Staying home and “Being Safe” means we are home with our families or in some cases home alone. Being at home with our families has given us the opportunity to reconnect with our children and homes. We are cooking more, enjoying our yards and gardens. If you’re an elder you may be more alone than you were before and beginning to feel isolated, or learning to use technology to stay in contact with family and friends, or you may be taking a daily drive around the reservation to relieve some of the cabin fever you may be feeling.
Social Distancing is easy for us, we respect our individual space and practice this daily. Nothing feels the same as it was before, but nothing ever stays the same — it is called growth. No matter how it happens, changes occur in our daily lives reshaping how we act and think. If you think about the changes we have endured in our lifetimes, whether good or bad, time moves forward, everchanging and we adjust, most of all we persevere.
As Indigenous people we have been forced to endure sudden changes, forced relocation, threatening diseases, cultural genocide and many other atrocities. We have been poor; we have had to live day by day not knowing what the future will bring. We were forced to stop hunting, and to learn to farm or raise livestock. Through all these changes we have persevered, we are resilient, and we are still here.
If the Multi-Purpose Facility was open for business as usual, we would be sharing knowledge, sharing meals and socializing. Celebrating milestones, graduations, birthdays, and celebrating life. The Multi-Purpose Facility staff would like to continue to share knowledge. In the coming weeks we will share crochet, cooking, and sewing videos with you. In our most recent project, we are looking for youth under the age of 17 to share their cooking skills and recipe with us. We can share on the Drum’s website, and develop a youth cookbook.
If you would like to participate by making a video in your home and sharing with us, please contact us at 970-563-2641 or by email at eredd@southernute-nsn.gov or multipurpose@southernute-nsn.gov .