swirlspice

I am a queer Sicangu Lakota woman living in Minneapolis. I grew up on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota and have spent most of my adult life in the Midwest. I came out when I was 18 years old, with great privilege and safety at a queer youth center in Minneapolis, one of only five in the country at the time. I grew up with a feminist activist mother; running political commentaries were common in my household. I was given books that challenged society’s norms about gender, and I learned about racism growing up an Indian girl in South Dakota. I grew up in a world of aunties who were doing amazing work on domestic violence, and I grew up hearing political language and political debates about sexism and racism. I learned early that sharing the umbrella term of “people of color” does not always mean we will be allies to each other or understand issues unique to our specific communities. I grew up walking between two worlds, the world of white people and the world of my ancestors and tribe. My journey to activism was seeded and incubated with my mother, and when I was 15 years old, I undertook it as my own.