Honestly, we found it to be a more welcoming community being stateside. When we stated that we were first nations, that we were aboriginal people from Canada, people were amazed. They would find reasons to try to relate to us. All of a sudden, everybody had a little bit of Cherokee blood in them just to try to relate to us.
I remember maybe two or three incidents when someone made some racial slur about Indians or whatever and my husband spoke up. He literally would stand up, even though his rank was lower than the supervisor's, and speak out: “Why did you say that? Do you realize that I'm first nations?” That's just how he was. He never stood for that kind of treatment. That's why it affects me so much coming home and having to deal with that. I had never experienced this before, prior to moving to the States, to the point where it was recognizable, so I was kind of shocked. I was like, “Well, I can do something about this, in a good way, and turn my negative situation into something positive.” And I feel like this is something positive.