My grandparents and other family members lived in the area of the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in North Dakota for many years. In fact, my grandparents, Francis and Rose Cree, provided many ceremonies and traditional gatherings in the past few decades here. A building was built so they could host a number of community events.

"The Round Hall" is the name of the building, and it's where many people took part in healing ceremonies, sweats, ceremonial dances and traditional gatherings throughout the year. Since the passing of my elders, these practices have stopped. Today, the building where so many spiritual activities took sits idle.

Also today, many of our people still live without power, water or plumbing. Some things have never changed for some our people.

One other holiday moment touches my heart very deeply. But before I get to that, I want to say there was a time when many of us were growing up that we learned real lessons about the Christmas and New Year holidays.

I remember family members going around house to house, shaking hands and welcoming everyone to the upcoming new year. Food was always shared and people's hearts were filled with happiness. Those kinds of days, we don't see much of any more; I guess times have changed over the years, and we have changed our way of living.