Here at KHS, there is more diversity than what many people realize, and some of those diverse students include American Indian and Alaskan Natives backgrounds.

Since November is American Indian and Alaskan Native Heritage Month, a few Kearsley students talked about the importance of their heritage.

Senior Ayanna Thompson said that her family and its heritage plays a large part in her life.

“Being Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) is more of a way of life than the color of your skin. It’s about the teachings of the Seven Grandfathers: Wisdom, Love, Respect, and Truth. Many don’t understand that native blood is a true blessing, and you should be very proud if you are native,” Thompson said.

Thompson said Anishinaabe comprises a large group of American Indians. In Michigan, she is part of the Ojibwe people who are most recognized as being in the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, which is in the Mt. Pleasant area.

There are 21 states with 100,000 or more American Indians making that a total of 6.7 million American Indian and Alaskan Native descendants in the United States, and Michigan has many American Indians.

It is estimated that by 2060 there will be at least 10.2 million American Indians living in the United States. Besides Michigan, many of the states prevalent with American Indians are Alaska, Arizona, and Georgia.

In 2016, 567 tribes were federally recognized, showing that there were almost 850,000 American Indian households in the country.

Senior Evan Stimac said his native heritage is important to him.

He said it differentiates him from everyone else.

But junior Noah Ross said he doesn’t celebrate his heritage this month.

Not because he is not proud of his heritage, though. It’s simply because he didn’t know the celebration during this month existed.

For Thompson, whose also partly Lakota-Sioux, celebrating her heritage during November is no big deal, but that’s because she and her family celebrate their heritage throughout the year.

“Being native, we’re really proud of that.  Every month is our heritage month,” Thompson said. “We talk about it often.  We don’t celebrate just one month.”