As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary, conversations have largely centered on the nation's founding. But Ho-Chunk elder Michael Day hopes the milestone also encourages people to reflect on a much longer history, one that began thousands of years before America existed.

     "America, as we know it today, is just a baby," Day said. "Even if you add in 1492, it's still a baby."

     For Day, whose life has been shaped by traditional teachings, ceremony and decades spent learning from Indigenous elders across Indian Country, America's 250 years represent only a small chapter in a much larger story.

     "Our ways were given to us thousands of years ago," Day said.

     Instead of focusing on politics, Day said he hopes the anniversary reminds people to think about how they live, how they treat one another and what lessons have been carried forward through generations.

     "We don't have a religion," Day said. "We have a way of life."

     That philosophy was first instilled in him by his grandfather, who taught him that the Creator had already provided Indigenous people with instructions for living in balance with one another and the Earth.

     "They showed us how to live on this planet," Day said.

     Growing up, Day spent time listening to Ho-Chunk elders, learning traditions that would later guide him through one of the defining moments of the modern Indigenous rights movement.

     In 1973, he traveled to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota during the 71-day occupation of Wounded Knee, when members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) and Oglala Lakota citizens occupied the community to call attention to treaty rights, government failures and the treatment of Indigenous people.

     The experience, he said, changed his life.

     While at Wounded Knee, Lakota spiritual leader Henry Crow Dog adopted Day as his grandson and invited him to learn Lakota ceremonial traditions. Before he began, Crow Dog asked him a question that has stayed with him ever since.

     "Why do you want to learn our way of life when your way of life is so much older than ours?" Day recalled.

     The question strengthened his appreciation for his Ho-Chunk roots while reinforcing something he says all Indigenous nations share.

     "Our way of life is about loving kindness and compassion."

     Those teachings, Day said, aren't limited by tribe, religion or politics.

     "They never said only help Native people," Day said. "They said help the people."

     Although generations of federal policies and assimilation threatened Indigenous languages and traditions, Day believes those teachings survived because elders refused to let them disappear.

     Now, he sees younger generations beginning to reconnect.

     "I see more young people starting to catch on," Day said. "That makes me feel really good because I know these ways aren't going to die."

     For Day, preserving culture isn't just about learning songs, language or ceremony. It's about living the values behind them.

     As America reflects on the last 250 years, Day hopes people also recognize the thousands of years of Indigenous history that came before, and the teachings that continue today.

     "Our ancestors are there for us," Day said. "All they're doing is waiting for us to ask."

     For him, the future isn't about politics or recognition. It's about making sure the next generation understands what his elders taught him decades ago. To live with compassion, to care for one another and to leave those teachings stronger than they were found.

     "We're here to help one another," Day said.