Dr. Kirk Hopinka, a tribal member working with the Nation's Health Department, stated that while we all recognize the importance of being aware of our culture, it is equally important that we recognize the culture of others. Speaking at a meeting of The Northwoods Coalition held November 7, 2001 at Majestic Pines Hotel, Hopinka emphasized the challenge we all face is to make ourselves aware of the learned habits and behaviors that we all have and what we need to do to break those habits, change our behavior. He believes that the expectations we have of others, expectations that are learned in our culture, impede our relationships with those different than us. He acknowledges that is it important that we understand why people feel the they do, that we understand their feelings are based on what they learned, their culture has created their learned habits and expectations.

Stressing that "it's worth taking the time to learn to be respectful of others", Hopinka added that "if we take the time to understand, our anger will be less and our tolerance more" when we deal with people different than us. He stated that if we take the time to understand different cultures, we'll ask questions and learn, and that we all have the power to change conditioned habits and beliefs. He recognizes "that it takes alot of work to understand the culture of other people" but feels that we must learn to understand those difference. He warned that we must be aware of the prejudices that we all have, we all make snap judgements and we need to learn how these judgements affect our own behavior and attitude toward different people.

He continued that while our culture influences how we treat other people, their culture influences how they treat us. It was noted that Native Americans face certain unique challenges as they strive to be understood. While people are generally quick to recognize and expect differeces between certain ethic groups, these same people believe "that all Indians are the same". Their culture has taught them this belief. Native people are challenged to change the expectations. While many of the old wounds will never close, Hopinka stresed "that the healing begins when we become aware that we will be treated differently because of our culture".

Minority groups continue to be stereotyped, often not out of hatred but because of misunderstanding. The beliefs that some people have, learned in their culture, leds them to draw conclusions that have no merit. For example, Hopinka stated that it is known that Native Americans suffer from a higher rate of diabetes than any other racial group and noted that many believe the cause is a "deficient gene" in the population. He feels the term "different gene" would be more accurate, eliminating a negative triat associated with Native Americans.

Concluding that are behavior and habits are learned in our culture, he challenged everyone to concentrate on understanding the different beliefs of others, giving us an idea of why people feel the way they do about us and why we feel the way we do toward them.

To change our behavior and habits takes concentration. To document the point, those in attendance were issued a simple challenge that illustrated how difficult change can be. Here's the challenge:  Copy the paragraph below as fas as you can. Don't cross the t's or dot the i's. See if you can follow the directions.

In Minnesota in August and September of 1862, the Sioux Indians and almost 2,000 innocent Winnebago Indian people were forcibly removed from their land. President Lincoln signed an order to have them taken out of Minnesota by steamboat and railroad cars to Crow Creek, South Dakota.

Any mistakes? To changed learned habits and behaviors isn't always easy, is it?