WEBVTT

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All right.

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[GREETS AUDIENCE IN O'ODHAM]
And pretty much

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what that means is my
name is Amber Ortega.

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My mother is Geneva Juan.

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My father is the
late Melvin Ortega.

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And I come from the
village of Coldfield.

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And I'll be sharing
three pieces I wrote

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and it's a little different
than what I'm used to sharing.

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I do a lot of spoken
word poetry and my themes

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were influenced by my struggle
with religion and also

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my struggle to identify
myself as an O'odham.

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But I can say that I
identify as an O'odham.

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I'm O'odham.

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I'm Tohono O'odham.

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I'm Hia C-ed O'odham.

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I'm Akimel O'odham.

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I'm O'odham.

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And so this work is not just
inspired by being O'odham

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but also being connected
and being in those places

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that we've been removed from.

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If a lot of you are unaware
of this, so Hia C-ed O'odham,

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So the reason I
acknowledged myself

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as being a descendant
of Hia C-ed O'odham

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is because currently, we are
not federally recognized.

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Tohono O'odham Nation
is federally recognized.

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Therefore, there's the
nation and the registration

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and the acknowledgment
of my enrollment

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as a tribal member under
the Tohono O'odham Nation.

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But I mention that
because Hia C-ed O'odham,

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we're considered extinct.

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Hia C-ed O'odham have a history
of being forcibly removed

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and displaced from our
lands and those lands--

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those lands are missed by us.

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Those lands, we have
connection with,

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legal battles for acknowledgment
for access to sacred sites.

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And being with these sites,
being with my relatives,

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I can say I can feel the
loss, a much greater loss,

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but it now reflects
into this new work.