Our Talk and sponsor a child who does not have the advantages most in America have. Be grateful for your blessings and have empathy for others.

Now I decided to write letters or do small actions that help bring positive change to America and Indian Country. I may no longer live in my hometown Indian village, but I can help bring better days by being connected electronically!

Then and Now as roots remain strong.

Home village of Ruby, Alaska along the Yukon River.

The K to 12th school in Ruby.



Village version of fun and exercise with nephews, Sheldon and Nummies a few years ago.



Myself in front of my Lake Placid public school, 2014.

Appreciating my Koyukon Athabascan roots with painted deer drum Aunt Rose Albert created, 2014.

Photos follow the history of Alaska and cultural adaptation and pride.

My father, George Albert, with his caribou babiche snowshoes as well as ones he builds for modern use.

My grandma Justine holding Uncle Howard, Aunt Rose, Barbara, Phillip and oldest is my dad. Sultana River, Alaska Territory, 1958.

Grandparents with college grads Aunt Barb and Uncle Phillip.

About Your GEN~I~ZINE Moderator

  

      I am a teen like you. Born in 1999, but not quite raised in the "21st Century," I was born in bush Alaska and raised in a small Indian village along the Yukon River. I am an enrolled member of the Ruby Tribe and I am Koyukon Athabascan. My father is George Albert of Ruby. His parents are the late Phillip Albert Sr. (from traditional village of Kokrines) and  the late Justine Demoski Albert from Koyukuk. My paternal grandparents had an arranged marriage, he was ten years her senior. This was a custom there at the time. They were the last family to depart Kokrines as a 2 room school was opening in Ruby because of statehood in 1959.

The maternal side of my family begins with mom, Eileen, whose dad, John McGlynn, was full Irish. My grandmother, Edie, lives nearby and is responsible for the Mayflower lineage from John Alden and Priscilla Mullins. When I was about to enter seventh grade, my parents decided to give me the opportunity to move alone to Lake Placid, N.Y. and have my Uncle Mike take care of me. He tutored me in math and nightly homework, soccer, skiing as well as all things 'Lower 48.'  It was a big transition to leave an Alaskan village of 180 and a typical classroom of three grades with one main teacher to a former Olympic tourist town. The village school had about 40 students in K to 12th, here there is 400 in 7th to 12th grades. I am in tenth grade now still expanding my horizons in upstate New York with my mother. I do miss the rest of my family in Alaska, Yukon river life and opportunities there outdoors.

But, now is the time for education. I want to be ready for college. I did not know kids who went to college in my village. Even though I will be playing 'catch-up' to New York peers for quite awhile, I know I have experiences and resources from my twelve childhood years in Alaska that most Americans would marvel at. There will be a time when I return to Indian Country to live, learn from and give back to. I know the advantages and hardships that challenge us in off-road (isolated by wilderness) America which shares the same circumstances as most of Native America-whether on the reservation or urban neighborhoods. My dad provided us with a subsistence lifestyle eating moose, salmon, grouse, beaver, duck, black bear meat and berries. Throw in some fat, white rice, pilot bread and tang and ya got a meal! My mom's garden provided the Irish spuds and Fairbanks, 300 miles by only airplane, supplied other treats like tofu or even quinoa! Now I survive outta the grocery stores here. Not all bad though! (McDonalds, Subway and lots of pizza shops as well as ice cream parlors here in civilization.)

I know how it is to live in a small log home right in our village which was built by my dad, heated year-round only by one 55 gallon drum wood stove. We still have no running water as it is hauled year round by sno-go (snow machine), pick-up truck or even hand pulled by sled. We have a out house but dad put in a toilet that gravity drains by tossing used water down it. Better than using a frosty outhouse at 40 below! When we were younger than 6, we'd use a honey bucket. Those were the days! But, in 1999, mom got a computer and later dial up internet that cost a buck a minute so she could teach herself these high tech skills. My  older niece/sister, Katrina, still attends school in the village and only has a iPhone to get online now when not at school. My other niece is a toddler and lives up the road there with my brother, Vern, mother Audrey and sons, Sheldon and Vernon aka "Nummies." My brother is a oil roustabout at Prudoe Bay. He ran the Iron Dog snowmachine race twice.

In contrast to this fossil burning race fan is my dad, George as he is one of the two remaining snowshoe master builders in Alaska. I often went to the Alaska Federation of Natives annual Arts and Crafts Fair at their annual conference. At AFN I would see amazing Alaska Native art displayed, representing the cultural pride of our state's tribes. Mostly traditional art forms but also more modern items were for sale. Dad was designated a Athabascan Cultural Living Treasure. He builds Koyukon Athabascan snowshoes out of birch, moose and sometimes caribou. Besides being recognized for his mastery of this 10,000 year old craft vital to Athabascans survival in  Alaska's winters, he is also a birch sled and fishwheel builder, fine finish carpenter, fur trapper, and firewood supplier. He knows how to survive in bush Alaska as do all my neighbors in village Alaska. He is also known  for his long distant snowshoe racing abilities which made him competitive into his late fifties against men half his age.

 I know my dad is concerned about passing on the skills of snowshoe building as well as climate change and its impact on Alaska. Dad is concerned about the health of the land for the future.  Living off the land is vital to village Alaska. So is having opportunities to educate oneself and have choices to follow your interests and have a good livelihood for our young people.

Enough about me. I will post some photos but this blog is for, about and by my peers. I hope to write or share information I come across which relates to Native teens. I hope the information interests you. This is initially one person's perspective but I hope this blog-magazine will grow and be helpful to other teens and folks living off the beaten path, overlooked parts of rural and urban America or even Canada! I hope you will join together here as a meeting and sharing place.

Your creativity, ideas, comments, content such as photos, video clips, articles, reviews, drawings are welcome. Send me items and put in a sincere, positive effort. There is space for all viewpoints. There is positive happenings in 'Indian Country' which includes all our Native North American peoples. Indigenous, Native American, Inuit, First Nations, half breed or more and our allies - we ALL need each other to enact positive solutions and outcomes for a better planet. And I will make sure I upload weekly as we went over a month with computer problems but now the tower is back talking to the router and the printer! A benefit of town living was having a computer repair person help get us back online. Even though it took three 'doctor' visits, that final home visit would have been more costly in bush Alaska, so I count our blessings and send out best wishes for good outcomes wherever YOU live! Write about your village, rez, reserve or home town. Generation Indigenous has something to say. You are appreciated.


Birk

WELCOME GENERATION INDIGENOUS YOUTH

Welcome to Gen I Zine. A blog-magazine for "Generation Indigenous." 

We are an online teen forum devoted to and by Indigenous Youth! This will be a positive source and discussion of news, issues, sharing opportunities with youth whether you are Native American, Alaska Native like myself, First Nation or a Hawaiian young reader. This will be a meeting place for all of us. This will be a informative and positive place.  We like funny videos, joking, drawings and creative stories too!

Over the years I couldn’t find a magazine or social media platform dedicated to Native youth. I decided to create this humble site as I now live away from my Alaskan bush roots. I would be Idle No More! This blog-zine belongs to us all. I will be the moderator and initially generate the postings. Even with lousy grammar. Don’t be shy, I need YOU to submit your postings, photos, stories, poems, drawings and interactive comments. Participate, take surveys, sound off, listen in. Energize. It Does Take A Village!  Perhaps we will have offerings.

Just show Tolerance, Compassion and Respect to self and others. In the spirit of sharing and understanding, all people of various ages and backgrounds may be involved. Contemporary Native Youth have vital lives with ideas, accomplishments, beliefs, skills and interesting things to share with each other, our elders and the entire planet! You, the reader, are invited to submit your content and concerns. Be safe and use only First name and Last initial or a user name. And keep your message real. We can help each other thrive.

Elevate! Uplift us all on this planet. Promote positive interaction. Indigenous communities are often in remote places but we sure like our social media sites and gadgets. We are connected. We remain. We are here.

We Will Unite - here. We have much to educate ourselves about. We are the future leaders in our communities and nations which the world badly needs. Earth’s blood beats in our hearts. We belong here.

We will rise. We will share. We will be heard. We matter.
We are the Gen I digital generation.                                
            Anaa’ baase.