A Seventh Generation Indigenous Woman reclaims her culture to make a change in her community

By Crystal Martinez

CORINNE RICE, Lakota/Mohawk — was born in 1986 in Sunnyvale California, to an Oglala Lakota and Kahnawa:ke Mohawk mother and Pacific Islander and Dutch father. She grew up in San Francisco Bay area in an americanized family. Leaving her hometown in California was not an easy decision but she sought answers to her indigenous side. Going to Minnesota helped her find a part of her that was missing.

As Rice gets ready to host a conference at the Minnesota Indian Women’s Sexual Assault Coalition, she finds herself running around wearing a blue skirt by Lauren Good Day, boots and a belt around her skirt that her partner made for her with a red shirt on.

“Someone posted a photo of me dressed as I was next to wonder woman, colors were similar and I was wearing boots as she was. But then I realized all the comments I was getting from young women saying how I am such an awesome role model and they never had a Native Woman to look up to,” Corinne Rice said.

Before her journey to Minnesota, Rice recognized that there was a part of her that was lost. As she continued to search it became difficult because she didn’t have any culture ties with her indigenous side.

“My Grandpa was removed from his homeland as a child and wasn’t raised by his parents so there was a loss of connection with our indigenous culture,” Rice said.

She and her brother knew more about their culture than their grandfather, “He is the most Native out of all of us and he doesn’t know anything. He is fine with not reconnecting with his culture but me and my brother we are not fine without that connection,” Rice said.

For a long time she struggled to accept her culture and felt as if she didn’t have permission to embrace it how she wanted to. Soon after she gave birth to two beautiful children her perspective in life shifted. Being a mother of two really changed the person she was which made her want to reconnect with family and her indigenous side. It was at that time her passion evolved to learn more about her identity and culture.

When she started to work for the Lakota community in Minnesota she met elders that shared their history with her. These words that were said to her by an indigenous senior opened her eyes, “Its not your fault that you are disconnected with the culture and it’s our responsibility to bring you home.” That is when all the learning began and she wanted to make a change in her community.

There, she says, she grew anger with both the history, the injustice of American Indian people, she couldn’t believe it and said, “How come no one knows this, how come no one is talking about my people,” Rice said.

From that moment on, her motivation for being a journalist began. She realized there were very few Native people telling their stories. Shortly after, she was hired for a media outlet called PowWow she spent most of her time writing stories about her community. One of her proud moments in her life was when she had the privilege to write for Huffington Post, about the history of Thanksgiving.

Rice wanted to gain their trust so she would ask those who she would write about if: they would like to read it and make sure the story represents them in a good way before she would publish it.

“As indigenous people we are so use to being taken advantage of especially by media or news sources,” Rice said. That’s how she was able to build that confidence and tell their true history of what was missing all along.

During her time in college, Rice was a victim of sexual assault. She experience trauma and wasn’t able to step into a classroom ever again. Which didn’t give her the opportunity to graduate college. But for her, that didn’t mean her learning stopped, she continued to further her education and be knowledgeable even under the circumstances she faced.

That’s where her inspiration began at her second job as a program coordinator for the Minnesota Indian Women’s Sexual Assault Coalition, to help women and children in her community. Rice’s role is to make sure they are supported and offering services for survivors in sex trafficking in the American Indian community.

Being a highly visible person in her tribe, Rice had to start with learning who she was and understanding who she was, “I had to be knowledgeable about my culture and who I was before I step into a stage of authority,” Rice said.

From her point of view, Rice’s mission is: to lead her community by telling true stories about their history and being involved as much as she can to continue to help her people. Reclaiming her culture was a part of what she was missing from the very beginning. This helped her make a difference in the American Indian community.

“My partner was saying to me the other day; because you are writing about a topic that not a lot people are talking about and you are knowledgable about that topic and it’s shining light in your writing from a space in your heart that is pure because its about our own people,” Rice said.