Keeping Culture Alive in a Digital Age by Caroline Serio

Our world has undergone a drastic change over the last few decades. As social creatures, humans have become extremely isolated due to the rise of technology. With the loss of that human connection comes the loss of identity, relationships with one another and with the world around us. Our innate desire to be part of a community is rapidly diminishing and polarization is increasing. Stories of exciting adventures are now told over text, bedtime stories have turned into iPad video games, and dinner conversations have turned into awkward small talk while faces are lit up with bluelight.

However, as my classmates and I have traveled through western Montana and through various areas in Canada, as part of our Conservation Across Boundaries course, we have learned the importance of storytelling, human connection, and having that strong sense of culture and knowledge of where you come from is still alive and well in Blackfeet culture. Their strong sense of identity is something we could all learn from in an ever-emerging digital age.

During our travels, we have been fortunate enough to meet with and talk to members of the Blackfeet Nation in Montana about conservation and our changing world. On July 1st, we all met with Dr. Mike Bruisedhead, or Chief Bird, at the Chewing Blackbone Campsite in Babb, Montana. Throughout our conversation, Dr. Bruisedhead talked to us about how his peoples’ culture is rooted in storytelling. He told us stories of Napi, the Blackfeet’s Creator, which have been passed down for generations. The stories were never changed, never emphasized, he said. They were the same words shared with others over the course of thousands of years. He described to us how “the power of words”’ have the power to hold generations together, to keep them bonded forever. For the Blackfeet, whose history is well over 600 years old, these stories are what tie generations through time.

My classmates and I also got the chance to talk to Alicia Yellow Owl and her son Taus, who are both Blackfeet members, at Running Eagle Falls in Glacier National Park. Both Alicia and Taus had been gracious enough to share more background on the area we were at explaining to us that Running Eagle was a warrior for the Blackfeet nation long ago. A young and fearless woman who had fought by her people, for her people. Running Eagle, they had shared, was killed in battle in her 20’s and was buried by the falls, marking the importance of the area for the Blackfeet people. The passion in both Alicia and Taus’s voice had made my experience at Glacier one I can’t even try to forget. Alicia and Taus had also shared with us the creation of the tree Quaking Aspen, and Napi’s role in creating them. Every time I pass a Quaking Aspen I am transported back to Taus’s hand motions and Alicia’s expression in her voice as they shared that story with us.

Listening to Chief Bird, Alicia and Taus, it was easy to see how important storytelling was to them and how willing they were to share such a big part of the culture with others. As Chief Bird told us, “I will share with anyone willing to listen” and I know I was more than willing. In our current world that is in such a drought of human connection, I didn’t realize how much I enjoy and miss storytelling until hearing these oral stories.

On both Wild Rockies courses I have taken, we have always had a poet of the day (or POD). Each night as dinner begins, the POD shares with the group a poem they have found within a book, or even written. No matter how long or short the poem is, the “power of words” brings the group together and gives us all something to look forward to at the end of our days. Though the poems we read are not thousands of years old like Blackfeet creation stories, the poems read at dinner give our group a sense of unity, and culture that we will carry with us long after this course ends.

Being away from technology for six, even three weeks, can alter your perspective on the world, as mine did. I realized no text or photo shown can be as powerful as word of mouth or expression as you share stories of your travels. Moving forward, I hope people understand the art of storytelling and how it can rekindle relationships, making them as strong as ever.