May 11, 2025 • 19 mins
“You Don't Look Native...Enough”
What does it mean to be Native when people tell you that you don’t look Native?
In this raw and reflective episode, Katelyn gets personal about growing up in the blurred spaces of identity — where community pride and outside perception don’t always align. From childhood moments of humiliation to rejection within her own Native spaces, she opens up about the pain of proving her existence and how healing came through the voices of Indigenous women who reminded her: you are already enough.
Whether you’ve been questioned, misjudged, or told you didn’t belong — this episode will meet you there.
🌿 Topics in this episode:
– Blood quantum, identity, and colonial aftermath
– White-passing Native experiences
– Community rejection and generational silence
– Reclaiming belonging through matriarchal connection
– Teaching our kids they don’t need to prove anything
You’re not a fraction.
You’re a whole damn ancestor in the making.
🎧 Listen now, and don’t forget to follow @MatriarchMindsetPodcast on Instagram to join the conversation.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Hi, everyone.
I'm Kay, and welcome back to TheMatriarch Mindset.
Now, this episode, it's foreveryone who's ever been told
they don't look like they belongand for those who know better
now.
So let's dive in.
Now, this isn't a flashy topic.
It's not trending, but it'ssomething a lot of us carry
(00:23):
quietly.
It sounds like a question, butit lands like...
a stab.
It's when people say, you don'tlook native.
Have you ever heard that?
And not just heard it, but feltit in your gut.
That comment for me was one ofthe first moments I realized
(00:46):
that identity isn't alwaysaccepted at face value,
especially when your facedoesn't match someone else's
idea of who you should be.
And this is a deeply personalthing for me because there were
years that I struggled with thisand The first comment that
(01:08):
really stuck with me was when Iwas around 10 or 11.
We had just moved to Anchorage,Alaska after my parents
divorced.
I was the new kid in elementaryschool already feeling like I
don't fit in by starting the newschool in a big city and having
to make friends all over again.
(01:30):
And I remember it clear as daybecause this teacher had the
class interview me as a way toget to know me.
And looking back, that'straumatic by itself, right?
As a kid being in front of theclassroom and being interviewed.
So I was up there on a stool andthe normal questions are rolling
(01:53):
through.
What's your favorite color?
What is your pet's names?
Do you have any, you know, andwhere are you from came up.
And I said, I'm from Juneau andHoonah, Alaska, and I'm Alaska
native.
And this boy, I won't name namesin case he ever does listen to
(02:15):
my podcast, but he looked at meand said, you don't look native.
And it was not like a joke.
It was more of like adirectional comment, like a dig.
And the whole class took it as ajoke and just laughed.
And what was I supposed to do?
Right.
And I laughed too.
UNKNOWN (02:37):
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (02:37):
Because I didn't know what else to do.
And I was probably just nervous,right?
There's people that laugh out ofjust being nervous.
But I was so embarrassed.
I felt singled out for notlooking like what I was claiming
to be.
And maybe I shouldn't be sayingit out loud to people if I
(02:57):
didn't look a certain waybecause they wouldn't believe
me.
And that moment, it didn't juststing.
It settled in for a long, longtime.
I didn't have the words for itthen, but I know I felt it.
It was doubt, confusion,silence.
I mean, it's nearly 20 yearslater, and I still think about
(03:20):
that moment.
And that wasn't the first timeit happened, and it sure wasn't
the last time.
Fast forward a bit to middleschool.
I told one of my friends thatI'm Tlingit.
That is a whole topic I have foranother day of people not
understanding what being Tlingitis.
(03:41):
But she tilted her head and shewas like, you don't look native.
You're blonde.
Sound familiar?
And I remember getting morefrustrated because she was one
of my friends that I thoughtwould understand my background.
My parents, you know, my dad isof the Scandinavian descent and
(04:02):
my mom is a mix of everythingand Tlingit, Alaska native.
So instead of taking the time tosit there and explain away DNA
and how things, you know, divideup with genes, I I thought I
would save time by reaching intomy wallet and pulling out my BIA
(04:25):
card.
And that is your card thatyou're issued when your parents
enroll in the Bureau of IndianAffairs.
And it's kind of the nativeproof card, right?
You use it to be able to getbenefits through your native
corporations, to be enrolled, toget healthcare through the
(04:49):
Indian health system, But Ithought that proof card, my BIA
card was going to settle it asif that was the permission slip
that I needed to exist in thenative world.
And it's wild to think aboutnow.
(05:10):
Who else in this country has tocarry proof of their identity in
their wallet just in casesomeone doubts them?
And honestly, it's just for thegovernment, right?
To be able to know who'sindigenous and who's not and who
gets the benefits and who doesnot.
(05:30):
I look back at that moment nowand I think, I shouldn't have to
do that.
None of us should.
So let's zoom out.
Where does this even come from?
This idea that we have to look acertain way to belong is That
didn't start with us.
It started with colonization,with blood quantum requirements
(05:53):
for systems that made ouridentity a number, a fraction, a
checkbox, a document.
The government couldn't erasewho we are, so they tried to
erase how we see ourselves andwhat we are able to receive in
(06:14):
the future.
And that legacy is still verymuch here today.
I see it in classrooms.
I've seen it in boardrooms, insome native corporations, in our
communities, and even in ourmirrors.
Have you ever wondered whereyour doubts come from?
(06:35):
Like, why do we second guessourselves so quickly?
We have this card that sayswe're a quarter or we're an
eighth or we're threesixteenths, whatever it is.
This is not by accident.
It's by design.
I want to tell you about mygrandmother.
(06:58):
She's from Hoonah.
She's half Tlingit and grew upduring World War II.
She was part German, part nativeand Both parts were targets at
the time.
It was unsavory to be German anddownright wrong to be
indigenous.
(07:18):
She had told me when she wasalive, we would sit down and
she'd just tell me stories abouther past and...
She admitted she never talkedmuch about being Alaska Native
because she wasn't ashamed.
She was hiding it because it wassafer for her at the time.
And she was trying to protectherself.
(07:40):
You know, when you're walkingdown the street and there's
signs all over the place sayingno Indians allowed, no Natives
allowed, no dogs allowed, thatwas...
just awful.
That was real, realdiscrimination.
And I know I don't see hersilence as shame either.
(08:02):
It was pure survival.
And I think about that a lot.
What did she carry in hersilence?
What did she give up?
But what did she give up so thatI could speak, right?
Take a moment and Do you havesomeone in your family who
stayed quiet to protectthemselves, who maybe never got
(08:24):
to fully claim their identityout loud?
Oh, that's just awful.
I think we all know someone whocouldn't speak up for themselves
and claim their full identity.
So one of the hardest momentscame years later when It didn't
come from, so to speak, theoutside, right?
(08:45):
This one's hard to say, but it'sreal.
I was working for my AlaskaNative Corporation, a place that
felt like home to me.
I was proud to be working there,proud to be a part of something
bigger and working for mypeople.
And in my job there, I did a lotof paperwork.
And an elder came in one day andlooked at me and said, where are
(09:09):
all the Native employees?
I didn't even catch what thatquestion meant.
When she said it, I was justsmiling, customer service.
Hey, we have many Alaska Nativeemployees.
There's a lot of shareholdersthat work here.
And she looked at me dead in theeye and said, all I see are
white devils, clay cars, andclay cars, white person in
(09:34):
Tlingit.
And I know I sat there and Itried to convince her that I was
Alaska Native.
I tried to start to tell herwhere my family's from and who
they were, but she refused whatI was saying.
She refused my help, refused mypresence.
Even after I told her I wasnative, she continued to yell at
(09:55):
me and walked out.
I was so taken back by thisindividual because you're taught
from an early age that inTlingit culture and Southeast
Alaska in general, you respectyour elders, but how do you
respect someone who clearlydidn't respect me simply for how
(10:18):
I looked and that I was workingfor my own people?
Now I know coworkers heard whatshe said to me, but did
absolutely nothing.
What do you say?
It's so controversial, right?
Um, And I needed a break and Iwent and sat in my car
afterwards and I thought aboutthis moment and I just cried.
(10:43):
That's all I could do.
I couldn't comprehend it.
I couldn't accept it.
But here's the thing.
I think I cried so hard becausewhen rejection comes from inside
your own community, it hurtsdifferently.
It's not just doubt.
(11:05):
It's not just disconnection fromgeneration to generation.
It's the thought of beingdisowned.
It's not just that, right?
What hurts too is the stares,right?
When I walk in to seekhealthcare at Native clinics or
(11:29):
the whispers at communityevents, that always got to me.
And always being questioned,like, why are you wearing that
regalia?
And do you have permission totalk about that or wear that
regalia, right?
Even though it's my own clan.
And that starts to eat away atwho you thought you were.
(11:52):
And your pride and even yourappearance, like, should I be
wearing this?
Should I talk about beingindigenous when I don't fit into
their stereotype, right?
And that got to me and I stoppedshowing up to events because I
(12:13):
didn't want to be thought of asan outsider, right?
You live in this middle spacewhere you're too much for one
world and not enough foranother.
And that took a while to workthrough.
So what helped me, what broughtme back were women.
I'm being honest here.
(12:33):
I started talking about it.
I opened up having heart toheart conversations.
These are close to my chestconversations with some pretty
remarkable indigenous women overthe years.
I started telling them all thehard parts, the doubt in showing
up to these events, the, I don'tfeel enough.
(12:55):
I don't feel like I should bethere.
I don't feel like I belong.
Pointing out the stairs to themwhen we were together in person
and unnecessary questions andcomments.
And they would see some of itright in front of me when they
were introducing me to people inthe room and And they would
(13:15):
correct those elders or theywould share, right, that, oh,
this is my Duc Dainton sister,my clan sister.
And they reminded me, you comefrom a history of strong
indigenous women.
(13:37):
Don't ever question that fromhow you look, because they would
never.
They would know.
where you came from and who youwere related to.
If they were still here, theystarted bringing me in and
conversations.
They were including me moresticking up for me in public
more.
They lifted me up and honestly,they saved my pride and just
(14:00):
being there for me and showingme the way, showing me how to be
a matriarch in the making.
So let me ask you something.
Who are the women in your life?
that hold space for your truth?
Who reminds you that you alreadybelong?
(14:20):
Now, if you haven't had thatyet, I want this to be a moment
to be your first.
I want to share with you thatyou belong here.
And I hope you find a communityof women that you feel
comfortable in talking tobecause that's what we all need.
We all need to support oneanother and lift each other up
(14:42):
when we're feeling down or outof place and remind each other,
Hey, pull up a chair.
You belong at this table.
And that is true healing.
So in my thirties, I have a newperspective and And I channel my
grandma's matriarch energy,right?
I call it my matriarch mindset.
(15:04):
And every once in a while Idoubt myself, but I have to
bring myself back to that andremember everything she had to
go through and remember thoseconversations of belonging and
not apologizing for it either.
Not apologizing for pulling up achair to the table.
I don't reach for my bia card toprove my blood quantum to anyone
(15:30):
anymore i speak names i speakplaces i speak of my family
because my identity is not apercentage it's a pulse it's a
memory it's lineage that goesback further than any government
document could track.
(15:51):
I carry that with me every day.
I carry my grandmother, mygrandmother's DNA.
So now I want to turn this backto you.
Have you ever tried to shrink tofit someone else's idea of who
you should be?
Have you ever bit your tonguewhen someone questioned you just
to keep the peace?
(16:12):
Now, what would it feel like tostop doing that?
If you've ever felt like youwere too light, too mixed, too
different, too not enough tobelong, this is for you.
You don't need to look a certainway to carry your ancestors.
You don't need permission to bewho you already are.
(16:35):
You are native enough.
You are more than enough.
Because this isn't just aboutus.
It's about what we pass down toour children.
If we keep letting appearancedefine identity, we are
repeating the same tools thattry to erase us.
(16:59):
I know I want my daughter, myson, my future babies to never
feel the need to defend who theyare because they came from me,
my mother, my mother's mother,and on and on and on.
And if we raise our children toknow that being native is not a
look, but a way of being, a setof values, a deep connection to
(17:25):
the land, culture, and people,then we are giving them
something no one can take away.
So let's do that together.
Because our children will lookdifferent.
Their features, their stories,they'll be layered and blended
and beautiful, and they'll be noless native.
(17:46):
Because being native isn't aboutfitting into a photo, a
checkbox, so to speak.
It's about carrying yourancestors' memory, movement, and
meaning forward.
So who are you really?
Not who people say you are.
Not who they've tried...
to make you be to fit in.
(18:07):
You don't owe anyone proof.
You don't need to fit someoneelse's checklist.
You are a whole damn indigenousancestor in the making.
And I'm honored to be walkingbeside you.
So the next time someonequestions you on how native you
are, breathe and say it in yourhead, even if you can't say it
(18:29):
out loud.
I am native enough to be here.
I am native enough to belong,and I am native enough to carry
this story forward.
My friends have been so helpfulthroughout the years.
And I have to share this oneTikTok that my friend sent me.
(18:50):
And it's this indigenous womanbeing questioned on how native
is she, right?
So the person asked, how nativeare you?
And she goes, oh, I'm native.
And they're like, well, really,how native are you?
She said, oh, so, so, so native.
And The person said, well, areyou a quarter?
And she says, no, I'm not aquarter.
(19:11):
I'm a whole damn person.
And that is the energy of I wantyou to carry forward.
You are not a fraction.
You're a force.
So thank you for being heretoday.
If this episode made you feelseen, share it with someone who
needs to hear it too.
Follow us on Instagram atmatriarchmindsetpodcast.
(19:34):
I love to hear what you thinkand what came up for you.
I'll see you next time.
Hi, everyone.
I'm Kay, and welcome back to TheMatriarch Mindset.
Now, this episode, it's foreveryone who's ever been told
they don't look like they belongand for those who know better
now.
So let's dive in.
Now, this isn't a flashy topic.
It's not trending, but it'ssomething a lot of us carry
(00:23):
quietly.
It sounds like a question, butit lands like...
a stab.
It's when people say, you don'tlook native.
Have you ever heard that?
And not just heard it, but feltit in your gut.
That comment for me was one ofthe first moments I realized
(00:46):
that identity isn't alwaysaccepted at face value,
especially when your facedoesn't match someone else's
idea of who you should be.
And this is a deeply personalthing for me because there were
years that I struggled with thisand The first comment that
(01:08):
really stuck with me was when Iwas around 10 or 11.
We had just moved to Anchorage,Alaska after my parents
divorced.
I was the new kid in elementaryschool already feeling like I
don't fit in by starting the newschool in a big city and having
to make friends all over again.
(01:30):
And I remember it clear as daybecause this teacher had the
class interview me as a way toget to know me.
And looking back, that'straumatic by itself, right?
As a kid being in front of theclassroom and being interviewed.
So I was up there on a stool andthe normal questions are rolling
(01:53):
through.
What's your favorite color?
What is your pet's names?
Do you have any, you know, andwhere are you from came up.
And I said, I'm from Juneau andHoonah, Alaska, and I'm Alaska
native.
And this boy, I won't name namesin case he ever does listen to
(02:15):
my podcast, but he looked at meand said, you don't look native.
And it was not like a joke.
It was more of like adirectional comment, like a dig.
And the whole class took it as ajoke and just laughed.
And what was I supposed to do?
Right.
And I laughed too.
UNKNOWN (02:37):
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (02:37):
Because I didn't know what else to do.
And I was probably just nervous,right?
There's people that laugh out ofjust being nervous.
But I was so embarrassed.
I felt singled out for notlooking like what I was claiming
to be.
And maybe I shouldn't be sayingit out loud to people if I
(02:57):
didn't look a certain waybecause they wouldn't believe
me.
And that moment, it didn't juststing.
It settled in for a long, longtime.
I didn't have the words for itthen, but I know I felt it.
It was doubt, confusion,silence.
I mean, it's nearly 20 yearslater, and I still think about
(03:20):
that moment.
And that wasn't the first timeit happened, and it sure wasn't
the last time.
Fast forward a bit to middleschool.
I told one of my friends thatI'm Tlingit.
That is a whole topic I have foranother day of people not
understanding what being Tlingitis.
(03:41):
But she tilted her head and shewas like, you don't look native.
You're blonde.
Sound familiar?
And I remember getting morefrustrated because she was one
of my friends that I thoughtwould understand my background.
My parents, you know, my dad isof the Scandinavian descent and
(04:02):
my mom is a mix of everythingand Tlingit, Alaska native.
So instead of taking the time tosit there and explain away DNA
and how things, you know, divideup with genes, I I thought I
would save time by reaching intomy wallet and pulling out my BIA
(04:25):
card.
And that is your card thatyou're issued when your parents
enroll in the Bureau of IndianAffairs.
And it's kind of the nativeproof card, right?
You use it to be able to getbenefits through your native
corporations, to be enrolled, toget healthcare through the
(04:49):
Indian health system, But Ithought that proof card, my BIA
card was going to settle it asif that was the permission slip
that I needed to exist in thenative world.
And it's wild to think aboutnow.
(05:10):
Who else in this country has tocarry proof of their identity in
their wallet just in casesomeone doubts them?
And honestly, it's just for thegovernment, right?
To be able to know who'sindigenous and who's not and who
gets the benefits and who doesnot.
(05:30):
I look back at that moment nowand I think, I shouldn't have to
do that.
None of us should.
So let's zoom out.
Where does this even come from?
This idea that we have to look acertain way to belong is That
didn't start with us.
It started with colonization,with blood quantum requirements
(05:53):
for systems that made ouridentity a number, a fraction, a
checkbox, a document.
The government couldn't erasewho we are, so they tried to
erase how we see ourselves andwhat we are able to receive in
(06:14):
the future.
And that legacy is still verymuch here today.
I see it in classrooms.
I've seen it in boardrooms, insome native corporations, in our
communities, and even in ourmirrors.
Have you ever wondered whereyour doubts come from?
(06:35):
Like, why do we second guessourselves so quickly?
We have this card that sayswe're a quarter or we're an
eighth or we're threesixteenths, whatever it is.
This is not by accident.
It's by design.
I want to tell you about mygrandmother.
(06:58):
She's from Hoonah.
She's half Tlingit and grew upduring World War II.
She was part German, part nativeand Both parts were targets at
the time.
It was unsavory to be German anddownright wrong to be
indigenous.
(07:18):
She had told me when she wasalive, we would sit down and
she'd just tell me stories abouther past and...
She admitted she never talkedmuch about being Alaska Native
because she wasn't ashamed.
She was hiding it because it wassafer for her at the time.
And she was trying to protectherself.
(07:40):
You know, when you're walkingdown the street and there's
signs all over the place sayingno Indians allowed, no Natives
allowed, no dogs allowed, thatwas...
just awful.
That was real, realdiscrimination.
And I know I don't see hersilence as shame either.
(08:02):
It was pure survival.
And I think about that a lot.
What did she carry in hersilence?
What did she give up?
But what did she give up so thatI could speak, right?
Take a moment and Do you havesomeone in your family who
stayed quiet to protectthemselves, who maybe never got
(08:24):
to fully claim their identityout loud?
Oh, that's just awful.
I think we all know someone whocouldn't speak up for themselves
and claim their full identity.
So one of the hardest momentscame years later when It didn't
come from, so to speak, theoutside, right?
(08:45):
This one's hard to say, but it'sreal.
I was working for my AlaskaNative Corporation, a place that
felt like home to me.
I was proud to be working there,proud to be a part of something
bigger and working for mypeople.
And in my job there, I did a lotof paperwork.
And an elder came in one day andlooked at me and said, where are
(09:09):
all the Native employees?
I didn't even catch what thatquestion meant.
When she said it, I was justsmiling, customer service.
Hey, we have many Alaska Nativeemployees.
There's a lot of shareholdersthat work here.
And she looked at me dead in theeye and said, all I see are
white devils, clay cars, andclay cars, white person in
(09:34):
Tlingit.
And I know I sat there and Itried to convince her that I was
Alaska Native.
I tried to start to tell herwhere my family's from and who
they were, but she refused whatI was saying.
She refused my help, refused mypresence.
Even after I told her I wasnative, she continued to yell at
(09:55):
me and walked out.
I was so taken back by thisindividual because you're taught
from an early age that inTlingit culture and Southeast
Alaska in general, you respectyour elders, but how do you
respect someone who clearlydidn't respect me simply for how
(10:18):
I looked and that I was workingfor my own people?
Now I know coworkers heard whatshe said to me, but did
absolutely nothing.
What do you say?
It's so controversial, right?
Um, And I needed a break and Iwent and sat in my car
afterwards and I thought aboutthis moment and I just cried.
(10:43):
That's all I could do.
I couldn't comprehend it.
I couldn't accept it.
But here's the thing.
I think I cried so hard becausewhen rejection comes from inside
your own community, it hurtsdifferently.
It's not just doubt.
(11:05):
It's not just disconnection fromgeneration to generation.
It's the thought of beingdisowned.
It's not just that, right?
What hurts too is the stares,right?
When I walk in to seekhealthcare at Native clinics or
(11:29):
the whispers at communityevents, that always got to me.
And always being questioned,like, why are you wearing that
regalia?
And do you have permission totalk about that or wear that
regalia, right?
Even though it's my own clan.
And that starts to eat away atwho you thought you were.
(11:52):
And your pride and even yourappearance, like, should I be
wearing this?
Should I talk about beingindigenous when I don't fit into
their stereotype, right?
And that got to me and I stoppedshowing up to events because I
(12:13):
didn't want to be thought of asan outsider, right?
You live in this middle spacewhere you're too much for one
world and not enough foranother.
And that took a while to workthrough.
So what helped me, what broughtme back were women.
I'm being honest here.
(12:33):
I started talking about it.
I opened up having heart toheart conversations.
These are close to my chestconversations with some pretty
remarkable indigenous women overthe years.
I started telling them all thehard parts, the doubt in showing
up to these events, the, I don'tfeel enough.
(12:55):
I don't feel like I should bethere.
I don't feel like I belong.
Pointing out the stairs to themwhen we were together in person
and unnecessary questions andcomments.
And they would see some of itright in front of me when they
were introducing me to people inthe room and And they would
(13:15):
correct those elders or theywould share, right, that, oh,
this is my Duc Dainton sister,my clan sister.
And they reminded me, you comefrom a history of strong
indigenous women.
(13:37):
Don't ever question that fromhow you look, because they would
never.
They would know.
where you came from and who youwere related to.
If they were still here, theystarted bringing me in and
conversations.
They were including me moresticking up for me in public
more.
They lifted me up and honestly,they saved my pride and just
(14:00):
being there for me and showingme the way, showing me how to be
a matriarch in the making.
So let me ask you something.
Who are the women in your life?
that hold space for your truth?
Who reminds you that you alreadybelong?
(14:20):
Now, if you haven't had thatyet, I want this to be a moment
to be your first.
I want to share with you thatyou belong here.
And I hope you find a communityof women that you feel
comfortable in talking tobecause that's what we all need.
We all need to support oneanother and lift each other up
(14:42):
when we're feeling down or outof place and remind each other,
Hey, pull up a chair.
You belong at this table.
And that is true healing.
So in my thirties, I have a newperspective and And I channel my
grandma's matriarch energy,right?
I call it my matriarch mindset.
(15:04):
And every once in a while Idoubt myself, but I have to
bring myself back to that andremember everything she had to
go through and remember thoseconversations of belonging and
not apologizing for it either.
Not apologizing for pulling up achair to the table.
I don't reach for my bia card toprove my blood quantum to anyone
(15:30):
anymore i speak names i speakplaces i speak of my family
because my identity is not apercentage it's a pulse it's a
memory it's lineage that goesback further than any government
document could track.
(15:51):
I carry that with me every day.
I carry my grandmother, mygrandmother's DNA.
So now I want to turn this backto you.
Have you ever tried to shrink tofit someone else's idea of who
you should be?
Have you ever bit your tonguewhen someone questioned you just
to keep the peace?
(16:12):
Now, what would it feel like tostop doing that?
If you've ever felt like youwere too light, too mixed, too
different, too not enough tobelong, this is for you.
You don't need to look a certainway to carry your ancestors.
You don't need permission to bewho you already are.
(16:35):
You are native enough.
You are more than enough.
Because this isn't just aboutus.
It's about what we pass down toour children.
If we keep letting appearancedefine identity, we are
repeating the same tools thattry to erase us.
(16:59):
I know I want my daughter, myson, my future babies to never
feel the need to defend who theyare because they came from me,
my mother, my mother's mother,and on and on and on.
And if we raise our children toknow that being native is not a
look, but a way of being, a setof values, a deep connection to
(17:25):
the land, culture, and people,then we are giving them
something no one can take away.
So let's do that together.
Because our children will lookdifferent.
Their features, their stories,they'll be layered and blended
and beautiful, and they'll be noless native.
(17:46):
Because being native isn't aboutfitting into a photo, a
checkbox, so to speak.
It's about carrying yourancestors' memory, movement, and
meaning forward.
So who are you really?
Not who people say you are.
Not who they've tried...
to make you be to fit in.
(18:07):
You don't owe anyone proof.
You don't need to fit someoneelse's checklist.
You are a whole damn indigenousancestor in the making.
And I'm honored to be walkingbeside you.
So the next time someonequestions you on how native you
are, breathe and say it in yourhead, even if you can't say it
(18:29):
out loud.
I am native enough to be here.
I am native enough to belong,and I am native enough to carry
this story forward.
My friends have been so helpfulthroughout the years.
And I have to share this oneTikTok that my friend sent me.
(18:50):
And it's this indigenous womanbeing questioned on how native
is she, right?
So the person asked, how nativeare you?
And she goes, oh, I'm native.
And they're like, well, really,how native are you?
She said, oh, so, so, so native.
And The person said, well, areyou a quarter?
And she says, no, I'm not aquarter.
(19:11):
I'm a whole damn person.
And that is the energy of I wantyou to carry forward.
You are not a fraction.
You're a force.
So thank you for being heretoday.
If this episode made you feelseen, share it with someone who
needs to hear it too.
Follow us on Instagram atmatriarchmindsetpodcast.
(19:34):
I love to hear what you thinkand what came up for you.
I'll see you next time.
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