Sharing One's Skin

Jeannette Armstrong is Okanagan, part of British Columbia where it is hot and dry. She talks about her identity and responsibilities as being part of her mother and father and the cultures they both come from. Armstrong’s mother is a river indian from Kettle Falls and they are in charge of the fisheries in all of the northern parts of the Columbia River system. Armstrong’s father is part of the mountain people from the northern part of British Columbia, known as the Okanagan Valley and they are hunters. She talks about their belief that the whole being has four capacities of self that operate together, these capacities are the physical self, the emotional self, the thinking-intellectual self, and the spiritual self. The Physical self means our bodies are Earth itself. Our flesh, blood, and bones are Earth-body and that we all move in a cycle like Earth does. The emotional self means the capacity to form bonds with all living aspects in life. It is the thing that connects us through our hearts. The thinking-intellectual self is referred to as the "the spark that ignites" or "directed by the ignited spark", this means that the other capacities we engage when taking action are directed from the spark of memory. The spiritual self is part of the individual being and part of a larger self. This means that you don’t only think for yourself but for a larger self-being and all the knowledge that was passed through your ancestor and all things around us.

Sharing One’s Skin is connected to my topic because we both share aspects of Jennette Armstrong’s capacity, the spiritual self. I was thinking about how my culture was affected by covid and how it could be prevented if it were to happen again. My topic is connected to the spirit self because I’m not just talking about my own pueblo having the steps to preventing or surviving another outbreak but for most pueblos as we all face the same situation.

Armstrong, Jennette. 1996 “Sharing One Skin: The Okanagan community” pg. 460-470 in Jerry

Mander and Edward Goldsmith (eds), The Case Against Global Economy, San Francisco, CA:

Sierra Club Books.

In the article Native American Identity, the grandmother of Perry G. Horse said that all the Kiowa people would turn to white people. The grandmother points out how the young people are adapting to “white man” culture. Perry G. Horse talks about Native Americans and the factors that might have affected how they view their identity. The many influences from white culture has affected the way most Native American communities see themselves. Some may have lost their ways and others are holding on to what they have left.

The connections I made to the article is that I notice that we all are influenced by the white culture and that some of us may have gotten so used to it that we hardly practice our ways and traditions. I can say that I myself have been influenced because I remember I always talked in my native tongue and was somewhat fluent. Now, I struggle with some of my words and hardly talk in my own language. Since I was sent to and spent some of my time in bernalillo when I was going to elementary school, I could say that I was influenced by mixed races but mostly white culture. There was also hardly any native american students besides me.

Horse, Perry G (Kiowa).”Native American Identity”. New Directions For Students Services.

Wiley Periodicals.Inc. Spring 2005. Print. Pg 61-65