- [Narrator] 17 year old, Daunnette Moniz-Reyome, is a member of the Winnebago tribe of Nebraska.

- [Daunnette] I wanted to make this film to show the beautiful side of us.

To show people that I'm extremely proud of where I come from.

- [Narrator] At a young age, she embraced cultural traditions and became an activist advocating for Native American rights.

As she prepares for a sacred ritual.

Daunnette examines the historical trauma indigenous people have been endured.

- They dismantled our belief system [indistinct] - [Narrator] Mentored by filmmaker Evan Mascagni, Daunnette shares how her community faces adversity with strength, dignity, and pride.

[soft music] Major funding for this program is provided by.

Additional funding by.

[background humming] - [Daunnette] If I asked you to tell me about yourself, about who you are, what would you tell me?

Would you tell me the color of your hair, your favorite song, your hobbies, who raised you, what town you grew up in, the schools you went to or your profession?

Or would you tell me about the god you pray to, the language your grandparents spoke, the holidays you celebrate, your country of origin, the color of your skin.

Would you tell me who you truly are?

Let me tell you who we truly are.

My English name is Daunnette Moniz- Reyome.

I am 17 years old and I live on my Omaha Indian Reservation.

I wanted to make this film to show the beautiful side of us.

Hey just be doing that, don't look over here.

To show people that I'm extremely proud of where I come from, what I come from.

I wanted to make this film because, I wanted people to see and to hear and to know what we go through, what its caused by and how we overcome it.

[distant singing] [drumming] [car engine running] We're going to a HaWaTay's Gift Shop to prepare for my feathering ceremony, that takes place on Thursday, the first day of Pow Wow.

And basically a feathering ceremony is kind of like your rite of passage into the arena.

Alton zone that's making my centerpiece that... - Yeah, actually.

[crosstalk] Yeah.

I know our mothers went to school together so everybody knows each other.

There's always a connection.

When are you getting feather?

- On Thursday.

- Thursday?

- At one.

- At one.

- Just talking about it makes me really excited.

[both laughs] You know feathers, people just don't put them on.

They can't just wear on or just out of novelty or whatever.

They got to earn the right, Or they're given the authority to wear an Eagle feather.

To a veteran, eagle feathers represent a fallen soldiers.

So if you were to drop a feather, a veteran is the one that has to come in and pick it up.

And if he wants to give it back to you, he can or if he wants to keep it, he can.

- Thanks for sharing that.

- Yup.

- [Daunnette] Life in Walthill is slow.

We don't have all types of activities for the youth to participate in, we don't have a bunch of job opportunities that the adults can apply for.

If I'm being completely honest, we struggle here.

It is a beautiful place when you're seeing the right parts.

But when you live here and this is your day-to-day life, it drains you.

It really does.

I see not only my family members, but people in this community people in our tribe not treating themselves as the powerful and strong people that we once were.

Our people didn't drink every day.

Our people didn't do drugs.

Our people didn't, they didn't live like that.

It hurts.

[birds chirping] My parents didn't grow up being taught our ways of life but they've always supported my interest in it and they encouraged me to advocate for it in my modeling work.

- Two, three, four.

- She gets shaky after five.

[both laughs] Google what's after six, seven, - Quiet.

- That's how it get going, she's grown up now.

- She was always performing for us when she was little with her little microphone in her wig - She used to make her brothers and sisters sit there and watch while she would sing.

They were her audience.

- So this is like her very first professional photo shoot.

This one is.

- This is the May issue of Teen Vogue back in 2016.

This is the first time my face ever went public like this, and then my grandma and grandpa, his mom and dad went and bought like 17 copies.

- For this show, actually we drove 16 hours and drop off Our boys, slept for an hour and then drove into New York City.

That's just what I'm willing to sacrifice to make sure that my kids are successful.

- And then when she did Teen Vogue, we were getting comments from like all the elders throughout the country.

We've been waiting for this.

Where've this been, it's beautiful.

I love this.

- There were even people that were like thanking Teen Vogue for finally putting an indigenous person in a major magazine.

I went to speak to Shelby, who will give me my feather at the feathering ceremony, and she was also making my dress for Pow Wow.

- Want the zipper in the front or the back?

- That stars in the back column?

- Oh yeah!

It'll be in the front, nevermind.

So this will be the skirt.

This is the vision here if you want to it.

- [Daunnette] You are a great artists.

- I tried.

[chuckles] I was in Iraq in 2003, 2004 during the invasion.

I was a truck driver in the army.

When I joined the army, I was a single mom of those two children right there.

So I was diagnosed with PTSD in 2006.

And I didn't know I had PTSD.

Didn't realize that I was going through a lot of things that I didn't understand.

I didn't understand why I was so angry.

I didn't understand why nobody understood me, and I was angry and I turned to alcohol.

It was bad.

And then eventually I realized, I didn't want to be that kind of person, I needed help.

And it was hard for me to ask for help.

- Do you want to talk about how you use making your regalia your doing your bead work or even just smudging, like how it helps you heal from your PTSD?

- I prayed and I smudged and I tried to do our cultural ways and would be and that would keep my mind busy.

I learned how to solve.

So then that would keep my mind busy.

And then, practicing in our culture helped me being involved in the culture, helped me.

It's hard.

A lot of my family would say, Oh, you look so happy.

You're so happy, I never would have known you're going through that.

You wear this mask, you wear this this facade because you don't want no one to know.

I don't want no one to know, the things that I go through, the deep dark things that I go through.

And just being in those situations where you just don't know if you're going to live and you're like are you going to get blown up?

And I'm just a Rez girl.

I didn't ask for that.

But I guess that's what I signed up for.

So today, I want to do good things.

I want to help when people ask me to do work and I do it for free because I'm like, I'm good.

I don't have much, but here it's got a good feelings in it.

It's got love.

I love my community, I love my tribe, I love everything about our people and what we are.

- Thank you for those words though.

Like not even for the camera, thank you for those words.

Cause just sort of a good to your heart.

You wanted to help me, and I'm just glad I met you cause I don't [sobbing] - Did I make you cry now?

I know.

I know how you feel.

I don't remember, I could see that would be a nice person.

She can make Omahoma.

Oh my god!

There you go.

You don't move your arms, can you do that?

- Don't.

- That's so fortnight - Three years ago, I went to speak to students at a local high school and Java's daughter Sydney was there too.

- I have it right here.

I never see like native American like role models and stuff.

Well, my mom, but like someone kind of near my age and it inspired me to like to work hard in school and stuff to stay on track that you've inspired a lot of little girls and other kids like to be better and stuff.

- [Daunnette] I wanted to talk with some of my peers about what life was like for them on the reservation.

My friend Dre has a unique perspective because she's too spirited, which means she identifies as having the both masculine and feminine spirit.

How do you carry on some of our like traditions and stuff?

- I pray, I say to the whole house, it's still say it's my one room.

For me It's more different since I can do either or.

- So, because you're two spirit you're able to perform both the men and the woman's choice.

- Like if I wanted to touch the drum I could.

- Have people started treating you differently since you started identifying more as a female.

- Yeah.

A lot of people treated me differently.

Some kindly a lot what hate and negativity but I had to grow thick skin long time ago.

And I had to go through a lot of stuff on my own.

And then people grow Tim be more accepting and open-minded to my choices and stuff.

So yeah.

You ready for power?

[laughs] - Don't say like that.

- Are you ready to dance - I am very ready to dance.

I haven't finished beating my contemporary max for my jingle dance I have to finish beating those, but my U-Mo'n-Ho'n mocks, I have done - [ Daunnette] My relative Marissa knows so much about our people and our history.

We've talked about the forced eradication of our culture that happened when the US government put children into special boarding schools and how that has contributed to the historical trauma that's passed down in our families for generations.

- What does it mean to you to be a Omaha woman?

- So, for me being Omaha, it means that I have a beautiful relationship with food with seeds.

It means that I have delivered my sister's babies.

It means that I take care of other women.

It means that I have unconditional love for creation itself.

It also means being a warrior and being a warrior for our language for a culture to fight for our people.

And we have to bring back that way of thinking, less individualized.

I remember as a little girl I did something and I was like, dad, I did this.

I did, I was really excited.

And my dad scolded me.

And he said, no, you don't talk like that.

You always say we, because in some ways we're always doing things collectively - Your grandmother went to boarding schools.

How has that affected you personally?

Like, do you believe that historical trauma was passed down to you?

- I think historical trauma does get passed down.

I also think resiliency gets passed down.

My grandmother all she knew was our language and her family.

And then all of a sudden she didn't have any of that.

As she was told how to pray, how to think she had my father.

Then she had two other children, a girl and a boy and adopted them out to a white family.

And in her mind she thought she was doing something good.

She dealt with a lot.

My grandmother suffered from alcoholism.

There was definitely trauma then was passed down to my dad.

And he was never mean, never cruel, never abusive but he had that inner pain that he couldn't get rid of.

He also struggled with drinking.

But I had a really hard childhood too.

And I had a lot of privilege too.

So it's a balance, but there was a point where I was suicidal.

And so there was a lot of trauma, historical trauma in my family line.

But what I do know is that it stopped with me.

- How has our practices helping you?

- When I go through really hard times, I sit with my tobacco and pray and I feel, and I sing songs and those songs connect me to creation and then help me heal helped me be able to keep moving forward with love and kindness because that's what's hard.

It's easy to be bitter and cruel to people.

If someone puts all their pain and hurt cause they're hurting, they're not well.

And they put that pain and hurt on me.

Now I carry it and then I put it on you.

Right?

It moves.

It has a life.

It moves among people and that's a sickness.

But if I take what you threw at me, sit with it, pray with it and let it go out of love.

Then it's gone, it doesn't keep moving anymore.

And that's a form of medicine.

[people humming] - I kind of woke up with a heavy heart today just cause I'm like, I wish all my relatives could be there to witness that for me especially my loved ones that's passed on, but that's not way our creator made for things to go on.

And that's fine because regardless of if I see them there or not, they're still gonna be there with me.

I know that they still gonna be there with me.

- You look beautiful.

You ready to do your hair?

- Just before my feathering ceremony took place, my grandpa, Sam, Marissa and I got into a conversation about a speech that I'd given at the United Nations in 2017.

- Would you talk a lot?

[crosstalk] - Oh, I think like I smoked a lot suicide in Indian country and like the missing and murdered indigenous women, alcohol.

- Why do you think that that's a struggle for us in the country, instead of the youth?

- I found, I feel like a lot of us this was taught to not home base, like who we were as the people lost touch with our ways of life.

It's all tied in there because they dismantled our belief system, and those original teachings that you're talking about that have been lost.

The only time that we could practice the same one was here and we had to do it in front of white people.

So the people tried to put all these things on your knees and took this one time a year and then mask it so that white people didn't know what they were doing.

- And all these things changed and it wasn't no gradual change, it was quick.

And we had to forget who we are, smart people, and being able to find a little bit of piece of yourself is a huge accomplishment.

And you're doing that.

You're going to stumble.

You're going to fall.

You're young, it's going to happen and you're a human, and if it wasn't, if we didn't have all these troubles in our lives that we wouldn't have, ceremonies to help us feel we wouldn't need those sandwiches.

Growing up on a ranch, I seen those things and I'm a product of a lot of abuse.

And for me, one of those things was being sexually abused as a kid and being burned by my own father at eight months old, you look at all those things, I should be a serial killer or something like that, but some reason I created, I said, no I don't want you to be that, but I'm going to give you some some things that you have to look at you have to go through to be who you are today but let's get to what you're doing right here.

- [Daunnette] We did not film my feathering ceremony because of how sacred it is.

- My granddaughter here has some gifts that she wants to give out.

- [Daunnette] I was so excited and overwhelmed and happy when Shelby gave me my feather.

It was such a beautiful moment that I will never forget.

[crowd singing] - I now have the power and are about to have the first grand entry of the weekend.

I think that's where all the dancers are showed into the arenas for the first time.

It's exciting for me because I finally get to dance with my feather.

[drum beats] - [Daunnette] Our annual Heduwachi is our harvest celebration.

But a lot of us see it as a homecoming.

That's when everybody comes home to celebrate together seeing all of our tiny babies dancing or seeing our golden age dances, still dancing.

It's a beautiful sight.

The feeling that you get in your heart it's kind of indescribable.

[drum beats] - You spend a lot of time on the drum.

So explain what the drum is, so the people who are watching know wat it is to us - A drum what it means is it's like it's the heartbeat of our people and our nation and creator look on it.

He gave it to us to use for him.

He made us his dancers and his singers.

Then through that drum, that drum beat.

We have our, our melodies, our footsteps our foot work hard, our rhythms, like my spirit this feels I lifted once I hear the music.

And when I have everything on I feel like it's like a shield to me.

Like nothing can harm me or any type of way.

And I'm not the best dancer, but I try my best.

And my every time I get out there, give it all my artists.

And it's like, it's my last time dancing.

[drum beats] - What you doing [children laughing drowns out the speaker] - [ Daunnette] On the last day of Pow wow we always have a feast.

We place our food on the ground to make a connection with mother earth and to thank her for what she's given us.

We began serving people, sitting to the East and then everyone eats together.

[men humming] - Well a-kon-da-bpa our creator.

He blessed me with the connection to our people to our ancestors, to our homelands.

It was hard to find at first.

But when I found it, it was a feeling that no photo shoot, no runway, no crowd could ever give me.

I won't be held back by what they call historic trauma.

It won't hold me back because I will have properly healed myself from it.

I'm trying like I'm trying to learn how to heal myself from not only things that I've been through but things that everybody in my family has been through.

You know, I can only heal what's in my heart but I can also pray for everyone else's trauma.

Everyone else's pain to be lifted from them.

[men humming] [upbeat music] To be a native American is to be challenged.

It is to be strong.

It is to be intelligent.

It is to be resilient.

Being native American is not to be silenced but to be heard to be native American is to be powerful to have a powerful voice for those who have lost their ability to speak.

We need more fearless people.

We're willing to make a change.

When you don't hold your words in, when you speak your mind, amazing things can happen.

[speaks in foreign language] They call me shooting star and I am a Native American.

[upbeat music] - [Narrator] Major funding for this program is provided by.

Upbeat music Additional funding by.

For more films BYkids visit thirteen.org/filmsbykids.

[fast paced upbeat music]