Joanna Stancil, director of the USDA Office of Tribal Relations was the keynote speaker during FSA’s Native American Heritage Celebration.
Humor and a love for family, the Creator and the land is what has allowed the Native American Indian to survive. Those elements showed through during the Farm Service Agency’s Native American Heritage Month Celebration held Tuesday.
“We are evolving. We’ve had to evolve and we’ve done it with a sense of humor. It has helped us get through,” said keynote speaker Joanna Stancil, director of USDA Tribal Relations. Stancil was one of three presenters during the ceremony. “We have been here, are here now and will always be here.”
Stancil is Shawnee-Cherokee from Oklahoma and accepted the director position earlier this year to help USDA improve relations between American Indian and Alaskan Native governments. Stancil said her motivation for accepting the position was USDA’s conservation efforts.
“We need to give back to mother earth. She is speaking to us,” said Stancil. “She is saying ‘I’m in trouble,’ and we need to do a better job of taking care of her and honoring her. Through the work at USDA we can give something back to mother earth and father the creator.”
The Yaqui Tribe is known for its oneness with nature, according to Yolanda Provost of FSA
Speakers included (from back l to r): Katina Hansen, Juan M. Garcia, (front l to r): Wanda Lee, Joanna Stancil and Yolanda Provost.
Human Resources Division. Provost is part of the Yaqui Tribe that originated in Mexico but migrated to Arizona during the Yaqui Wars that ended in 1929. She lived on a reservation and taught on several reservations.
“Yaquis believe that human beings are a small part of the wilderness world,” said Provost. “During Thanksgiving, my family gave thanks to the animals that sacrificed their life so that they we may live.”
Provost said she credits her mother and grandmother for teaching her about her culture and history. Although her mother is aging and has arthritis, Provost said her “mother always says she is grateful she doesn’t have arthritis of the tongue because she loves to talk about her Indian heritage.”
Wanda Lee understand that sentiment because she loves talking about her heritage also That’s one of the reasons she became a teacher.
“Education is my passion,” said Lee of the FSA Office of External Affairs. “All of the time I spent educating children and youth was a privilege.” Lee said she received her love for education from her mother, Louisiana Revels Lee, who was Cherokee/Lumbee. As the oldest of three children, Lee helped raise her twin siblings and tutored them in the summer. For 18 years she taught elementary and middle school students and eventually worked as acting director for the Indian Education Title IV Adult Education Program where she developed a curriculum, taught Pre-GED/GED classes and supervised tutors.
“I enrolled people who couldn’t read or write but I watched one man go from a zero capacity reading level to a fourth grade reading level,” said Lee, who volunteers as a commissioner with the American Commission on Indian Affairs. “He sat and read the Bible to me.”
Helping others and educating the world about the value of American Indians is what each presenter showed as their ultimate mission. That’s also what Stancil said is the focus of the Office of Tribal Relations. Although small in size with a staff of three, the office still hosts heads of tribal nations weekly and oversees the Council for Native American Farming and Ranching that was designed to advise the Secretary on ways to eliminate participation barriers for members of Indian Country.
“We have a wonderful mission at USDA to do great things for Indian Country and we are in a wonderful position to meet needs of tribal groups,” said Stancil.
