 My relatives, my son-in-law's name is Little Eagle, and I come from Fort Peck, Montana, reside in Frazier, on my red bottom, a son-in-law out of one of the 33 bands. I've been in education now for 15 years, instructing the NAS classes in Frazier High School, K-12. We've recently implemented our method into K-8, K-6 mainly. So basically what we're doing is working on different approaches and, you know, to kind of get you up to where we need to be or catch you up to speed. I worked with the University of Montana for a little while, the Native Children's Trauma Center. And before I stepped away from the trauma center, I was taking a look at all the Western approaches for trauma in our children. And nothing seemed to work. They had zero impact. It was minimal. Let's just put it that way, very, very minimal. But the dollars that were coming in, and I think it's like that in every program, you know, not too sure, but a lot of our programs have zero, zero success in whether it's Western education, whether it's Western therapeutic approaches, it just has minimal, minimal impact on our people. And so what I did was I started looking at, you know, what we needed at home, what we needed, what did our kids need, what do we need at home, and who better to develop and create than us, for us, by us, no matter who you are, Cree, Crow, Senate, but it don't matter. And we have the means and we have the makings to do that as tribes all over, but we tend to wait for other people to develop for us. That's even our language, you know, our curriculums to our dictionaries to everything. If you don't have that degree or that stamp of that systematic education, then they really don't take you seriously. So what I did was start tracking and logging our own data on behavior, on competency of running mainly more qualitative data rather than quantitative data. Quantitive data has more numbers and stuff and you can really manipulate those things. So what we do is we do a more of a qualitative run where we film, do a pre-post type of test with our clientele, our students. For example, we might give, you know, we have around 400 hand signs logged in, planes, Native American hand signs, and under that auspice alone, there's a lot of variables in it. And it's called a total physical response is one of the better methods to construct with early childhood development to kindergarten on up preschool head starts in the method is sound, very, very sound. Being able to prove that on the other hand, you know, on the westerners eyes is something different, you know, where they want you to learn the ABCs and 123s. I believe in my heart that our children learn by what their mothers and fathers or grandmother, whoever it is, it's bringing them up, give them whether it's English or Cree or Cinnabon or whatever, and to maybe enhance their method, they might could learn a little bit of hand signs. It's very, very effective, very, very effective. And again, there's a lot of methodologies out there and I encourage anybody who's running a place based or appear, I believe it's called land based methodologies, excuse me, is one of the better ways to instruct. And it's the experiential component of education that creates a memory. And if we're neurologically thinking about very competent about things, the only thing that retains a memory is an experience. Repetitious tests on paper doesn't seem to do so well, as, for example, you know, you want to learn how to jump out of an airplane and you read a body and you take the test about it. Now, I take you out to go jump out of the airplane. What happens, that experience is going to stay with you forever, because you're feeling all these different emotions. It's trigger in a memory. It's doing something different that you never really, really ever done. Your body is sensing that the unconscious part, you know, triggering that subconscious part, maybe your feelings and, you know, finally gets up to the brain where it says, okay, dude, I see what this is. I know, you know, I feel it. I remember it and it stores it for you. So how do we get our culture and language back in and there's a sense of urgency for us back home. My dad was the chief of the Cinnaboy and he passed over a couple of years back. And so those are some pretty big shoes for me and my brothers to fill. He teaches and instructs at the university level and I'm down with the students and the young ones and family and community and same goes for him. We run a eight week program. We started about six, seven years ago. And just working through methodologies and strategies, you know, trying things that didn't work, trying, you know, and just kind of failing our way to that success where we need to be. There's living a lot of people trying a lot of different things, you know, different orthographies we tried. And everybody's different. Everybody is different. So there is no one way that's going to save the language. There is no one thing that's going to save the language. We have the language archived. We have stories archived. We have, you know, great dictionaries. We have a lot of resources that have already been made and built and the need out there for any more materials, maybe, I don't know if that's an urgency right now, but for us back home, we have 4,000 enrolled Cinnaboy and Fort Peck total of around 10,000 enrolled tribal members. Out of them 4,000, we might have 10 speakers fluent left. That's there's a need and a sense of urgency to start doing things differently and maybe bringing the world indigenous language standards that are issued around the world and in our universities and bringing that down to start with children and babies, even in daycares. We work a lot. About three years ago, we brought a lady in by the name of Kukakalau and she said, stay the road boys and keep doing what you're doing. She's our four more leading woman who has that degree, that doctorate degree out of Hawaii. You know, she's built 21 different schools. She's did it all. She's ran 12 years of immersion for schools in Hawaii and she just blows it out of the water every time. She's called around the world. You know what I mean? And so we brought her in and we started talking about different things like how to, I guess, some, maybe approach this without making all the mistakes that maybe she went through. You know what I mean? And so she kind of gave us that guidance that we needed and she was always telling us to look for sustainability and anything that we do. So it's like, you know, we're trying to figure that portion out. It's tough whether you guys get ballet grants or we get the A&A grants, you know, when the grant ends, usually the project ends, you know what I mean? How do you find that sustainability in your community? How do you rouse the troops? How do you get people motivated to want to learn your language? So then I kind of took it one step further and I started this project. So kind of get us to where we need to be right now. It's called the ENET project, E-N-I-T. Plains Native Americans, youth and kids down there are all talking about like, isn't it, is the word. So if they want you to agree with them, they'll say in it, Mr. White or you know, next year, you know, I was, I seen you at the game and the last night in it, you know, so they're saying, huh, or you know, they want you to agree with them. That's kind of the word all over Indian country. So we took that as an acronym and it stands for Empowering Native Indigenous Tribes. And underneath that is the idea and the concept and what I built is called cognitive experiential immersion. And that's what I run and everything across the board. That idea, that thing that's common within it all, whether it's education or trauma or your community or your tribe, it does not matter. You can implement it into pretty much anything you want to do and build it your way off of the concept can be built your way. It doesn't have to be built like this or do what like they say in a program. It's a program guideline that you can build for your community and your tribe, your school or whatever. And you build that up from the ground up by yourself on your own for your people. Because the time for us in waiting is we can't wait. There's a sense of urgency, we can't wait any longer. So that's kind of where we're at with it. But, you know, to make a long story short, we've come a long way. We do try to, you know, we do quite a bit in sharing, I guess, not only the concept, but a couple of different approaches. And if you're talking about education alone, education is big, it's huge. Don't get me wrong. Do not get me wrong. But we have not yet evolved to that western hierarchy and peeked out with our culture. We have tribal colleges, we have tribal junior colleges, we have a couple of different things, but we are not competitive. We are not the dominant society here. And I believe that has to start with your people. It has to start at home, it has to start, you know, identifying truly with who you are. And I try to stay fact based, evidence based, I'm not pulling any punches here. So if we're talking about somatic, that's another thing that folks can look up is the study of sound. And do the study, do actually go and do it, go find an alder, get some singers, maybe say a prayer into it, but it's a science experiment. You can do it with kids, you can do it with teachers, trainees, but do the experiment and find out for yourself. And we worked with NASA on that about eight years ago. And they were intrigued that the designs and the things that came out that were emitted by somatics was infinite coming out of our mouth, not with a machine, not with a, you know, the resonator coming out of us with the song and the prayer and the language was creating these infinite designs within this liquid, infinite designs, and they could not believe it. Now, if that's inside of us, this infinite design of going forever outward or going forever inward, that means we're infinite beings where we have infinite knowledge and infinite potential. But are we waking that up? Are we actually utilizing it? Are we putting evidence based fact based evidence alongside of who we are, what we are and how we do it to gap the bridge, so to speak, to the 21st century for the future and the sake of our people? We are not. And I believe that's one of the things we really, really need to do as First Nations people all over is if we want them to take us seriously, for example, the doctors out there get paid hundreds and thousands of dollars, hundreds and thousands of dollars, creating, helping, fixing people, whatever, even at the hospital. What about our medicine men? What about our elders? What about the knowledge that they have? They have no degrees. They have nothing on there. What do we pay them? How do you, I can't comprehend it because what they have is priceless. They have is you can't put a number on it. So in going forth, I think with our efforts, education is good. Don't get me wrong. But until we start really building it ourselves, our own science books, our own history, local history, whatever, place-based, land-based stuff is kind of kind of going to keep spinning our wheels. And that Western Indo-European way of thinking and thought is ruling us and to step out of that or to integrate that science or whatever in our way and do it our way, I think, is going to empower us better. Hence, the end of empowering Native Indigenous tribes. So that's kind of where this all came from. Basically, travel around, give it to whoever, talk about it. And again, staying with evidence-based projects with the data, the research that's backed up. I've got a non-profit right now. It's called Express to Speak, good friend of mine. Heads that up him and a couple attorneys out of Missoula. And they're running the concept with at-risk youth that are locked up that are, I mean, and they're blowing it out of the water. And they got a research team, Washington State, or well, I forget what university is back in the month, but they're doing the research with and unbelievable stuff happening. But instead of giving a child the freedom to think, make their own decisions, free thought, self-help, self-teaching, we give them a book and say, read that and take the test. There's a lot of information maybe that is not bad information, but there's a lot of information your brain really don't need either. And we need to start building our youth up the way we want to build some leaders, some wicked awesome leaders in our communities. We just haven't been able to do that. And I think that's the key. The future is investing in them. But are we actually doing that as First Nations people? So for me, this is a lot more than just a program. Or like I said, my dad did quite a bit he used to teach. And he was like I said, the chief of the Red Bottom, very knowledgeable, but he's not here anymore. So those are pretty big shoes to fill. And even though I've been in education for quite a while, I'm nowhere near to where an elder is or where my father was. You know, just trying to get some awareness out there, you know, get people to share maybe in the methodology of TPR for hand signs or what have you doesn't need to even be hand signed. There's a lot of other methodologies out there that people can utilize for integrating their language or culture into the classroom. So many different ways. When they say, well, how do you do it? How I mean, how are we going to get this done? How are we going to build a curriculum? Okay, okay. You're thinking Western again. How are we going to get this done? You know, pre polls, video, everything, you know, and I don't know, it's just been an awesome journey for me from experiential education. Period. Indigenous education is experiential education to me. You're not going to be able to learn how to sing unless you go try it. You're not going to learn, you know, how to go tan hide unless you go do it. Everything we're the first nations, I think it's all experiential first, hopefully our own schools, you know, are being able to empower and train up individuals to get after it to get out there and make something happen on their own. Let me put it this way. The Hawaiian people don't have like, like a reservation like we got, they got to actually get out and work for it. They got to come together and make something happen and they did. You're telling me 21 schools, all private money. This ain't a state school. These aren't state schools. These aren't, these are Hawaiian schools. Think about that. Hawaiian schools, the Hawaiian way, Hawaiian science and history and physics and whatever math, Hawaiian. Now think about a first nation school like that or even your own hometown, wherever, that way. And what does that look like in their eye? What is that? How does that look? Where do we start? You know what I mean? Are we still going to go ahead and keep doing things a Western way or are we going to start implementing it our way? You have to make a decision at some point. But again, where's the curriculum? Show me the syllabus, show me the test. You know, how do we assess that? I'm looking for something different in education. I'm not looking for the same, same old thing, but because it ain't working at home for us. We've been implementing orthography tests. We ain't creating any speakers. So, and then through the books. Pre-posts are under qualitative data based on clientele. So if you had a, you know, on our students, for example, we usually have around a 75, 85% success rate depending on what we're doing. But again, that's, those aren't running, again, a pre-post, a test, the qualitative run, filming, or whatever, audio. So we might quiz out on for the first quarter, we want maybe 50 sight words. So we'll do the hand signs like yes, no, good, bad. We'll give the hand signs, you know, and then after one, once in English, never again, huh, he washed that, see job. At the end of that quarter, we'll test out again, depending on how many they get. And that's just one way for the hand signs. It's culture. It's about everything. It's about a different way to think, maybe a different way to perceive, a different way to be. Of course, the language, of course, the culture, but everybody's different. So that's why I said this has to kind of be flexible. The concept is sound, cognitive experiential immersion. And getting it out there would be the getting people fired up to do something in their community. That's always the hard part, motivation, trying to get motivated to get people to do anything. So just getting out of bed sometimes is tough for me. You know, you got to get through, you got to pull yourself together and get up. So I think that, you know, everybody's a little bit different, but at the end of the day, I can look back and be able to say, well, you know, I did my best at getting a different perception out there to think differently. So the thing right now where there's a lot of Freudian, for example, there's a lot of Freudian therapeutic approaches that are still being practiced. But there's also one that's coming into play. It's probably been around for, I mean, it's been around for a while, but I mean, it's really, they're starting to really take it serious now. It's called positive psychology and it's self help, self talk, self, you know, thought. That's one of the keys to changing. You know what I mean for, you have to start thinking differently if you want to become differently, to receive differently. And we kind of might sound cheesy, but that's just the bottom line. If you want to become different, or you want to change your life, or you want to become more knowledgeable, you got to seek it out. And you can't just sit at home and do nothing. And the majority of us are sitting at home watching the TV or watching the games or whatever, when you can be utilizing your time. So let's even talk about that. Let's talk about time. There is no time. There is no time in your day. When do you have time to learn the language? If you have a job, nine to five, then you come home and do chores with the family. When do you have time to start putting forth that effort? And immersively they did the studies, it takes around six hours, a day minimum to start picking up a language, six hours a day. Where's your teachers that are going to teach six hours a day? Where's your students that are going to sit there for six hours and actually start picking this stuff up? And so time is certainly an issue. Public schools don't give us enough time in the classroom, not at all, to teach the language. And that's why we have minimal, minimal success in public settings. But there's so many variables, you know what I mean? When it comes to education, who holds the purse strings? Where does that, when it comes down the ladder, that upper echelon, I guess, the fiat system, where do we fit in? By the time the dollars hit us, it's minimal and there's minimal time. And that certainly plays a huge, huge factor in all of Indian country everywhere. But the only thing I can say about, I guess, the culture and the language is that that's who we are. We have to try to at least identify where we come from, you know, and that's going to give us a sense of where we might take it or where we can go, at least learn all you can, whether it's the culture, language, knowledge is part of life and is the key to some great success out there for you. And I think that if everybody learned a little differently and seen the world a little differently, we'd be living in a different era and a different time. But, you know, we wouldn't be so dominated or held down. We've got to empower ourselves again, especially our future, our children, you know, that I just want to say thank you and good luck to all you that are in education and are in studying and are in school that are helping your tribe and in those positions to be effective. Good luck and keep helping the people.