#cankuluta

As I sat next a fire in the crisp air of the country of where my family lived on the Northern part of the Cheyenne River Reservation, I began to think about the balance we must carry walking in two worlds. The modern-day Indigenous person has a social media account, watches their favorite shows, has a smartphone, drives a vehicle, makes their payments, et cetera. In a sense, many of us choose to live how we are programmed by western society, and it could be debated that we are colonized to an extent. Although, we must utilize what we have and learned to empower our people and those around us to strengthen our cultural identity within ourselves.  In contrary, our indigenous identities can never be suppressed as each and every one of us have a connection to the land, people, and the energy in our surroundings. We can feel it when we slow down our minds, when we shut off the electronics, when we turn down the noise in our brains that we are used to everyday. We feel the connection when we are in nature, when we are around water, when we hear our native tongue being spoken. It’s this connection that will never leave us as it is inherent, and our gut instinct tells us that the life we live is foreign to us, but we adapt to survive. 

            A balance can be found in almost every aspect of our lives, and it is this balance that our ancestors and elders teach us about. It’s difficult for a majority of Indigenous people to recognize this balance with everything we have to adjust to. The balance in life is referred to the Canku Luta Ki (The Red Road) and is a way of living that has kept our ancestors strong before settler contact on the western hemisphere. The red road has many interpretations but can be simplified as a way of living that is beautiful but difficult to adhere to. The concept or belief in the red road way of life is a positive way of living that can provide a better understanding of life and purpose. Indigenous people live by this concept to find their identity, to find sobriety, to seek honor while living with values daily. Living in the modern world, following the traditional way of living can have its challenges but I would say, life will be difficult whether regardless of what we decide to do. Why not strengthen our families through our cultural belief systems? 

            Now, there is a different way of living that many of our people follow which is called Canku Sapa Ki, the black road. This is the counterpart to the red road and the black road is filled with everything that is the opposite. We see this everyday of our lives with people, families, and the communities we may live in. The black road is the easy way to live because it keeps us from being held accountable for our own actions as the connection to our inner consciousness (nagi) becomes weak. We lose direction in life and become emotionless and self-serving individuals. We have a choice everyday which way of thinking we can walk in our every waking day. Many will not discuss the black road but will praise the red road the most. This is where we become imbalanced again as we cannot be all good and positive all the time of our life. The balance in our everyday life reflects where our integrity lies and how we are genuinely as a person. 

            The two concepts of the ways of living represented as Canku Luta Ki and Canku Sapa Ki are seen in many cultures around the world with a similarity to the yin and the yang. We have to find a balance everyday especially attempting to maintain our traditional identity while living in the fast-paced world around us. We have nothing to lose but only gain if we allow ourselves to accept our identities and strengthen our connections to culture, spirituality, and the land.

Hecetu welo