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Being Native in American Can Be Great Again

by Lynne M. Colombe


A short essay examining the "Make America Great Again" Debate and wondering, "Where does this Native American woman fit in the newer, and even greater, America?"



Sometimes we hear things from other people that allow us to gain a different perspective. For me, a recent intrusion into my own way of thinking about life came through a popular, weekly drama show that I watch about a blended family. In one scene, it was pointed out to the main character that he didn't see anything "but the problems" around him. That he was not one of the community because even if he had a beginning there - he could not see beyond what he had determined, "needed to be fixed."

Much of America seems conscious about a secular opinion that America has denigrated to a state where it is no longer great, according to the political slogan of the White House, "Make America Great Again." But, those that purport this reasoning might have lost sight of those who were actually already here, those who functioned despite the holes in the walls or the leaky pipes before their guests arrived to point them out. 

The obvious concern right now is that of the land, and that of our right to have a voice - no matter how secular that voice may be - over what happens to the natural resources that by a natural law should be preserved. For two months a sickness has been on the reservation causing respiratory illnesses. I have been affected, as well as one of my daughters, and I have read about different areas around the United States confirming certain diagnosis of citizens in localized areas presenting with the same concerns. 

After coughing for over two months, and repeated visits for the same and slowly lessening symptoms for my 11-year-old girl, I asked the physician why there was no diagnosis in the area. I was told because it would take "a couple thousand dollars" to take cultures from people and determine the actual cause. Yet, I live near the Tribal hospital airport and hear planes flying over my house daily, up to five times a day - knowing that each time it goes overhead it costs more than $10,000.

So, one then starts thinking about the salary of surgical staff and equipment and other doctors and medical staff that it would take to stop the exportation of our federal health dollars and invest them into our own hospital, rather than for paying for the same healthcare and an airplane ride there to access it.

The pipes are leaky.

Immigration is also a very hot issue across the country. People are being separated from whole families, with children being detained across the country, and rumors and truths mixing together about the conditions for all involved. And then, there is the fence.

There are rumors on the Reservation that our federal rights to exists are under attack. There are rumors that the current administration in the White House want to take away the right to protest. There are rumors that the White House has said that if the Native Americans wanted to live on the Reservation, that we could all be put behind walls of our own.

With the social media and various and flooding news outlets pouring campaign after campaign into our newsfeeds, it is hard for Native American women like me to not believe much of the news that our lands, waters, rights, and livelihoods are under attack. But like the Donkey in Animal Farm, I can only think that it will always be this way - because it has always been this way.

There is a hole in the wall.

What can happen to me as a woman, who has lost her voice so many times that I am barely speaking again? What will happen if it is legally taken from our culture again, to silence our cries for the rights of plants and animals to exist peacefully with us for as long as the earth continues to support our environmental footprint?

What are we doing as a country? All of us, from every part of life that we meet one another from across this planet - what is it that we all actually need?

As a Lakota woman, I need to continue. I have three daughters who have inherited genetic beauty and trauma, who are going to have to learn to live in this world where there may not be a place for them one day. Should they choose to not have children with a man from my Tribe, their children may cease to exist on our paperwork with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. They have many things to think about that other children may never have to know - and learn about fractions in a whole different way.

My mind races back to all of the American History that I have learned; to try to trace my finger across the aged pages of rhetoric devised to keep me in my place - and I can't find my place, still.

Maybe my opinion as a Lakota woman is that there will always be much to be desired in the home of women such as me; and that it is neither a tragedy, nor great, that I survive despite who is in the White House. It would be a great nation to me, if it took care of the leaky pipes and holes in the wall that are being created by the discords of racism and discrimination that seem to pervade most areas of society, so that my daughters can live with the same concept of "greatness" as others.

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