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[Music]
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if I asked you to tell me about yourself
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about who you are what would you tell
00:00:33
me would you tell me the color of your
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hair your favorite song your hobbies who
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raised
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you what town you grew up in the schools
00:00:43
you went to are your
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profession or would you tell me about
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the God you pray to the language your
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grandparents spoke the holidays you
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celebrate your country of origin the
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color of your skin would you tell me who
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you truly
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are let me tell you who we truly
00:01:12
are my English name is Don monz I am 17
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years old and I live on the Omaha Indian
00:01:20
reservation I wanted to make this film
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to show the beautiful side of us hey
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just be doing that don't look over here
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to show people that I'm extremely proud
00:01:33
of where I come
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from what I come
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from I wanted to make this film because
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I wanted people to see and to hear and
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to know what we go through what it's
00:01:49
caused
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by and how we overcome it
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[Music]
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we're going to ha's gift shop to prepare
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for my Feathering ceremony that takes
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place on Thursday the first day of PA
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and basically a Feathering ceremony is
00:02:22
kind of like your ride of Passage into
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the
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arena Alton's the one that's making my
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centerpiece that's that I'm getting
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actually uh yeah I know her mother we
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went to school together so everybody
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knows each other there's always a
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connection when are you getting
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feathered on Thursday at one Thursday at
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1 I can't wait I can't wait yeah just
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talking about it it makes me really
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excited you know feathers people don't
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people just don't put them on mhm they
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can't just wear them or you know just
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out of novelty or whatever they got to
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they got to earn earn the right or
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they're given the authority to to wear
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an eagle feather to a veteran eagle
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feathers represent Fallen Soldiers you
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know so if you were to drop drop a
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feather you know a veteran is the one
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that has to come in and and pick it up
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and if he wants to give it back to you
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he can or if he wants to keep it he can
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thanks for sharing that
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[Music]
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yep life in wal Hill is slow
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we don't have all types of activities
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for the Youth to participate in or we
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don't have a bunch of job opportunities
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that the adults can apply
00:03:44
for if I'm being completely honest we
00:03:48
struggle here it is a beautiful place
00:03:52
when you're seeing the right
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parts but when you live here and this is
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your day-to-day life it drains you
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it really
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does I see not only my family members
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but people in this community people in
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our tribe not treating themselves as the
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powerful and strong people that we once
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were our people didn't drink every day
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our people didn't do drugs our people
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didn't they didn't live like
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that it hurts
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my parents didn't grow up being taught
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our ways of life but they've always
00:04:37
supported my interest in it and they
00:04:40
encouraged me to advocate for it in my
00:04:42
modeling work two three she get shaky
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after
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5 Google what's after 6
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7 sh
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quiet this is how you get them going see
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they're up now
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she was always performing for us when
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she was little with her little
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microphone and her wig yeah she used to
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make her brothers and sisters sit there
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and watch what she would sing there were
00:05:09
her audience so this is like her very
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first professional um photo shoot this
00:05:14
one is this is the May issue of teen vog
00:05:18
back in
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2016 this is the first time my face ever
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went public like this and then my
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grandma and grandpa his mom and dad went
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and bought like 17 copies um for this
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Shoot actually we drove 16 hours and
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dropped off our boys slept for an hour
00:05:38
and then drove into New York City that's
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just where I'm willing to what I'm
00:05:42
willing to
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sacrifice to make sure that my kids are
00:05:46
successful I mean when she did teen vog
00:05:48
we were getting comments from like all
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the elders throughout the country we've
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been waiting for this where has this
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been it's beautiful I love this um there
00:05:57
were even people that were like thanking
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team Vogue for finally finally putting
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an indigenous person in a major major
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magazine I went to speak to Shelby who
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will give me my feather at the
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Feathering ceremony and she is also
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making my dress for po you want the
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zipper in the front or the back that
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star is in the back huh oh yeah it'll be
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in the front never mind yeah see so this
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will be her the
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skirt this is the vision here if you
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want to real great
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artist I
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tried I was in Iraq in 2003 2004 during
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The Invasion I was a truck driver in the
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Army when I joined the army I was a
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single mom of those two children right
00:06:47
there so I was diagnosed with PTSD in
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2006 and um I didn't know I had PTSD
00:06:54
didn't realize that I was going through
00:06:57
a lot of things that I didn't understand
00:07:00
you know I I didn't understand why I was
00:07:01
so angry I didn't understand why why
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nobody understood me and I was
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angry and
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um you know I I turned to you know
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alcohol it was bad and then eventually I
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realized you know I didn't want to be
00:07:22
that kind of person I needed help and it
00:07:25
was hard for me to ask for help do you
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want to talk about how you use making
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your regalia or doing your bead work or
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even just smudging like how it helps
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helps you heal from your ptsv I prayed
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and I smudged and I I tried to do our
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our you know our cultural ways and you
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know I I would be and that would keep my
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mind busy I then I start I learned how
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to sew so then that would keep my mind
00:07:51
busy and then um you know practicing you
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know our culture helped me being
00:07:58
involved in the culture
00:07:59
help me it's hard a lot of my family
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would say oh you you look so happy
00:08:06
you're so happy
00:08:08
you're I never would have known you're
00:08:11
going through that you know you you wear
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this mask you know you wear
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this this
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facade because you don't want no one to
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know I don't want no one to
00:08:23
know the things that I go through the
00:08:25
deep dark things that I go through and
00:08:27
just being in this those
00:08:31
situations where you just don't know if
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you're going to live and you know you're
00:08:37
like or you're going to get blown up and
00:08:40
I'm just a res girl I didn't ask for
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that but you know I guess that's what I
00:08:45
signed up
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for so today you know I just I want to
00:08:51
do good things I want to help where
00:08:54
people ask me to do work and I do it for
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free because I'm like
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I'm good you know I have I don't have
00:09:02
much but you
00:09:05
know here you know it's got good
00:09:08
feelings in it it's got
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love you know I love I love my community
00:09:14
I love my My Tribe I I I love everything
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about our people and what we are thank
00:09:22
you for those words
00:09:24
though like not even for the camera like
00:09:26
thank you for those words cuz just s
00:09:29
good of your heart you wanted to help me
00:09:32
and I'm just glad I met you cuz I
00:09:36
don't G make me cry now I know I know
00:09:40
how you feel I want my legacy to be sh
00:09:43
was a nice
00:09:45
person and she can make
00:09:48
Oma
00:09:50
so oh my gosh you there you
00:09:55
go you don't move your arms you just do
00:09:58
that
00:10:04
that's that fortnite yeah 3 years ago I
00:10:08
went to speak to students at a local
00:10:10
high school and job's daughter Sydney
00:10:13
was there too I have it right here I
00:10:16
never see like Native American like role
00:10:18
models and stuff well my mom but like
00:10:21
someone kind of near my age and it
00:10:25
inspired me to like to work harder in
00:10:27
school and stuff and stay on track
00:10:29
you inspire a lot of little girls and
00:10:34
other kids like to be better and
00:10:38
stuff I wanted to talk with some of my
00:10:40
peers about what life was like for them
00:10:42
on the reservation my friend J has a
00:10:45
unique perspective because she is too
00:10:47
spirited which means she identifies as
00:10:49
having both masculine and a feminine
00:10:52
Spirit how do you carry on some of our
00:10:55
like traditions and stuff I pray I Sage
00:10:59
the whole house I just don't Sage my one
00:11:01
room for me it's more different since I
00:11:04
can do either or so because you're two
00:11:07
spirit you're able to perform both the
00:11:10
man and the woman's voice
00:11:13
mhm like if I wanted to touch the drum I
00:11:16
could mhm have people started treating
00:11:18
you differently since you started
00:11:20
identifying more as a female yeah a lot
00:11:23
of people treated me differently some
00:11:27
kindly a lot what hate and negativity
00:11:31
but I had to grow thick skin long time
00:11:34
ago
00:11:35
um and I had to go through a lot of
00:11:38
stuff on my own in the end um people
00:11:41
grew
00:11:42
to be more accepting and open-minded to
00:11:46
my choices and
00:11:48
stuff so yeah you ready for
00:11:52
power don't say it like that are you
00:11:55
ready to dance I'm real ready to dance I
00:11:58
haven't finish beating my um my
00:12:01
contemporary marks for my jingle dress I
00:12:03
have to finish beating those but my
00:12:05
Omaha marks are
00:12:11
done my relative Marissa knows so much
00:12:14
about our people and our history we
00:12:16
talked about the forced eradication of
00:12:18
our culture that happened when the US
00:12:20
government put children into special
00:12:22
boarding schools and how that has
00:12:24
contributed to the historical trauma
00:12:26
that's passed down in our families for
00:12:28
Generations
00:12:32
what does it mean to you to be an Omaha
00:12:35
woman so for me being Omaha mahu it
00:12:38
means um that I have a beautiful
00:12:41
relationship with food with seeds it
00:12:42
means that I've delivered my sister's
00:12:45
babies it means that I take care of
00:12:47
other women it means that I have
00:12:50
unconditional love for creation itself
00:12:52
it also means being a warrior and being
00:12:55
a warrior for our language for a culture
00:12:58
to fight for
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uh for our people and we have to bring
00:13:02
back that way of thinking less
00:13:04
individualized um I remember as a little
00:13:06
girl I did something and I was like Dad
00:13:09
I did this I did you know I was really
00:13:10
excited I I I and my dad scolded me and
00:13:13
he said no you you don't talk like that
00:13:17
you always say we because um in some
00:13:20
ways we're always doing things
00:13:22
collectively your grandmother went to
00:13:25
boarding schools how has that affected
00:13:28
you personally like do you believe that
00:13:31
historical trauma was passed down to you
00:13:34
I think historical trauma does get
00:13:36
passed down I also think resiliency gets
00:13:38
passed down my grandmother um all she
00:13:41
knew was our language and her
00:13:43
family and then all of a sudden she
00:13:46
didn't have any of that as she was told
00:13:49
how to pray how to think she had my
00:13:51
father um then she had two other
00:13:53
children a girl and a boy and adopted
00:13:56
them out to a white family and in her
00:13:58
mind she thought she was doing something
00:14:00
good she dealt with a lot my grandmother
00:14:02
suffered from alcoholism there's
00:14:04
definitely trauma then was passed down
00:14:05
to my dad and he was never mean never
00:14:08
cruel never abusive um but he had that
00:14:12
inner pain that he couldn't get rid of
00:14:14
he also um struggled with drinking but I
00:14:18
had a really hard childhood too um and I
00:14:22
had a lot of privilege too so it's it's
00:14:24
a balance but um there was a point where
00:14:27
I was suicidal and so there was a lot of
00:14:29
trauma historical trauma in my family
00:14:31
line but what I do know is that I it
00:14:34
stopped with me how has our practices
00:14:38
helped you heal when I go through really
00:14:40
hard times I sit with my tobacco and
00:14:44
pray and I feel and I sing songs and
00:14:48
those songs connect me to creation and
00:14:50
then help me heal help me um be able to
00:14:53
keep moving forward with love and
00:14:56
kindness because that's the that's
00:14:57
what's hard it's easy to be bitter yeah
00:15:00
and cruel to people if someone puts all
00:15:02
their pain and hurt cuz they're hurting
00:15:04
they're not well and they put that pain
00:15:07
and hurt on me now I carry it and then I
00:15:09
put it on you right it moves it has a
00:15:12
life it moves among people and that's
00:15:15
that's a sickness but if I take what you
00:15:18
threw at me sit with it pray with it and
00:15:20
let it go out of love then it's gone y
00:15:24
it doesn't keep moving anymore and
00:15:26
that's a form of Medicine
00:15:37
I kind of woke up with a heavy heart
00:15:39
today just cuz um like I wish all my
00:15:43
relatives could be there to witness that
00:15:46
for
00:15:47
me especially my loved ones that's
00:15:49
passed on but that's not that's not the
00:15:53
way um Creator made for things to go and
00:15:57
that's fine because
00:15:59
regardless of if I see them there or not
00:16:01
I know
00:16:03
that they're still going to be there
00:16:05
with me
00:16:09
[Music]
00:16:18
[Music]
00:16:36
you look
00:16:38
beautiful you ready to do your
00:16:40
hair just before my Feathering ceremony
00:16:43
took place my grandpa Sam Marissa and I
00:16:45
got into a conversation about a speech
00:16:48
that I'd given at the United Nations in
00:16:51
2017 would you talk oh I
00:16:55
think like ioke about the statistics on
00:16:58
like
00:16:59
suicide in Indian country and like the
00:17:01
missing and murdered indigenous women
00:17:03
and
00:17:05
alcohol why do you think that that's a
00:17:07
struggle for us in Indian country and
00:17:09
for the Youth I kind of feel like a lot
00:17:12
of us just lost touch of you know our
00:17:15
home base like who we were as the people
00:17:18
lost touch with our ways of life M it's
00:17:21
all tight in because they dismantled our
00:17:24
belief system and our way of life and
00:17:26
those original teachings that you're
00:17:27
talking about that have been lost
00:17:29
they outlawed our ceremonies they
00:17:30
outlawed this way of life the only time
00:17:33
that we could practice our ceremonies
00:17:34
was here and we had to do it in front of
00:17:36
white people so the people tried to put
00:17:38
all these ceremonies into this one time
00:17:40
a year um and then mask it so that white
00:17:44
people didn't know what they were doing
00:17:45
you know all these things changed and
00:17:48
and and it wasn't no gradual change like
00:17:51
some some things it was quick like that
00:17:54
and we had to forget who we are as small
00:17:56
people and being being able to find a
00:17:59
little bit of piece of yourself is a
00:18:01
huge accomplishment and you're doing
00:18:03
that I'm proud of you for that just keep
00:18:06
going you're going to stumble you're
00:18:08
going to fall you're young it's going to
00:18:10
happen and you're human you know if it
00:18:13
wasn't if we didn't have these troubles
00:18:15
in our lives that we wouldn't
00:18:17
have you know ceremonies to help us feel
00:18:19
we wouldn't need those ceremonies we do
00:18:21
you know growing up on a res you know
00:18:23
I've seen those things and I'm a a
00:18:25
product of a lot of abuse you know and
00:18:28
for me of those things was being
00:18:29
sexually abused as a
00:18:32
kid
00:18:33
and um being burned by my own father at
00:18:37
8 months
00:18:39
old you know uh you look at all those
00:18:41
things I should be a a serial killer or
00:18:44
something like that you know but for
00:18:45
some reason Creator you know said no I
00:18:48
don't want you to be that way you know
00:18:49
but I'm going to give you some some
00:18:51
things that you have to look at you have
00:18:53
to go through to be who you are today
00:18:56
but it's good what you're doing proud of
00:18:58
you
00:19:00
[Music]
00:19:09
we did not film my Feathering ceremony
00:19:11
because of how sacred it
00:19:15
is my granddaughter here has some gifts
00:19:18
that she wants to give
00:19:20
out I was so excited and overwhelmed and
00:19:25
happy when Shelby gave me my feather
00:19:30
it was such a beautiful moment that I
00:19:33
will never
00:19:35
[Music]
00:19:51
forget right now we're at Power and
00:19:53
we're about to have the first Grand
00:19:54
entry of the
00:19:56
weekend that's where all the dancers are
00:19:59
showed into the arena for the first time
00:20:01
it's exciting for me cuz I finally get
00:20:03
to dance with my
00:20:11
[Music]
00:20:16
FEA our po our annual
00:20:20
hii is our Harvest
00:20:24
celebration but a lot of us see it as a
00:20:27
homecoming that's when everybody comes
00:20:29
home to celebrate
00:20:31
together you know seeing all of our our
00:20:34
tiny babies dancing or seeing our golden
00:20:36
age dances still dancing it's a
00:20:39
beautiful sight the feeling that you get
00:20:42
in your heart it's kind of indescribable
00:20:49
[Music]
00:21:02
[Music]
00:21:11
you spend a lot of time on the drum so
00:21:14
explain what the drum is so the people
00:21:16
who are watching know what it is to us a
00:21:19
drum what it means is it's like it's a
00:21:22
heartbeat of our people and our nation
00:21:24
and Creator wakanda he gave it to us to
00:21:28
use for him he made us his dancers and
00:21:30
his singers then through that drum the
00:21:32
drum we we have our our Melodies our
00:21:35
footsteps our footwork our our rhythms
00:21:38
like my spirit just feels uplifted once
00:21:40
I hear the music and when I have
00:21:41
everything on I feel like it's like a
00:21:44
shield to me like nothing can harm me
00:21:46
any type of way then I'm not the best
00:21:48
dancer but I try my best and my every
00:21:50
time I get out there give it all my
00:21:52
hardest like it's my last time dancing
00:21:57
[Music]
00:22:01
what on the last day of Pawa we always
00:22:03
have a
00:22:04
feast we place our food on the ground to
00:22:07
make a connection with Mother Earth and
00:22:09
to thank her for what she's given
00:22:13
us we begin serving people sitting to
00:22:16
the East and then everyone eats together
00:22:24
[Music]
00:22:32
[Music]
00:22:40
wakanda our creator he blessed me with
00:22:44
the connection to our people to our
00:22:47
ancestors to our
00:22:49
homelands it was hard to find at first
00:22:52
but when I found it it was a feeling
00:22:55
that no photo shoot no Runway no crowd
00:22:59
could ever give
00:23:01
me I won't be held back
00:23:04
by what they call Historic trauma it
00:23:07
won't hold me back
00:23:10
because I will have properly healed
00:23:13
myself from
00:23:14
it I'm trying like I'm trying to learn
00:23:18
how to heal myself from not only things
00:23:20
that I've been through but things that
00:23:22
everybody in my family has been
00:23:25
through you know I can only heal what's
00:23:28
in my heart but I can also pray for
00:23:31
everyone else's trauma everyone else's
00:23:34
pain to be lifted from
00:23:45
them to be a Native American is to be
00:23:48
challenged it is to be strong it is to
00:23:51
be intelligent it is to be
00:23:54
resilient being Native American is not
00:23:57
to be silenced but to be
00:24:00
heard to be a Native American is to be
00:24:03
powerful to have a powerful voice for
00:24:06
those who have lost their ability to
00:24:08
speak we need more Fearless people who
00:24:11
are willing to make a
00:24:13
change when you don't hold your words in
00:24:15
when you speak your mind amazing things
00:24:18
can
00:24:19
[Music]
00:24:20
happen
00:24:22
we they call me shooting star and I am a
00:24:26
Native American a
00:24:35
[Music]
00:25:03
[Applause]
00:25:06
[Music]
00:25:09
[Applause]
00:25:12
[Music]
00:25:15
[Applause]
00:25:23
[Applause]
00:25:27
wa
00:25:30
[Music]
00:25:36
heyy
00:25:37
[Music]
00:25:39
hey
00:25:41
[Music]
00:25:42
hey
00:25:44
[Music]
00:25:57
hey hey
00:26:04
[Applause]
00:26:11
[Applause]
00:26:27
I he
