You’re No Better, But You’re No Worse with Debbe Poitra

Well I think that we all have to recognize where we came from and like I said our culture is unique because we have the Chippewa we have the French we have the Cree and so basically we formed our own culture from the cultures that we had and it became known as the mich if culture some people call it matey because of Louie Riel and the Canadian movement that he had but we all have to have our own identity we all have to know where we came from we all have to realize that we are an important part of a family and that family leads back for generations and who was in that particular lineal history is who we are and if we can understand that and if we can grow from that and if we can accept that then that’s going to helped us help us to be able to survive no matter where we go it’s always it’s always hard for a lot a lot of our native people to leave the reservation because they don’t think that they will be accepted a lot of times a lot of times they have they’re so close to family that they can’t leave family and so that becomes a real issue especially when you’re looking at the high unemployment rate on the reservation and people say well why don’t they just leave to get a job well for a lot of them they don’t want to leave their family they don’t want to leave their mom or their dad or they don’t want to leave their brothers and sisters and i have lived most of my life on the reservation i have also lived off the reservation when i went to college and then also when i lived I and my husband lived a short time in Fargo when we had our business going there and so I have lived you know in both worlds but there is nothing like home and you know you know a lot of people feel that way but I think for Native American people it’s stronger and you have a lot of people who have worked 30 40 years in the outside world and then they come back to the reservation when they retire and they always have this sense that you know I need to go home and they may not have even family there anymore but that’s their home and they know that’s their home and so that in itself is a strong part of the identity that we all have and I always remember back to what my dad had told me and I live by this and he had said that you’re no better but you’re no worse and always remember that when you go to meet with anybody or whatever and I’ve always kept that in mind you know and I’ve always thought that and I know that I know within my heart that I’m no better but I’m no worse