By Jerry W. Kram

MHA Times Reporter

            Part of keeping culture alive is sharing that culture with your community. The MHA Nation Interpretive Center hosted a Cultural Identity Forum this week to stimulate discussion about who the MHA are as a people and what draws tribal members and families together.

            Zeb Demaray emceed the even and he and Zane Baker and Amiah Fimbres facilitated group discussions among the more than 30 participants in the forum. Although they led the discussions, their goal was to have the group members share their thoughts on what makes the Three Affiliated Tribes a distinct culture.

            Each facilitator had a topic and rotated between the three small groups for a 20-minute discussion. Demaray focused on the topic of practices, things that non-tribal members wouldn’t understand. Baker’s topic was Tribal Identity, what connects individuals to the land and the people of the Three Tribes. Fimbres explored the topic of stories, including personal and family stories, mashis (creation or origin stories), and educational stories.

            Participants were given note cards to write down their thoughts, which were collected at the end of the evening. They also discussed each topic at their tables.

            Interpretive Center Director, Delphine Baker, thanked all the participants before the wrap-up at the end of the evening. She said this was the second event in a series of community discussions that she hoped would become monthly events. She invited the public to contact her about cultural topics they would like see discussed at coming forums.

            “We want to do this again, in a month,” she said. “But we need ideas about what to talk about next time. That way it is not just us thinking about what we can talk about, it’s all of you. So, if you have ideas, we can talk about, let us know. I really want to keep this going so you guys can get up and talk about things I don’t know. We learn from each other. Resilience in Native People is when we share and we keep our culture together and our sovereignty alive.”

            Each of the facilitators summarized the discussions on their topics.

            “We talked about the things that made us different from nontribal members,” Demaray said. “One of the biggest things were our sense of community and the connection to our people. Another thing was how we help people out. Almost everybody said something about hugging somebody or showing compassion to somebody.”

            “Some of the other things were smudging. Praying and praying in your language are another thing that sets us apart. There are other things such as singing. There was a lot of smaller things like not whistling in the dark, things like that. There was a lot of sharing, being willing to share. That really sets us apart from a lot of other tribes. We share almost to the point of being broke sometimes. That comes from our ancestors because giving is connected to our spirituality.”

            Everyone laughed when he mentioned that pointing with your lips was another MHA trait. He added that the MHA people are still prolific craftspeople through beading, quill work, and other arts.

            Fimbres said all three groups thought storytelling was a big part of their lives growing up, whether they were youth or elders. It was how they learned about their families and their tribe.

            “Each table said they learned the stories growing up,” she said. “We talked about time to tell stories. We learned that it is different in different families. We went over the similarities between our creation stories and those of other tribes. Some of the stories teach us how to be and how to carry ourselves.”

            One elder drew a chuckle from her table after describing growing up in a two-room cabin, with one room being the kitchen and the other the bedroom. All of many children in the family would crowd into the bedroom and her father would tell mashis from the kitchen until they fell asleep.

            “So, I know the beginnings to all the stories but not the endings, because I fell asleep,” she said.

            Zane Baker reflected on how all these things combined to make the Nueta, Hidatsa, and Arikara three peoples but a single tribe.

            “My question was the one bringing all together – Cultural Identity, what does that all mean,” Baker said. “The stories and the practices we do from the stories, all of things that you have shared is a kinship, the connection we all have together. Not only kinship, but names, how you got your names. I really think clanship is very powerful because it doesn’t just show who you are but who your relatives are.”

            Baker reflected on how clans determined how tribal members related to each other.

            “Who’s my mother, who’s my father,” he began. “Who’s my brother, who’s my sister. Who can I tease or not tease. Who can I ask for something. That in itself that shows a connection that is unspoken and unknown. I certainly learned this as I went from table to table. I knew who I could call on or ask. Who I needed to buy a coffee for next time I see them. It’s this that makes us strong and powerful because it makes us who we are.”

            Baker cited Bernadine Young Bird as one participant who contributed by speaking of all the hardships, including the destruction caused by the Garrison Dam, suffered by the MHA people yet their tribal identity survived and stayed strong.

            “She talked of all the hardships we have fought off,” he said. “So, we are the strong ones who are still here. This is our connection to everything. We also talked about the land and our connection to it. How we used to play over there or get into trouble over there. It was the people who you were with. It’s the people scolded you when you had to run home after dark. That’s the emotion that was there.”

            “We remember our practices and why we practice them,” he continued. “Because of the stories. What do the stories tell us? It tells us all those things we still do today. That is why it is so important to have these visits. There aren’t a lot of places now where we can just sit and visit. That’s why at the Interpretive Center we are trying to bring that back. Come hang out. Come have soup. It’s the reason why we talked about stories and practices and why we tried to bring it all together.”