In the article “Sharing One Skin” by Jeanette Armstrong, Jeanette goes on about identity, community, and responsibility. She then explains identity as how her community makes out "identity" in her community such as the physical self, the emotional self, the thinking-intellectual self, and the spiritual self. These selves (of identity) represent our ways of life with the world through our bodies and the environment. The emotional self is how we connect to the land, others and all things through our hearts. The thinking mindfulness self is “the spark that ignites” and drives our motivation. The spiritual self is the part of the individual soul and part of the larger self that all things are a part of that we choose to connect too, she speaks about how “community… is feeling the warm security of familiar people like a blanket wrapped around you, keeping out the frost” (Pg. 469). She also addresses how modernization and the white man's way of life  has driven us further apart, yet our cultures brings us closer together. The purpose of Jeanette’s article is to emphasize our responsibility to grow our community and preserve our unique culture.

Memories and stories are connected to our land/physical surroundings, as described by B. Toastie in the article “How place names impact the way we see landscape.” Toastie demonstrates this by defining place identity as the “dimensions of self that define the individual’s identity in relation to the physical environment” through “conscious and unconscious ideas, feelings, values, goals, preferences, skills, and behavioral tendencies relevant to a specific environment,” Toastie shows us how our memories, thoughts, ideals, and feelings connect us to the land/physical surroundings. Even though “inaccurate histories and Indigenous stories reflects the many sections of colonization: removal, abuse, environmental and cultural degradation, followed by feeble attempts at restitution” (Pg. 7). By sharing the stories we know about our land and its cultures, we preserve our memory and ways of life, the sacred names of the landscape, and the history behind landscapes. 

In the article 'And Then I Went to School' by Joe Suina, Suina talks about how his life changed as he went to school. Before school, Suina was content and proud of his identity as a Native American. He loved and embraced his culture, but that all changed. As he started to go to white man school, he had been recommended to give up all of the community/identity he loved within himself. He also realized that he could not measure up to the standards or ideals of white men. To maintain our way of life, we must "compete with the white man on his terms for survival. To do that we have to give up part of our lives" (Pg. 5). Though we have to fight to preserve our way of life, it is essential that we must stay true to ourselves and know who we are/where we come from. Overall, Suina's article emphasized the tough choices we make in life and how different values should not dictate who we are and what we do.