Visions and Voices

Reva "Mariah" S. Gover

Whether my parents meant to or not, I was raised as a Gover and by default a Skidi-Pawnee mostly. My mother married into my father's family and it just always seemed to be that way. I am who I am because I could not ever be anyone or anything else. I grew-up urban. I've always been urban. I still am. That doesn't mean I wasn't close to my family and that they didn't impress on me who I was, where we came from. It's impossible not to know when your Uppitt (grandpa) speaks his language and constantly sings dashboard songs. I was born a Gover; a Skidi-Pawnee never to forget I was also Tohono O'odham born of the desert.

Today, the most effective weapon we as Indian people have is to be educated. The enemy is best defeated by knowing them. Education allows us to protect ourselves, by knowing them.  

Most problems I've encountered during my education have to do with just being Indian. People either want to romanticize you or make you a true "American" or actively dislike you for being different. I found friends who helped me and kept me sane. More importantly, my professor Dr. Holm made me feel that if he could teach at a university and still be an "Indian", I could learn and still be one too.

I think American society is bound for serious problems because it wants to be this gooey hodgepodge of everything and nothing. They don't know, and perhaps more dangerously, don't care who they are, where they come from, and what any of it means.

Tribal affiliation:  Skidi-Pawnee/Tohono O'odham

Image size:  22" x 24"   Medium:  Graphite