Episode 11: Get Lost!...and You’ll See How Important Mother Earth Is

For Melanie and her community, protecting the earth and our water is a way of life – even if it puts them in conflict with others - because, without it, there is no life.  

Transcript

Melanie: 0:10

We're calling Earth activists - get your vote out, make it count. Help protect Mother Earth, help protect the water. This guy goes, I need a job more than I need water, though. And I was like, Yeah, but without water, you're like, you're not really going to live. And I was like, so you can't really have a job without water, so help protect Mother Earth. So he said, Do you want me to vote for water? So I said yes, vote for water!

DB Crema: 0:35

This is United States of Race - personal stories of how our earliest memories determine a lifetime of relationships. Each episode features one guest sharing their experiences with race, listen without prejudice to their real, uninhibited stories, because by sharing when we first learned, we are all different, we find the common thread that shows us how much we are all the same. I'm your host DB Crema. For Melanie and her community, protecting the earth and our water is a way of life, even if it puts them in conflict with others, because without it, there is no life. When did you become aware of race?

Melanie: 1:22

Um, when we first moved to Wichita, Kansas. When I was in first grade through fourth grade, we moved to the ghetto there, and my mom got a job there in a factory. So we moved there. And we lived right in the middle of the black ghetto. Because I remember they had the tall apartment, brick apartment buildings.

DB Crema: 1:47

Section 8 housing.

Melanie: 1:48

Yeah. And I used to think those are so cool. They're so tall. And then, but then right on the other side of the sidewalk, was the Chinese. And we moved to this place, and people would talk real different. And sometimes I couldn't understand them. But I was a culture shocked. And Because they talked different. But that's when I first realized. that's when I first realized that there was a different race.

DB Crema: 2:08

So basically, before first grade, you were always But I realized that they were like us back on the rez, because they all lived together. The grandmas all took care of the kids outside in the neighborhood. The grandmas and the uncles and auntie's were all sitting on the porches with their, with all the kids running around. So I was like, these around people who look like you. guys are a little bit different. And I noticed the smell was different. It didn't smell like frybread no more. But everybody was outside. Everybody was hopscotching, we're all double dutching. They taught us how to double dutch. And it was alrig t. That's when I realized, I as like, well, there's other peo le in the world. But these guys re darker and then these guys a e a little bit different. But I couldn't understand eit er... I couldn't understand any

Melanie: 2:57

Yeah, pretty much. We grew up here in the country with no electric, no water. A lot of families stacked up on top of each other. And just mostly natives, just pow wows. Everybody eating together, everybody living together. And then the only difference with moving to the place where I moved, was the color were different. That was it.

DB Crema: 3:20

How did it make you feel? Because you know, you saw people who looked different, but were very much the same in terms of community and family. But you were now, I assume, one of the few people who looked like you. Did you feel out of place? Did you... like how did you feel?

Melanie: 3:34

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I just wanted to fit in. I was just hoping to be accepted. And they did. They accepted me. And it was, it was alright. It felt good to be there. I felt at home, I felt... Yeah, I felt at home. We were able to go in and out of their houses just like we did here. Of course, they'd always get mad, chase us outside just like everyone else did. But it was all the same. So I didn't really feel any different. I just remember wanting to, to, like touch them to see if they felt the same - their hair. With my, with my black girlfriends, I always wanted to touch their hair because it felt a little different. Then they'd touched my hair. You know, we would do stuff like that. Yeah, yeah. And I learned a lot of cool things. I learned how to double dutch. That was really cool, because that's all we ever did.

DB Crema: 4:29

Okay, so like you think about how people talk about the ghetto. And especially in the media, when you talk about the ghetto, it's always a very negative view of it. Right? But you have a really positive view of it.

Melanie: 4:42

I don't think we see it like that as kids when we're growing up. I think only adults like that. Only adults see the negativity. I think kids are just like, just now in the present moment. Yeah. So it's always really happy.

DB Crema: 4:59

What were you taught about being Native American, what did it mean for you as a child?

Melanie: 5:04

Um, just to be nice to everybody. That was it. Just to respect everybody. We were just raised to respect everything and everybody. We went to pow wows, we went to ceremony, we went to Sundance. I didn't really learn about other races, except for white people. The only other race that lived here was white people. So, we didn't really interact with the white people that lived on the reservation, though.

DB Crema: 5:37

Why were the white people on the reservation?

Melanie: 5:40

They, they live here. They own a lot of businesses here. They own the stores, they own the gas stations, they run the schools. Well, I think they came first from the churches to bring religion to the Native Americans.

DB Crema: 5:57

But didn't you already have your own religion?

Melanie: 5:59

Yeah, we do. But they brought Catholicism. But we didn't go. We had, we had sweat. My grandfather was more spiritual. He was a medicine man here. He would lead all the sundance here, which is prayer with the piercing through the chest. Just mostly praying for the people, there's a big tree in the middle. It's the dances of self sacrifice, fasting.

DB Crema: 6:27

Tell me about pow wows. Because I think pow wows is something that everyone has heard of, right? But um, you know, I don't know that really, we understand what it's about and what the purpose is.

Melanie: 6:38

Pow wows are a gathering. They are meant for celebration, and community gatherings. And it's someplace where we can all get together and see each other, and celebrate life and celebrate our culture. Getting to know each other. Of course, it's happy, there's music going, there's drumming going, there's food, you know. In the bigger pow wows, okay, like the gathering of nations. The bigger ones are all the tribes coming together, and finding out what their tribes are doing, what they're going through, what problems they might be facing. What's happening in their community, is it going to come to our community next? Like with the oil that went to the Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara tribe in Newtown, North Dakota. But then they got a lot of trouble with the oil. So then our tribe got worried after like going up there, and we're going to their pow wows, and we're seeing their land being destroyed. And then we're like, oh, shoot, is that gonna come to our tribe? You know? So that's kind of like what pow wows do.

DB Crema: 7:43

So you're talking about oil? Are you talking about the pipeline or pipelines coming in?

Melanie: 7:48

Yeah, the pipelines coming in.

DB Crema: 7:50

And tell me about that. Why, why are you concerned about the pipelines coming in?

Melanie: 7:53

We're worried about it, because we don't want it to get into our water. I'm only very passionate about it. Because I've been to a lot of other places where there's water, we couldn't drink a lot of the water down south. And we come back home. And the water is so clear up here. And it doesn't hurt our skin. It doesn't give us rashes. Other places that I've lived, we can't drink the tap water, we have to go buy the water. Or there's days or we have to boil the water before we drink it. But the oil, the oil! Oh my lord. The oil is going to ruin the water. And if the oil ruins the water up here, everything downstream is ruined. So that's why I'm always like, water! We want to drink clear water. We don't want the oil in our water. And there's a reason why the oil is so far down in the earth and they say, keep it in the ground because there was a reason why it's down there. It wasn't put up here with man. We're like the oil is not up here with man. There's a reason why the earth was created with it being down at the core. So why are we digging it up? And, and without water we have no grass, we have no plant life. Without plant life, we have no animals. No animals, there's no... we're animals. I mean, we're animals. So we're mammals or whatever. So I'm like, without clean water. There's nothing, there's no life. So if we ruin our water.

DB Crema: 9:28

We're ruining us.

Melanie: 9:30

Yeah.

DB Crema: 9:31

But what about, um, the companies and the engineers and the government all say that you can take out the oil in a way that doesn't hurt the water or hurt the rest of the earth.

Melanie: 9:41

They say that? I'm sitting here like, they say that?

DB Crema: 9:47

They do. They do.

Melanie: 9:50

Okay. Um, I don't know. We're the only species that tries to destroy its habitat. Why? Every other species tries to live in harmony with it and they only take what they need and they need to use. But I'm like, why are we such consumers? Consumption of everything or whatever? I'm like, why do we do that? We're just destroying it.

DB Crema: 10:19

What does it mean to be an earth activist? How do you see your role as an earth activist? And does that have to do with being native? Do you see those things being connected? Like,

Melanie: 10:28

Yeah, it's all around us. We're always talking about Unci Maka, Mother Earth, she is the one who provides for us, sh gives us life. She provides ou air, she provides our water. We come from her, and we return to her. And we often say, our an estors, my ancestors are in th s land, I have to be here. Li e, one day I was thinking ab ut it. And then I was just si ting out at, we're sitting do n at the river, and I was pl ying with the earth. And I wa like lifting up the sand. An we're just pouring it. And I wa like, Oh, so much prayers ha e been said down here. This is sitting Bull's campsite. And I as like, so much prayers have be n said down here. The people wh were here before me, are ba k in this earth. We do go ba k to the earth. Our gr ndfathers are in the rocks. Tha

DB Crema: 11:17

Do you ever feel like being an activist to you know,'s why we take them into cer mony. We take the heated roc s into ceremony, because the're in there, they're in the ear h, and rock only forms after it as been in the earth for so lon. Like, that's why we're so cra y about protecting Mother Ear h, because I think a lot of us ust feel like we come from the earth, we return to the ear h, the earth provides eve ything for us. If we don't tak care of the water, that pro ides nourishment for the pla t life and the animals we wil not live. So water is imp rtant. Taking care of the Ear h is important, not to po lute it. So being an activist is important to me. Ah, I just, w en I when we look at the g andchildren here, we're always l ke, Is there going to be...? Ar they going to be able to sustai themselves, once we're gone? Or is the world going to be so polluted that we're gonna e d up leaving a big pile for th m to clean up just to surviv? It's important, it's importa t to take care of the future, n t just us. We don't own the lan. We are just borrowing it fr m our children hoping to leave t in a better, in a better way f r them, or leave it the way we found it. But that's not he case. It's not happening l ke that. We're just destroy ng everything. And we just becom a bunch of consumers and ur elders in us we all talk ab ut leaving not such a mess f r them. Not Not Not Not what we' e doin protect and preserve the earth puts you in conflict with other races?

Melanie: 13:18

Oh, yes. Yes, that happened that DAPL. Dakota Access Pipeline, they built the pipeline, right above the Standing Rock Reservation. Right like where there's the Standing Rock rez, and then there's the state? Well, there's this, this unceded territory, that's the Army Corps of Engineers, they own the land, the United States government owns that land that's in between the rez and the state land. There's this empty part. It's a gray area. That's why we fought because it's not theirs, by their, by the law that they say that the land is there's the state law. And it's not the reservation, the land that has been put aside for us to be on or put on or whatever, but so it's that gray area. They put the pipeline up there, but it's right next to our reservation line. And that's where a lot of our...I mean, it's right on the river. We live right along the river. And it crosses the river, the main stream, the Missouri River is the main blood vein that runs down through the center of the United States and it's right next to us. So we're like okay, so if the pipeline bursts, we're going to be the first to know. We're not going to have any water. But we're not only just worried about us, we're like everybody downstream is not going to have water. That's going to pollute everybody's... and we're talking everybody down south from North Dakota down. So it's gonna pollute everybody's water. So then, by then it's gonna hit The ocean. We're just like, we're just thinking all these things. And we're like, No, this can't happen. They can't put this oil here, it's not that important to have oil. So why are we putting our land at risk and our water at risk? So we're like, No, this can't be. So we fought, and it put us in a bad position. And it's a touchy subject here now. It brought a lot of conflict between us and the government and the state side. Just trying to protect the water. So yes, it does bring conflict and it does, it does affect us. But we're still gonna fight. We're still saying don't do it!

DB Crema: 15:39

The way you talk about your relationship to the earth, and the need to protect it is different than a lot of other people talk about it and your world is, is oftentimes in conflict with the rest of the world. I should say the rest of the world is in conflict with your efforts to live in harmony with the environment.

Melanie: 16:04

Um, I don't know, we live in the country. Where we live, it's the country. It's scary to go out and walk because there's, there's mountain lions, there's, there's wild animals out there. And if you have to depend on being out there for a whole day, which I have, I've gotten lost... just last year. So, I got lost out in the woods, and I couldn't find my way out. And I remember thinking it was hot that day. And I was like, yeah, we really do need clean water - to drink it out of here. And it was so hot. Just being outside with all the elements, the water, the dirt, the plantlife.

DB Crema: 16:49

You're reminded how minuscule you are in the grand scheme of things. But yet, also it reminds you the importance of, you know, every single... it takes every single drop of water to make the ocean. It takes each of us to make this this universe.

Melanie: 17:08

Everything... you realize how small of a person you are. How defenseless you are, in this whole grand scheme of things. Because you're like, you get out in the woods, and you're like, Oh, I'm really nothing. I'm like, I'm as fragile as that branch or whatever. You're like, I just became not the top of the food chain. But now I've moved down. And maybe people in the city, how they can understand how important nature is, is to just really seriously just go get dropped off somewhere and have to survive out there and see, see if you can find clean water. So maybe leave your cell phones, leave your car keys and just get dropped off in the wilderness somewhere and find your way home. And then you'll see how important it is to take care of something so fragile, because you become something so small.

DB Crema: 18:19

Thanks for listening to United States of Race. This podcast was produced by me, DB Crema. Our artwork is designed by Aly Creative, and our recordings are done via Squadcast FM. With everything being remote these days, Squadcast delivers studio quality remote recording for all your podcast needs. If you love great storytelling, you can follow United States of Race on Spotify, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And show us some love by rating and writing a review on Apple podcasts or Podchaser. You can also share this podcast with your friends and anyone who believes in the power of building connection through sharing personal stories. And you can follow us on Instagram at unitedstatesofrace. And as always, if you Yes, you have a compelling story to share and would like to be featured in an upcoming episode. Send us a message at unitedstatesofrace@gmail.com. Until next time.