Maybe Indian parents don't always show their affections, but they have taught us that, even though we have a problem, we are still supposed to help one another, and that is what I am trying to do.
Even when we were kids, if we had something and other kids didn't, we must share what we had.
By the age of 9, girls were expected to take complete care of younger children.
I too had to take care of my little brother and sister. I grew up fast. That's just what parents expected.
Now teenagers don't want to do that, so they get angry and take off.
Head Start and nurseries help the working mothers because older children don't tend the little ones anymore.
The old ways are changing, and I hope to help some of the people, particularly girls about my age, change to something good.
There are people on the reservation who don't seem to like me.
Maybe they are jealous, but I don't know why. I know they resent me somehow.
When I used to come from school or from work back to the reservation, I could tell some people felt like this.
I don't think that I have ever, ever, even in the smallest way, tried to prove myself better or more knowing than other people.
I have two close friends here, so I don't feel too lonely, but other people my age do not make friends with me.
I miss my sister, and I miss my roommate from Miami.
My two friends here are good friends. I can tell them anything I want.
I can talk to them. That's important, that I can talk to them.
That's what I look for in a friend, not their education, but for enjoyment of the same things, and understanding.
But there are only two of them, I have not be able to find other friends.
The old people think I know everything because I've been to school.
But the old people don't have the kind of experience which allows them to understand our problems.
They think that it is easy somehow to come back here. They think there is nothing else.
They do not understand that there are things I miss on the outside. They do not understand enough to be friends.
They are kind, and they are glad that I am educated, but they do not understand my problems. They do not understand loneliness.