An Introduction by Janine Pease Woman of the White Shells "You have a hard life to live" Heart of the Family White Painted Woman "We have never forgotten" Changing Woman and White Shell Woman Our Power "May our Mother bless you " Learning through listening A Woman of Value Family Life "May the Great Spirit protect my youth" "I am an old woman now"

Slide 6 of 14 When Changing Woman gets to be a certain old age, she goes walking toward the east. After a while she sees herself in the distance looking like a young girl walking toward her. They both walk until they come together and after that there is only one. She is like a young girl again. —Apache In the beginning Tse che nako, Thought Woman, finished everything, thoughts, and the names of all things. She finished also all the languages. And then our mothers, Uretsete and Naotsete said they would make names and they would make thoughts. Thus they said. Thus they did. She (Tse che nako) is mother of us all; after Her, mother earth follows, in fertility, in holding, and taking us again back to her breast. —From the Keres Indians of Laguna Pueblo We as Indian people have never forgotten the status of women. Those who have gotten away from the traditions may act as if they don’t remember, but all of us know inside. Our memories are long, as long as the line of the generations. The elders have always passed on this knowledge. We have been told to never forget. So we remember and pass it on, too. With us there is no past, everything is now, and the only future is the generations to come. —Anonymous Native American woman