Dr. Jerry, you got the whole world waiting.
Been ready for you to start the conversation.
No point of view, we got the haters confused.
Leave it up to you to bring us all the good news.
Positive five lives and the six appeal to Dr. Andre Jerry.
Cannot get an interview.
You, you, you, you, you, you.
Hello everyone.
I am Reginald Bullock, your guest host for the evening.
And tonight we have an exceptional show for you.
For the millions of you turning in worldwide,
get ready to be enlightened and inspired
as we engage in an extraordinary conversation
with founder and CEO, Shanae Bullock.
In tonight's episode, we'll explore the impetus
behind Shanae's new book, 50 Plant Medicines,
Indigenous Oral History and Perspective,
and how it could change your life.
The unique roadblocks faced by the Native American women
entrepreneurs like Shanae, as they make their mark
in the corporate landscape.
Also, Shanae's company, Muskie Tube Consulting,
and how she uses her company to impact culture and heritage.
And finally, the fourth topic we'll explore tonight.
And of course, we'll definitely talk about Shanae's vision
and aspirations for Indigenous people of the United States.
So, Shanae, before we dive into the details, who are you?
Thank you.
That was an amazing introduction.
Well, I am, like you mentioned, Shanae Bullock.
I'm also your daughter.
So, catch out the back to anybody that didn't know,
but you are my dad.
And I am a very proud woman of the Shinnecock Nation,
which is located in Southampton, Long Island, New York.
And I'm just an all-around, really humanitarian entrepreneur.
And I like to use the term mogul.
So that's who I am.
You like to use the term what?
Mogul.
What's that?
Mogul.
Well, mogul is someone who really just kind of takes on
a lot of different challenges.
And it does a lot of work, whether it's in philanthropy,
whether it's in human rights work,
but also entrepreneurialism.
And we just take it by the reins, and we just go for it.
Well, audience, as you have heard, I am not Dr. Andre Jerry.
He is actually on an airplane right now,
flying back to the United States to do business,
and requested that I do this show for him.
And so I am Reginald Bullock.
And you just heard my daughter let the cat out of the bag.
She is Shanae Bullock.
And we're excited to do this show for you.
So we hope that we are able to bring it to the same standard
that Dr. Andre Jerry does.
I know he has an international listening base,
so I hope you enjoy this.
Shanae, the impetus behind your book, 50 Plant Medicines,
Indigenous Oral History and Perspective,
what caused you to just decide to do that?
Well, interestingly enough, my book is actually
dedicated to my brother, Reginald Bullock, your son.
Because during the pandemic, most people had to pivot.
A lot of my work is done outdoors
and in the natural environment.
And with that being said, we were having a conversation.
And he was like, Shanae, somehow the work that you do
has to be able to get to people just by a click of a button.
And I was like, well, how do I do that?
I give plant walks.
And I started to realize that so many people needed
to really understand the natural environment.
And you can go into a grocery store and buy tea,
but do you know how to identify those plants?
So I sat down, and I just literally
jotted off the top of my head about 50 Indigenous plants
that if you walk outside, you should be able to identify them.
And I just started talking about them.
And then I published a book, an e-book, called 50 Plant
Medicine's Indigenous Oral History and Perspective.
And so that was really what made me start that book.
And it's just taken off since.
OK.
So now you also say that it can change your life.
So how does the 50 Plant Medicine book
change a person's life?
Well, like I said, during the pandemic,
a lot of people were starting to turn inward, right?
In their own homes, in their own sort of estates,
just what's around them.
And if you're hiking or just being outside,
there are a lot of amount of Indigenous plants
that can change your life.
If you have respiratory issues, if you have things going on
with your joints, if you have rashes,
if you've been bitten by a bug, there
are so many different plant medicines out there
that exist sometimes within the comfort of your own backyard
or your front yard.
Sometimes they grow in the crevices of sidewalks,
and you may not even realize you've been bitten or stung
by a bee.
You need to do something immediately.
There are so many different plants out there
that their uses are for that, life saving.
So I'd say knowing the oral history is kind of how
I've been able to learn about these things,
but sharing it is how others get to know about it.
An example, Shanae, you're out there walking.
You come across the plant, and you use it.
What kind of plants have you come across,
and what have you used them for?
Well, I'd say mullin is a big common plant
that a lot of people are becoming a lot more aware of.
It's a beautiful plant that grows very tall, is left alone.
I've seen some mullin plants the same height as I am.
It's not even taller.
And you know you're walking up upon it,
because the leaves can almost be a lot bigger than your hand,
sometimes larger than your arm.
And they're fuzzy, like bunny's ears, very light green.
And they have little yellow flowers every other year
that grows up the stalk there.
And that plant specifically, those mullin leaves, once dried,
can be used in many different ways.
You can use them by steaming.
You can use it by drying and making a tea.
And believe it or not, you can actually inhale it
by consuming it, like when it's smoking it in a pipe,
or some sort of paper, natural paper.
You can actually smoke it.
And what that does, the mullin itself
actually helps with your respiratory.
It really helps to get rid of the mucus in your body,
especially around the time of allergy season.
A lot of people have itchy eyes, or your body
builds up what's called histamine,
and that produces the mucus.
And that mullin actually helps to stop
with that increase of histamine and starts
to get rid of that mucus.
It's actually been known to help a lot of people that
have asthma, like really severe asthma problems.
I know a lot of parents that have said that it saved
their children's lives with asthma.
So mullin is one of those that you
want to keep on your shelf at all times.
How did you get started into this type of understanding
of plants as medicine?
Well, believe it or not, Dad, I did listen when I was a kid.
I was always one of those people that just asked questions,
like very detailed questions.
Somebody was just, we went hiking as kids.
And sometimes if I was on a tour with someone,
I'd always ask very insightful questions.
I always ask why, what part, what does it look like,
or how would you know?
Or I was that kid.
So a lot of people either, A, needed to have patients with me,
or I needed to be put next to or underneath teachers
that had that kind of patience.
And I spent a lot of time with elders.
You know, my mom's side of the family is Shinnokok.
And she grew up on the reservation.
And believe it or not, she knows a lot about plants.
And so growing up, I just always remember her with her tinctures
and her salves and her teeth and her butters.
And I mean, I just know that there would be a problem.
And she would just come and fix it.
As I got older, I started to realize
what she was fixing it with and started
to asking her some of those questions
and just walking with her, doing things.
I was just like, oh, wow, this is something
that she's known all my life.
I just needed to just start asking.
And then when I start asking, well, where did you learn it?
So I'd go spend time with the people that she learned it from.
And that's kind of how I think at my age, which
we're not going to say, I've been able to learn a lot more.
And I have so much more to go, so much more to learn.
So speaking of learn, there are probably a lot of parents,
and soon to be parents, listening to this radio show.
You have children.
What would you recommend to parents with children?
I mean, that's an oxymoron, right?
But what would you recommend to parents
to help get their children started in discovery?
Not necessarily exactly the way you did it,
but to open your eyes.
I know on your website and various Facebook posts
and other things, you are always around children.
So how would you encourage parents
to expose their children to this type of opportunity?
Well, I think it's always great to know the child.
Sometimes wanting to expose the child to something
that they just don't register with,
it can essentially be a waste of time.
But there might be something within that.
And just having them around it and then really paying attention
to what about that environment is the child drawn to.
Just having them outside.
Some children just really not into plants, they're into bugs.
Some children just not really into flowers, they're into trees.
Like, there are people that literally, their job
is to diagnose trees.
And that is fascinating.
And there are some people that are just into plants.
And so I think, I mean, into grasses,
which is a whole different spectrum in itself.
Some children just got to figure out what area.
But I would say, just find, there's plant walks
that you can go on.
There's hiking tours.
There's an amazing group of women
that they do something called a maternity hike.
I don't know if they're still doing it.
But almost every other Sunday or every Sunday,
they were doing like a maternity hike.
And a handful of doulas and midwives
bring their mommies to be and the dads hiking.
And it's usually like a three mile hike.
And they do this every Sunday.
And so I was able to go and just sort of,
you know, just kind of help a little bit with plant
identification.
But that hike alone is just like, you know,
something good for this child to just get used to.
I have a godson where we would just go walking,
we go hiking, and then just take the time
and stop.
There's so many cool apps out there.
There's an app that I use called Picture This.
I pay the premium.
Picture This.
And kids are really into technology, right?
So how do you kind of bring them into nature?
Well, you kind of bring little hints of that technology.
Maybe bring the iPad and you download Picture This.
And you use that app and you take a picture of it.
And you know, my godson's nine, he can now
identify at least nine different indigenous plants, right?
When he was six, he knew six.
And that was exciting.
That was a game.
It's like, OK, well, if you're four years old,
you need to know four plants.
And so we go down the same path, you know, every weekend.
And I would point it out and I'd say, what is this?
And he would say, white pine.
I'm like, OK, well, what is this?
He would say cedar.
And that is encouraging.
And then eventually, as he's older,
if I'm somewhere on the trail, I could say,
I need you to go get me some cedar.
He should be able to come back with cedar leaves,
because one, he's remembered what cedar looks like.
And when we come home, he knows what to do with cedar
when he has a fever.
He's like, can you boil cedar?
And I put my head over it and you see my face.
He's now nine and he knows how to do that.
Now when he becomes 15, he can leave the house,
go get the cedar, come back in the house,
boil the pot for me if I needed it.
And so it starts at a young age, started at a really young age.
And it just starts with plant identification.
So thank you, Shanae.
You may have noticed that my sound
sounds a little different.
We are on an international radio show.
So I switched from cell phone to landline,
because it changed.
But thank you for keeping it going.
I want to transition, if you don't mind,
to a different subject.
All of these are about you.
And there is a lot of roadblocks faced
by Native American women entrepreneurs.
And it's hard sometimes to make their mark and your mark
in the corporate landscape.
Can you talk about some of those challenges
and the roadblocks you faced as a Native American woman
entrepreneur?
Yes, I sure can.
There's this term or this phrase that's being put out there.
And I don't know how I really sit with it,
because it's a phrase that's called
the future is female.
The what?
I believe in the future is female.
That's a phrase that's kind of circulating.
It's been circulating for the last two, three years.
And I believe that there has to be a balance with all people.
However, I do recognize that the new energy of femininity,
of feminism, and of divine feminine in leadership
is very new to what's been the traditional patriarchal,
white male dominated leadership.
And that could be in philanthropy.
That could be in business.
That could be anywhere in management.
And so a woman like myself, who is the founder and CEO
of MoxQ2 Consulting, it's a five-year-owned and operated
Native American-owned and operated cultural preservation
firm, I have found that when I am at the table,
it is very challenging for others
to recognize that this is a woman that actually,
the buck stops with her.
She makes the final approval.
And that's a challenge, because it's new.
It's not something that people have been used to.
And so I find that in order to succeed,
we have to figure out how to work together.
So I don't necessarily just say, well, this is hard.
This is challenging.
Nobody wants to listen to me.
They just dismiss everything I say.
And I'm human, and I get those feelings sometimes, too.
But I try to figure out what is the best way to collaborate?
What is the best way for me to not necessarily win them over,
but to continue to do what I'm supposed to do,
but help them understand there's a new way of moving
when you're dealing with leadership?
To that end, can you give an example
on the most frustrating roadblocks you may have faced
and how you got past it?
Yes.
So I actually do some work for my tribe.
You have Native American owned tribal business,
which is owned by the tribe.
And so I am the CEO managing director
of one of their entities.
And so different partners, when it comes to making approvals,
it's me that the tribe is elected.
And typically, for the most part, everyone
that is equivalent to my position on the outside
is usually a white male.
So it's really hard for them.
So a lot of times what I've seen is that instead of saying,
OK, yes, Shanae, we'll take that and run with it,
they either A, want to say that it's not really my say,
and they try to, they think they're going above me
by speaking to the tribe itself.
But the tribe pretty much just goes back and says,
we've appointed Shanae into this position,
and it's really her decision.
So what I've found is if they try to go around me,
or they try to make it challenging where it takes
a really long time for us to actually get something done.
Because if it's like, OK, this is how I want to go forward
with this.
This is how we've assessed it.
I have had informed consent to make this decision,
and this is what we're going to go on.
Believe it or not, it could take almost two or three months
for them to actually say, OK, well, fine.
We realize that we can't go around her.
We realize that.
And it takes mediation.
It's really a problem.
And I find that I'm not the only person dealing
with this, but it is.
So to that end, you're not the only person.
To the Native American women out there,
particularly entrepreneurs, but also Native American women
who aren't entrepreneurs, what would you
say to them to help them navigate their path
through and around or in under over-the-corporate landscape?
I would say remember who you are.
There were women like Kwashiwam, Sakajwia, Harriet Tubman,
all kinds of women, Nefertiti, all kinds of women,
Queen Sheba, Weetomo.
These were chief women.
These were women in positions such as CEO, a managing director,
or founder, or king, or queen.
And we come from those people.
So with that being said, sometimes
you have to remind yourself of why you are in the position
you are in and then the who you are in that position, not just,
OK, I have this title, but who you are sitting in this office
and be unwavering in that and tap into that energy, which
is divine feminine because it comes from the divine.
And that's what I would say to those that are either stepping
into it or, like I said, you don't even
have to be an entrepreneurial woman.
But as long as you are some sort of woman in a leadership
position, you will always be challenged.
But how we handle it really determines who we are.
It really shows who we are.
And I think that's what I'd like to say
to those women listening.
OK.
So now this journey of where you are now didn't just
show up.
You had to start somewhere.
How hard was it for you to get to where you are now?
Well, it was hard.
I think the hardest part was me staying in the court,
coming out of college, you couldn't really just get a job.
People just didn't.
You don't have experience.
You don't have enough experience.
And the thing that all people, young people out of college
say is, well, how am I supposed to get experience
if you're not getting the experience?
So I had to figure out a way to make experience.
Right?
Like, I just created my own thing because nobody
wanted to hire me.
I was told one time.
I was literally told one time by someone, oh, Shanae,
it's your name.
That's why they're not taking your resume.
It's your name.
We need to change your name to Ashley or Samantha.
I was literally told that.
Believe it or not, I have been told so many things.
But I'll share that little one.
Yeah, I was told that.
I just couldn't land a job.
Almost for two or three years.
It took a while.
So I had to hustle.
I had rent.
I had responsibilities.
I had bills.
Not as many responsibilities and bills I have right now.
But at the time, that was a lot coming out of college.
Car note, just simple things.
And just trying to establish myself in the world,
I wasn't getting the opportunity to have experience.
A lot of people just didn't really reach that handout.
So I did a lot of creative things.
I made traditional Native American clothes.
I made about 40 outfits a year for three years straight.
And I made that for tribes from all the way down from Maine,
all the way down into South Carolina.
And those were just ways to hustle.
And so I took the time to actually just
establish my own business.
I was working 72 hours a week one time.
I was working at a Mojito Sun Casino.
And I was working at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum.
And Research Center.
And I was actually working.
But I felt like I was in debt.
As I was staying in debt.
Because I wasn't getting anything past $15 an hour.
I took jobs that were $10 an hour, $11 an hour.
And I was working over time just to pay a cell phone bill
and halfway pay rent.
And in that time, I would stay up and I
would write my business plan.
I said, you know what?
A lot of these museums are hiring consultant firms
that are not native.
Now how is that?
When I'm in here, when they're bringing me up
to these executive offices to pick my brain
and still pay me $10 an hour.
And then they're going to pay anywhere
from $5,000 to $55,000 for a contract
for a non-native consulting firm to consult
on what I have the intelligence of.
So I created my own firm.
It didn't take off right away.
I took time to really put into it while I was hustling.
And then eventually, you know, some things stuck.
My biggest contract was with the Tribeca Film Institute.
And for me, that was someone giving me experience at that
time.
Because I had made the experiences leading up.
So you have to create your experience, I think.
That's incredible.
And I know you create these experiences
for a lot of other Native Americans and women in general.
And so we're going to talk about that on the other side
of the break.
But before we continue our conversation with tonight's
esteemed guests, we're going to take a brief commercial break.
So for those of you who are listening to us
and enjoying the education and the conversation
that Chenay is bringing us, don't go anywhere
because you won't want to miss what Chenay has to share next.
So we're going to take about a two-minute break.
So stay tuned.
And on the other side, Chenay, I want you to tell the audience
what your Native American name is.
We didn't start with that.
So I will do that at that break.
Hey, everybody.
It's Dr. Andre.
I hope you enjoyed this brand new episode of Live
with Dr. Andre Jerry with guest host Reginald Bullock
and special guest Chenay Bullock.
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Now, let's get back to the show.
Welcome back to Live with Andre Jerry.
If you're just joining us, our close is the original block.
Dr. Andre Jerry is on an airplane.
He is.
That I host this show.
We're about to dive back into a riveting conversation.
We should take a lot of time to see
in this history and perspective and founder of my ski
tube consultant.
Earlier on the first half hour, we talked about a book.
We also talked about some of the roadblocks and challenges
faced by Native American women entrepreneurs.
And now we're like, I've been to your consulting
and how you are using your company
to impact and heritage.
So before we dive deep into that, we
ask the energy arrow, who are you and your snake boy?
But who else are you and what other names do you go by?
I have a traditional Indian name.
And this is something that was given to me by our namegiver.
And it means I lead canoe-iron butterfly woman.
Now, you just kind of put that out there, right?
But I need to take a little privilege here.
In May and June, you did a canoe journey
that I don't know of any other woman has ever done
and certainly not in a long time to get inside of a canoe
with a paddle and a few other people in the Atlantic Ocean
and paddle from the Boston Harbor to New York
through the long island.
What made you decide I can do this?
Well, yes, I left from Boston Harbor to New York City.
And those traditional lands are of the Northeast
Senegalese peoples, the Massachusetts Nipmuc,
as well as the Poncapog and Matakisit peoples out
in Massachusetts.
And Wampanoag people, Narragansett,
and then coming into Long Island, the Montauk
and Kutchorg and Shinnokok.
And then as we got into New York City,
that's when you're starting to get into the Lenape territory
as well as our other sister tribes out in Long Island.
So this wasn't my first time paddling in Long Island sound.
I have done it before.
And I've been paddling probably for canoe journeys
almost 12 years now, a little over 12 years.
And this is something that has always
been done in this region by native peoples.
And so what really made me do it,
I was invited on this journey by a natural geographic mountain
climber named Freddie Wilkerson.
And there were other tribal peoples
from Penobscot, Oninda, and Onondaga.
We're also invited to be guides.
And so my portion was to guide through our traditional ancestral
route to our territories.
And it just was something that needs to be done.
I look at it that the water is very sick.
And water has memory.
And those traditional songs and our language
that is spoken and sang on the water helps to heal the water
and helps the water to recognize and the life in the water
to recognize and know that we still acknowledge them.
Although there's so much destruction
happening under the water and to the water
and around the water, as indigenous people on land,
we are fighting as much as we can.
But it is important for us to get back in the water.
So that's what really encouraged me and gave me
what you call the audacity to actually jump in a canoe
and paddle that voyage.
And you would say, all right, well, not that.
I did.
Yes, we actually co-wrote an article
in an international publication called Cultural Survival,
acknowledging the cultural intelligence of the Canoe
people.
You can Google it and just type in Cultural Survival
or Shanae Bullock, Cultural Survival, Original Bullock.
And we co-wrote that article.
All right.
I don't want to go into the trip because I know
it's still emotional.
So I want to talk about mosquito consulting.
What does mosquito mean?
I mean, it sounds like mosquito.
For the average layman person who doesn't know
the Native American language, it does kind of sound like mosquito.
But it's called mosquito.
Yes, mosquito.
So mosquito in our traditional language, when I say R,
I do reference the Shinnococ people in Long Island people
and all those names I just kind of named a little earlier,
Mokske Tu translates to the word medicine.
So I chose the word Mokske Tu consulting
because in our culture, medicine represents not only just
the physical sense, but the spiritual and the mental
and the emotional.
And so we consult in those areas.
And so that's why I came up with the name Mokske Tu
consulting.
I can talk about clients.
You can talk about them.
You can do in terms of delivery of the services.
But your company is certified.
I think it's even certified with the Small Business
Administration.
And so the government has a Native American woman
owned by the Hardee Business Service.
Yes.
So I actually just, interestingly enough,
just went for my Wosby certification.
But I am a Native American owned business.
Like I said, I've been in business.
I'm registered in the SAM registry.
We have clients right now, specifically in New York,
Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, New York Botanic Gardens.
Here in the Atlanta area, we have something called Wawa,
which is the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance.
So we do a lot of environmental consulting.
And so we do everything from cultural awareness,
cultural exchange, cultural intelligence, workshop,
just cultural workshops around food sovereignty
and traditional sustainable living.
We've also do eco-tourism.
We do paddle tours.
We do hiking tours, plant identification walks.
There's a tremendous amount of different things.
But we try to, like I said, mosquito-meaning medicine.
We try to tailor our services really to what the client needs.
And it's not just cookie cutter.
It's really what the client is asking for, a wet problem.
A lot of times, our clients are coming to us
to help with a solution.
And usually, that's to strengthen the relationships
that they have with the local tribes within their area.
But also, they usually come to us
realizing that there has been a lack of inclusion,
or even just a lack of awareness when
it comes to tribal people.
And this is sometimes within business.
Sometimes this is just within philanthropy.
Sometimes this is just in programming.
There's all different kinds of ways
that we come in to try to help solve the problem.
So now, with your company, you're also
an international advocate.
Is that right?
Yes, I am.
What does that mean?
Well, I guess I could kind of say on Indigenous People's Day,
for the last four, five years, maybe.
I have been on what's called the Indigenous People's Day New
York City Committee.
New York City being the largest city in the United States
that holds the largest population of urban Indians.
As you have to recognize, Indigenous People's Day,
New York City also holds the UN.
And so there's a lot of work internationally
that we do at Indigenous People's Day,
but not only just that day, to advocate
for recognizing Indigenous People,
recognizing Indigenous People's Day just as the undripped
through the UN, which is the United Declaration
of Indigenous People's Rights, has recognized that.
But the United States has yet to sign on to it,
as well as Canada.
But most of the casualties and broken treaties
have happened in the United States and Canada.
So I advocate on an international level,
on a global level, for those rights.
And I guess that's what makes me an international, I guess,
advocate for Indigenous People's Rights.
So speaking of advocates, this year,
you recently spoke at South by Southwest,
down in Austin, Texas, I think, in March.
What were some of the focuses that you
wanted to make sure you imparted upon that large audience
down there in Texas?
Well, that's interesting that you say that.
What did I want to focus on?
Because also in cultural survival, shortly after that,
I wrote an article.
Can't think of the title off the top of my head,
so forgive me, listeners.
But just about what I'm getting ready to say.
And it is very important to include Indigenous People
in all areas of every industry.
Why is that?
Well, the planetary health, we all know,
is in a tremendous sickness.
The Earth has a high fever right now.
Just volcano eruptions.
Everything is upside down backwards and crisscrossed.
And Indigenous People hold a lot of wisdom
about how to get to sustainable living here on Earth.
And doing that through technology,
doing that through fashion, doing that through agriculture,
doing that through music.
There's all different areas in different industries
that we have not really been seeing inclusion, awareness,
or presence of Indigenous People at all.
It's usually in other box.
And so South by has been working to really amplify that.
And so this year, that's what we discussed.
The topic that I spoke about there
was called indigenizing systems.
Indigenizing a C-suite.
If you have a Native American-owned business,
or if you're in joint partnership on a project with a tribe,
that leadership level should have tribal people
at the top of it, not just one person.
And these are things that we're starting to see.
And there's a lot of studies that show that tribal businesses
or tribal inclusion always find a way
to give back to Earth or give back to the environment.
And that, essentially, in turn helps with that planetary health,
whether it's music, corporations, I mean, you name it.
And so that's what we spoke about at South by.
And that was my hope that we reached that global network
of people while we were down there.
So you talked about the health and 50 plant medicines.
One of the things that we didn't talk about during that segment
of this show is cannabis.
So cannabis is a medicine.
I mean, years ago, people had all kinds of names for it, right?
We herb, chiba, and whatnot.
And now, here it is being recognized as a medicine.
What are your thoughts about cannabis?
Well, my thoughts, and I will say this, and I don't think
at the time this would have to probably be a whole other interview.
But my thoughts are that there's so much history
with cannabis prior to the war on drugs.
And that does have a lot of indigenous history.
When we think about hemp, and when we think about marijuana,
or weed, or pot, or whatever, the reefer, all these different,
Mary Jane, all these terms that have been used, right?
When we think about that, we think about the consumption of it
for the psychoactive activity that cannabis does.
But we forget that hemp has been around for thousands of years.
Mara, cannabis has been around for thousands of years,
and it's also been used for its fiber, right,
and to weaving it into baskets, bags, clothing,
the sustainable part of it, what hemp does to the earth.
You know, there's so many, you know, there's hemp creed
that's being created now.
Now, so cannabis right now is another one of those emerging
economies and industries that's taking off really worldwide,
but the US is starting to really look at it
from a federal standpoint.
States have their own autonomy to, you know, legalize it.
And what does legalization mean versus adult use?
I mean, adult use, medical use.
They're looking at it now where you can actually purchase it,
just like any other consumer product.
Obviously, it's still highly regulated,
but cannabis is also not the only regulated plant.
There are other indigenous plants that are regulated,
such as Sassafrat, cotton.
All of these, and cotton being a big one,
and when we look at the history of cotton,
a lot of people look at the history of cotton
and know that that was one of those plants
that plantation owners, you know, used,
and they had it in the stock market.
Hemp was also, right?
Hemp was one of those plants, too.
It's just there's other uses of hemp
that has a psychoactive activity,
but it was used for healing in those times.
And so when, you know, you really, you know,
get into a deep dive and conversation
about what took place between the 50s and the 60s,
you see what happened to the black and brown communities.
And they are using that term, pot, marijuana,
and all those kind of things to criminalize people with it
when they were really utilizing that,
especially out of the black migration,
and other times to heal themselves
and get away from the drugs that were being used
straight out of the war.
These are things that, like I said,
it's a whole deep dive into it,
but my perspective of it is something
that we should really look into the healing properties of it,
but really the educational component of it
across the world.
You sound like you are an expert
in so many different subjects and topics,
and not to spend too much more time on, you know,
the cannabis, but weren't you on the cover
of a magazine that talked about cannabis?
Yes, I was.
I was on something called Marijuana Venture.
Yes, I do work for my tribe.
It's called Little Beach Tarvis.
It is a huge cannabis operation
that we are working on diligently
to open the doors to the dispensary,
but to create circular economy.
And so there are a couple of covers and features
that I am out there in for cannabis.
So you're just a regular celebrity, huh, Shanae?
I'm just a traditional native woman,
you know, trying to free a plane, you know?
All right, so it's 8.48.
We have about 10 minutes left,
and I want to give you the opportunity to go off script.
So, Shanae, what are your visions and aspirations
for Indigenous people of the United States?
Ooh, well, my visions and aspirations
is that we don't become extinct.
That's a real thing.
Our culture has become so watered down and infused,
and it has become this, like, melding pot
and rainbow culture of the assimilation
that was preyed upon for our people.
Like, not by our people,
but the assimilation part was something
that they prayed for us to become, is assimilated.
And the resistance of those people
that fought in every war,
and the survival of those people,
is what is in my DNA and many others.
And those are the traditional preservationists,
the traditional cultural barriers,
those ones that uphold the teachings,
the culture, the language, and the ways of the people,
whatever group of people that is.
But unfortunately, that is something
that is becoming very rare in our communities.
Because of, you know, some people will say social media,
some people will just say that, like, you know,
and you know this as my dad,
like, it starts in the school system.
You know, if you have a five-year-old Indian little girl,
a little boy that goes into school
and they're very proud to be who they are,
and their teacher says, well, that's not the case.
Those people do not exist.
I don't know what you're talking about.
And the rest of the kids laugh at them.
Well, it really takes that child to be gifted
with that DNA of resistance,
to continue on to be 35 years old,
to stand here today and say, I'm still resistant to that.
But sometimes it doesn't work.
Sometimes that resistance is just not as strong
and that child assimilates at that age.
So through the rest of school
and through the rest of their life,
they start to move away from the culture.
And we're starting to see that more and more and more.
You're also starting to see, you said United States,
you're also starting to see a lot of terms
being used very loosely.
You're seeing the term Native American versus Indigenous.
Native American is a legal term.
That is a federally recognized person in the United States.
When you use the term Indigenous,
or even the term, the newest term,
like BIPOC, now there is real no identity.
BIPOC, yes.
Never heard that.
BIPOC is the black and Indigenous people of color.
It is a, now you're grouping.
So the identity of the people of the Stony Shore
versus the people of the small point
or the people of the shallow water,
the people of the black river,
there is no identity at this point.
You're just BIPOC.
You're just all grouped together.
Let me insert something here
because I've been around you
and you use this term called sovereignty.
Yes.
And you have that.
A lot of people don't understand what sovereignty is
when it comes to Native Americans
or the Shinnecock tribe, the Shinnecock nation.
Can you explain that a little bit?
Yes, so, yeah.
This is a really cool meme on social media
that was played out years ago
and I encourage everybody to find it.
It's kind of funny, but it's got Will Ferrell in it
and then it has the meme says, what is sovereignty?
And then it's a video of him saying,
nobody knows what it means, but it's provocative.
It's really funny because at the end of the day,
that's kind of like how you can look at sovereignty today
because people use that word a lot.
However, when you look at England
and you look at the word sovereign and how they use it,
there's really not a word in our language for sovereignty.
So where did that word come into the United States
when it came to Native Americans?
Well, it came from the crown.
And who did they give that to?
The sovereign tribes because they had treaties.
We didn't have treaties with the United States government,
our tribe, we had them directly with England,
directly from sovereign to sovereign
because the true sovereignty is from the divine,
the divinity and that is gifted to the people
who are original from this land.
The land itself is now classified as sovereign land
because it is held in perpetuity by the people
who live there that are sovereign.
And Shinnecock are those people.
Well, our land is one of the only lands in the country
that is not in trust of the United States government
as we are a federally recognized tribe.
So that gives us sovereign reign over our homelands,
over our traditional lands,
the ones that have essentially been held
in perpetuity for us.
And so we hold ourselves in that place of sovereignty,
whether people respect it, care about it,
move as if we are sovereign,
that's a whole different story.
But we know and have been governing ourselves
in this sovereign way since the ships landed to New York.
Does that mean you have diplomatic immunity?
Say that again?
Does that mean you have diplomatic immunity?
That's always gonna be challenged.
And the easy answer is yes,
but like I said, not everybody understands this.
When you have people that, you know.
To that end,
use it in a layman's term, fishing.
You have fishing rights.
Other people have pretty much in the United States, right?
Yes.
Those rights.
You said explain those fishing rights?
Yeah, you have fishing rights differently than most people.
What are your rights to fish?
Well, as Shinnecock.
Do whatever you wanna do in the water.
Right, well, right.
So as Shinnecock people,
because we have a lot of people
because we are one of the only two tribes
in what's called the Mid-Atlantic part of the ocean,
we sit on ocean policy,
but we sit there and why is that?
Because we were the first contacted tribe in New York
from the ocean.
And so when the treaties were signed very early,
as in the 1600s,
it allowed us, not allowed us,
we signed a treaty that there was an agreement
that the Shinnecock could fish
as far as the right whale swims.
And we could hunt.
We could, yes.
And so how do you fish?
Well, you ain't swimming out there, you're paddling out there.
You have a boat of some sort.
So we can fish and travel underneath those rights
of that treaty.
Or underneath that agreement, I won't say right.
Those rights are not given to us.
Those rights are agreed upon.
They were already rights to begin with
before that treaty was created.
These are just an agreement
that when the settlers came over here,
that's what we have.
So when we fish, we can fish for as many mouths
that we have to feed within our nation.
So there isn't a limit to what we fish.
There isn't a limit to the weight
of what we're supposed to fish.
And Shinnecock capitals rights.
That's incredible.
And I can only imagine how many more rights that you have
based on the agreement that have been violated.
And so many people don't even know about
to include possibly the Coast Guard and other authorities
who's responsible for upholding the right.
Yes.
So this has been incredible.
I mean, we only have a couple of minutes left,
but I want to take daddy privilege if you don't mind.
And just tell you how proud I am of you, Shinne.
I mean, I'm going to say that.
Here, Greg.
And so I've watched your journey,
and it has been an incredible journey.
And here you are now founder and CEO
and just doing your thing.
And I'm not the only one who's proud.
There are so many people who are proud of you.
I get phone calls, text messages, and emails,
and all sorts of communication about people
who think what you're doing and they'll send me things
that I didn't even know that you were doing.
So I just want to share with you how proud I am.
I mean, this has been a wonderful experience
to interview my daughter founder and CEO.
I mean, how many fathers get to do something like this?
How many are you learning more about your country?
No, I really appreciate it.
Well, the best way I would say for people to contact me,
not that I really appreciate it,
I'm not going to glimpse over like that, my apologies.
I'm just realizing the time.
I just want to say thank you.
That means a lot for a young woman like myself
to have that kind of love from her father.
It's everything.
You know, it's the reason.
You know, it's very important.
I appreciate that myself and to all those
that are listening that do support me
and are very proud of me.
You know, also pay it forward.
Find someone else that you may not feel like,
feels appreciated and let them know that.
How would they get in touch with you?
Well, they can go to my website,
www.moxgee-to-consulting.
Got some in your throat or you choking up
because you're talking to your dad?
I think we have a low-sum here.
And I know it's 8, 8.
And I don't know if it's my signal or your shanae.
But if everybody can hear me,
I'm still here.
A little bit.
Okay.
So, well, here we have folks.
Thank you, our inspiring guest for tonight,
my daughter, my ex-Mary daughter,
today's block of chairs, right,
with an aspiration for future for all.
Let's thank you to our two leaders from around the globe
and we can do it without you.
And finally, I would like to also thank
our Andre and Jerry for allowing us to meet in this episode 14
of Live with Dr. Andre and Jerry.
Guest host, I was truly me,
Reginald Bola.
Good night, everyone, and keep driving for creators.
Thank you.