Indigenous Peoples’ Month Interview

November is Indigenous Peoples’ month so we interviewed one of our very own students!

Let’s get right to it.

Q: Thank you for being here today!

A: It’s my pleasure, thank you for having me!

Q: Okay, let’s start with some background. What tribe(s) are you from?

A: Sugstoon from the Sugpiaq tribe

Q: Where would this be loc-

A: Prince William Sound, Alaska on Nucheck Island.

Q: Wow, very quick! Has discrimination against Native Americans affected you very much?

A: Well, I don’t really look like a stereotypical native person so no, not a lot, but I know it’s affected my grandmother and other people in my family.

Q: [follow-up] Do you think this heritage month helped with discrimination against other Native Americans?

A: Yeah I think having Native American Heritage Month is awesome. Every month should be it.

Q: Do you think that much of the information presented in the classroom is true?

A:  A lot of it I suppose. I wasn’t really there so I can’t really say “well they said this”.

Q: [follow-up] Do you think there are any ways curriculum could be improved?

A: I feel like we have a lot of opinions on the colonists’ side and I think it be cool to have more opinions on the native side and to talk about the missing native women and stuff like that that’s still happening.

Q: Do you have any tips for other Native American students about staying close to your heritage or in other areas?

A: Sign up for the Native American student thing!* I can’t remember what it’s called but it’s basically this corporation in the school run by Karen and we do a lot of things like make medicine pouches and drums and we have elders to talk to and interact with. Or you could always just read a book about your tribe.

Q: Is there anything else that you’d like to be included in this interview?

A: No, not really.

Q: Okay that’s all I need! Thank you for your time and your responses.

And that concludes our interview! We don’t usually publish just the interviews that we do, but I thought it might be interesting to do this time. I encourage anyone reading this to do some research about this heritage month and about Native American cultures to celebrate this month.

*It’s the Indian Education Program! The title’s a little outdated but the experience is well worth it.