Elders don't necessarily come forward in the traditional sense, like a Roman Catholic priest; an elder doesn't come forward and go to school to be an elder. There are some priests, obviously, who feel it inside themselves and know they're going to be a priest, so that's what they do with their lives. There are native people who know that they're going down that spiritual path, down that path of medicine people, so they work at it. Then there are others who just live their life that way, and they're recognized by the community as being compassionate, as being respectful, as living by the seven grandfather teachings, as living by the medicine wheel teachings, as living for the community and doing everything for the community. Then the community recognizes them and says, “You know what? We're going to come to you because you've always been there for us and you've always helped us.”
An elder isn't necessarily somebody who sets out to be an elder. All the elders I know don't particularly like calling themselves elders because it's not a title. It's not a prestigious thing. It's a responsibility. It's a burden. It's something that you carry and that you live, because you have no real choice but to do that. That's what you are. That's what you've always been, and that's what you grow to become.