The Ancestors Initiative is a digital platform that uses story to connect people with their ancestral roots. The idea spawned the tagline "Linked Roots Create Foundation".
Linked Roots? Creating Foundation? Sounds like it makes sense to me but when I really dove into the meaning of the tagline it meant even more.
Me, Andre Saunsoci, Franklin Brooks and Adam Saunsoci
Growing up in Omaha, NE I knew that the city’s name was of my people (Umoⁿhoⁿ) but that was it. I’d get small stories here and there about not whistling at night or in the dark. Or seeing my uncles and grandpas perform ceremonies that had an order to them but I didn’t know exactly what was going on.
I had a few older cousins (Munch & Donnie) give me a heads up a few times and uncles fill me in but nothing really stuck with me.
I didn’t know it but I was looking for some type of foundation as a man and a member of my tribe unknowingly.
In 2016 the Standing Rock protest was my genesis moment to reconnect with the info my cousins presented me with earlier in life. In staying in camp and protesting for 3 months I learned so much and in that learning I realized there are many more indigenous brothers and sisters like me. They were disconnected.
But also I received a wealth of knowledge from men and women who were embedded in their tribal traditions and I couldn’t get enough!
Meeting an amazing family from Hoopa Valley, CA my new brother Thomas Joseph shared many customs and traditions his tribe held and it was like a refreshing of my spirit! I was like “man it sucks I dont know much about my tribe since I was born off the rez.”
Kisdyante Joseph, Eddie Carmona, Me, Thomas Joseph, Nah-tez Jackson, Kinsinta Joseph, Patty Joseph and Lacey Jackson.
Then I found out about the Indian Relocation Act of 1956, it was a United States law intended to move Indigenous people away from their reservations and traditional lands to assimilate into the general population in urban areas.
So no wonder there were so many of us disconnected and found great refreshing at Standing Rock.
Us at a praying gathering led by Mark Tilsen in Standing 2016 and a group of officers from multiple jurisdictions showed up to stop us :/
This is where the The Ancestors Initiative comes into play.
I want to help Indigenous people everywhere connect in this Web 2.0 era so that we don’t lose complete connection with our creator. Western civilization isn’t healthy to our land or our traditions. In all honesty it seems that it wants to strip us of our identity.
Even of our tribal citizenship with blood quantum status.
Being a father now has shaped my purpose into a very distinct path.
Be the change you want to see in the world
My daughter and Me
We hear this quote so often but yet many don’t take this road. Being a father now shows me that this road is taken by ones who understand the meaning of sacrifice.
If I knew my roots as a Black and Indigenous man in America back when I was younger, I'd for sure have a better sense of direction in my purpose. But in not having that, I noticed that my perception of a "man" was linked to what movies project to society and I don't like that.
Coaching my nephews and little brother.
This journey is for the youth to have a foundation to stand and build anything they want in the land their ancestors took great care of. For me not to acknowledge the hard work both sides of my ancestral DNA put in would be disrespectful.
So I am headed down this path of discovery and growth in the attempt to create a foundation built off of the strength my ancestors have given me.
Stay tuned as we’ll be releasing content with multiple tribes. To partner with and be a part of the initial pilot program visit The ANCSTRS
Thank you for reading!