We were sitting around a campfire this past Saturday night listening to Jared… rapt. After describing what he does as a mariner (that’s right: a professional m a r i n e r), Jared said no, he never got seasick. Under any kind of conditions from the ᑭᒋᑲᒥ (Gitche Gumee–the “great sea”) to every port of call around the globe, this Ottawa #NDN of the Grand Traverse Band has never suffered nausea or discomfort. This prompted my recall of the days I worked in television and there would be the annual scheduling of downtime for work on the tower. It was always done by a team of Native Americans. I cannot recall which tribe they were from, but these guys traveled a national circuit doing this kind of work. Rich Pegram was GM of WTVR when I was there, and he explained in the Monday morning staff meeting that these guys were unscathed by danger… no fear of heights whatsoever, so they pretty much had a lock on this dizzying gig for every station across the country. This aspect of Indian-DNA has put them in some really high places, to wit: https://dailygazette.com/2017/04/16/honoring-native-americans-who-built-skyscrapers-bridges/
But these are not stories about #orangeshirtday. Orange Shirt Day is not about good stories, it’s about unconscionable things that have happened to indigenous children and their families on this continent. It’s about putting a spotlight right on these issues because they’ve been buried (literally) for so long. So I’m training what amperes I’ve got in that direction, too.
Here’s a link I hope everyone visits today–September 30th–the day we wear our orange shirts:
http://www.orangeshirtday.org
Seaver Creative 