This week in Native American News: a merger, a repatriation, and some monarchs.

Life for Native Americans is hard, but how they cope with this hardship varies from person to person.

Native people look to a variety of avenues to escape the hardships. Some turn to drugs and alcohol to fill the void in their lives, and suicide is also prevalent when the hopelessness gets too big to carry.

Others turn to traditional ways.

This return to the old ways has merit. Traditionally, Native Americans were family-focused. Men provided for their families, and children were taught to respect the wisdom of their elders.

Many First Nations people believe in the Seventh Generation Principle, that all our decisions should take into account our families seven generations from now. Everything we do and plan should help to make future generations strong and successful.

Too often, we hear the stories of our people, filled with pain, death, hopelessness, and rejection, and it’s hard to comprehend how we can make the drastic changes needed, not only for the Seventh Generation but for the first and second!

This week in the news... a trip down Route 66, amazing youth, and a headdress.

According to MENTOR, a national non-profit that studies the effect of mentoring on (and encourages mentoring to) at-risk youth, 1 in 3 children will grow up without a mentor. However, on a reservation, the number of youth with a steady, loving adult influence decreases far below national standards.

Think about what your life would have been like without the important role models who helped to shape you to be the person you are now. It's often hard to imagine life on the reservation, without leaders to show you the way or parents to rely upon, but it wasn't always that way for American Indians and Alaska Natives. They were once a people who held sacred the ties of family and the wisdom of their elders.

As you go about your week, we challenge you to learn more about those who you are trying to reach with the Word.

Learn to sing their song.

The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple… Your statutes are always righteous; give me understanding that I may live.  
Psalm 119: 130, 144

Oklahoma State Representative Todd Russ made a public apology this week after offending Native Americans with comments that referenced their genetic predisposition to alcoholism, which he stated while discussing a change to alcohol laws in Oklahoma convenience stores. Read the full story here.

These comments stem from the "Firewater Fairytale" that states that when Colonists introduced alcohol to early Native Americans, they simply weren't able to handle alcohol - their genetic makeup is to blame. This belief has been disproven on numerous occasions (here's one).

The real reason for rampant alcoholism and drug use among native communities?

Congratulations! You and your small group from church are heading on a mission trip to Point Hope, Alaska with Lutheran Indian Ministries. You'll be meeting new people, building relationships, and spreading the hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Hooray for you!

You are ready! Your small, twin-engine plane is descending on the barren land below. Nobody in the plane is talking - they all have butterflies in their stomach, like you. Your heart is pounding in your chest, mostly from excitement, but there is a little bit of fear, as well. This is it. This is what you have been preparing for the last six months!

But then, things start to go wrong.