Gyasi Ross: Native moms will run the whole world someday

Native mothers simply don’t give up. They can’t give up; not in their DNA.

This time of year causes me to think about how much time Native publications spend writing about the things about which, they feel, Natives are supposed to be offended or angry. Granted, that’s probably just a reflection of larger society’s focus on negative news. Still, I don’t know if it’s good for Native people to buy into that ethic.

Either way, it seems like us folks lucky enough to have a public voice need something kinda scandalous sounding or anger-inducing to generate page views. “Such and such did this and that and it’s racist!” I definitely find myself doing that from time to time; I see it a quite a bit elsewhere as well. And while there are certainly developments that require a sharp response and things we have to work on, sometimes we sorta overlook that there are so many, many beautiful things to be thankful for within our communities. Indeed, if those voices would simply visit our homelands or pay attention to Native communities they would see that there simply is not a ton of angry Native people looking for more reasons to be mad. Our ceremonies, our languages and our societies have always focused on function, survival and beauty.

Sometimes function, survival and beauty doesn’t get enough page views though. If those things did get the attention they deserve, then we would focus on Native mothers 365 days a year—that’s what they provide for all of us: function, survival and beauty.

If someone really wants to know what’s really important to Native communities, they’d just talk to the moms and the grandmas.