Test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test est it test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test. The work that i have done in the National Park service is tremendous. It spans an entire career of the most mink work that i think i have ever done, is to sit and listen to the people to whom this continent belongs. When i listen and hear the pain of the taking of land, taking of quu culture, taking of language, i begin to think about what that means for me. I have a dear friend. Her name is faith spottedeagle. She does tremendous work around generational trauma and healing in indian country. What she tells me is that healing will take place when we come together as a nation. Healing of our Indigenous People will be able to happen when we begin to set aside the denial and the same that serves as barriers between us and our native nations. Im humbled to sit here today. There are plenty of other people that certainly could be here to talk through indigenous eyes. I only share with you what i have experienced myself. I ask you to also think buabout your experience with our native nations. If you dont have experience with our native nations, i encourage you to reach beyond your comfort zone and think about what it might have been to have a great loss in your life and what it would take for you to come back to a place of balance and to show a film to you produced by stylehorse collective by a group of young people from the tribe balance youth programs. In connection to the unity, our conference of the northwest. It points us to a deeper level of understanding of why our tribal nations might be facing what they are. We might be able to come back to a place where our nations are healthy and sharing their indigenous knowledge with us, so we would understand the place of our American Heritage as the National Park service turns 100 years old today. I encourage all of us as citizens of this nation and citizens of this world to reflect back on the Indigenous People and their perspectives of land. As you watch this film, think about your own self and your own family and your own community. Have you ever had a loss or conflict that led you to a place of selfdestruction, depression or Great Sadness. Then, also, think about what helped you return to that place of healthy balance. There are always people losing their lives when there is sadness. We all have come back to a place of healthy balance. National parks may be the places for us to think about for our native people as they go home to the an ses industrial lands, as they walk in the moccasin tracks of those that came before them. The National Parks have a role in helping to heal a nation, our first nations. Thank you. One morning, i woke up. I heard my brother crying. He was screaming so loud you would have thought someone was dying. Mom, dad, he screamed. There was no use trying. They werent around. I went outside and saw he had had a pretty bad crash. His bike was in the ditch. His arm, a bloody gash. He looked so pitiful just sitting there in the dirt amongst the trash crying, i want mom and dad. I picked him up and started running towards my uncles up the way. It started raining and got real dark. You could barely tell it was day. My brother cried and asked, sister, where is mom . I didnt know what to say, when the truth is, i dont know. My uncle saw is coming, he ran into the yard. He took my brother from me and i held him in his arms. When he saw my face, i could tell, i could tell he was alarmed. He said, what happened, you fall too . Uncle, im so tired. So tired of wondering why, why do they drink . Why do they do drugs . Why do they leave us . Why . He said, sister, its hard to explain. I said, uncle, try. Then, he told the story. Once this land was teepees as far as you can see. The water was clean, the land pristine. We were where we were meant to be. Then, strangers came across the sea and brought with them their disease. Our people cried and prayed and sang but it brought them to their knees. We will rise up from darkness we will overcome the pain warrior spirits live within us we shall remain imagine that your family and most of all your tribe, what if most everyone you love suddenly got sick and died and before you even had a chance to bury them and mourn, the strangers came and took away the land where you were born and you wondered if your parents even cared as they stole you and your brother away or if they had been so beaten down, they had nothing left to say. At school, they cut your hair and beat you if you spoke. The language that our creative gave our people when earth awoke. We will rise up from the darkness we will overcome the pain warrior spirits live within us we shall remain sister, im not trying to tell you that your mom and dad are okay or that they are not responsible for the choices that they have made. You see this bloody wound on your Little Brothers arm. If we dont clean it, it wont heal and it will do all kinds of harm. Those deep wounds of our ancestors still bleed within our hearts when we remember all they have done. Thats where the healing starts. So every morning when you wake, you pray this prayer out loud, creator, help me live in a way that would make my ancestors proud. Dont you forget this. You can be anything you want to be. Just work hard. Never give up. Perseverance is the key. Strength, dignity, honor, thats all in your family tree. Hold your head up high and know that. We shall remain we will rise up from the darkness creator, help me live in a way na will make my ancestors proud. We will overcome the pain creator, help me live in a way that will make my ancestors proud. Warriors spirits live within us help me live in a way that will help my ancestors proud. We shall remain we shall remain little brother, we will rise up from this darkness. Little brother, we will overcome the pain. We shall remain remember, warriors spirits live within us. We shall remain. I may pose to you something that i do when i feel sad or have great loss. It has to do with going back to familiar places, going back to my family, going back to where i grew up. Indigenous nations are invited to return to their homes, the familiar places and the National Park service is committed through providing Youth Opportunities with elders to go back to the homelands to walk in the moccasin tracks of their ancestors, to heal as the National Park service opens up, sits and listens and learns from those whose hand we sit. We all need to go back sometimes to familiar places, to the places of which we came in order to heal sometimes. I am proud of the National Park service for beginning to really open up to the elders, to the youth, and recognizing the places of our human existence here on this planet, in this continent that once belonged to and still belong to our Indigenous People along with all of us who have inherited the lands that we call National Parks. Thank you, carol. Thanks to wayne and julie and rhonda and carol for curating the film clips and introducing them for us. We now have about 50 minutes where we can engage in conversation, conversation with each other, conversation with all of you. You will note that we posed a series of questions, some big ones. So im going to review the questions with you. Wayne asked, what are the things that have helped you or your loved ones heal . Have the parks ever been a thought to help in that process . Julie asked, what is a cause you care deeply about on a personal, intimate level or a public, society tall level and what could be effective, public platforms for addressing your cause both personally and or publicly . Rhonda asked, when did a park experience close to home prepare you for something bigger than you expected or launch a new understanding in ways that surprised you . And carol asked, have you or your family had a loss or a conflict that led you to selfdestruction or Great Sadness and what helped you return to healthy balance . These are questions we posed to you. We welcome you to share your stories with us. We have microphones on both sides of the house. We welcome you to share your stories and we also welcome you to ask questions, make comments and observations and engage in conversation with our panelists. If you have a story to share or a question or a comment, please come on up to the microphone and while were waiting for people to think of their questions and their stories, i will pose a question to each of you. So in your own personal journeys, i can tell that you are all very, very passionate about the work that you do. In your own personal journey, can you think of a time when you kind of knew, right, this was what was right for you and what was that connection . What made that connection for you . Im going to put wayne on the spot. Wayne, can you start . Well, actually, it involves rhonda. Rhonda was my boss at valley forge, my second park. We were just discussing in the back my last day at valley forge was veterans day, 2013. We had a guest speaker drop out. This speaker was supposed to speak to a group of people that i helped organize come to the park this group of people were brand new recruits in the United States army. My idea was, why not have them do their oath of enlistment in the place where the United States army was born. Rhonda loved it. Being a seasonal at the time, my thought was, im just a seasonal. Im not going to be here long. Is she really going to like it . Thats the kind of boss rhonda is. We are all park rangers whether we are permanent or seasonal. We get this group. We organize it. They come down from the recruitment station in harrisburg, i believe it was. They brought a group of about 50. The night prior, i get a call from our special Events Coordinator, we have an issue. I need you to write a five to seven minute speech and give it tomorrow. Being the good park ranger and soldier i am, i did it. I emailed it to our special Events Coordinator and that was it. I showed up to work the next morning and we had our event. When i was introduced and im standing up there, towards the end, i kind of ad libbed a couple things that werent in the speech. I know just from the look. I remember the look on rhondas face, was, where is he going with this . There must have been 300, 400 people there. Probably about half the group were veterans. As im giving my talk, i removed my hat. I didnt want to talk to them as ranger wayne. I wanted to talk to them as Staff Sergeant rogers, somebody who had been there and walked their shoes. Towards the end, i threw in there, and i told them, you are no longer our fellow citizens. You are now our brothers and sisters in arms. As i said that, there was kind of this hush in the crowd where it was like, whoa, that was deep. Even i am going, whoa, that was deep. Then, i invited all veterans to stand and retake that oath of commitment, that oath of enlistment with these 50 young men and women that were taking it for the first time. It was kind of like, wow, i did that. I realized at that point, it was kind of like, im going to make it. Im going to do all right here. Rhonda was the one who kind of gave me the thumbs up and sat back and gave me plenty of rope to hang myself. I handed her back plenty of rope. We recognize talent when we see it. We have a lot of confidence in you. I notice we have a member of the audience. So well go to you, sir. Would you identify yourself . Bruce guthrie. When i was a kid, our parents took us to a lot of National Parks. Since it was from their perspective, to me, i saw it as the family trip and i really couldnt identify. It wasnt until i became older and had my own values that i could reconnect and ken burns civil war frankly was what started me going back to the historic parks and exploring the rest, because there is so much there. Im told these days, its hard to get kids off their butts and outside. At the same time, when i go to places now im seeing all the kids with pokemon goes and they dont look up, because the little guy they are collecting is over here. On one hand, pokemon go is great, because it is getting people up. But, on the other hand, they are not appreciating what they are seeing. I was wondering how you guys feel about that. Is there some way to coop, make it a more interactive experience with the parks . Thats a terrific question. Who would like to take a stab at that one . Let me turn to one of the other panelists, since, wayne, you just spoke. Certainly, i just sat on a committee for the National CapitalPlanning Committee and the National Parks service about envisioning monuments and memorials of the future and trying to do an eye deation session about what could we do to add an overlay to existing experiences and or another layer to it that would allow people to think about an notating in real time. How has the story been transformed, what has moved forward. We looked at things through the lens of other designers and what you described was one of the things we discussed this morning because of the whole pokemon go kind of idea. What is it that we could do that would bring the eyes up and once those eyes are up, let people dive deeper in. It is part of that engagement conversation. I understand from some of the folks on our committee that the park service is already doing some of that, within some of the monument structures and other areas that you can look at those. Im really fascinated by that and interested in where thats going. Wayne, do you want to expand . I know the National Mall did something, where it created a tour. Correct me if im wrong. Independence in philly, were developing the same thing. Many of the pokey stops. We have two pokemon gyms. When i left work yesterday, i owned one. My kid plays. I do it for him. Were developing a tour that takes us to a lot of the pokey stops that are set up at the second bank, independence hall, washington square. We are trying to develop a tour where, okay, were going to go catch the pokemon. Stop, look up. There is no more pokemon left. We caught them all. Lets talk about where we are in front of. I know between the mall and us, im sure other parts are doing it too. One thing thats really exceptional about mobile technology, which, if you can believe it, it has only been around for like five years. Now, there is one of these in almost everybodys pocket. Not just rich people but everybodys pocket. This is a technology embraced by all different economic levels. It gets you out from behind your computer screen and helps you connect with the rest of the world. So were actually seeing the embracing of the mobile technology as a wonderful way of engaging people and getting them excited not just about catching the pokemons but about exploring and expanding their horizons and with that, Virtual Reality and augmented reality on the horizon, this is going to be a really interesting tool for park tours. Julia may i add one thing . In light of that, i want to emphasize one of the things we think is so important with the young people, specially like in the movie, i say, put them in the water. The kids, not the iphone. Put the kids in wadeers and let them search for rusty crayfish, give them a helmet and a bike, put them on trails. Put them in canoes, kids paddling on the water. Besides the wonderful technology, we are always looking for ways to put them into the experience they would have never done on their own, on the trail, on the bike, in the water, in the trees, to be engaged in ways they never could imagine they would fintd themselves in. Thanks. Good point. Please identify yourself. My name is denise domain. I just recently retired from the park service after 38 years. Congratulations. Thank you. I am so fortunate. I was in philadelphia and washington and wound up at the beautiful Channel IslandsNational Park in california. I didnt expect this day to be so emotional. Im very emotional, par at this time par it ticipating in that. Just an observations, not necessarily a question. When i looked at the urban blazers in philadelphia, my hometown, im very emotional about that. I would like to see the panel take this information and i think we need to there is a little bit of a disconnect on getting this kids employment. I would like to see more mentors, specific mentors, even if we could just get one of those kids out of the 100 into the National Park system. It is not easy. You need that oneonone interaction and someone to take it to the next level. Thats just my passion, if you will. I hope that you can take that back. Thank you, thank you. Im going to ask them, carol, to speak to that one. Carol is actually her job is relevance, diversity and inclusion strategist with that very goal. Also, one of my passions and thank you for all your service with the National Parks service. As we begin to look at our next 100 years, the stories that we tell and the place that is we protect are critical that we as citizens of the United States begin to see them as ours and ours being collective and all of the diversity that makes us a nation and in that diversity in the ranger as well as other professional ranks is critical. I think p we well, i just our director say he is putting people at the center. An important piece to inviting diversity into any organization, is to also work on probably more important to work on inclusion and to build a place of inclusion where people feel valued and feel that their voice is being heard. I think we are going to start seeing that here as we enter into our next 100 years, that not only will we be looking at touching the lives of diverse america, inviting them into the employment of the National Parks service, but making them feel like they are a part of something that they want to be sitting here 30 years from now in my seat talking about who they are and who their people are and the stories that make us a great nation. So thank you very much. Reginald chapel . Hello, everybody. I just want to say thank you to the panel, thank you for all of the curating that you did for tod