Native Way Forward

Rising Native leaders are fighting for a brighter future

Follow three rising Native leaders as they explore what's possible for their futures—and illuminate the path forward for Native youth everywhere.

Movie poster with the text "Native Way Forward" showing a map of North America covered in a deep red Navajo-style pattern

The three roadtrippers pose in front of Roadtrip Nation's green RV.

The three roadtrippers sit on a rock in front of the green RV on a sunny day.

Roadtrip leader Ben Jacobs poses in front of his restaurant.

Roadtripper Kimberlee stands in the middle of a flower garden.

The three roadtrippers pose with leader Rose B. Simpson and her daughter.

A behind-the-scenes shot of roadtrippers Isaac and Elizabeth seen through a digital camera.

A behind-the-scenes shot of the roadtrippers interviewing Melinda Williamson.

Roadtripper Elizabeth shows off their "You Are On Native Land" hat.

Roadtripper Isaac reads a book under a flag representing the Hopi Tribe.

Roadtripper Kimberlee poses with her family.

Native American Roadtrip

We're so closely connected with the land that we live on. &gt;&gt; This new infrastructure that's come in is dominating our world. [MUSIC] We're dealing with so much as tribal people. [MUSIC] &gt;&gt; It's really easy to get caught up in everybody's expectations of you. &gt;&gt; I want my children to live in a different kind of world than I grew up. &gt;&gt; [FOREIGN] &gt;&gt; Hi, I'm Kimberlee Blevins. I'm an enrolled member of the Mandan Hidatsa Arikara Nation. &gt;&gt; I'm from the Hopi Reservation. I grew up in Flagstaff, Arizona. &gt;&gt; I'm an enrolled member of the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin. [MUSIC] &gt;&gt; So we're about to embark on this trip for a couple weeks. We're going to hit Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma. &gt;&gt; I'm hoping to meet some really cool people. &gt;&gt; In a lot of ways, I'm honestly not sure what to expect. &gt;&gt; [LAUGH] &gt;&gt; I'm anxious to just get to interview these game changers that in their own right are changing the world. &gt;&gt; How can implementing culturally relevant art positively impact youth? &gt;&gt; It completely altered my life forever. &gt;&gt; Being born and raised on the Hopi Reservation we deal with a lot of disparities back home. [MUSIC] Being a mother and a student at the same time, that's just so intense for me. &gt;&gt; That kind of wrap around communal love that we have for one another, take that from us. [MUSIC] I think we live in a time now that's more hopeful than it has been. &gt;&gt; I feel like I have really big aspirations. &gt;&gt; It's our time, finally. [MUSIC] &gt;&gt; If you look at our stories, it's always a reminder to take care of each other. &gt;&gt; All the subjects that he talked about was so intense. [MUSIC] 

Meet Elizabeth, Isaac, and Kimberlee, three Native young adults exploring how they can build a brighter future.

Native Way Forward Trailer

our lifestyle as Native American people, spiritually and within the community. with the land that we live on. the weight weighs on my shoulders, a daughter, and a student. kind of world than I grew up. easy to get caught up in to pull after success, and you feel like should be validating you. it's your life, and decide what you want to do. I'm Kimberlee Blevins, the Mandan Hidatsa Arikara Nation. Environmental Science at Native American leadership. I have a 13 year old and on the go all the time. interview these game changers are changing the world. be spending time together on this RV. I haven't had a chance to meet them yet. kind of great people they're gonna be. 2017 with a degree in speech and decided to approach a buffalo on the side phone, she was gonna take a picture of it. trampled her. absolutely ripped her pants off, and blue jeans stuck to its horn. really cool people and to learn from them, to say about their lives. from their years of being here. I'm from the Hopi Reservation. to step out of my world, and I haven't known yet. I'm honestly not sure what to expect, I'm just going in with an open mindset. the bus. some Native stickers in here, though, on this trip for a couple weeks. Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma. Elizabeth Zingg, I live in Phoenix, of the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin. with a degree in speech and a few years. are mostly educational. of education I need. uplift the Indigiqueer people. or food sovereignty? help with all of that. being adopted outside of their nation and is social workers would come into to go ahead and look for removed and placed in a white family. touch with their culture, and efficiently into America. the realm of her nation and her culture. from her where she came from. Christian school that was really this white private Christian school, the different games that we would play at interview is with Bobby Wilson. had the easiest path, but me the best paths to listen to. &gt;&gt; Bobby: I'm from Minnesota originally. raised, Dakota homeland. to live in a county boys home for mostly for graffiti stuff, or stuff like that. who were my mentors. I was hanging out with. then when was your transition to start to, the county boys home, to school or if you were going to work. with some youth art programs in St. up meeting some really amazing teachers. called Creative Arts High School, and helped me out big time. friends Ryan RedCorn and Sterlin Harjo. we started making YouTube videos and of everything I was doing. Ornelas, who grew up here in Tucson, writer for the last ten years. she said, so I did. a guy named Ed Helms, movie star guy, anyway, and called Rutherford Falls. I got to keep working out of the second house here in Tucson. from a tiny little desk that I got for season of it, I got to be in the show, whole hell of a lot from those guys. Reservation Dogs, and he hired me I was done with Rutherford Falls. I had an interview with Marvel Studios, on one of their TV shows, awesome path, and from what I experienced settled with where they're at. &gt;&gt; Bobby: [LAUGH] I aspire to be rich. &gt;&gt; Bobby: Give it all to me. &gt;&gt; Bobby: My whole life, and that means beading, that means writing, that means acting, in my head it's all of the same thing. building, but also to keep collaborating. and also bring other Indians cuz freaking like it's our time, finally. &gt;&gt; Elizabeth: I have a college degree, I got my bachelor's in, and I have- my major at one point to art, and me from doing that. with art in a formal sense, folks go to art school, totally cool, a couple of my mentors went to art school, at an art school now. do financially with my own life. I knew it's what I wanted with my life, so yeah. are like, you're self-taught? I am taught by a lot of different people. cool, he was a cool guy, he's super funny, to take away of how many struggles he went he was able to find a balance, despite his past and his upbringing. was always be ready for and to always be learning, and hanging out with the right people. organization called Teen Challenge, program that helps controlling addictions. able to go into those high activity a lot of drug transactions going on, and things like that. lunches, we give them clothes, and the streets if they choose to. going into the juveniles or out with those people there and they're worthwhile and your life if they choose to. story of overcoming drug addiction and else to do the same. I quickly fell into that mold. of it, but I happen to have it, joy-riding in a stolen car. getting caught after running away, I remember getting out just to go back in. was 12 till I was 19 years old. did about three and so that's where my youth was at. juvenile and he was an art teacher, so time I was 18 years old, I was homeless. middle of my neighborhood, and he took me year, and he helped me to get on my feet. and eventually moved on to community and now I'm attending ASU. in nonprofit leadership and on American Indian Studies. I'm trying to figure out in my mind what establish a nonprofit. the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. near the center of the Bakken oil play. infrastructure that has basically invaded the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. you come to a demographic where there's, to say what will be negative impacts, on the positive impacts. physically, they've all changed, come in is dominating our world. scientists built into our DNA. the lines of the scientific method. interviewees was Dr. Carrie Joseph. she does STEM outreach. schooling with her child, and through to her PhD. the forefront of my research right now. guess even your undergrad? high school and then jump in or? at U of A, it wasn't a straight shot. I played a lot of sports in high school. that involves sports, or sports medicine. pathway was when I finished high school. local college border town in a physical therapist. really all I knew, I knew I liked science. the things that we need to change early in our Native students to so era in high school, I didn't get that. was very strong for me was in my home. and I'm sure you're very familiar a young mother at a young age. my community actually, man she's pregnant, her dreams have ended. of look past that cuz I always always they were always there. we farm, and so me to go into environmental sciences. I had to finish my undergrad degree. you can spend so much effort, and you can totally do that. when you started your graduate program, what was that like? because it was just me and her. raised on the Hopi Reservation, disparities back home. to alcohol and substance abuse. that's basically what took his life, those obstacles and &gt;&gt; Kimberlee: I'm so sorry, Ryan, say about your child losing their parents. just not wanting them to struggle, that, that loneliness. being a mother and that's just so intense for me. to college once I had my child, just watching him grow. who she wasn't with, alcohol, and I went through. all these challenges and she's still, she's positive, that's just everything where I wanna be. of great things that you're doing, come without a lot of regrets. back and say, dang I really neglected some have been present for as a mother first. sacrifice to think of the bigger picture. basically what has to drive your path. you don't have that passion to keep going I found my new superhero. like in front of mine. these paths and she's doing it, those next steps for my PhD. every time you leave the reservation, man. sunglasses, COVID test, battery pack. you gotta have the hot Cheetos, to go visit Rose Simpson at her studio. conversation with a contemporary art the Indigenous art world or market, right? that everyone around the world has reflect to us our internal processes and muscle so that we make more conscious each other and our planet, right? right? it's a lot easier to go around and how can implementing culturally relevant Native American communities? I was a rotten teenager in the 90s, needed, and what needs weren't met for me. that was happening within myself, right? world which was like graffiti art and needed to express themselves and seen in a certain way, right? that practice to turn around and the ability to express things that they spiritual practices are based we can't go to the store and ceremony, you have to make it, right? engage in those practices, right? the differentiation between art and how that's a very European idea, right? into everything that we do in our life, a very empowering place. I can't draw or I can't do this or that, in other ways like food, fashion, music. can express ourselves creatively. you talk a lot about communities and right now because of my work. the coasts of the country and but I choose to be home and me to stay here. have grown up with the perspective of what I value, and what matters to me. of that is it's really place and you know, the parent of our culture. is to be here and feel myself, and love the most, which is this place. the tools that go out into the world to we heal the people, and those people land and our parent, which is our place. is just so universe-conscious of interplay, beautifully. about, with historical trauma or that you have to sit with it, definitely struggle with. like numb out and it just like comes back and through it to make any sort of progress. the RV started to have mechanical issues. we had to leave the RV behind and we can finish our trip. we went to Denver, Colorado, and which was really amazing. one of the coolest people I've ever met. how Native American-owned restaurants, the community around them and the people. like a restaurant is a community-based what it's supposed to be. we've had the question before, specific idea of what Native food is. their ideas, ingredients to the table, general that comes in that supports that that we've developed here. of Native restaurants, as you guys know, certain idea of what Native people are or break that stereotype. a certain idea of what Native imagery is. a place for all those things, right? the walls because that's not what we do. away with some form of education, or want to go find out about. we play, or the artists on the wall, they'll go look into it. image of the community and from some historical context. about the front end on how you impact &gt;&gt; Ben: Yeah, yeah, yeah. sourced, Native specific, Native produced. then everything on, so the goal for keep money within our own communities. base on some challenging areas. &gt;&gt; Kimberlee: That you as a business have challenges that you face stepping Indigenous restaurant into white spaces? as a restaurant specifically, which is cool cuz that's what we do. a part of the restaurant industry. kind of like you're saying, with everyone else's food. their food, so that's the thing. it's not about what's on the walls. of the food that you have, where we create the competition. the city because our food's really good, that you want to see. to talk with and everything. as his food like his concepts of through talking with how far that we've interviewed. community and investment in community. think can be taken further, traditional Native American culture, fashion, or the restaurant industry, but it also evolves. a coffee shop in the valley, and into a mobile coffee shop. it as a way to display Indigenous and advocacy for certain community issues. shop to act as a sort of mobile art that to the crowds that we're a part of. we decided to go get tattoos. for being an environmental scientist. on my fingers, so that way, Land Back movement, it's really important. empowers reclamation of language, we made our way to Oklahoma and visiting Wilson Pipestem. about your background as far as your in Oklahoma, and then from there, relied on a track and field scholarship, Stanford Law School in California. I went to Washington DC to work. about is I'm getting crushed by debt, in debt for the rest of my life. upon my fear of that debt, so opportunity at a big law firm. much money as I can, I'm just gonna, about getting a clerkship or my experience as a lawyer. it's worked out for me. work part time at a hospital, in the world I want to do, right? a number of undergrads come and work here not this is the environment for me. that's really something I wanna do or not. education gaps because I didn't have I didn't have any high school really. drug addiction and substance abuse. was in foster care and in group homes. you're an amazing story already. I don't think you have any. you don't learn about those things, into the public sector or is more valuable and harder. your life story as a disadvantage. look at it as part of just your story and can create from that. your story is one of great strength, the rest of that story is gonna be. me that the life lessons that because they're real life experiences. that's what makes me unique and that I should draw from. to hear him say that. of pride for me was hearing that, beaming like, yeah, that's Isaac. convenient time, we're fresh on the trails of and coming across all those babies. didn't get a chance to get very far. the boarding school trauma, fund these boarding schools and the church, and I'm involved in ministry, power. Native American culture specifically, us to be, to be able to express ourselves through music, through dance. God's will that we strip you of these to your relationship with God. a false belief system. the influence of boarding any discrepancies in the validity it's like very deeply rooted. was with Ben Barnes. I'd heard that he was gonna be a really to address the really heavy and gaining an understanding there and the Haskell graveyard, and that our ancestors endured. they started to get missionized in 1830s. the residential school is built in 1839. haven't been accounted for those kids. 150 residential schools I believe, account for the missing kids, and scores of residential schools we have in begun to look for our missing kids. the Shawnee Tribe wrote Congress, and they're ill kept, they're not fed properly. their children only to learn that they had of those children, here on this journey together if we to see that we're each a rising you were a rising Indigenous leader? to do and who else stands behind me? my ceremonial ground. Oklahoma, traditional religious community. all of its citizens. Tenskwatawas, Black Hoofs, history that are named and were never named in the history books. make sure that we advance our interests. more hopeful than it has been. we see people coming back to traditional, learning to speak their language. it's always a reminder to take the orphans, to take care of your elderly. I wish that kind of wraparound communal that's what they should take from us. about was just so intense and the room the way he talked. much as tribal people. much that we have to deal with on everyday and it feels unfair. impact, or how am I even making a change? was done with Ben, impactful things I felt like I can't wait to make change. to start tackling these things, and on the world with these topics. Kimberlee had to leave early. at the end of the day family comes first. heart was at, and it was hard for home and tend to that, to her family. her being on the trip. we finished all of our interviews was really critical. done in another interview without her. we're gonna stay in contact and a lifelong friend now. asset on this trip, and we're definitely gonna stay in contact. on a whole lot after she left. she wasn't gonna go skydiving anyway. cuz I do all these crazy things, so whatever, like try it out? I'm not gonna go jump out of a plane. I've always wanted to go skydiving. go up there, we're gonna kiss the sky, &gt;&gt; Speaker 10: Here we go. we're just looking at the plane. and then they escorted us. that I didn't like at all. &gt;&gt; Elizabeth: [LAUGH] It was fun. man who I was gonna have to jump with. he had massive dad energy. okay, I'll jump with you. right when we jumped off, the free fall was really exciting. it was really fun, I had this beautiful scenic view, testament to environmental disaster. a mass of oil storage tanks. we've talked to just so many people, and about being mindful of environmental the oil industry really just destroys a lot of communities. we are the land. the US, they're on Indigenous lands. are not just reservations. originally Indigenous land. much grace for people. religious people to respect me or super harmful and abusive, physically, and sexually. justify having any sort of respect, somebody who is faithful like that. that's nice. firsthand the values of Indigenous leaders what they prioritize. Liz and Kimberlee. shared their contacts with me. definitely gotten larger [LAUGH]. some confidence in myself. worthy and I have things to offer. on this new-found self. showed me that I'm super capable and everything that I want to do. which is really nice. I wasn't excited for. I had no confidence in myself. that I could do much. either. 

Three rising Native leaders explore how building careers around the values of community and kinship can lead us all to a brighter future.

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Artist & Climate Change Activist

Engineer

Corporate Lawyer

CNN Anchor/Special Correspondent

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Nuclear Engineer / Founder

Pianist / Tae Kwon Do Champion

Cowboy/Horse Trainer

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Social & Political Activist/TV Personality

Judge/Author/Ordained Minister

Singer/Songwriter

President

Professional Skateboarder

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My typical day starts early with East Coast Zoom calls. I participate in team huddles throughout the day. I also sometimes film for social media.

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They won't hire someone from Cherokee, North Carolina, to go work in Washington, DC.

Chris James

About Chris

Chris James

About Chris

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