"Running has been my absolute passion and my stability. When I transferred schools, I felt as if no one wanted me to succeed. My teacher told me it was in my genetics to be an alcoholic, my basketball coach would drug test only me on the team, and my track coach told me I would just be another stupid Indian runner with no chance in the real running world. I let those words motivate and push me until I earned the fastest times in the school, but she still wouldn't let me race. My dad gave me these words "You can either be a quitter or come back a success story. Your choice.

That summer I trained harder than ever and came back strong. I made it to State. I made first team and placed in the Nike meet in Boise and Footlocker in California. I was Mead High School's #1 runner. My story isn't over. I will keep working hard to reach my goals. I will go to college so I can continue my success story that will inspire my fellow Native youth. I want to let them know that although the odds might not be in our favor, we come from strong people. We are strong and will rise!" -Hannah Tomeo (Colville, Yakima, Nez Perce, Sioux and Samoan Nations), Northwest Indian Youth Princess

Wilson Mungnak Hoogendorn and Oilver Tusagvik, Inupiaq brothers from Nome Alaska, were the first to summit North America’s highest peak, Mount Denali, in the 2019 climbing season. I asked them how they prepared: “Doing hard things,” Wilson chuckles. “If you're just constantly doing hard things, it's a blip upward if you want to go. Do something crazy,” Oliver explains. Wilson agrees, “Just doing hard things makes everything easier.” They recall walking into the ranger station to register to climb and being met with sideways glances, “Are you sure?”, the ranger asked. “Probably because we didn’t look fancy”… Wilson mentions that most of the people that climb have really expensive equipment and many even have sponsorship. Despite doubt, they proceeded to break trail for the 2019 season at the third most prominent and isolated peak on Earth, after Mount Everest and Aconcagua. Denali, a kuyokon word that means “high”, “tall”, or “great one” is the highest mountain in North American at 20,310 feet above sea level.

Isabella & Alyssa Klain, Dine'. We will not rest. Hoping is not enough. Our resilience shall prevail. Together we rise. Our ancestors always behind us.

Princess Daazhraii Johnson (Neets’aii Gwich’in). She is the creative co-producer and writer for @mollyofdenali on PBS, the first AlaskaIndigenous children's television show to win the prestigious PeabodyAward! ​ ​Princess reflects on reclaiming Indigeneity and the future for Indigenous generations: ​ ​“Our dreams are really powerful. If we can manifest that for the greater good, then we should. Our Indigenous values need to be shared with the world.The Indigenous worldview needs to get out there. ​​When we see clearly what's taking place in ​dominant culture and colonization, then we have an obligation to make change and to bringothers up. We have to simultaneously rise up. You tell your truth and you start healing from that. And then you get to create the new and build the new." ​Princess holds a bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations from George Washington University and a Master’s degree in Education from theUniversity of Alaska Anchorage. She gives much credit to those individuals and organizations that inspired and supported her as an artist throughout the years: she is a Sundance Fellow for the filmmakers, Producers and Screenwriters Lab, and an EmergingVoices Rosenthal Fellow with the PEN Center. She has been a member of the SAG-AFTRA Native American Committee since 2007and also serves on the Boards of Dancing with the Spirit, NDNCollective, Native Movement, and was appointed by former president Obama to serve on the Board of Trustees for the Institute of American Indian Arts.

Travis Goldtooth, Buffalo Barbie, Diné. Travis Goldtooth belongs to the Diné people from Navajo Nation and their Two-Spirit drag name isBuffalo Barbie. We met in San Francisco at the largest Two Spirit PowWow in the nation. This photo was taken before the powwow in the hostel as we were bustling about, doing our makeup, excited to be gathering with friends and relatives. That morning we walked alongSan Francisco’s bay while drinking coffee and chatting. I was moved by Travis’ loving nature and forgiving spirit: “I was pretty much raised by my grandmother and she instilled all this cultural knowledge. In the Navajo culture, it’s a matriarchal society. And with the matriarch, which is my grandmother, once she passes, the next holder is a Two Spirit individual; it’s usually a male/female, an individual like me. When I moved back home five years ago, I fell into that role, and I guess I never looked back. My brothers and sisters look up to me. I have to do all the family event gathering and when somebody's in the hospital or something like that, I’m the first to be informed. It falls on me to give the news because they say, if it comes from me, it has more of a subtle warmth feeling; it’s not as a tragic news as if my brother gave it. They don’t freak out because they think I’m handling it. My cousins and sisters said, I couldn’t have done it without you. I don’t know what you did but everything smoothed out itself. I didn’t think of it, without knowing I’ve fell into that responsibility. I’m just talking to them and I give them advice as much as like, we were talking here, kind of like the cultural advice that we have.