In the article, How place names impact the way we see landscape, the author talks about the effects of renaming scared cites. Many cites original names came from Indigenous people. These indigeneous names gives a significance and gives a better connection to the people because of the stories and history of those places. When colonizers came they renamed most of these cultural cites, in means to erase the true meaning of them. Many tried to change the names, but were unsuccessful. Most cites were renamed to male colonizer names, which when repeated caused trauma to Native Americans. 

In this story "sharing one skin" Armstrong talks about the Okanagan people and how they define themselves. The Okanagan people identify themselves as one person, one skin. But it also means “The ones who are dream and land together”. Armstrong explains that she doesnt mean literally, but is referring to the spiritual self. In the chapter, she talks about the four beings. The physical self is being present in your body, aware of your surrounding and the connection you have with the earth. The emotional self is being aware of your emotions, this helps to build a connection with others. The Spiritual self is being open-minded to the knowledge around you and the connections you can make. Last but not least is the Thinking-intellectual self meaning that we all have our ways of thinking and learning. These teachings have helped sustain the Okanagan ways of life. It has helped them not only care for their people economically, but they care about the mental health of their people.

In the youtube video “ Connecting Modern Medicine to Traditional Healing: Dr. Cheo Torres at TEDxABQ”, Dr.Cheo is a man who had witness traditional healing firsthand. Growing up in a mexian household, with mexican heritage, his mother was a curandera. Curandera comes from mexican-spanish history. A word to describe people who are spiritually tied to traditions, who were chosen to be given power to heal others. He shares his experience and tells about the rituals and ceremonies he witnessed. He talked about the ritual of the seven knots. A ritual where you tie a ribbon into a circle and tie seven knots within them. With this you will put it into an empty jar and bury it. This is could be a type of ritual to help release emotion and your feelings. He also mentioned his own experience with a Curandera for his sciatica. Where they when through a series of “alternative medicines.” First being a mexican sweatlodge, then having herbal tea, then being able to relax and lay down, then having a massage. Dr. Cheo is a hopeful man, that one day “...we can create new healthcare model that will bring both traditional medicine and modern medicine together.” Growing up around this tradition, he believes the first model can come from Mexican schooling and teachings. 

In the article, Threatened Indigenous Plants, Tara, talks about the many contributions to the loss of many Native plants. Firstly, environmental changes. She talked about the earth getting warmer and the negative effects it has on plants. Because of the fast changes, the plants are not able to adapt to the changes. Another contribution would be when European colonizers game. When they came over, they brought plants. These plants were then invasive, killing off native plants. Also with European colonization, large acres of land were cut and cleaned out for fields or pastures. These large acres were also used for industrial development. There was also the contribution of building houses and using material to cover more plants and land, reducing the amount of native plants being able to reproduce.

In the podcast, ¨Language loss and medicinal plant knowledge¨, we hear from Rodrigo Cámara-Leret about his experience of studying 12,495 different plant species that were all used by indigenous groups in North America, northwest Amazonia, and New Guinea. While looking at these Indigenous groups they found that these plants were closely connected to the native language of each region. Camara-Leret brings up the term ¨Linguistic Uniqueness¨, explaining it to be information that is only known in a single language. And from studies he conducted, compiling information in 236 languages about the medicinal uses of plant species, more than 75% of medicinal services distinguished a medicinal plant and what it would help cure. He then talks about a discovery that the plants in these regions were not the one endanger, but instead it was the languages. In the podcast, Camara-Leret explained that having low numbers of native speakers is what contributes to language and knowledge loss. As most knowledge is passed down orally, it is almost impossible to keep this knowledge alive. Camara-Leret shed light that the United Nations has declared the next decade native languages has shown to start declining and possible even be extinct. Urging that now is the time to make change and act on these problems. They then talk about possible solutions for language loss. First being that we need more education on the history of colonization as well as cultural heritage. Indigenous groups also need to be able to access land they once had, this is important to familiarize themselves with their culture again. He also mentions the option of documenting these languages. 

For my Action Plan,, I served Indian Tea (Thelesperma Megapotamicum) and gave an informative presentation to middle school students. I talked about diseases such as diabetes, highblood pressure and kidney failure within Indigenous communities and how they´re preventable. I also talked about alternative medicines, such as Holistic Medicine, Naturopathic Medicine, therapy, acupuncture, acupressure, acudetox, and aromatherapy.