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.