Walking in Two Worlds

Kaydence Tapia

Santa Clara, Ohkay Owingeh, Navajo

Kaydence Tapia.mp4

Research Log One: Identity

The second article talks about identity through the land. It explains that the name of a place is important to the identity of a people. Many places in the U.S. have been renamed by colonizers and this article gives a few examples of this with the mountain El Capitan and its former indigenous name inchworm mountain. The article then goes into more detail about place identity and how some grow up in knowing two different names for the places they know. It also summaries the theory of place identity and how it relates self identity to the person's environment.

I think this strongly relates to personal identity since the environment we grow up in can have a deep impact on our identity and how we see ourselves. The name of a place contributes greatly as we as indigenous people grow up on stories about the land and see these places as sacred. I found the addition of quotes from indigenous people was very interesting and refreshing. This gave the article more value and made the topic of the article more valid in my opinion. Hearing from another person who has a close connection to the land gave a better understanding of the topic. Personal and cultural connections to the land and places through their name and stories are important to a person's identity and how they see the world and themselves.

Toastie, B. How Place Names Impact the Way We See Landscape, 1 May 2022, pp. 1–8.

This article was based on cultural identity from a woman of Okanagan descent. In it she explains the four different parts of a person based on her culture’s identity. These four parts are the physical self, the emotional part of yourself, the intellectual self, and the spirit self. The physical self is your flesh and a part of ourselves dependent on the external part outside the skin. The emotional self is what our hearts tell us and the part most connected with our community. The intellectual self is the mind and dreamscape of ourselves that make up our awareness causing us to be different from other parts of the earth. The last part is said to be our true self within and ties in all parts of us connecting us the earth and the hardest to be aware of. These all make one individual that helps make up a community which is said in the article makes up her we are at heart.

This article did say a lot about who we are as indigenous people and our place in this world as it changes. I appreciated the deep look into what her culture identifies as “ self “ and making the comparisons to my own culture. Finding out in some ways we are the same but in others very different and that as humans we have many different ways of identifying “ self “ that to look into another's definition is like reading a familiar yet completely strange book. Our perception of community as a part of ourselves seems to be a common trend in most native stories I read, but this was by far the most in depth version of it I have ever read as a part of identifying one’s self.

Armstrong, Jeannette. 1996 " Sharing One Skin: The Okanagan Community. " Pp. 460-470 in Jerry Mander and Edward Goldsmith ( eds. ), The case Against the Global Economy, San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books.

Research log Two: Connections through History

This article goes into the history of relocation of native americans in the 1950s. It talks about how many had to uproot their lives and move to urban areas do to the poor conditions in their reservations. The main cause of this was that many native tribes were in poverty at the time. Many moved to the cities for better opportunities and a new start. Unfortunately this meant leaving many of their traditional and cultural practices and values at home

In the next article it mentions the colonization of the native american tribes. It goes into detail about the different trades of goods that happened during that time and what lead to the colonist to take over the land. Many were killed as said in the article and the native american tribes went through a lot of challenges which they had to change and adapt to the new colonial ways to overcome. The article also talked about how the word colonial is used today and how it can mean different things many of those things negative.

Research log 3: Current state of the issue

In the article “ Mental Health Statistics in Native Americans: Numbers don’t lie “ the issue of mental health in the indigenous population is addressed. There were summaries of the situation and how it affected the native american community as a whole. The article mentioned that out of all the ethnic groups of Americans, native americans have about the same mental health cases as other minorities but one of the youngest age groups. The article also talked about the generational trauma that has an effect in this issue. This article mentions that loss of cultural identity and the high rates of poverty have had a deep impact on native americans but that mental health in minorities are often overlooked.

In the article on indigenous mental health in the online website National Alliance on Mental Illness there are many contributors mentioned as to why there are more indigenous youth suffering with mental illnesses. One of these contributing factor is the historical trauma and effects of that trauma in the present day. It also touches base on the trouble most Indigenous youth have on practicing their traditional healing ceremonies as often as they used too.

In the video " Mental Health awareness for native youth " It is mentioned that mental health is often not talked about and taboo in most communities. It also says that it is hard to address this topic when the emotional wound in our blood is so deep. In the video a few indigenous youth speak about their struggles during school and struggles with mental health. This video tries to bring awareness to this issue and speaks about how the tribal governments must come together to help solve this issue.

These articles and videos show the mental health part of my topic from a more professional view. The two articles summarize the statistics and current information on mental health in native communities which relate to the mental health of the indigenous youth in my topic. In both articles identity is a strong aspect of mental health in native communities as in my topic. In the video it brings awareness to the issue of mental health native youth as I am trying to do in my presentation. In this video we hear from the youth directly and their ideas on this issue. The video also has a few examples of my topic in stories and experiences from the native youth. All three sources show the issue as it is currently and from the perspective of native communities which my topic is solely focused on.

Action Plan

I chose is action to help student find their identity and emotions on urbanization through a healthy way. I planned this through what I thought was a healthy way to Identify emotions

What happened was the students participated and left with a peaceful sense of mind and a better understanding of their view on this topic

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