Being Indigenous to a unique place provides a powerful source of identity for the original inhabitants of that land. To find common threads across a diverse group of Native American and First Nations peoples, we conducted numerous interviews on what it means to be indigenous.  Beginning with our own reflections, we then turned to our friends and family and finally to the staff and students of the Northwest Indian College to gather further information. We found that although we all have different languages and cultural practices, indigenous people share a common connection to the earth because of our relationship to our true homelands. This sentiment is felt in the stories told by Lummi Tribal member, Timothy Ballew Jr.,  who generously shares his wisdom, teachings, and understanding of the Natural World. It’s important that we take the time to sit with our elders and learn from them.

In this first episode of the YAI podcast we talk about learning the language of our Native American culture: we are the Lummi people from the Pacific Northwest in Bellingham Washington. Growing up I didn’t get to be involved in my culture as much as I wanted to because different families had their own ways of doing things and mine didn’t practice culture as much as other families did. My brother Tyson Scarborough and my boyfriend Keith Jefferson are in the podcast and they are teaching me the language by showing me how to say my introduction in Lummi.