An aspiring engineer on the power of connection to transcend categorization
Photo courtesy of Hannah Norton
My Native name is One-Ra-Tha-Se, which means “blue skies above.” At my high school in Syracuse, I was one of the only Native students, and I would constantly be called all these different racist things like Pocahontas, Sacagawea, Sitting Bull. People were getting these names straight from U.S. history, which is very brainwashing and creates a racial divide right away. It was frustrating, and I never really got to fully experience or display my culture.
Then, the fall of my freshman year at Tufts, I met a bunch of other Native students, and we started talking and created a group. The five of us come from very different social situations, but it’s become a little family—all of us are in this gray area, where we’re trying to re-find or continue our culture. On Indigenous People’s Day, I cooked my suitemates a traditional Native meal, which included corn bread with kidney beans, rice salad, and soup.
My grandmother and the rest of my family who live in the Kahnawake reserve were all really proud of me when they saw it on Facebook. And I’ve also started wearing a lot more Native jewelry—I love being able to explain, “Oh, this is a fringe earring based on a blue corn, that’s an Oneida beader, that’s a Navajo beader.”
It’s preferable to not just be categorized as Native American, because you’re most proud of your tribe. My biggest thing is to try to break down the years of minorities and Native Americans being villainized in the education system and show that the culture is still here—it’s not just a past thing. I feel like it’s very important to calmly educate people with this decolonized point of view, and to listen with an open mind, because that’s when understanding begins and you’re able to meet on a common ground.
Hannah Norton is a human factors engineering student at the School of Engineering (Class of 2023) and a member of the First Nations Mohawk tribe.
Our Tufts is a series of personal stories shared by members of the Tufts community and featured on both Tufts Now and Instagram.
