Native Americans With Disabilities

I have recently discovered that I am a descendant of the Cheroenhaka-Nottway Native American tribe on my mother’s side. My maternal grandmother always said that we were of indigenous descent. This group of natives is an Iroquoian tribe and is one of the Native American tribes of Virginia. The native name for Iroquois is Haudenosaunee (Haw-de-no-saw-nee). They are part of the Six Nations, which includes the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca, and they are all related to each other. Through the Cheronhaka-Nottway, I am also a descendant of the Weapemeoc tribe, which means “where the shelter from the wind is sought.” The English obviously couldn’t say that name, so they called them the Yeopim tribe; I am also a descendant of the Cheraw tribe.

After finding all of this Indigenous heritage, I was very humbled by it and started thinking about the natives with disabilities and how this never gets talked about. I just found a video about a native man with autism and how he received his Master's Degree and was working on another Master's in his twenties. He is now a motivational speaker, or at least was, because the video that I found is eight years old, and he spoke at the Annual American Indian Disabilities Summit, which I would love to go to. All people with disabilities need help, no matter what their race is.

Native Americans with disabilities strive to overcome disadvantages | Cronkite News