November 2018 brought us a historical event and this past week we witnessed something that is quite inspiring – 110 new women members of Congress were elected for a total of 127 women now elected to Congress… and two of those are the first ever Native American women!

Role model = a person whose behavior in a particular role is imitated by others. (merriam-webster.com)

What started as a conversation in my living room turned into an experience over 200 years in the making.

This time of year, Christmas, people across our Tribe and the country tend to soften and be more generous, with our money, if not our time.

I’ve covered governments both on and off tribal land. They’ve ranged from Tribal Council and its committees to school boards, from county commissions to town councils and aldermen.

A familiar decoration at Christmas is the Nativity Scene.  Some people adorn their homes with small statues or their yards with large illumined figures of the Nativity.  We know the characters all too well. 

My wife and I recently watched a short documentary on YouTube entitled “Metal from the Dirt” which covered a fledging, and growing, metal band scene on the Navajo Nation.

I was watching the live feed of Tribal Council and again some of the official video archives of different sessions of government workings, and I came away a little sad at what we are allowing ourselves to be and how we talk to the people we say that we love.