|
 f
you are reading this article, you have a
unique opportunity, and I challenge you
to accept it – to participate in a very
special program – a program that may
very well change the direction of your
life. Your decision about whether to
accept this challenge could have far
reaching effects on the quality of your
life, your family, your tribe, and
perhaps society overall.
The purpose of The College Digest is to
help identify young people who are
interested in pursuing a college
education by helping them stay in school
and assisting them in achieving the goal
of going on to college. By participating
in this program, you will be offered
help in selecting a college, going
through the admissions process, and
wading through financial aid and other
forms. Most importantly, the colleges in
this magazine want you to know that you
are welcome at their institutions, and
if you want to obtain a college
education, they will be there to help.
What an incredible opportunity!
You may be asking yourself, “Why do I
need to start worrying about my college
education now, and what difference will
a college degree make anyway?” An
education will give you the ability and
power to make wonderful changes.
Perhaps, if I tell you about myself and
the important role education has played
in my life you can understand what I
mean.
My beginnings were very humble. My
father had left the Northern Cheyenne
reservation when he was a young man and,
when he got out of the service, he met
and married my mother, a Portuguese
immigrant. Unfortunately, my mother
became ill when I was just a child and
spent 22 years in the hospital. My
father was unable to really provide for
me, and I spent much of my younger years
growing up in the streets around
Sacramento, California. My father,
God-bless him, meant well, but as many
Indian people do, he suffered from
alcoholism.
I remember distinctly the moment I
decided I could and would do better than
my father. I watched, powerless, as he
was hit over the head with a bottle. As
I stood there watching him in pain and
bleeding from his wound, I vowed to
myself to get an education and to make
something of myself. I knew I didn’t
want to end up like my dad. So I
literally have come up from the streets
to the halls of Congress by determining
to get an education, to work and to
contribute to society – to make this
world a better place for all people.
That journey though, from Sacramento to
Washington, D.C., took many, many years.
I struggled to get through San Jose
State University on the education
benefits that I earned from serving in
the United States Air Force.
My
education did not come easy. I’ve worked
almost any job that you can name and was
fortunate that I was interested in my
physical well-being, as well as my
mental well-being. I worked to get my
body strong, and found that I really
liked martial arts. I even went so far
as to spend four years in Japan studying
Judo.
It was in Tokyo that I became interested
in making jewelry, which later became my
livelihood. My commitment to Judo paid
off, and I was very honored to
participate in the 1964 Olympic Games.
Many
times I felt defeated, and I wondered if I could really
make it. But I was able to overcome those feelings of
defeat, and the more that I learned and then applied my
new skills, the more I knew I could succeed. Now that I
have achieved some level of success, I want to encourage
each and every one of you reading this story to take up
the challenge to make your life better by making the
commitment to apply yourself in your studies and begin
believing that you can go to college |
and make the world a better
place in the future. As a former Olympic Team member, I
used to think my goal should be how much I could
lift up. Now I know it should be how
many I can uplift.
The need for Indian people trained to
work in various professions is urgent.
We need doctors, dentists, nurses and
administrators to help provide health
services. We need good teachers to help
our youth become strong and educated. We
need engineers and natural resource
specialists to help protect our land,
air and water. We need lawyers to help
guarantee the freedoms we enjoy and
achieve new ones. We need artists,
writers, musicians and poets to help
continue the richness of Indian art and
culture. We need historians,
anthropologists, and, most important,
more congress people and senators. The
talents that the Creator has bestowed
upon you are a gift and to show the
Creator your appreciation for your gift,
it is incumbent on you to use those
gifts and to give back to others by
expressing yourself through your unique
talents. Don’t waste them!
But let me caution you about the
importance of remembering who you are,
and where you came from and keeping the
traditions and values that have
sustained Indian people from time
immemorial. I make a special point to
return to Lane Deer, Montana, once or
twice a year and visit with the Northern
Cheyenne people there. I love putting on
my Indian clothes to dance at pow-wows,
tearing into a nice, but oh so greasy,
piece of fry-bread to eat with my corn
soup or sharing a good joke with my
friends. But I also respect the sacred
ceremonies and places that Indian people
hold in such reverence. I am aware of
the great sacrifice my tribe and people
have paid in the past enabling me to be
what I am today. Being an American
Indian is not something to be ashamed
of, it is an element that can make you
strong and help you in your darkest
moments by remembering the people who
came before you and how they were
sustained through all their trials and
tribulations.
Many of you may be growing up in
environments similar to the one in which
I grew up. Perhaps some of you live on
reservations with your family or
extended family, or maybe you live in a
city away from your tribe and family, or
at a boarding school. No matter where
you are starting from, I want to
encourage you to think big and imagine
the future you would like to have for
yourself. As one famous philosopher,
Goethe, said, “Whatever you dream,
follow it with action, because the
boldness of action in making dreams come
true has magic, a power and a genius in
itself.”
You know it has been 500 years since
Christopher Columbus first landed in the
Caribbean, and encountered the native
people there. While many people will be
celebrating this event, you and I both
know that it has been a very tough 500
years for Indian people. Many people
thought we would not survive. But we
have survived, and American Indians and
their proud cultures are now
flourishing.
I have often spoken of an Indian
renaissance, and I really do think the
opportunity is there for Indian people
to continue making sizable
contributions. It is up to you to do
this, because each person can and does
make a difference if they decide to
contribute their gift. It is important
for all people that Indians as
caretakers of this great Turtle Island
now known as North America, with their
unique and wonderful lifeways, to
continue to inhabit these aboriginal
homelands and hold our place in the
natural world. |
