056 | GOT VOTE?
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So this question here, would you run for office? I mean, I'm doing it for the new car for real. I'm doing it for the chairman check. I'm not getting new hives, I'm just kidding. Young and Indigenous Podcast is an outlet for people to know about Indigenous knowledge, storytelling, and history. Through our youthful journeys as Indigenous people, young people, and elders share their experiences with us. Without them, we wouldn't be able to do this. About to tell some Red stories.

Stay tuned. Okay, we'll start with introductions. So, of course, I'm Cyrus James. I grew up in Wenatchee, but I'm a Toilet member. I'm Sky Schofield, originally from Redding, California. I'm Wintune, Pit River, and Wailaki.

Hello, my respective people. My name is Isabella James, and I come from the Lummi Nation. Yeah, that's where I was born and raised. Hello, I'm Olivia. I'm from Bellingham, Washington. I'm not native to the area, but this is where I grew up, where we're recording right now. Cool, so now we can open up to maybe our histories with voting. So...

I turned 18 in the February of 2017, so I just missed the cutoff for the 2016 presidential election. But I was able to vote in the 2020 presidential election and have voted somewhat consistently, like once a year maybe, in local ballots or state ballots. Definitely haven't made every one. Yeah.

I turned 18 in 2006, midterm through Bush's presidency, and I was able to start voting for Obama.

during his first campaign, which is amazing and Full honesty, you know started voting obviously with the presidential election and have been working towards getting more and more involved voting being informed for midterm elections and off your elections and and really getting involved from the federal level and further and further as

learn new ways to do research and get informed on politicians policies and initiatives let's see i turned 18 and um was it 2013 2014 one of those years but um i haven't really voted i think i voted once but i'm not really educated on that whole

All of that or really paid attention to it until recently. And then tell people start talking about it and what our future looks like and what we can do for ourselves. So us getting out there for ourselves to vote, but also get others to vote as well and why it's important to vote.

Let's see. I turned 18 like three weeks before the 2008 election, before Obama's first election. So I was really excited. I was the only black person in my class. So I was very expressive over who I was going to be voting for that year. And I voted in every presidential election since then. Similar to Sky, it took me a few years to get into local elections. But when I was living in New York,

for undergrad. I registered in New York so that I could vote there because I had a professor that was like really passionate about it. And so I think I absorbed some of that from her. And yeah, I love voting. So happy to be talking about it today. So why is voting important to you guys? Voting, I think is really important. Obviously, it's controversial, because, you know, rightfully so some some folks feel that if you vote in the national elections, you're

sort of buying into the system that governs all of our lives or you're giving it credence or and you know, there are a lot of opposing viewpoints, but for me personally, I feel like voting and the electoral system is a tool that we can use to our advantage.

Specifically, you know, for me, I come from a small rural town, country town in Northern California, and that town's nearly all of its infrastructure, road repair, road maintenance comes from state and federal grants. And so we, those grants are only available and we only get those grants and are chosen for those because of the entire program.

the infrastructure of policy and policymakers across the country. And that goes for, you know, health care in small towns that can't really afford to hire and maintain good doctors and stuff. Any support services or general welfare of the people in areas that don't have, you know, a huge tax base voting

And the government is a way that money kind of gets infused into those areas. So what the policies are and who the policy makers are that make up all of those policies and programs are determined by your vote. So I like to think about, you know, children and elders and those who need support are supported by your vote. And, you know, there is a

idea that there's status quo that things may or may not change significantly based on who you vote for but you know real damage can be done by policymakers who don't have everyone's interests at heart laws can be passed that extract resources from your the environment in your community and benefits can be given to

robber baron type companies that want to just come into communities and take take take so, you know finding out who has people's real interests in mind and

And voting for those people is important. It's not the end of the line voting and then feeling like everything's going to be taken care of from there. I feel like voting is the starting line and you get to choose who you're going to be working with or who you're going to be working against. So

might as well drop that ballot in and set up the playing field for yourself and your community and then keep going from there. So that's why I vote and I think it's important to choose your representatives. You said robber baron type companies, what does that mean? Yeah, robber barons, so like companies that come in and say, I don't want to, I can use a historical example, railroads.

Railroad companies used to come in and they make the decision on how a town would be structured and they can sort of use private sector and public sector, use the government to the community's disadvantage, take land, build their railroads, even though it might pollute a certain area or now safety is a big issue.

Railroads still go through towns, my town in particular, but they don't have safety infrastructure, so people are getting hit by trains quite often. Not to pin anything on any specific example, but that's an example. You can read The Jungle about how large companies and factories used to employ people and have no safety standards. And so the...

By not taking care of their employees, they make more profit because all the damages done by their economic activities are paid for by the people and not themselves. So any company that wants to come in and take advantage or destroy or pollute or anything like that is a Robert Barron type entity.

I think it's important to vote. I mean, it's a choice for yourself to vote and it's a choice for like the people that get put into these positions. And I think like our voice, we're able to use our voice by voting for these people to be leaders for us.

for the places that they're in. So being knowledgeable about what these people do or what they're doing or what is it that they're working on to help better our communities, but also for you to put the vote in and also being as young some of us are, I think it's important to get a lot of younger voters in because it's...

for us to put our voices out there for our future and what we want in our future. And I think it's important for us to have the voices to put those people into those places so it can better the generations in front of us and

I don't have a lot of knowledge on voting and stuff, but I believe once I start to learn about it more and as we do learn about it more, I realize how much more important it is for us to be putting ourselves out there for that. I like what you said about it being a choice and a choice that you have to make because I resonate with that a lot. A lot of people in my family don't vote. And I think that that's,

There's a lot of history and trauma around voting with black and brown people, especially. That's in part why I do vote. So like I vote because my ancestors couldn't vote. I vote because I see gerrymandering and segregation still happening at the ballot. And a lot of people's voices aren't able to be documented and heard in elections. And so it's like an opportunity for me to express myself.

express myself politically and to advocate for things that I think might better the circumstances of black and brown people in this country and queer people and disabled people and everybody that are on the margins. But yeah, it is a choice. And I think that it's one that every year gets more and more challenging, especially as you become more politically aware and you start to see like how

maybe how ineffective it feels at times and how it's just one one part of it but um to what sky was saying earlier about about that just being the starting point i definitely think that that's true and so this is how i start the conversation and it's how i express myself in one way but then there's so much more work to be done after the election so i feel i feel a similar way when i think of the significance of voting um correct me if i'm wrong if i'm wrong but i think that

we indigenous people have had the right to vote for about 100 years. I think that's right. So I think of our ancestors that didn't have the right to vote, and I think of like, imagine if none of us had the right to vote, and whoever the politician is in highest power just could not assign whoever he wants or whoever they want below them and so on and so forth. So it's like, if nothing else, just vote because you can. Because some people, a lot of people didn't get to, many people around in other

political structures don't get to vote. So use it. Use it as a symbol of power for yourself. I'm reminded as we're talking about this, thinking about voting as power, you know, and that last election, we saw some incredible power come out of different areas across the country, like Arizona, where they...

had a concerted effort. They really put out the native vote in Diné country, and they turned the entire state to a different political party because of the Diné nation, Navajo nation, standing up and voicing their concerns and choosing someone to vote for. Reminds me a lot of the story elders in my community used to tell about coyotes stealing fire from the Yellow Jackets.

The United States was set up in a way that even though there are yellow jackets guarding it, power is supposed to be, you know, people are able to vote and sort of take on some of that power.

by organizing and voting for individuals. So I kind of feel like voting, especially in this election, is like stealing. Take that power from the Yellow Jackets, the people that don't want you to have power. We have the opportunity to run up and take it and then give it to the people for everything that power can provide, not just power for power's sake, but like we were talking about earlier, you know,

roads and health care and support services for a community. I'm thinking of all those who think of and talk about how insignificant your vote, your single vote may be. I think it's meant to feel that way. The electoral college is set up to make you feel that way, which is also the point of local elections are so important because of that. It might feel like, oh, we're just one

drop in a large pond and the state is going to be this color or that color. So what does it really matter? But there's so much more on the ballot. There's so much more at stake than just the presidential election, although it's important to vote in them all. But yeah. Truly. Yeah, I was thinking of like, if you're a complacent person in terms of voting and just like think of, you know, there is an initiative in every ballot that is going to affect you, whether you look into it or not.

And that initiative, you know, there's someone on the other side of it who is thrilled with your complacence. They thrive on that and they want that. So I feel like maybe that can empower some people to do it. And I wanted to talk about like my process with voting. I have never taken a whole lot of time to do it because I don't really feel like I want to spend hours and hours like looking into each issue personally.

and educating myself on it. So generally I'll find a voter's guide that'll have some context on like each issue on the ballot. And like, you know, obviously like they'll tend to align one way or another, but they'll like tell you why and give you more context to like what it's about versus just what's on there. It can be ambiguous what the initiatives are about. And especially when it's people, it's like, I don't know who any of these people are. So that's, that's like my process whenever I am filling out a ballot.

Yeah, having conversations in your community or looking towards organizations that you trust their opinions can be helpful to look towards what they recommend or suggest or the context they provide. And then when a lot of people are doing that and banding together and voting, similarly, you're building a voting block that politicians really look towards.

Once groups of voters that all share similar interests and vote together are identified by, you know, voting in an election and having some sway,

A lot of politics is just money and funding, but a lot of it is voting blocks and voting power. So they will start to, you know, try to do things for you because they know that that's how you continue to be a politician is you need to find groups of people that vote together. And so if you're voting together with your community, then your community's priorities will be prioritized.

What do you guys think about people who want us to, like you're saying, not vote? How does that make you feel that there are people that would want you to not vote? I think that's crazy. I think so many people are fed up with the status quo, like right now. And if you're feeling that way, then you have to fight against it. But people are leaning on apathy. Like, you know, oppressors are leaning on apathy. They're hoping that we'll feel complacent or apathetic towards voting.

It should make you feel angry. Yeah, I feel sneaky and slimy and insidious. I don't like it. It makes me angry. The word apathy is good. That's like lack of caring, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's emotional, but it's also physical. You can be apathetic physically, too. Yeah. Not that that matters. Yeah, it probably does. Yeah, I'm thinking there's a lot of people from my hometown that I went to high school with that I think are in that middle area where they just...

don't really care about it. And it makes sense. Like a lot of it, probably they don't probably see the effect it has on them. So why, so why should they care? Yeah. Well, at this point, yeah. Um, Olivia has to run. So thank you for having me. Thank you for joining this episode. So Olivia just left, but Roy's going to hop in now. Hi Roy. Thanks for having me. Uh, as many of y'all know, I'm Roy Alexander. I'm a member of the Nooksack tribe and, um,

Yeah, I'm kind of just the editor and producer out here and excited to be here. Yeah, we'd love to have you. So, yeah, maybe you can share your history with voting. I don't vote. You don't vote? No, that's a lie. Yeah, okay. Why don't you vote? I voted in the last election and that one was Hillary and Trump, correct?

2016? No, 2020 was Biden and Trump. That one was Biden and Trump? Yeah. Okay, yeah. I didn't vote in the Hillary one, but I definitely voted in the Biden one. But yeah, so I voted there. Honestly, I don't really know too much about local election-y stuff. I do vote in tribal elections. I don't know if

if you guys vote in tribal elections at all but that's something that I definitely take very seriously. It's our community and it's what's closest to us and it's what directly affects us, I think, as tribal members. And yeah, I mean like you've seen a bug's life, right? You let one ant stand up to us then they all might stand up. Like how that one ant and then they all come together and then you know they make real change happen.

Type shit. Yeah, right. I believe you. I believe you. Y'all vote in the tribal elections or no? I have yet to vote in a tribal election. I mean, like, you live pretty deep from your people. I live an hour from the res, yeah. And you got to do it in person. You have to do it in person? They don't do absentee votes? No. Yeah, that's kind of like...

I should and I want to. I feel bad. The last election was on my wedding date so that was my excuse. Oh, damn. I couldn't make it. Hey, but congratulations though. No, that's... Damn, I really wish that they did absentee votes for you guys. Yeah, it'd be really cool to show the United States, you know, how it's done because the United States doesn't want to make voting easier, make it digital or anything. And obviously we have the stuff with the...

the claims of voter fraud coming up, making it even harder. But I mean, that would make it so much more accessible to update our voting standards to the modern time. We all have phones. We can do other things.

I totally agree with that because with kids in this generation they're all about their phones so for them to have easy access for voting like that, for them just to have a click of a button for them so much more I don't want to say potential but in their area of what or even like a national holiday like we don't get it off of work to go vote, not everybody gets national holidays but

I mean, something in that direction. Yeah, like, I don't know. For me, I really feel like even a mail-in vote is easy. Like, you could mail in the vote for, like, the presidential election, right? You can do that. I think that's what I did. No, no, I went there and dropped off the ballot. That's what I did. Or is that still mailing in your vote? Yeah.

It could be a mail-in ballot. It was a ballot box. That you can drop off. Yeah. Okay, so that is mailing in. Yeah. Oh, okay, cool. We're just wrong. Okay, cool. We're lucky over here because we have those options that you can do it any number of ways you're talking about. You can mail it in or drop it off. But not every state has that option to do mail-in ballots. What would you say to someone who's like,

in one of those states where you can't, you don't have the accessibility to vote like that? Like how would you recommend they get out there and vote? Like how would you encourage that? You know, I'd take some inspiration from Warren Lyons and what he says sometimes is to get in the face of your leaders and tell them what's what. And if that's what you feel like in your community, community would be helpful.

which I feel like it would be for everyone, more accessibility for voting. We have such a low turnout nationally, like something like only one third of the whole country votes out of all the people that are old enough to vote. So whenever there's a president elected, it's not like the country has spoken. It's like this very small sliver of the country has voted and made their

priorities apparent. So yeah, get in the face of your leaders, participating in local elections is important. And really the old school thing of writing a letter to your representative still goes a long way. They really, once they get a letter from somebody in their district, they have a right to then say, I'm going to do this because my constituents, you know, the people that voted, the people that I represent want this. So yeah,

Jotting down something and putting in the mailbox to your representative goes a long way. I'm going to be real. I did not know that you can do that. Yeah. You can just write a letter to your senators and stuff. You can email too. I don't think they're on the text yet. I don't think a text will get their attention, but you can email or write a letter. Like for you guys. I'm going to text them. They don't read my text. How do we get people around our age to even care to vote?

you know what I'm saying? Because I feel like it's not that voting is not cool. I think it's just that people are like, "Eh, whatever." Yeah. I feel like people just probably don't know about it or like you said, don't really pay attention to it. So it'd be cool to just see people like us to put ourselves out there. So since we're an inspiration to a lot of people already, so to see that we're voting will make

eager and want to vote just because you know we're being those role models for those people. Maybe take some more education in like how voting does affect them. Does affect us. Yeah. Like maybe some more examples. I can't think of any. It's stuck in my head. But like I can't say that I received that type of education in my

K-12 education. Like we learn how a bill becomes a law. But we didn't know which bill meant what. You know, gotta do that on our own. I forget how does a bill become a law. I couldn't tell you the whole thing. But I know a great cartoon. We'll bring that back. That explains it perfectly. Google House Rock.

Maybe that would get people interested in murder. Maybe one of those, but it's like, but that bill. And what happened to who when it became a law. Yeah. Okay, yeah. Something like that is pretty cool, yeah. Yeah. I'd like to see something like that, where it's like, okay, cool. So this is a law that went into effect, and this is who it directly affected. Yeah. I don't remember if y'all remember when, like, ICWA was, like, under threat. Like...

how did we make it not under threat? You know, was that voting or was that just active protest? And maybe it takes some dreaming. You know, it's like what kind of world do you want to build and you can vote for that world. Yeah, yeah. Like what kind of world do you want to see for like your kids and the future of our people? Yeah. I think you're onto something there, the ICWA, the Indian Child Welfare Act.

is a good example of find something that you connect with or have benefited from or you really cherish. You know, I think all Native folks can really appreciate not equal...

stopped native kids from just being sent out to non-native families and disconnecting them from their culture. So knowing that and having something that you can think of like, I'm voting because of this thing that I have direct experience with is great. So like anything that you can think of that's connected to the government that's been a part of your life,

you could do some research or simply think about, you know, it's because of elected officials that this either happened or didn't happen. I think that played out in the court system and, you know, judges are elected in different areas. So it was voting that put in judges that represent and dispense the law that played a part in ICWA. So that comes down to every election is important and we should vote in every election type of thing.

Yeah, I think it's very important. I do think, you know, if I was speaking to myself, a younger version of myself, I'd say, first of all, you know, give yourself some credit. This is the most confusing and complicated things there are to even understand. So if you're not voting in every election yet, because it's hard to understand even how it works and who to vote for.

That's okay. Just keep interested and start from the top and move your way down. Vote for presidents. And then as you go along throughout the years, you can learn more and get more involved or just pay attention when things pop up with judges or your local school board or your county or state or city.

All of these things affect your lives. If there's something in your town like, "There are too many potholes in my town. I keep blowing up my tires because the streets aren't fixed."

because of representatives in your town or something complicated, but that is a very easy way to get connected with something and then use that to get interested and learn more. Cool. So I'm going to clear out, make way for our special guest, and then Cyrus, maybe you can introduce her and keep this conversation going. Yeah, I unfortunately have to get going, but I would love to connect. I can give you my card. Maybe we can talk. Changing topics.

Well, damn, this podcast roster is actually pretty mismatched. Yeah, let's... We have a special guest today. If you want to, you know, introduce yourself. Hello, everyone. My name is Nayana K. Natontokoe Gorman. I am from Arizona on the Navajo Nation. I am Diné and Cheyenne, and I currently reside here in the Pacific Northwest area.

in Bellingham. Cool. What brings you out to Bellingham? So when I was young, my dad, he's a traditional practitioner. He would travel into the Pacific Northwest and into Canada, helping various individuals and tribes.

doing traditional ceremonies and practice, and sometimes during the summer he would take his children with him and he would just say that his kids fell in love with the place and we became acquainted with some of the families here in Lummi, one being my uncle, Joel James. I grew up knowing him my whole life, and also Bill Jefferson and his daughters, who I consider my sisters.

So when I came here when I was little, I just fell in love with the place. Like I loved the green, the

the water, the rain, and I always knew when I was a kid that I wanted to come into Bellingham and live here for a few years. Cool, cool. Love it. Should we just kind of give the same questions that you were tossing out? Yeah, so could you share your own history with voting and why it's important to you? Okay.

I think my history with voting, I slowly started taking it serious as I moved up to Washington. And then there was a lot of changes that I've noticed politically and also legally and just a lot of advocation that I realized that was needed from our indigenous communities, especially

preserving our rights and preserving our tradition. Initially, when I first became of age of voting, I didn't give it much thought. As the years gone by, I slowly began to ask my parents and my elders about the voting. I realized that

most of our voting in our family sort of aligned with what our values were traditionally. So when I think about voting currently, I think about what would benefit the future and what would benefit the preservation of our people and our population.

especially preserving and protecting our rights and our treaty rights. And growing up in a communal space where there was a lot of elders who spoke up and talked a lot about how our young ones, it's gonna become their time to advocate and to stand up and to fight for what it is that we protect

I was young then and I never really understood what it was until now. So I grew up in the Native American church ceremonies and the teepee ceremonies. So in that space, there was people of all ages from babies into elders and the person who would be conducting the service. And I know that in the morning time when they have people and elders speak in the morning, they would share a lot about their experience

life, what they've experienced, the things that they've learned, and a lot of it just aligned with protecting our sacred children. And so what I currently align my voting with is what will help our children and also, yeah, just protecting

protecting our rights. Yeah, we were talking about that a little bit earlier, especially with like tribal elections. Like, I don't know, you said that you're Diné, correct? Yeah, so living up here, are you allowed to vote back home for your people there? Because Scott, you know, he just left, but he said that in a few other states, there's some times where like he can't vote

he can't vote for his people's tribal government because you have to be there in person, which is honestly kind of whack. I'm just wondering if that's the same thing for you. Oh, okay. Well, usually we can still vote for our people back at home, even if we live out of state. I think most of the voting happens in person there on the reservation.

The only way that we're able to vote from afar is when we're in communication with our family because our information gets sent to the PO boxes and then our family tells us when it comes in and then we can mail it in from afar or we would just have to travel back home and do it in person. Yeah.

That's a mob. That's a mob. That's a long drive or flight. It is. Totally. You got anything? Yeah, one thing we've been discussing and thinking about is, like, young people that may be more complacent towards voting. Like, it doesn't feel important to them. Like, why should they vote? What would you say to that type of person? Well, I definitely have experienced and seen that.

when young people have felt that way towards voting. I think personally speaking, when I've seen my younger

nieces or nephews, the amount of awareness or education that they're taught about voting is very limited, especially in school or especially in families. But I found that the more they were exposed and brought into the spaces that were

indigenous practices and indigenous values and they were reminded of who they were and their identities and where they come from and what they stand for. And they realized their place within the earth and outside of the system. And the one thing that they learned is how to fight and protect their people is by learning the system too.

I hear a lot of the elders say, "Educate yourself." That is our tool, and that is the way that we can help our people by understanding what it is that they write on these documents, educating ourselves what it is that they are trying to plan for our people and our population and how can we direct that in a good way.

And so I found that for my nieces and nephews as they begin to grow up and become of age, having them in the spaces where they are able to recognize who they are and be reconnected with their identities, it really helps them understand the importance of YA culture.

why it's important to understand what's going on within the modern-day system. Yeah, it's like a responsibility passed on to us. I'm thinking right now of like Larry Kinley and Jule James and like how much work they put in during the fish wars and stuff, and how educated Jule is. Like, even when you hear him talk, like he can go on and on and on. Like, he's an encyclopedia.

of treaty rights and those histories. So, like, of course we got to vote, you know? I'm good. I'm good. Yeah. I guess one thing we could talk about is this question here. Would you run for office? I'm going to pose that to the group. Oh, would any of us run for office? Yeah. And that could be any, like, tribal government, state, federal, you know. Damn. I guess, yeah. That's a good question. I would do it.

you would do it yeah tribal office travel yeah okay i think and if it leads into that direction then i would totally do it yeah definitely not now definitely not now yeah if i got more knowledgeable and educated and to provide change for by listening to the people i think i would yeah i would want to do it and change it i want to do it i mean in the right way or if there's ever a right way to do it but to be able

to provide change because you hear so much within our travel council and how like some don't get along and I think it would be just from

It'd be cool because who we're learning from, like we learn so much from Daryl. So be able for us to be, for us to learn, for what we're learning and what we're doing to be able to be in those positions in the future. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I don't know. I feel like I'd have to like be put in a position where, like you said, like you really don't feel like,

what's being done isn't really what needs to be done for your community so you have to like really step in and really believe in yourself and really think like I could do this I could do that I mean I'm doing it for the new car for real I'm doing it I'm doing it for the chairman check I'm gonna get a new house I'm just kidding um I think if the situation calls for it like

I mean, I think it calls for it every time, but... Yeah. That is a very tough position to be put in, I think, most of the things. What I've seen my dad do is...

stick to the traditional things. Like he's been put into positions where they wanted him to be in those leadership positions, but at the end of the day, he kept it simple and kept it to the old ways. And he's not a citizen of the U.S., meaning like when he was born, he was born traditionally like in a ditch where they...

lived with his family and so for him they have no record of him so they had to give him his own citizen papers so he's not a citizen of any country anywhere around the world and so he has his own sovereign rights. Interesting. That's cool. That's cool. That's real. What about you? Yeah, I think I would. I think I would run. I value like immunity so much that like I think

I could do well in that role. Like, I kind of despise, like, the polarization of contemporary politics. So, like, I don't, you know, I don't know if I'd have a chance, like, running in the big show because of that. And, like, I don't know who would support me, like, financially, you know, which is, unfortunately, such a big part of it. But, like, I really care about

the whole people. Yeah. Yeah. And I'd want to stand up for everyone, you know? Yeah. And I would love to like try and bridge gaps where I could. Yeah. So like, I think, I think I like my ideals would work for it. But again, I mean, for any,

position to take so much education for like tribal politics you need to know history yeah there you need to know family history to work there yeah which you know i don't know enough of that to work in to to be in any tribes like yeah um leadership and then for like you know state and like federal politics like you gotta know history with policies and somewhat i mean i don't even know what i don't know there so i don't even know where to start yeah i mean like i mean

At the end of the day though, I think you really are, when you're put in those positions, you're there to work for your people type of thing. So I definitely think you got the right mindset for it for sure. And that's what I think, but does it even matter?

Could they get you there? Maybe. But that's just, that's on why I think I would. I definitely think the humility part is a big, big role. And that's something I've seen in all of you. Really got to humble yourself through that process. I do have a question that came up. I just wanted to know if there was like any changes that you would implement in

either on the tribal level or national level that you would see if you ever were to go into office. That's one area I want to educate myself more on is like why the government can't, can't, I'm using air quotes, can't like regulate corporations and like their prices and the way they consume and pollute. Yeah. Or like taxes, you know, like they could be taxed a lot more. There's like so many opportunities for them to,

get around those taxes or get like write-offs and stuff i need to learn a lot i need to learn a lot more there like are they helping and like why can't the uh the irs like go after them more so you know because like anyways if if i could that's what i would do i would put more regulation on these corporate on you know the billionaires and the these corporations that are uh

capitalizing on, you know, the common people like us and people outside of the country. Yeah, for sure. So I need to learn more about that. I mean, obviously some like narrative shifts. One thing I've been thinking about these days is how in Washington, like Inslee and like the Washington government is so, the state of Washington, of course, is so fixated on like

ending fossil fuel consumption in the state, which kind of furthers that narrative of like, it's like you who are polluting, like you need to recycle better. You need to, you know, like cut down on your consumption, which may be true, but it's like, what effect is that going to have? You know, maybe if everyone in the country cuts back, like there'll be some change, but it's like, we're not the biggest polluters. It's, it's the,

Some production like big productions and yeah, it's type of thing. Yeah. Yeah You know, it's these billion-dollar oil companies. Yeah. Yeah, sure So like it's really like the pressure shouldn't be on us to like fix climate change in that in that kind of example and that and that's just like it that's an example of a narrative that like yeah, I think about Mm-hmm, you know more per cap more per cab more per cap. Oh

No, I'm playing. That's Roy's initiative. Respect. I'm like, get a businessman in there. Everyone going to be making money. I'm just memeing. Yeah, I really do think that this is why I'm saying like,

I'm not ready to run for any sort of office yet. I'm not nearly as educated as I really could be or should be. So I'm just kind of taking a step back and letting everyone else who feels like they're ready really show up and show out for our people. I was thinking more about what he was talking about in terms of the taxes. I do know that sometimes when they talk about raising taxes on the rich in...

The elections, they're mostly talking about high-income individuals like lawyers and doctors who earn higher base incomes, but the rich who don't have those kind of jobs, the way that they, I guess, profit off of the people and the way that they're not taxed is through donations.

And when they are earning a lot of money and that money that they have and they're told to donate from the IRS, it's like they create a nonprofit of their own. And so they donate into that nonprofit that they own, that they have selected for people to be boarded.

directors for that nonprofit so that money is circulating within their own network and it continues to build and so when we ask why aren't the rich being taxed it's they found a loophole through the tax and that's how they're able to not be taxed and that's how

we end up being taxed more is because of our income and the jobs that we have. But for them, it's how they flow money within their own circle. And so it's just thinking about how can we like create a system that would benefit everybody too, especially those who work through that loophole. Yeah. Wild. Crazy. Yeah.

I think before we close, we always like to ask our special guest one extra question, and that is, do you have a message for other Indigenous youth? Yeah.

be resilient and travel the world, I guess, because you learn a lot from understanding the world. And as natives, we were taught about the world through our creation stories and through our migration and trading with other tribes. And we learned a lot about these customs and especially Mother Earth. And so knowing

and seeing other cultures and how they are and how they're still thriving to this day is very inspiring. So I definitely think getting to know the world can help you help yourself and your family, too. Cool. Cool. With that, you want to close out? Sure. Yeah, thank you all so much for joining us. Thank you, Ney. Thank you.

Yeah, make sure you go vote because it matters if you do and it matters if you don't. Cool. Yes. Vote. Later, y'all. Shout out to Sky and Olivia for also being in on this episode. Haiska for listening. Thank you. Haiska. Yeah. Hey, what up, y'all? Thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of the podcast. Huge shout out to our special guest, Nana K. Gorman, for being a part of this week's episode. Thank you to our funders, the Initai Foundation and the Paul Allen Foundation. Thank you.

Original music by Roy Alexander, Mark Nichols, Keith Jefferson, and Zach Cohen. And the link to register to vote will be in our description. Aishka for listening. Thanks, y'all.