Xbox Announces Aises Partnership For International Day Of The World'S Indigenous Peoples
Microsoft News, Wednesday, August 9,2023
We're still here. Indigenous people, that is. I'm one of them. I am from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and Cherokee Nation. I enjoy creating beadwork like my ancestors before me, or rather I am learning to.
I grew up in California and Arizona where Indigenous cultures are entirely different from my own. But I did travel to Oklahoma and North Carolina frequently, the ancestral homelands of my people. I have fond memories of competing in jingle dress competitions at powwows, surrounded by brightly colored fabrics, beating drums, and the metallic tinkling of the cones sewn into the dresses. I've enjoyed stick ball games at fall festivals and times of solemn prayer during sweat ceremonies. I remember my father teaching me to use a bow.