[bright upbeat music] ♪ ♪ Yeah, the simple things in life ♪ - My guest is TV host, writer, motivational speaker, model, MSNBC contributor Alyssa London.

Welcome, and thank you for joining us.

- Thank you.

Nice to see you.

- Before we talk about your newest project, "The Culture Is," I'd like to learn more about you.

So, let's start at the beginning.

You graduated from high school in Washington.

Did you grow up in Washington?

- I did.

I grew up in the suburbs of Seattle.

- And, what was your childhood like there growing up in Washington?

- It was very sports-filled as I come from parents who are track and cross country runners and also played soccer.

- [Lillian] And, what kind of kid were you?

Were you involved in everything or was sports your thing?

- [Alyssa] I remember being very into academics and I'm proud to have then found my way to "Nerd Nation", Stanford University!

And so, I think I was, first, someone who really liked books and then also liked sports, but I didn't excel to the same extent as my sister who ended up following in my mom's footsteps of being a track star at Oregon State.

- Oh, wow.

Okay.

So, you have athletes in your family.

And, as you just indicated, you went on to attend Stanford University.

What was your study and focus there?

- It was comparative studies in race and ethnicity because I was fascinated with how you make sense of your identity as a mixed-race person, and also just fascinated by how big of a deal race is in the United States in terms of our politics and the way we relate to one another.

- And, are you a mixed-race person?

- I am.

My father's Tlingit.

My mother is Czech and Norwegian.

- Okay.

And so, was that your focus throughout all of college and that's what you went for and that's what your focus was?

- Yeah, predominantly.

I did study abroad in Spain and really loved learning about Spanish history.

I was fascinated by the colonization of the Americas, not because it's-- obviously not a good thing, but just because of the way that it does reveal more about indigenous history of the Americas.

And, I wrote an honors thesis on rural economic development in Southeast Alaska, which then led to some of my work as a youth board advisor for my native corporation, Sealaska.

And, was also a contributing factor into why I created "Culture Story."

- So, did you leave Washington and moved to Alaska?

- I left Washington first when I attended Stanford.

And then, when I graduated Stanford I went back to Seattle to work at Microsoft.

- Mm hm!

- And then, I wanted to apply the knowledge that I had gained in marketing and communications at Microsoft to the native community.

And, I found that Anchorage was a great place to go and live from just a community standpoint and also professionally, and that it proved to be that way for six years until I chose to move here to Los Angeles last summer partly due to becoming a contributor at MSNBC.

And, it's just nice to be near the LA Bureau.

- Right.

So, as you indicated, you moved to Alaska.

In 2017, you would be crowned Miss Alaska U.S.A. During the competition, your evening gown was beautiful, but it had special significance.

Can you share that?

- [Alyssa] The special significance was that it showcased the vi tality of indigenous culture.

By having a killer whale on the train, that when it was over my shoulders, emulated a Tlingit robe.

That killer whale is my clan crest and was created by renowned Tlingit artist Preston Singletary, who I respect very much and have been honored to work with in various capacities, including my children's book.

- Oh!

What was your platform while you were carrying out your duties during your term?

What was-- what were you working on?

- My platform as Miss Alaska was to showcase the vitality of indigenous culture, and show that it's beautiful that we're still here.

And, that I believe is still a big part of my platform even in my role with NBC.

- So, you're a motivational speaker as well.

What's your focus or your message and who's your target audience?

- The motivational speaking came out of being a cultural ambassador, appointed while I was Miss Alaska.

And, it came because I have achieved some of my dreams and continue to go after dreams!

This show was a dream of mine and the content that I hope that I get to build on top of this show are further dreams.

So, what I end up talking to people about is the process of going after your dreams, how I've found my way to it.

And, hopefully impart some wisdom and inspiration that even when an idea is just a seedling, that it's your instincts telling you that that's something that you can attain.

And then, there's things that you can do such as sharpening your skill set in that area that help to reveal opportunities; that if you stay persistent, you will eventually get to your exact goal, or at least in my experience, somewhere in that realm.

- Well, as you indicated, you've done so much in your young life.

And, from where I'm sitting, it's a very young life from modeling to acting to entrepreneurial.

Did you know what you wanted to do when you left college?

You had your focus and you were going for that?

- I honestly didn't know what I wanted to do-- - Oh!

- after college.

I have gone through a journey in my 20s of believing in myself more and believing that my dreams are possible.

- Mm hm!

- And, I have had now more indications that when there is something that I feel drawn to that it's there for a reason and that it may come true or something similar to it will.

But, at 22 when I was graduating, I don't think I had that same level of experience to know that if you tell people what you're interested in, if you keep trying in the areas that you're trying to have an achievement in, that it will lead to something.

I think my mindset that at 22 was much more... "I just want any opportunity that I can get!

"Oh, my gosh!

I have a first job!

Oh, my gosh!

It's Microsoft."

I'm so grateful to be able to discern which opportunities you want.

I think this comes with maturity.

- Right.

Absolutely.

It's hard to know what we wanna do when we first enter college at, you know, 18 and know what to do.

Until we get there, maybe things start to turn around or things come into our world that we start making different decisions.

So, from your experience at Microsoft, what did you gain there?

- I gained a global perspective.

I was afforded the opportunity to go to Europe and see some of the Microsoft partner companies there.

- Wow.

- And, understand that our economies are interrelated throughout the world, and got to understand more about organizational structure and how much goes into making even a marketing campaign happen (Lillian chuckles) on a global or regional scale.

So, again, I gained a perspective of more of a global sense of business.

- So, you would receive the Rasmussen Award.

Will you share what that project was, or what you did for that project?

- Yes, I'm honored to be a Rasmussen grant winner.

- That was something that I applied for with the Crow Nation Culture Story that I created when I visited-- when I visited the nation for Crow Fair, one summer.

"Culture Story" is an example of doing as much as you can with the resources that you have, and trying to have a vision come to life by continuing to work with people that are in your network.

Or, do parts of the vision just to show that you're going to keep putting effort into it.

So, Crow Fair led to having some materials that I was then able to present to the Rasmussen Foundation to be able to share the vision that I wanted funding to be able to create "Culture Stories: Alaska."

I still am looking to create "Culture Stories: Alaska" and I'm hoping that as a result of this very beautifully done "Culture Is: Indigenous Woman" special that I have more connections or more of a portfolio piece to be able to have something like "Culture Stories: Alaska" happen.

But, the Rasmussen Award was something to facilitate another portfolio piece of content which ended up becoming the Indigenous Place Names project, Culture Story, which showed some of the native leaders in Anchorage, Alaska that are working to lead the Indigenous Place Names movement which I really hope their model for that extends beyond Alaska into Lower 48, because all land in North America is native land and at least we can start changing some of the names back to indigenous names.

And, in contiguous United States and up in Alaska.

And Hawaii, they've done a pretty good job.

Then, hopefully that would become more top of mind to people that we're on native land.

- So, it was kind of a springboard for you in doing some of the vision that you had.

So, you did mention you have a company producing Culture Stories, and they're on FNX.

Share a little bit about Culture Stories and the company, and the series emphasis.

- "Culture Stories" is a education and media company with an emphasis on media that provides "edutainment," as I like to call it!

It is intended to showcase the beauty and vitality of indigenous cultures, and also facilitate conversations about cross-cultural awareness and understanding.

The way that we work to do that is a culture story is created by looking at themes of everyone's culture story, but that is done through an indigenous lens.

When you ask a native person to say who they are, they generally talk about who their family is and they go and talk about their value systems and their faith.

Then, you could usually get an indigenous person to talk about their arts and regalia or fashion, or if it's native woman maybe some earrings, (Lillian chuckles) or even non-binary people.

There's different pieces that-- and that's why in my show, like, we start off the top by talking about regalia.

So, in short, we talk about the different themes that make up a culture story to then look at the more specific topic that we're talking about.

But, the reason it's done through those themes is so that anyone, even if they're not native can then relate what they're learning about indigenous culture back to their own lives in order how they make sense of their own culture story.

Because, I think one way we can make indigenous content more easily digestible or understood by a non-native audience is by helping to relate it to themselves.

- [Lillian] Right.

For sure.

Okay.

So now, let's talk about your current project as the host of the MSNBC series, "The Culture Is."

You're the host of the fourth episode in the series.

What is the project's focus, and who were your guests?

- So, it was an honor to become the host of "The Culture Is: Indigenous Women."

My guests are amazing trailblazing women.

We have the seven women at the table with me and then we also have Congresswoman Peltola that I got to interview up in Alaska.

And, in the show, you'll see me get a little emotional about that because it was just such an honor to be two Alaska Native women getting to interface with one another for, you know, such a big national production.

The women at the table with me are Allie Young, a voting rights activist, Navajo.

We have the Emmy award-winning producer, Jhane Myers, who produced "Prey."

And then, we have her actress and colleague, Amber Midthunder, sitting right next to me during the show and just really respect her as a young leader.

And then, we have Crystal Echo Hawk who leads "IllumiNative" and is just so committed to increasing indigenous representation in media and television and advocating for why that's so important.

We have Kimberly Teehee, who-- Gosh, she's so eloquent and intelligent!

She's also the Congresswoman appointee delegate for the Cherokee Nation to uphold their treaty rights.

Then, we have Nancy Shippentower, who is a native activist focusing mostly on fishing rights, but I think her activism and her family's historical activism extends well beyond that.

And, she's such a kick.

I love her!

And then, we have Janee' Kassanavoid who was an Olympic hopeful, and a professional track and field athlete.

So, it was such an honor to hold space with those women.

- Was it overwhelming?

Was it awe-inspiring?

What was it for you as the host and what you we re hearing them talking about?

- [Alyssa] It was awe-inspiring and just gave me so much hope that we have such leaders in their various industries and fields for our native youth to look up to, and-- and also to just be able to continue to follow them, and see the incredible work that they are each doing.

And then, the "overwhelmed" that I think you're referring to is something I think anyone would feel.

You are getting the incredible privilege of having a set up period of time to facilitate a conversation that was then getting broadcast to an audience in America that doesn't always get to hear about Native Americans.

And, I wanted to get as much content covered as possible, and I think that we did our best with the time we had and that there's still a lot that comes through in the special, but also a sense that there's so much more to tell.

So, it was a good balance.

- Will you talk about the importance of regalia in the tribal communities?

- Yes, regalia is incredibly important because it is one way that we show who we are and where we come from just by even showing up.

In my case, my regalia literally tells who my family is.

I have a killer whale on the back of my robe, and I even did that at Miss U.S.A., because on that platform I wanted to have a killer whale to show who I am and where I come from.

I think that's what regalia does across our indigenous communities.

Even if it's not as overt as a clan crest, it just always has a story.

If you ask a native person about their regalia, they'll have lots to tell you about who made it, who gifted it, who they will gift it to.

It's just a big jumping-off point when you're connecting with an indigenous person.

- Yeah.

It's pretty special.

I have to say the one in the videos that I saw was just so lovely, so beautiful.

And, the way you wore it was just so eloquent.

It was just lovely.

- Thank you!

It was my favorite part of the pageant.

I felt like I had my whole community on stage with me and I wasn't nervous in those moments because it was about something bigger than myself, which was about showcasing the vitality of indigenous culture.

Whereas swimsuit, I was a little more nervous, so-?

(both laugh) - Well?

I don't know why, but yeah!

(laughs) - Yeah!

- Okay.

Regarding the special, what were the other episodes and subject matters in the first three episodes?

- The first three specials - Mm hm?

- are featuring Latina women conversation.

I got to go to that.

It was in Beverly Hills and that was helpful to get to see how another host facilitate that conversation.

Then, there was "The Culture Is: Black Women".

And, there's also "Culture Is: AAPI", hosted by Katie Phang, who I got to know at the White House correspondence center after-party this, you know, this year, and just think that she's an amazing host, as well.

So, it will be cool if in the future we get to have a panel of all the hosts of each of the four episodes or specials.

Even bigger, it'd be cool to have then all of the women we had in our episodes with us, but, you know?

Who knows if that'll happen, but a girl can be-?

- But, it would be nice if MSNBC said, let's bring all four women that hosted this and have that dialogue and conversation.

That seems like that would be pretty informative and interesting to bring four women again to have their conversation about that.

- I don't know what their plans are for "The Culture Is" franchise, but they definitely created a brand and we'll see if they wanna continue to invest in it.

- I'm wondering?

Would you share some of the common or misinformed or misconceptions many non-natives have about indigenous people?

- Oh, the biggest one that I work to debunk is the misconception that we are a group of people that is antiquated, and only existed last in the 19th century or even maybe some of the 20th, but mostly the 19th.

I think that there's a common misconception that the "true natives" or the "true Indians" no longer are among us anymore, and I think that's perpetuated in the fact that we are even shown mostly in natural history museums next to dinosaurs.

So, I think that is a big misconception.

I think we talked a little bit about that in the show when we got into this identity and stereotypes conversation.

The reason why I lead with that so much in terms of we are still here; what does it mean to be a native person today?

It's just my lived experience as a mixed-race indigenous woman is that you have to explain that to people a lot!

And, I wanted to use that big platform to try and explain that to more people than I can on a one-on-one basis.

So-!

(chuckles) - And, I read the idea of blood quantum may be going away and that you're-- something you support.

Will you share what it is?

- Yeah.

I support the eradication of blood quantum being a metric for indigenous identity and instead go to a descendancy model and having it be based off of family tree.

And, that's-- at least in my community genealogy is incredibly important.

And, how it's been explained to me growing up is you know who your family is, you know who you come from.

The fact that we've intermarried in the more recent generations is something we've been doing since time immemorial.

It's how you keep bloodlines healthy.

It's also-- we would intermarry with other tribes.

But now, the tribal system in America due to colonization and genocide has shifted into us sharing our lands with other ethnic groups from around the country.

But, we are also not an ethnic group as native people.

We are a-- We are citizens of sovereign nations.

And so, I also think there needs to be a shift in even equating indigenous people to Black people in America or AAPI or Latina even though we're sharing the stage with those groups of people in this "Culture Is" series.

Something that I think Crystal articulated really well in the show is that we are not an ethnic group.

We are a political group in America.

- With blood quantum, I hadn't heard of that.

Is that something that's in the news now?

Is it something that's coming about, or is it just an early discussion about it?

- Blood quantum, at least in my lifetime, has been something I hear about on an ongoing basis because it's-- indigenous identity is highly contentious to an extent because we have claims to land and resources.

My personal opinion is that there are some groups that could have invested interests, including some native groups, in upholding or doubling down on blood quantum as a metric for indigenous identity, because then they could have their resources be more concentrated amongst a certain group of people that are able to claim a certain level of blood quantum.

I think it is a very shortsighted approach because if we just look at our population in the last hundred years, how much intermarrying has happened that if you continue to uphold blood quantum, you could "breed out" the Indian, which if you look at some documents that are not as politically correct because they are not, you know, modern documents.

In the way that it was spoken about, there can be a case made that, that was part of the plan, was to institute blood quantum in order to have there be no more natives in the next few generations-- - Okay.

- But, yeah.

- I get it.

Thank you.

What do you want viewers to learn and take away from this MSNBC special?

- Something I would like viewers to learn and take away from this MSNBC special is that...we are a very vibrant community that has a lot of stories to tell, and you're getting a taste of it through the special.

And so, I hope that you'll see much more from our community across all platforms of media including MSNBC and that it excites you to see more.

- Okay.

So now, I'm gonna ask you on a personal note: are there misconceptions that people may have of you that you face?

- Yeah.

I think that, that is why I've done some of the work that I've done.

"Journey of the Freckled Indian" is me confronting that head on.

It's about the fact that I felt bad even from my young age about being mixed race and light-skinned and being proud of being Native American, but not living up to the perceived stereotype of what a native person looks like.

And so, as I've gotten stronger in standing my ground and going along with what my father and grandfather have told me of you know who your family is and you know who you are, then it seems to have given other people in the native community who struggle with that permission to stand strong or feel like they have someone to look to, such as myself, who struggles with something that they do around their identity and then they can still continue to claim it.

I really liked what Kimberly Teehee said at the dinner that, you know, her mom was a-?

In her words, a "full-blooded Cherokee" that was a Cherokee language speaker from childhood onward.

And, she was a-?

I think Kimberly said that her mom was a redhead with blue eyes!

So, truly being indigenous is not that we all look like a Plains Indian but I've definitely confronted that.

- Yeah, I bet.

Okay.

In our last few minutes together, can we do kind of a speed round of questions?

Are you game?

- I'm game.

Let's do it.

- Okay.

- Alright.

What is something many don't know about you that might surprise them?

- Oh, I'm not gonna be a speed thing!

Alright.

(both laughing) Oh, that I sing and play piano and that I invest time in that hobby and I really enjoy it.

- Okay!

A movie that you'll watch over and over.

- Moana.

- Oh!

A favorite meal.

- Uh?

Halibut with...asparagus.

- Okay!

(chuckles) A favorite flower.

- Jasmine, and a really good-smelling rose.

Yeah!

- Mm?

- A mantra that you try to live by.

- "I'm a fighter and I'll always pull it off!"

No!

I'm not-?

"Go after your dreams, and "you'll achieve it somewhere in that realm."

- Alright.

Right on!

Go for it.

Go for that!

An activity you enjoy doing, but you don't get enough time to do it.

- What hopped in my mind was painting.

- Oh!

- Uh huh.

Yeah.

- So, very good!

My guest has been Alyssa London.

She's an MSNBC correspondent.

Her special is "The Culture Is," which can be seen on Peacock.

Thank you so much for being a guest on "Lifestyles".

- Thank you.

It was great to be here.

- For "Lifestyles", I'm Lillian Vasquez.

Thanks for watching, and bye for now.

- [Lillian] This program was originally produced for 91.9 KVCR Radio.

[bright upbeat music] ♪ Yeah, the simple things in life ♪