BACK TO THE FUTURE: Indigenous Elder’s & Children Strengthen Bonds for Future Generations

Importance of Elders

Annaleya M. Martinez - Pino

Pueblo De San Ildefonso

“Pueblo of San Ildefonso Flag.” Infobase, Facts On File. American Indian History, online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=18626&itemid=WE43&iid=202431. Accessed 19 Sept. 2024.

Annaleya Mtz-Pino.webm

(Annaleya Martinez- Pino Personal Photo 1/28/2025)

Personal Connection

“Let’s get personal”

My personal connection to my chosen topic has a lot with the fact that I grew up surrounded by elders. Not only that, but also seeing that our youth and even young adults are not as involved in traditional and cultural doings as much as they used to be. I’ve seen that the youth aren’t respecting the elders the way we were taught to. Most lack language and knowledge about our community. I really want to bring together our youth and elders to help future generations from losing the culture and language.

( Annaleya Martinez- Pino “Saya’s warm hands” 9/22/22)

"Sharing One Skin: The Okanagan Community" By Jeanette Armstrong

In the article “Sharing One Skin” by Jeanette Armstrong she expresses that without the environment, community, family, and culture we’d all be lost in the world without any identity. Armstrong breaks down how the Okanagan people see things in their culture, how they respect themselves, the environment and other’s. I love my family and my community. Armstrong says “Because without community and family we are truly not human.”, and this reminds me that family has helped me grow up into the person I am now. I learned my traditions from my family and the community sticks together when sometimes in the pueblo things are going on, and for traditional doings.

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

(Annaleya Martinez- Pino "agriscience" 9/11/24)

"How place names impact the way we see landscape" By B. Toastie

Toastie talks about how places have stories and backgrounds that go back in time longer than you think and important to have knowledge on these places. The stories that defined how we connect and preserve the landscape. Toastie’s article has Indigenous people have knowledge and see these places more than just “land”. “A lot of places are attached to stories. And those stories are important for us to remember because they’re really telling us something about ourselves and our past.” I connect to this article on how places have identities and have stories to them. I feel that more people should know about these events that have happened. My grandfather was the one who taught me about my connection to earth, and the landscapes around me, he taught me this connection by simply taking me outside to the fields and up to the mountains to go hunting or fishing. I plan on sharing my knowledge by passing it down to my little sister and eventually my children.

Toastie, B. “How place names impact the way we see landscape.” High Country News: Know the West, 1 May 2022, https://www.hcn.org/issues/54.5/people-places-how-place-names-impact- the-way-we-see-landscape.

(Annaleya Martinez- PIno Personal Photo 5/25/12)

"And I went to school" By Joe Suina

The article “And then I went to school” by Joe Suina was a great story that was written about his childhood and how he grew up with his grandmother. Suina in this story talks about how his grandmother took care of him in his pueblo of Cochiti, the way they lived and the importance of his grandmother wanting him to go to school which he later expresses that decision was the best thing he ever did. The descriptive language Suina used in this article makes the imagery so much clearer. Suina expresses the struggles he experienced in school and how he was “...encouraged to attend school so I might have a better life in the future.” I grew up with my grandparents where I was gifted with lots of advice, respect, and teachings that I keep very close to my heart and carry these important values in my identity, such as my language, my dances, and the food we make. I love and enjoy being a Pueblo Woman.

Suina, Joseph “And I went to school” memories of a pueblo childhood,”. New Mexico Journal of Reading, Winter 1985, Vol. V, No.2.

Annaleya Martinez- Pino 4/5/23 ( Personal Photo)

Prioritizing Indigenous Elders' Knowledge

In the article “Prioritizing Indigenous Elders' Knowledge” by the author’s Gladys Rowe, Slivia Straka, and lastly Michael Hart in gave me lots of information about how the Residential Schools and history that our ancestors and elders had faced in early colonization, how it negatively affected our people and still continues to face present day. The author’s also stressed the importance of elders and their roles in our native communities. “ The role of elders exists within a particular community and has meaning within traditional understanding of intergenerational relationships as well as the community’s relationship to the land.” This quote is referring to our relationship to the land is similar to the relationships we should have with our elders. This article gave me lots of information on the battles that our elders face due to the trauma they had endured from the residential schools.

Rowe, Gladys et al. “Prioritizing Indigenous Elders’ Knowledge for Intergenerational Well-Being.” Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue canadienne du vieillissement 39.2 (2020): 156–168. Web.

Joseph, Bob. “Indigenous Elder Definition.” Indigenous Corporate Training Inc., https://www.ictinc.ca/blog/indigenous-elder-definition. Accessed 19 November 2024.

“Justice for Tribal Elders” by Sahar Takshi

This article “Justice for Tribal Elders” by Sahar Takshi, I read about the importance of elders, the hardships that they face such as health disparities and the fact that not all elders have the right to learn the languages. It also brought up that it’s important to continue our cultural practices to keep it alive. Takshi also stressed the intergenerational trauma that they pass on that sometimes leads to bad behavior that can be harmful. They also talked about how important the spiritual connections are to the elderly and how it’s a big factor of their identity. This article by Sahar Takshi connects to my topic because it talks not only about the importance of elders but goes into depth of the hardships they go through on a day to day basis. The trauma they endured from the Residential School where they were stripped from their identity. Tahski stresses that tribal elders need more justice and better health services, better programs from them so they can receive better care. It’s true about tribal Elders having chronic illnesses, health disparities, premature deaths and short life expectancies.

“Justice for Tribal Elders: Issues Impacting American Indian and Alaska Native Older Adults.” Justice in Aging, 20 December 2023, https://justiceinaging.org/justice-for-tribal-elders-issues-impacting-american-indian-and-alaska-native-older-adults/. Accessed 18 November 2024.

Rabbi Richard AddressRabbi Richard F. Address. “The State of Nursing Homes in Israel.” Jewish Sacred Aging, 23 July 2019, jewishsacredaging.com/the-state-of-nursing-homes-in-israel/.

Telemedicine Usage among the Elderly population in Israel

In the article "Barriers & Challenges to Telemedicine usage among the elderly population in Israel" by Motti Halmi, Uri Goren, & Zachi Grossman. This article gives information and a positive outlook to challenges that involve the health and wellbeing of the "aging population" in Israel. This article is also very inspiring and really ties into the core values of caring and respect. In reading this article I was also granted with more knowledge on telecare and telemedicine, the benefits it would provide to elders in Israel. They also touched base on the technology that goes into the study of how one might want to access these services. “ We sought to identify the challenges and barriers faced by the senior population when utilizing telemedicine services in Israel, a nation that appears to have all the necessary resources to provide high-quality telemedicine services.” This quote shows determined Israel's to have the best services for elderly.

Haimi M, Goren U, Grossman Z. Barriers and challenges to telemedicine usage among the elderly population in Israel in light of the COVID-19 era: A qualitative study. DIGITAL HEALTH. 2024;10. doi:10.1177/20552076241240235

Grandmothers' Wisdom: Living Portrayals from the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers

Grandmothers, International Council of Thirteen Indigenous. Grandmothers' Wisdom: Living Portrayals from the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers. Synergetic Press, 2024.

In this book by the International council of Thirteen indigenous Grandmothers was a book of stories of these strong grandmothers. That tells stories of trauma, and struggles that have globally impacted women. In reading this book you can really see the global connections we all share, the universal themes we all share. It’s also a book of empowerment that we all should uphold in our pride as indigenous women. Grandmother’s Wisdom is also a preservation through storytelling by acknowledging the history, present and stories of the ancestors

Grandmother Maria Alice Campos Freire Brazil

In the second story I read, we were introduced to Maria Alice Campos Freire in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Maria gives information on the various types of colonization that her father had to face which is similar to what we endured in the 1600’s hundred. She mostly talked about her childhood and the challenges she overcame, we learn her struggles and trauma through storytelling. Maria “worked a lot with the spiritual world” she expresses that she would get “visions”. She grew up with the struggle of exile to escape the “corrupt government”, she returned back to her roots in Brazil eight years later.

Grandmothers, International Council of Thirteen Indigenous. Grandmothers' Wisdom: Living Portrayals from the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers. Synergetic Press, 2024.

Grandmother Flordmayo

Nicaragua, Central America

This story in the book “ Grandmother’s Wisdom” is from a grandmother in Nicaragua, Central America. Flordemayo talked about her childhood and the story she lived in her childhood, the struggles she had to overcome because she was an immigrant in the United States. She expressed personal challenges growing up and in life generally, her mothers illness and her gifts and ability to have visions or heal people. Flordmayo talks about the importances of knowing our roots and who you come from because no matter what you will always return to your roots no matter what.

Grandmothers, International Council of Thirteen Indigenous. Grandmothers' Wisdom: Living Portrayals from the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers. Synergetic Press, 2024.