People tend to kind of project. The race of people you grow up around is the lens through which you see the nation. I lived in Saint Louis for five years–four years in a predominantly black neighborhood. And I understood — because everyone always referred to black people as minorities — I always thought that minority meant like thirty to forty percent of America. It wasn’t until college that I found out that black people were only like twelve percent of the nation. I was surprised. And it’s the same thing — my grandpa is Native and I lived briefly on a reservation in New Mexico, and I have a lot of Native relatives. Most of the world does not even see Native Americans, and most Americans don’t even see Native Americans. And unless you live in the West or in the very rural West, you aren’t even going to be in contact with them. And so you see this nation as Mexican people, black people and white people. And maybe Asian people, if you live in California, or an urban center, or someplace where they are likely to live. So I think that all of the attention coming up now, might bring to light a lot of other things. I think that this is a good thing, but I don’t know. Attention can be a good thing and not so good thing. I think it will be a mixed bag. I’m very interested to see what will happen and what will come of it.
Am I very much in favor of more rights and privileges for indigenous people? That’s a really, really good question. And it’s something I didn’t think about much because I grew up going to I think it was called SIPPI. It’s the Native American Health System in New Mexico. I lived there first grade, third grade, and then all of my high school. They provided my medical and dental care. Then I had a Native American Scholarship foundation put me through college. I didn’t think about it until after I got married that my children would probably not have access to the same rights and privileges that I had access to, and that would be because of the race of their father, which to me seems a little racist. If you switch that from him being white to him being any other race, it can start looking very dark. And on the one hand, I think that Native Americans with all of the social problems that are deeply set into the culture, they have special circumstances and special circumstances require special treatment. But at the same time figuring out how to provide that special treatment without creating a means of perpetuating the same problems, is really tricky. I mean, that’s the eternal question, how do you help without enabling? So, I don’t know. If you tallied up all of the racist-against-Indian things that I have heard in my life, most probably came from my grandpa. He was very proud of his Native heritage, but willing to be critical of his community.