"Naming. It is always about naming, about knowing how to name.

I am an indigenous woman of the Americas, daughter of Janice Andrews Hernandez, a Nimipu -- or Nez Perce. She and I and my two sons are enrolled on the Colville Reservation in Washington state. My father is Rodolfo Hernandez, a Mexican-American from Texas, a Tejano with indigenous roots on his father's side from San Luís Potosí, Mexico, and Spanish roots on his mother's side, from Coahuila, Mexico, by way of the Canary Islands.

I have been told that my grandfather on my mother's side has contributed a drop of Shoshone and a drop of French to our family; and my grandmother, a drop of Iroquois and a drop of Flathead.

These drops do not seem to manifest in my family. At least as far as my mom and my uncle are concerned, we are Nez Perce. We are Nimipu."

Get the Story:
Ines Hernandez-Avila: To Native Americans, naming is identity (CNN 4/9)

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