I'm Colville Confederated Tribes — a Nespelem band from Eastern Washington on my father's side. My mother's side is Navajo. My grandparents spoke Navajo fluently; they were subjected to boarding schools where they were taught to forget their language.

I'm Chippewa and Seneca. My grandfather was from Cattaraugus Reservation in New York, and my grandmother was from White Earth, Minnesota. I grew up on the Mescalero Apache Reservation in Southern New Mexico until I was seven or eight, then moved just off the reservation. Later I married into Jemez Pueblo.

I'm from Pine Ridge. I definitely grew up around my culture — there's a strong culture where I'm from. I take prayer seriously. Whenever I leave home, you have to take it seriously.

On my maternal side I am half Jemez Pueblo and half Taos Pueblo. On my father's side we are Mexican-American and California Indian — our California Indian tribe is in question because of the mission system and the enslavement of natives.

I am from a place known as Tenjung — Pretty Rock, New Mexico. I'm a member of the Navajo tribe. The traditional lifestyle is active for us. When I was little we grew up in a mobile home without electricity or running water — we had to haul water back from the chapter house every morning.

I'm from Tahlequah, Oklahoma — rural Tahlequah, near the border with Arkansas. My dad's family is older — Great Depression-era. My mother's family is newer, and they came over the Trail.

My father is Iñupiaq and my mother is Norwegian and Czech. I grew up in Idaho with my mother on a farm, and I also have my father's culture in Alaska — a Native Alaskan culture that lives on the Arctic Ocean. It's a whaling community.

I grew up in France because I was born there, but when I was 15 I decided to go back where my mom is from — the Mackenzie Delta, right off the Arctic Ocean. We're the Caribou people, the Gwich'in. Our culture is very strong.

I'm from Fort Defiance, Arizona. I grew up there on the Navajo reservation, in a family who speak nothing but Navajo — they're all fluent.

I am from Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico — one of the Pueblo tribes in the Southwest, up north towards Los Alamos. We still practice many of our ceremonies, and there are plenty of fluent speakers in my tribe.