Tribes Team

Early 1900s. A man leaves Lithuania. Not because he wants to. Because the Tsar has banned his language, his alphabet, his songs. The punishment for speaking Lithuanian in public is exile to Siberia. The punishment for teaching a child to read their mother tongue is prison. So he walks through forests at night. He carries books hidden under hay in a wagon. He crosses borders that don't want him. He boards a ship in the dark. He arrives in America with nothing. Maybe twenty dollars. Maybe less....

This week I keynoted for Apache, Hopi, and Navajo grant school board members. Last minute invitation and I said yes. I always say yes to this kind of work. Before the call I sat down and did what Masan taught me. Fifteen minutes. Stone breath. The practice her father passed to her, and she passed to me before I could even read. I wasn't nervous. I was ready. I opened with stories about her, my first teacher. Big Mountain. No electricity. Kerosene lamp. Four hundred sheep outside every...

By Tony Skrelūnas, Diné/Lithuanian, MBA, Phd Candidate “Sʼah naaghai bikʼe hózhó.” Walk in beauty. Live long. Die wise. — Diné Blessing Way, Hozhoonji “Ikigai.” A reason for being. The intersection of what you love, what you are good at, what the world needs, and what you can be supported for. — Okinawan life philosophy, Blue Zone principle “Sveikata — tai ne tik kūno būklė. Tai ryšys su žeme, su šeima, su daina.” Health is not only the condition of the body. It is the connection to the...