My story began with my interest in learning about the Native American culture for a class called Diversity and Oppression. I'm a social work student at Arizona State University. This lead me to research and write a paper on intersectionality of foster care/adoption of Native children to non- native parents. I got connected with the founder of Three Precious Miracles a local non-profit that celebrates the cultural richness of native children who are are in the foster care system. My research and experiences has led me to understand and appreciate things on a deeper level. I was reflecting one day which happened to be Thanksgiving. This led me to do some research on the true meaning of Thanksgiving and I used YouTube as my source. This is when I saw the video titled, Ski'nonh - Great Law of Peace Center - Thanksgiving Address. I found this short video very insightful and its imprint has been long lasting. Especially, the part of, 'let us put our minds together as one'. In such challenging times this is what is needed the most in my perspective. A lot of Indigenous knowledge has been lost and I felt like I stumbled upon a piece of sacred truth. I continued to look up the Ski'nonh ' Great Law of Peace Center and saw on Facebook that they were participating in the GivingTuesday. I decided that I wanted to help them and their efforts. That leads me to the Creation poster that I received for my $50 donation. I saw this image and fell in love with it, with her (Sky Woman). However, I felt that this poster of Sky Woman belonged to me. After seeing the founder of Three Precious Miracles post on Facebook a picture of her office with bare walls. She was putting out a call out for art. I reached out to her and shared that I was expecting the Creator poster. It was difficult for me to give this poster but I knew her (Sky Woman) home was with Elisia Manuel of Three Precious Miracles. I felt that the significance of the Creator Story and Sky Woman was needed elsewhere. The circle is now complete. You see, I learned a lot from Elisia and the Ski'nonh center and I am extremely thankful to them. I'm hopeful that this message will come to light. The true meaning of Thanksgiving is to be thankful every day' and this I am!
Grateful,
Belinda Escalante
Review from #MyGivingStory