[MUSIC] [MUSIC] >> to introduce myself and our traditional a dew point language.

i would say rouge or what you make of that mission cause.

i'm nick gordon.

second or job read just five and mission abe and all my name is joseph tsai may come a second.

triple why tribal elder.

my spirit name should make a mic is big turtle and i'm from the comic do to or beaver clan.

and we're here at these evil wing cultural center.

[MUSIC] and when you look at the seven grandfather teachings, it's kind of a medicine wheel within itself.

you have all these aspects of those seven grandfathers.

but when they all come together, there's a key chain that's indigenous for our people that we can go ahead and share with the world.

and that's what we do here at the bowling center.

and that's what we do in ceremonies.

when i look at the seven grandfather teachings center, we're concentrating on love and we're looking at the ego or mcgee z in our culture.

i go back to the eagle feather teachings.

one of the teachings that i get a chance to share with students is if you look at and eagle feather, there's a lot of key change that come into it.

and when we talk about me know, but i'm sure when we talk about walking that good path, we talk about walking that straight path.

a lot of times in nature, people will go on nature hikes.

and have you ever had that experience where someone's walking in front of you and they're not walking with you or if someone is walking behind you and they're not walking with you?

it's a different experience.

but when we're walking that good path, when we're watching that mean open mind to win, we can go ahead and to have a dialogue we can learn from each other.

we can learn some of the teachings that we can share amongst ourselves.

but there's a lot of distractions that can lead us off the path.

and that's what we get with the eagle feather.

we can see that that street path is there and it gives us direction.

but there's all of these distractions that can lead us off the path.

sometimes we need people like elders, teachers, those people that are good for our life to go ahead and get us back on the path and we can go ahead and a walk that path together [MUSIC] with the buffalo.

the respect is it makes that sacrifice.

there are so many things shot that are connected with our native culture that the strength of the buffalo is there.

and even though you're looking at a lot of the planes and a lot of the southwest, we for still honor the buffalo in a lot of our tribes.

and we have those sites, sacred ceremonies that to south the buffalo, just like a lot of our creatures in the forest have been given to us by the creator to go ahead in two years and a lot of times when our native people go to harvest, we only take what we can use for our people and we have to go ahead and do that in a good way.

and that's why we always make are offering.

we always do it in the spirit of prayer.

and i think of all of the gifts that the buffalo has offered to the clothing of the high.

the shack, rough ice for our drums, the sacrifice for our medicines.

the buffalo teachers are very important and sacred worker.

[MUSIC] when we look at from a mission abe perspective, a lot of times people look at while a warrior.

you must be talking about a man.

well, i'm a warrior can be a man or a woman.

it's about doing the right thing for the right reasons.

i think out of all of the claims systems, the bears, the one that gets misunderstood because a lot of times the bears associated with being angry being a one of the protectors and a lot of times in being angry.

we can we can all feel that angry part of bus.

but how do we go ahead in two?

get that control on with the bravery.

a lot of times brother bear is protecting the community, protecting the tried and there's a reason behind that angered there's a reason behind the frustration and in a clan system.

i'm glad that we have the teachings of the bear that we can go ahead and to embrace because just like a mother or a father when it comes to their children, we are going to be that there were going to protect our family.

and i think a lot of people could embrace of that cultural teacher.

[MUSIC] i think one of the best parts of our grandfather teachings.

when we look at the truth is we have our creations stories and we talk about turtle island and the whole concept of turtle island with us.

we're all in this together.

we're going to go ahead and to put it on the back of that hurdle.

and we're going look at the truth that we are all connected.

we're all a part of the circle and one of the cores of truth and the grandfather teachings this to go ahead and to look at our similarities instead of our differences.

surely if we look for our differences, we're going to find them.

but we may be pleasantly surprised if we look at our similarities, we're going to find them, too.

and we're going to find the teaching center [MUSIC] [MUSIC] the raven was given or teaching where they had to look at themselves as shaw.

you know, you have the ego.

that's the messenger to the creator but brave and looking at the honor, steve, the raven had to be who they were and what they were.

yeah, but they have a place in our creations story.

also i'm just that comes from that reading teachings is we all have role to play in the creation story and we can be happy with what we've been given and how we embrace that spiritual tricked [MUSIC] with the beginning again, wolf, having that grandfather teaching that comes back to the moon and a bush teaching swear, the wolf was a companion, a man of lucia to the wolf join.

and the bush as a man of vision, was looking at going through creation and naming the plants and the animals.

and to go ahead in to have that connection with the creator, the creator is going to give you those spirit helpers sign your journey.

and wolf was considered one of the spirit helpers that helped in our job.

we teach ins a man a bush you [MUSIC] when i look at being the bear clan and being able to share indigenous knowledge, i do my best to go ahead and to embrace that grandfather was done because it's chains that i've been given over time.

the way that i explain it to children is have you ever lead a lived your life with that?

wench.

this and instead the living your life with a clinch this, do you find it easier to go ahead and open up and to share what you've been given instead of holding on to it?

and i think a lot of times with her native culture and all we need is that opportunity to be a part of other people's lives and a lot of times it's in that invitation.

do you want to learn about native culture?

when's the last time you've been to a reservation?

was the last time that you spoke to an indigenous person?

when's the last time you spoke to your grandmother, your grandfather?

there's a lot of ways that we can share that grandfathered witch hunt.

[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] looking at the respect of our elders and the respect of our teachings, i think a lot of times those elders can give us a message that we may not want to hear and even with spiritual teachings, that might not be what we're looking for.

but we find out it's exactly what we need at the time.

>> this program was made possible by a grant from cta community telecommunications network,