Prologue

It begins in February 2025, with my brush, my pen, my needle, and my camera creating what will be my forever passion project. I’ve always wanted to create something like this: a series that ties my personal past and the history of the First Nation community to help explain the wounds that are caused over time. It’s the depression, addiction, anger, silence, or broken relationships that echo through the community I want to bring to light. It’s what I saw in my own tribe, in my own bloodline, and even in myself in this “new world sickness.” For that, each piece of art is more than decoration, it’s a story, a reminder, a prayer.

Generational trauma, also called intergenerational or transgenerational trauma, is defined in books and Google searches as “the transmission of trauma from one generation to the next.” But for me, it’s not just a definition. It is a creation of today's culture. 

It’s been over 300 years of generational trauma… and honestly, I still don’t know how to talk about it all. There is not a day where I question myself. Where do I begin with this story? Should I even talk about my personal experience? How do you fit centuries of pain, resilience, and survival into just a few words and still be gentle enough to connect with other First Nation people who carry the same weight? 

History is often written by those in power. But the internet, our voices, our art are tools to tell our truths. I can’t speak for every First Nation person. But I can speak as a Goodteacher, a Santee-Ponca mixed child. To carry this name means to be a survivor. And it means to be a teacher, too. 

I am working on a project for 2027 called The End of Blood Quantum. The goal is to capture what it is like to be a modern First Nation. How history had shaped the community and the current problems as a result. It is my way of sharing, of healing, of reclaiming. 

That’s what this series will do: teach, question, and remember, I’ll explore the language used against us, and the language we claim back.

 I’ll talk about:

Indian/ Injan: A term still used on government documents, but rooted in colonial error and used in derogatory ways.

Native American: A broad term, but misleading. Anyone born in America is technically a "native."

First Nation / Indigenous: The terms I prefer. We were here before the U.S. existed. The U.S. is the second nation on this land.

I will also explore topics like:

Treaties: Agreements between nations that were almost always broken.

Blood Quantum: A colonial tool to limit Indigenous identity and sovereignty.

Indian Boarding Schools: Institutions designed to "kill the Indian, save the man."

Reservation vs. Assimilated First Nation: Charles Eastmen Theory to the new world. Often hidden in the modern term “city native”, used to describe tribal members who don’t live and/ or ever lived on the reservation.

Second Nation: How I will refer to the United States as they were the Second Nation to try to claim North America.

Sioux: A broad term used for the alley tribes, Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota. Originally from the Anishinaabe Tribe (with the influence from France) meaning “enemy.” It’s considered derogatory because it erases the identities of the different nations. 

I’ll break down treaties, boarding schools, blood quantum, assimilation, resistance and more. I’ll show how our truths survive in our ceremonies, our stories, and our very bodies.

Because our history is not just “the past.” It is living, breathing, still shaping who we are.

And so this begins, bead by bead, word by word. I may be a lighter piece of fry bread, kneaded differently, but I am here to feed the people.
 
~ Teach