- Hello.

My name is Kymon Palau.

I am half Dene and half Tongan.

- My name is Mary Ann Buggs.

I'm an enrolled member of the Cahto tribe,

and I'm also Cheyenne Arapaho.

- I'm Brandy Lewis

and I'm a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.

- Hi, my name is Silas Cleveland.

I'm a Eastern Shoshone in American

from the Wind River Indian Reservation here in Wyoming.

- Today I'm gonna be answering your questions

about Native Americans.

- [Kymon] Why do people call Native Americans "Indians"?

- Well, that's because Christopher Columbus was lost.

- If you don't know who he is,

that's probably a good thing.

- He thought he was in India.

And so he called the people that he encountered Indians.

- I'm not Indian.

I'm not from India.

So don't call me Indian please.

Thank you.

- [Brandy] Do indigenous tribes still exist?

- Yes, absolutely.

There plenty of tribes out there still today;

however, there are many that are not.

- There are over 500 unique

and different tribes in the United States.

- But did you know there are over 300 tribes

that are not yet federally recognized.

That is over 800 tribes on Turtle Island

or what is now the continental US that are here.

- Each one has their own language,

each one has their own customs.

I look forward to a time when everybody understands

what being Native American means.

What do Native Americans prefer to be called?

There are a couple of answers to this.

- 'Cause every native person is going

to have a different response.

- For myself personally,

I grew up being called American Indian.

I think it's an individual choice.

Not everybody,

not everybody who's Native American has the same answer.

I prefer Native American.

- I have a dear friends that they don't

like being called Indian.

Indian to me, you're probably from India.

- I like to be referred to as being Choctaw.

That's what I am.

I'm a member of the Choctaw Nation.

I'm Choctaw woman.

- There's so many terms,

Aboriginal, First Nations,

Native American, native, Indigenous.

It's a preference.

I know that I personally like to be called Indigenous.

I think it's the best term to describe me and my ancestors

as the original people of this land.

- What do Native Americans believe in?

Well, if I was joking,

I would say fry bread,

but I think that you're referring to like a spiritual,

a spiritual beliefs.

- And that's, that's gonna be very tribe

to tribe individual, individual.

- In general,

we believe that we are responsible for this land

that we were placed in this country to take care of it.

I personally have,

feel a deep connection to this land

and all the creatures and things that are on it.

- Because of colonization,

forced conversion on my people.

We were not allowed to practice our way of life.

We were not allowed to speak our language.

It was deemed evil, savage, not of God.

And if we were to do so,

we were either beaten, whipped, or killed.

So my people had to conform.

We had to adapt in order to survive,

which is sad.

And over time that religion was instilled.

You have natives that are Catholic,

you have natives that are Christian,

and you have natives that are neither,

that are reconnecting,

trying to backtrack and learn about our way of life,

about our beliefs before they were taken from us.

- [Mary] Is Native American an ethnicity?

- Yes, I would say so although we speak different languages

and we're not all the same.

We have that shared appreciation and thankfulness

for everything that surrounds us.

- I believe that it is an ethnicity.

I believe that it is a culture.

Native Americans have a rich,

and vibrant,

and wonderful culture no matter what tribe they are.

- Do Native Americans celebrate Thanksgiving?

And I think that's, you know,

a preference that native people can make for themselves.

- I celebrate thanksgiving because that's how I was raised.

I think it's a time in general just to be thankful

about the life that we have here,

but there are many Native Americans who do not celebrate it.

- I like the idea of Thanksgiving.

I'm all for being thankful giving back

and being with friends and family;

however, that is romanticized.

Thanksgiving is much, much more than that.

It is a deep rooted pain,

and hurt,

and story of colonization,

massacre,

lies.

So for me and my family it is a day of mourning.

- My family and we, we don't always do

the typical quintessential Thanksgiving dinner.

I actually try to do some traditional dishes

and incorporate those in our meals

and use it as a time for education.

- But to me it's still a gathering with family.

Definitely not forgetting,

keeping the ancestors in mind,

always thinking about that,

thinking about what they had to go through.

- [Kymon] What is a reservation?

- It's kind of a sad word really.

When I think about reservation.

- Reservation is an area

that Native Americans were technically given.

Which I mean, they were our lands to begin with.

- The government, the United States were greedy

and lustful for oil, property, and gold.

And we were in the way.

So they forced us to relocate on to tiny patches of land

so far from what was home for us,

hoping that we would slowly die off.

- Today there are many reservations

where there is no running water,

where the population is almost entirely in poverty,

and where sickness

and other things exist that cause harm to our people.

The reservation system in America is a tragedy actually.

While there is a rich culture in people,

it is a stark reminder of how this country has mistreated

the Native American population.

I hope that we continue to make strides

in improving the reservation system.

And I invite everybody to look up

or google Native American reservations near me

and visit one or find out more about one.

- Well, I really enjoyed these questions.

I'm happy that people are still googling us.

People are still curious.

- I think I would say to non-native people,

spend more time asking questions and listening.

- I welcome each and every opportunity

that comes along to speak about my people,

because I'm very proud of who I am

and what my people represent.

- I hope you learned something new today.

I hope I answered some of your questions.

- I'd like to give a shout out

to the Wind River Indian Reservation,

to the Eastern Shoshone tribe,

and the Northern Arapaho who are here too.

I love you all and have a blessed day.

(upbeat music)