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Photography Series: Native Faces

Rocky
Occupation: High School Student

Age: 18
Enrolled Yakama Tribal Member

When I think about myself as being Native American I feel there is a huge amount of pressure on me. I feel like the Elders frown down upon me. I think the Elders feel like I am letting our people down by not acting like a normal Native. Most of my friends who are non-native find my traditions to be pointless, but it doesn’t bother me too much because I know they will respect me no matter what.

Our family traditions have been slimmed down but I cherish them a lot. The main family tradition that has been passed down is the use of a sweat house. A sweat house, is a hut my family builds and inside we have a pit with heated rocks and we pour water on them to cause it to steam up inside the hut. We sit inside of it and pray, we usually do it before hunting or fishing or bad times in our family. We pray that the aches and pains sweat out of us preparing us for the time ahead. Another tradition my family practices is holding feasts, we have large feasts for kills, deaths, first catch and name giving ceremonies.

I will pass these traditions on to my children, because I feel like some many traditions we have lost and I don’t want something so amazing to die.

Photography Series: Native Faces

Roberta

Occupation: Retired

Age: 82

Enrolled Yakama Tribal Member

I was taught not act or look Indian. It was a bad thing back then and you didn’t want

people to think you were Indian because you would be shunned basically. My mother bought all of us kids long sleeve shirts and big sun hats to wear during the summer. We tanned so easily in the sun, she didn’t want us to get dark and look Indian. We all knew we were Indian but we were never taught to be proud of it.

My grandmother was orphaned at a young age, so she raised in the boarding school at Fort Simco and taught English she was also taught she wasn’t to be proud of her heritage. She was told her father was a white man and a scout. He helped guide the travelers over the mountains to protect them from Indians. An Indian killed him while he was scouting, so I was told not embrace being native.

My grandmother passed down a ceremonial dress, to my mother and then to my oldest sister and that was the only thing she ever gave us that had anything to do with being Native. I attended my first native funeral ceremony two years ago. I am sad to see the traditions slipping away.
           

Native Faces

Raymond

Occupation: Retired

Age: 86

Enrolled Yakama Tribal Member

My mother was taken by the government at age 8 and put into a boarding school at Fort Simco. The school she was put into taught her English and she was not allowed to learn Yakama dialect. These types of school were created to redirect Indian culture away from the traditional teachings. Because my mother was taught by white people and taught not to act Indian I was not raised with traditional native influences.

The government accomplished what they wanted because my mother did not pass on anything traditional to me but her love for stick games. Stick games are a traditional Native American hand game of hiding bones and choosing which hand holds the correct bone. I enjoy watching people play because it reminds me of my mother. But my father raised me to be a cowboy and that is what I am. I don’t see myself as an Indian, although all my life I was raised around them and worked with them so I have picked up the culture.

I see traditions dying off quickly, it is sad to see the good days leaving us.

Native Faces

Mike
Occupation: Tribal Land Manager

Age: 63

Enrolled Yakama Tribal Member

My grandparents raised me and they were Shaker and Washat religion. Everything we did was extremely traditional. When the springtime came we would gather roots in the mountains and we would travel to Puyallup to gather raspberries and beans. The food that we collected we would use as our food source through the entire year. My dad and grandfather would fish in the Yakima River for salmon. We believed The Creator gave life to all things and all thing deserved respect.

I went through quite a wild stage for a while and threw all traditions out the window. But I suffered with multiple deaths of love ones around me, which is when I found God and became a Christian. Since then, I have embraced more traditional ways of living.

I have tried to pass on traditions to my kids, but they are busy with different activities at school and with church so there are a lot of things they don’t have yet like their Indian names. Sadly, our Elders are dying, so my boys may never be given their Indian names. Our traditions are fading quickly.

Native Faces

Lonnie

Occupation: Karaoke DJ

Age: 28

Enrolled Yakama Tribal Member

I consider myself a modernized native in a lot of ways. I have practiced the long house and shaker religions both. I know how to behave if I am in churches during any ceremony, which is not a small task. I was taught at a very young age to respect my Elders as well as my parents. You don’t speak to the Elders unless you are spoken to. You never speak back to your parents or grandparents.

I was raised in a completely traditional setting. My mother is longhouse, so we sweated and fasted in hard times. We learned at a young age The Creator is not in books he is in our heart and that explains both religions a little better. I danced at Pow Wow’s as soon as I could walk and I loved it.

When I was younger I felt pressure to be and act Native and speak the native tongue, but now that I am older I don’t really care. I just want to be who I feel I should be. People tease me a lot because I don’t keep the traditions that I was raised with, I feel guilty sometimes because I can see the younger generations are lacking the respect I was raised with as well as lacking knowledge of our people.