“The early bird gets the worm,” my dad would always say. He is notorious for waking up between four and four-thirty in the morning. In those early dark hours, you can hear his steps, the smell of coffee brewing, and the sound of newspaper pages turning. I’m not going to lie. I was incredibly annoyed by this, much like the rest of my siblings. Admittedly, I took a lot of my parents’ teachings for granted at an early age. Today, I have a deep appreciation for my dad and the lessons he offers.
My dad wasn’t very open in communicating his affection toward me. I never heard him express his love verbally. Though he made an effort to show his love in other ways. When I was in my late teens, my dad gifted me a Navajo rug dress. I was the only daughter to receive this. I also graduated from plain ol’ moccasins to buck skin moccasins. My dad was teaching me another lesson, a lesson that I was now a woman.
This was the first time I had ever felt a strong expression of love from my dad. These were words I never heard before, words that so many others have never heard in a lifetime, and words I will never forget. After wiping my eyes and blowing my nose, I thanked the Creator for this truly wonderful blessing and for bringing my dad and I closer to one another. For months, we continued to write one another. Even after he was eventually released from prison, we continued to write.
Randall Warren Heavilin (Navajo) is a classically trained cellist and composer from Austin, Texas. A graduate of The Berklee College of Music, Heavilin: composes, performs, and produces a variety of music for films and other media outlets.
Food is my final addiction frontier. Unlike alcohol, drugs and smoking, however, it is a stubborn presence that will remain a part of life forever. Hunger is a constant in our lives, returning each day reminding us of our powerlessness over the great force that is life. Like so many others, I struggle mightily with this force. For the time being I have made my peace with that daily appearance of hunger and its friend food. Since 2011 I have lost 90 pounds and have managed to maintain my weight for the past four months. I’ve written about my journey for 
Native peoples top the list for type 2 diabetes in the U.S; 16. 1 percent of Native people served by the Indian Health Service have type 2 diabetes.
In recent years, we have all reconnected on several levels. My oldest daughter was able to have him present at her college graduation and at the birth of her second son. The second oldest child was able to spend some very valuable and quality time with him fishing and hanging out in “father/daughter” time. The youngest of the three was able to rekindle her relationship with her father via phone conversations and solicit fatherly support during the time her husband was deployed in Afghanistan.
Ironically, the one place that he fought so hard to get away from, was where he met his untimely death. I am sad, with Father’s Day approaching, that my children (once again) will not be able to share it with their father. It was the one thing that they so longed for all of their childhood but on the same note, I am grateful that with VIdeo Letters other children will be able to connect with their mothers or fathers and find balance in this world, the same way that my children did. I am grateful because I know that with this sadness comes great joy, the joy of knowing that Video Letters will let the world know my children’s father and what a wonderful human being Marvin Poor Bear was.
Jack Gladstone is from the Blackfeet Indian Nation of Montana and a "storysmith." Regarded as a cultural bridge builder, he delivers programs across the nation, on American Indian history.
The Festival of Native Arts, and by extension other programs that exist to promote Native culture, has represented a steady shift of focus on the role of culture in the classroom. Culture was once something either indifferently omitted or even violently repressed in the classroom. Now, culture in the classroom is celebrated. “About time, that’s what I’m saying!” Tahbone remarked, adding “That shift has and will continue to create a ripple effect that will change the way youth think about themselves to the point that now we are comfortable and proud of being Native.”
To illustrate that ever expanding “ripple effect” that Tahbone mentioned, look no further than the Fairbanks Native Association’s Children’s Performance. The Fairbanks Head Start works with dozens of little ones for their debut dance every Festival, and they have been doing it for years. Each batch of children grows up having the experience of Festival, and knowing that their culture has a place in the larger community, a place they can be proud of. “This joining of generations together is symbolically critical,” Dr. John stressed to me, “because in that time and place, when people gather together, despite being busy teachers or busy students or just busy… when people gather together, our ancestors join us and celebrate with us, reuniting us.”
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