No one else chooses my identity.
Natalie,
Seattle, WA.
My grandmother never got to pass for white. She was sent to indian boarding school. 50 years later, I grew up in white suburbia, where no one assumed I was Native or even mixed-race. I self-identify as Native, I speak Chahta, I participate as a tribal citizen, I carry on the family stories, and today I’m a physician and activist fighting against poverty, homelessness, addictions, and diabetes. Ancestry: African-American, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Irish, German, Luxembourgish, Welsh.
