One of the things that drew me to my husband the first night we met was how very much he knew of Native American history.  The latest book he has been reading is on the killing of Crazy Horse.  He has thoughtfully and sincerely been asking me all sorts of questions as to my beliefs.  I was so close to my father that when Daddy died church, like pow wows, became extremely difficult to attend.  Mama and I cried through a lot.  I could see the look of sympathy on people’s faces at church but it just made things worse.  At pow wows I saw my father’s old friends, watched the Grand Entry, and heard the Flag Songs with a broken heart for years.  What kept me going was God and listening to those men sing, sitting around the drum in a circle with the women behind them — not because females were considered “less than;” rather because they are viewed as the backbone of American Indian culture.  My husband just asked if I realized native cultures were matrilineal.  In a dead-pan voice I told him that was the basis of one of my cultural anthropology papers at SMU which I am honored was kept as an “example” by my professor.  Thinking about our new Vice-President being both a woman and not white made me realize how novel she must seem to so many.  But all I could think of were the numerous unsung Native American women who came before her.  Wilma Mankiller was appointed as the Cherokee Nation’s first female Principal Chief in the mid-1980’s.  Pine Leaf was known as Woman Chief of the Crow nation after becoming an excellent marksman, hunter, warrior, and horse rider in the 1800’s.  The Shoshone woman Sacajawea is, in my opinion, completely responsible for the success of Lewis and Clark’s Expedition of “Louisiana Territory.”  From North Dakota to the Pacific Ocean, she kept those men alive, aiding in the establishment of cultural contacts with other tribes as well as teaching them natural history — and all with a newborn strapped to her back.  The picture above is an artists’s proof I was gifted of the Sacagawea dollar which was minted for general circulation in 2002.  Pocahontas was the first Native American woman to earn the distinction of appearing on paper money, having been depicted on the $20 bill in 1875.  The late and very great American Indian poet, musician, and political activist John Trudell wrote this in one of my favorite songs, “Look At Us:”

Look at us, look at us, we are of Earth and Water
Look at them, it is the same
Look at us, we are suffering all these years
Look at them, they are connected.
Look at us, we are in pain
Look at them, surprised at our anger
Look at us, we are struggling to survive
Look at them, expecting sorrow be benign
Look at us, we were the ones called pagan
Look at them, on their arrival
Look at us, we are called subversive
Look at them, descending from name callers
Look at us, we wept sadly in the long dark
Look at them, hiding in tech no logic light
Look at us, we buried the generations
Look at them, inventing the body count
Look at us, we are older than America
Look at them, chasing a fountain of youth
Look at us, we are embracing Earth
Look at them, clutching today
Look at us, we are living in the generations
Look at them, existing in jobs and debts
Look at us, we have escaped many times
Look at them, they cannot remember
Look at us, we are healing
Look at them, their medicine is patented
Look at us, we are trying
Look at them, what are they doing
Look at us, we are children of Earth
Look at them, who are they?

Just as there is no limit on love, there is no limit on inclusion.  I promise you no Europeans would have survived in what we now call America without Native Americans.  And American Indian culture, language, religious views, traditions, beliefs, and artistry are still VERY much alive.  They are alive despite centuries of annihilation, assimilation, and intimidation by the United States government.  Look at the innumerable broken treaties; look at the concept of “Manifest Destiny” and realize that meant the “God-given” right to steal native lands:  look at “The Long Walk,” “The Trail of Tears,” and “Indian Residential Schools.”  I am not saying for YOU to personally accept responsibility, but please know that by including EVERYONE at the table we ALL work to undo the injustices of the past.  I know people who are reading this who despise Democrats and, therefore, will not keep an open mind.  (By the way that street runs both ways.)  President Joe Biden has chosen Representative Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo, and a Democrat from New Mexico) to serve as the first Native American Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Interior Department, a historic pick that marks a turning point for the United States’ government’s relationship with this nation’s Indigenous peoples.  Along with Sharice Davids, she is one of the first two Native American woman elected to the United States Congress.  Allowing someone else’s star to shine does not diminish your own.  Look at us.