Tribes’ Cultural Gift: Themselves

Years ago, Raymond Reyes was walking with his young son in the woods, returning home from their sweat lodge.

Reyes had adopted young Christopher, a member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe. He wanted his son to know his own culture, so he built the sweat lodge in the Northern Cheyenne tradition.

On their walk, Christopher saw a tree damaged by lightning. He told his dad he wanted to help the tree. Christopher began singing to the tree the Northern Cheyenne songs he’d learned. Then he hugged it.

“Christopher taught me what culture is: a way of life that allows us to walk the spiritual path with practical feet,” Reyes said Friday at North Idaho College. Reyes spoke at Schuler Auditorium as part of the college’s Popcorn Forum.

Reyes is Gonzaga University’s associate vice president for diversity. He is a past chief administrator of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe. He also has 20 years of teaching experience in Indian education, much of that at Gonzaga. He is working toward a doctoral degree in educational leadership.

The title of his speech was “Contribution of Native Americans in 20th Century America.” But it was immediately obvious Reyes had no intention of monotonously listing names, dates and accomplishments of Native peoples.

What an entire ethnicity of people contributes to society is themselves - their culture, their heritage, their future.

“What does it mean to be human?” he asked. “The answer to that question is the contribution.”

To be human means to be resilient, he said. Native Americans are well-versed in resiliency because of what they have endured, he said. “They’re survivors of the American holocaust,” he said. “We did have an American holocaust here.”

Indians entered the 20th century as survivors, he said. In 1924, they were granted U.S. citizenship.

“I don’t know whether that’s a cosmic joke or what,” he said.

Being human also means having a sense of belonging, a sense of identity, a purpose in life and a connection to one’s culture.

Reyes said his son felt a connection to his own culture quickly after spending time in the sweat lodge and learning some of his people’s songs. When he sang to the tree, Christopher was taking his new sense of culture and using it in his life, Reyes said.

Being human means to feel hope and to feel power, Reyes said. It’s having a group identity, but personal uniqueness. Being human means having kinship, a language, a relationship to the earth.

“What does it mean to be human?” he asked. “The answer is the contribution.”