{"id":19845,"date":"2022-01-12T20:33:14","date_gmt":"2022-01-13T01:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=19845"},"modified":"2022-01-12T20:33:15","modified_gmt":"2022-01-13T01:33:15","slug":"mountains-and-minds-i-owe-it-to-them-to-be-proud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2022\/01\/12\/mountains-and-minds-i-owe-it-to-them-to-be-proud\/","title":{"rendered":"Mountains and Minds: ‘I owe it to them to be proud’"},"content":{"rendered":" \"Wozek<\/a>
Wozek Chandler is a recent Montana State University graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree in American Studies and tribal member of the Aaniiih White Clay of Fort Belknap. Photo by Adri\u00e1n S\u00e1nchez-Gonz\u00e1lez<\/figcaption>\r\n
Finding her own path<\/div>\r\n
Wozek Chandler works to find success in the mainstream while maintaining her culture and celebrating her history<\/div>\r\n
Wednesday, January 12, 2022<\/div>\r\n
By Rachel Hergett<\/div>\r\n
Mountains and Minds<\/div>\r\n
montana.edu\/news\/mountainsandminds<\/a><\/div>\r\n

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\r\nNote: This story appears in the Fall 2021 issue of Mountains and Minds<\/a>, the flagship magazine of Montana State University<\/a>. <\/strong>
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<\/p>\r\nWozek Chandler wears her name proudly.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nMeaning \u201cGhost Calf,\u201d the name honors her Aaniiih grandmother, a woman who became blind later in life but was unimpeded by her lack of sight. The modern Wozek described Ghost Calf\u2019s story as a lesson in resilience, and one of many learned from elder Aaniiih, the White Clay People, now based on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nAlthough her birth name was Shondlyn, Wozek was called by her Indian name at the White Clay immersion school and decided the name best fit her. She legally changed her name in eighth grade.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cThere are so many people who choose not to go by their tribal name because it creates conflict,\u201d explained Erika Ross, a friend who works with Wozek at the Spirit Aligned Leadership Program, an organization that supports Indigenous elder women in sharing cultural and ceremonial knowledge to younger generations. \u201cA lot of people ask \u2018Well, how do you spell it? How do you say it? Are you a boy or a girl?\u2019 Her ability to be proud in her own name is just the tip of the iceberg in her pride in her community and culture.\u201d\r\n

<\/p>\r\nWozek is a recent graduate of Montana State University\u2019s American Studies program, where her thesis focused on how Indigenous people used the midways of world\u2019s fairs to reclaim their identities and perform on their own terms. She said she wants to use her education to change the American narrative and find new ways to amplify Indigenous stories.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nOne way that Wozek tells her story is through her clothing. On a casual afternoon, this means a Aaniiih Nakoda College jacket over jeans and a T-shirt\u2009\u2014\u2009Wozek is a graduate and is both Aaniiih and Nakoda. Checkered rows of colorful seed beads are hand sewn between the zippers of a black fanny pack at her waist, and painted warriors adorn her large, round earrings.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nWith every piece, Wozek declares her history, her ancestry and her strength. She knows so many before her were not able to make the same choices. Generations were taught to assimilate, she said, taught to be ashamed of their culture. They could not claim their tribe in even the simplest of gestures.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cIn a way, I owe it to them to be proud,\u201d she said.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n \"Wozek<\/a>

Wozek Chandler. Photo by Adri\u00e1n S\u00e1nchez-Gonz\u00e1lez<\/figcaption>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThis connection to her ancestors and desire to keep the history alive was at the forefront of Wozek\u2019s upbringing. Her family has a well-established role in incorporating heritage into educational opportunities in Montana.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cThey come from a strong academic place,\u201d Ross said. \u201cBut in a very disruptive, decolonizing sense that is remarkable. They are a long line of leaders and knowledge-valuers who have kept culture and family and tradition central.\u201d\r\n

<\/p>\r\nWozek\u2019s mother, Lynette Chandler, who died in 2017, created the White Clay Immersion School to teach children in the community their Aaniiih language and traditions. She received an MSU honorary doctorate posthumously for her cultural contributions. Wozek was one of the school\u2019s first graduates.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nHer grandfather, Wayne Stein, is a professor emeritus of higher education and Native American Studies at MSU and formerly the head of the Department of Native American Studies. Additionally, he was president of Sitting Bull College in Fort Yates, North Dakota in the \u201980s. Her grandmother, Carole Falcon-Chandler, was president of Aaniiih Nakoda College for 20 years until she retired last year. Wozek\u2019s father, Sean Chandler, who also was a language teacher at the White Clay Immersion School, has now assumed the role with the college.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s very inspiring to me how they carried their Indigenous identity throughout their studies,\u201d Wozek said. \u201cThey succeeded and now they\u2019re doing good things in the community.\u201d\r\n

<\/p>\r\nWozek is trying to find her own path, though she has encountered setbacks along the way. When her mother died, Wozek had just graduated from Aaniiih Nakoda College, where she was on the president\u2019s list every semester, and was preparing to start her first semester at MSU. Instead, she took time off to grieve.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nA year later, Wozek still felt unmotivated by her coursework at MSU. Barely passing, she lost scholarships and wondered if school was the right fit. But she carried on, guided by Aaniiih stories such as that of Bull Lodge, who climbed to seven sacred buttes in the northern Montana mountains in his vision quests. He went beyond what was asked and overcame the obstacles to become a warrior, medicine man and pipe-keeper.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cThey lived in way tougher times,\u201d Wozek said. \u201cIt\u2019s about making the most of the situation and keeping your strength through it.\u201d\r\n

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