When I was growing up, I used to play Cowboys and Indians with the neighbor boys. I always wanted to be an “Indian.” American Indians intrigued me. I also did not have a saddle for my Appaloosa, so I had to ride bareback like they did on the TV shows and movies. I had a stereotyped picture of Indigenous people, but my interest in native cultures has grown over the years.

The movement to provide acknowledgements for Indigenous peoples heartens me. I was introduced to recognizing First Nation peoples when I attended a conference in Australia years ago. Since then, I have thought often about the people that inhabited the world’s lands before white people colonized these areas. I am increasingly aware of the significance of Native Americans in the West. I want to honor the Indigenous peoples everywhere I have lived.
Acknowledgements and reparations cannot make up for the treatment of these peoples. However, I want to remember the groups who came before me who aimed to preserve this natural world so I could enjoy it today.
I learned a little about Native Americans (Ioway, Sauk and Meskwaki, Očhéthi Šakówiŋ) in my 8th grade Iowa history class. Iowa is named for the Ioway people. I worked as a professional 4-H Youth Leader in Tama County, Iowa, upon graduating from college. Tama County is home to the Sauk and Meskwaki Indians who were pushed from their lands and later were able to return by buying back the land. This work experience first exposed me to an understanding of “culture” that continues to inform my thinking.
I lived in Minnesota (Wahpekute, Očhéthi Šakówiŋ) and Wisconsin (Kiikaapoi-Kickapoo, Peoria, Sauk and Meskwaki, Myaamia, Hoocąk-Ho-Chunk, Očhéthi Šakówiŋ) and knew nothing about the Indigenous people who were native to those states. I did not know that land names came from the native people who once occupied the area. For example, Wisconsin (originally “Meskonsing”) is the English spelling of a French version of a Miami Indian name for the Wisconsin River that runs through the state. Minnesota is a Dakota name. Mni is the native word for water.
In northern Texas (Kiikaapoi-Kickapoo, Tawakoni, Wichita) I was not exposed to anything related to Indigenous people. My experiences were similar in North Carolina (Shakori, Occaneechi, Saponi, Lumbee).
I now call home the landscape where the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Núu-agha-tʉvʉ-pʉ̱ (Ute) people lived and continue to live. They were nomadic in the area, but summers especially in what is now Rocky Mountain National Park, provided traditional hunting grounds.
Acknowledging the history is important but more important is remembering that American Indians are present today. Reflecting on Indigenous cultures challenges me to respect the land and preserve natural environments as these people did for centuries.
If you want to know Indigenous people who once lived in an area, you can go to https://native-land.ca/