- On this edition of Native Report, I interview my Native Report colleague, co-host Ernie Stevens.

- The tables are then turned, and I interview Rita Aspinwall.

- And then we check back in with prospective medical student, Jaja Green Sky.

- We also learned what we could do to lead healthier lives and hear from our elders on this edition of Native Report.

- [Narrator] Production funding for Native Report is provided in part by the Blandin Foundation.

(soft instrumental music) - As many of you may know, Ernie and I, have been hosting Native Report since Season 11.

While we've gotten to know one another we've received viewer inquiries, requesting more information about who we are, and we thought it would be fun and informative to interview one another.

(soft music) - Ernie do you want to go first?

- I'd say ladies first.

- Can you introduce yourself?

(speaking in foreign language) - So what I said there was, hello, my name is Ernie Stevens III.

The Odilaudi is my Wyandotte name.

It means he speaks as he comes this way.

I like to refer to it as I'm walking and talking which I do all the time.

And I am of the Turtle Clan and people of the standing stone is a land of people from which I come.

I got a beautiful family got some little ones.

Can you talk a little bit about, you know, your family and just kind of go through that personal introduction of yourself and your family, please?

(speaking in foreign language) - Just to translate my name is Rita Aspinwall.

My initial Doji name is star woman.

I am from the Crane Clan and I am from Fond du Lac Fond du Lac Lake superior Chippewa located in Northeastern, Minnesota.

So I do have quite a few kids.

I live with my partner, Colton and we have three beautiful boys and a little girl.

So Ernie, you and I have been co-hosting Native Report for quite a few years now, but I think everybody wants to know what do you do day to day?

What's your profession?

- I've done a lot of freelance work right now.

I just came off of a three-year term on the Oneida Business Committee which is essentially the tribal council.

But right now I'm founding an E-sports Trade Organization called IGEA Indian Gaming E-sports Authority.

I am doing a little bit of stuff with some youth sports development and things like that.

I'm working for a foundation called 7G Foundation.

So I'm just kind of, I guess, into a number of things but that's what takes up most of my time.

You had some, some plans, this pandemic with your family that sort of got postponed.

Can you talk about that a little bit and how that's been for you?

- So the pandemic across the nation, across Indian country it has rocked everybody's world.

And my life was no exception.

I was planning on getting married to my partner, Colton but unfortunately plans have to change and we have to adapt and we're just rolling with it right now.

And, you know, hopefully someday we can finish those plans but for right now, we're just making sure that everybody is safe and we take proper precautions.

You mentioned that you were involved with youth sports.

Do you have any advice or anything you'd like to say to the upcoming generation?

- Yeah.

Great question.

You know, it's a defining year for us.

And so I think the one thing that I would say this will be to all kids, but you know, obviously focus really on our indigenous children is you know, listen to your elders, listen to your history, listen to your culture.

The teachings are there and they're showing us the path before us.

And so that would be, I would recommend they'd be really in tune to that and focus on those teachings as you, you know, try to become healthy and try to become, I guess, a better person, student given being in one and all that.

I think that's what I try to teach you know, my kids when I'm coaching and I've done it multiple sports, you know right now it's really mostly lacrosse.

So lacrosse is a perfect vehicle to teach those things you know, cause it's in the very teaching of lacrosse.

I mean, it was given to us for, you know, for health and mind, body and spirit healing.

So I try to apply that to just about anything, you know when it comes to youth, I would say definitely do that.

You know, language is very important.

I think all those things are important when it comes to developing yourself.

And if you're not interested in sports, you know, find something that interests you and apply the same teaching and philosophy to that, no matter what that might be.

So if you could talk about, just your community for a minute and some of the things that you are proud of, some things that you've seen growing up, things that you feel that viewers should know about and the world should know about, about your community.

I think that's important to understand where you come from, your family and all those things.

If you could just mention some of that.

- One thing about Fond du Lac is that we help each other.

I'm mean it's all over the world I know it, but Fond du Lac, you know, if someone's in need there's going to be a neighbor or relative helping you out.

One thing that is really, really prevalent is healing.

There's so many different forms of healing across Fond du Lac but one form of healing that I'm a part of is the Kwe Pack.

It's an indigenous women's running group and you know, we created this group that has this space for indigenous women just to run, heal, be together, bond, communicate.

And that has really helped me being away from my family when I moved up here.

So I'm really grateful for all of the resources and all of my friends and families and loved ones that are up here that have, you know embraced me and my family.

- I think it's a very powerful thing that you do, in my community you know, our women are leaders.

They inspire us, they've always been in since the end of our time.

And so we always look to that other tribal communities, regardless of their societal approach, you always want to know what their women do and what their women think, and you know, when it comes to engaging their understanding their community for example.

- Women in there that taught me more about my culture than I had the chance to know in my lifetime and without them I truly do believe that it'd be a different, it'd be a different time for me living here if I didn't have them.

One question that I think might be interesting for the viewers to hear is sharing one or two things that they may not know about you.

- What they don't know about me, I guess is, I'll go into the personality.

I'm a very, what's the word?

Empathetic and sympathetic person.

You know, I have a very strong sensitive side that I really hate to see people in pain and see people suffer.

So it's been sort of a hard situation to especially with a lot of community members around home.

And I've always been seen as the strong protector type you know, and I'm there to do that of course my family kinda teaches about that accountability all those things I'm you know, tough love.

I'm the forebear of all of that for my family and helping other people.

But I also understand people know that that they have the soft side for, I guess all living creatures and I hate to see people suffer.

So I guess not a lot of people know that about me, even though I'm a hunter, you know, I hate to see animals suffer and that applies to what I do as a hunter, fisher and all those things that just even plants.

- What is your favorite thing about hosting Native Report?

- I mean, besides working with you?

Yeah besides that, no, it's, I think it's just the people, you know and that's the people you work with, obviously yourself Mike Lance, the whole crew wonderful people that do wonderful job, you know, and I don't see all those inner workings, but I know most for the most part, what it takes to do this show.

And I think that's, you know, I really appreciate that and I'm proud of that.

What got you into Native Report?

What drew you to it?

I understood you were a voiceover.

You did some voiceover work?

So talk about some of the work you did before Native Report and what really drew you into wanting to be a part of it?

And just talk about that little.

- I attended Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College.

And throughout my academics there, I I was modeling a little bit for, you know the yearly calendar and it eventually led to a commercial for the Fond du Lac college, and I really attribute a lot of my success in that field to that commercial.

It opened a lot of doors eventually after that I did some voiceover work for some commercials and radio scripts and dabbled in a little bit of modeling and it's just really fun.

There was auditions for Native Report for the co-host position, and at that time I was really, really pregnant.

I was about nine and a half months pregnant, and I thought okay, why not?

The worst thing that can happen is I don't get it.

So I tried out all these opportunities in front of us that if we just take that leap of faith and we just try something out of our comfort zone good things can happen and come out of it.

Ernie, reviewing back from all the seasons that we have hosted Native Report which one was your favorite story to cover?

- The whole chunk Mounds story.

- [Narrator] It is a late summer afternoon and the warmth of the day is slowly given way to the coolness of the evening.

- Was always aware of that you know, when I was doing the tourism, there were some efforts to utilize some of these mounds as a tourism effort for the state, and I'm forgetting the name of the legislation but it was, it was to protect the mounds.

To see the success of stopping that, you know, issue in protecting those mounds, you know, it was it was very, it was really cool and then be able to be able to do the story on it from their perspective and something we just wasn't out there.

A lot of stories, what's your favorite?

What comes to mind when you think of that most impactful story for you?

- Quite recently for this upcoming season, we are going to be following a medical student, Jaja Green Sky.

I'm really excited to see how that story develops but there's so many the final act flag installations and of course, one of the first stories that I've covered was Delina White along with Lavender Kingbird and Sage Davis.

They were my first story that I covered, that I was in the field asking questions, interviewing.

- [Narrator 2] I was honored to be asked to model one of the 15 beautiful creations by Delina and Lavender.

- They put so much into their art form.

They take their traditional teachings that they have from their communities and they've put them into their skirts, their dresses, their neck scarfs, it's limitless, I think they do jewelry as well.

I just think having those strong indigenous women role models is really important for me to showcase to not only my friends, my family, my loved ones.

So I'm really grateful to have them as my first story and my favorite story.

(soft instrumental music) (speaking in foreign language) Hello my relatives, I'm Dr.Arne Vainio and I'm a Family Practice Physician on the Fond du Lac Reservation.

I'm enrolled in Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe.

I'm a member of the Association of American Union Physicians.

And today I'm getting my second COVID vaccine.

There are currently two vaccines out.

One of them is the Moderna vaccine that I'm getting today.

I got the first one, four weeks ago, I'll get the second one today.

This is the vaccine that's 94% effective.

And the other vaccine that's out is the Pfizer vaccine.

And that is 95% effective.

And that's 21 days after the first dose.

I've been looking forward to this for a long time with this second dose.

Oftentimes people can get side effects that are similar to getting COVID.

They can get fevers, they can get aches, muscle aches, sometimes diarrhea just feel generally miserable for 24 to 48 hours.

Lots of people don't have any response like that.

Getting those side effects means that you're getting a good immune response.

Even with the vaccine people need to continue to wear masks, social distance, wash your hands, sanitize frequently touched surfaces.

And all of that is to help prevent the spread of COVID.

Until the majority of us 70% or so get vaccinated, we still need to do all those measures to protect our elders and those most vulnerable.

People who have diabetes, heart disease, asthma, COPD and other things that are relatively common conditions are at risk for more severe disease.

Elders are at risk for more severe disease.

Getting a vaccine means we're saving lives and all of us can do that.

And this comes down to love and respect.

- So we're going to have you wait for 15 minutes now okay- - Okay, - Just to make sure you don't have any reactions.

- Okay.

- All right.

Thank you.

- Thank you.

- You're welcome.

- Okay.

So got my bandaid, got my vaccine.

So it's possible I could get some side effects from the second vaccine.

And again, that means that I'm getting a brisk immune response and we do need to, we need to get be vaccinated.

People have fears of vaccines and this is the way out of this pandemic.

This pandemic has been, been keeping us separated for a year now, and we can't hug our elders and we can't hug each other.

And we can't go to movies and we can't be in crowds and businesses have suffered from this.

And all of us getting vaccinated is the thing we need to do.

This is saving lives.

You can save lives.

You need to get the vaccine and remember to call an elder.

They'd been waiting for your call.

I'm Dr. Arne Vainio, and this is Health Matters.

(soft instrumental music) - As a middle school.

and later as a high school student Jaja Green Sky, excelled in what is commonly known as STEM courses, science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

She went on to get her Biomedical degree and upon reflection, she chose to apply at medical school at the University of Minnesota Duluth.

Tonight is our first installment of following Jaja in her quest to become a doctor.

(soft music) - One of the big reasons that I want to be a doctor is to help model pathways and to show the younger generations like, yeah, you can do this.

- [Narrator] It is a warm late summer day as Jaja one of them Green Sky takes a break from applying to medical school to walk her dog.

This pause allows her to think about other things but our thoughts all come back to her desire to become a medical doctor.

- I actually am in the process of applying to medical school for this round, but it hasn't been like the picture perfect application season I was hoping for because of the Corona virus.

And I really feel appalling towards medicine because of a lot of my experiences that I've had growing up.

But as of right now I would really love to go into Family Practice.

And a lot of that stems from my time being younger and sitting with my grandma during those visits to IHS clinics when she was towards the later years of her life.

Jaja is applying to the University of Minnesota Duluth at school of medicine where they have the center for American, Indian and minority health and other programs geared to the native American medical student.

- [Mary] The overall mission of the center is to improve native health.

And we do that in several ways but the way that we're most best well known best known for improving native health is by increasing the number of native American physicians.

Most people take it for granted when they walk into their doctor's office they're going to see someone that looks like them.

But for us who are native, that hasn't been our experience.

And it's not as if we mind seeing non native doctors it's just that much easier, I think to relate to and get to the heart of the matter, when you meet someone who looks more like you because you have an assumption right or wrong that they have some understanding of where you came from and the other issues that affect your health.

- [Narrator 3] The programming at the center actually started when the school opened.

- So we had our first Native grad with the first graduation class of this university.

I think the following summer we also started Native Americans in medicine which is a college I.e medical school sort of prep program.

It takes native college students and teaches them enhances their knowledge of science and math and enhances their capacity or their ability to get into medical school.

I am there to support the students, recognizing that not all programs can have a native physician as a mentor and people take it again.

That's one of those things that people take for granted.

Our white students have their mentors all around them all the time, but not for our native students.

The best way that these students are going to make change for native people is by using our community and being involved in the community.

It's not the one-to-one let me give you a medication for this.

Really it's supporting them through all this network that we have built and that's what makes us native, right?

We're more community driven than we are individual driven, individually driven.

The things that make me happier is when students really start to understand what the barriers are to health care for native people when they get that insight and I can see in their eyes they want to fight and they're want to really contribute to the wellbeing of others when they get that insight.

The other thing is interacting with patients and having that nice rapport.

- [Narrator 3] Jaja still has to take the Medical College Admissions Test or the MCAT postponed three times due to COVID-19.

And she has been in communication with Mary about when that will happen.

But meantime, she's working on her medical school application.

- I just recently graduated with my Bachelor's in Biology from Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Michigan.

It's really hard you know, it's really hard when you are a young ambitious indigenous woman and trying to pursue a STEM field.

Our ancestors have been scientists for thousands and thousands of years.

And yeah, it's tough 'cause we're navigating a whole new world.

As indigenous scientists that like our ancestors didn't even like think of, but I can't help but feel that our ancestors would want us to remain true to our indigenous roots and approach science in a way that can help, not just ourselves and our community but other people, like everyone you know.

I hope once I become a doctor and I hope that I can help, you know, like our elders are, establish and maintain care.

But I also hope that I can show and model pathways for the younger generation.

Being indigenous is like a super power you know, you look at the whole world in a different way that like other people don't look at, right?

And that's because of our culture.

And that's because of our teachings and our sense of communities and our sense of place to the earth.

I have a responsibility to the creator, to my community, to my family, to help people, right?

And I have, I'm also very passionate about helping people and helping children in an educational standpoint.

(soft instrumental music) - Marvin Defoe, a member of Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.

I'm an elder here in Red cliff.

Probably 30 years ago I noticed that these birch trees were dying.

Look up, want to go get the bark and look up and the leaves are gone.

So I went all around Lake Superior looking at the birch trees.

They're all starting to die.

They're all starting to die.

And you know that, you know that's what was coming, you know, that's what was coming.

And then their climate that they live, if you were out in the world, there's like a little line that goes all around the world.

That within that line, there's birch tree.

There's birch tree.

It doesn't matter if you're an even, even in Japan there's birch trees in Sweden, in Russia, China, and here where we live there's birch trees.

That line, that tree has to live in a certain atmosphere or an element what's happening with climate change is that it's going North right?

Has gone a little more North.

It's getting too wide for tree too much stress too much stress on birch trees where I live here so they're dying off.

They're going to die off.

They're dying off.

Then today 'cause the trees are alive.

They're alive just like us.

All birch are alive.

The birch is going to change.

So things are changing the earth, the environment is changing.

I hope and I pray.

I pray that we can change the escalation of the climate.

And I pray that we can do that.

(soft instrumental music) - [Narrator] For more information about Native Report or the stories we've covered, look for us on the web at nativereport.org on Facebook and on YouTube.

- Thank you for spending this time with your friends and neighbors across Indian country.

I'm Rita Aspinwall.

- And I'm Ernie Stevens.

We'll see you next time on Native Report.

(soft instrumental music)