It's took me half my life to understand my history. Being Lakota, outside of living in the Dakota's made it very difficult. I am often considered white and I don't understand it. I don't have long hair so that makes me white? But the truth is that my ancestors were the hardest against the immigrant. The Indian Wars of the late 1800s were fought by the grandfathers of my grandparents. That's only a couple generations. My mother's grandmother was witness to Wounded Knee.

The lesson learned is that you can not stop people from migration. Our people were the greatest warriors who followed the Bison as they migrated. We had the biggest tribal territory of all the American Indians.

It doesn't matter if you have an army of the baddest mother fuckers who ever fought... The desperate will to be will always win. Yeah there's still a lot of people on the Rez that will try to get you to leave but it's an accepted truth that we're never going to have our land back to the way it was. We will always have to accept that the white man is a constant presence. Many of us have loved ones and family members that are not native.

But if you go to the Rez, they will almost always welcome you. They will show you the hospitality. The truth is accepting that people are not going to respect boarders when pushed. We should all learn to just accept that and stop trying to fight it. The empires of old made these lines and we don't have to go along with it.

Let's instead try to find a way to deal with it, together. So many people. All of us, the people. The words we as Lakota use to describe ourselves is always in it core, a phrase that means The People. The world is big enough for us all. Our world is rich enough to support us all if we resist hate and bigotry.

The ultra rich are the ones trying to exclude. They are the enemies trying to hoard all the resources. The last thing some foreign people looking for salvation want is your destruction. The history of brave people who walked into Indian territory and made peace with the people is amazing.

There's a story in my family about a Scottish lady who somehow found herself in the tribe during the early 1800s. She was always the Scottish lady but she was so loved that we all know who she is.

This is the way. We just have to open our hearts and minds to accept it.