Scenes from the Glittering World (2022)

[bunniefuu]

[SHEETS FLAPPING IN THE WIND]

[SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYS]

ILII: So probably for someone who hasn't been on the rez before,

I expected it to be like quiet 'cause it's kind of weird,

like not having, like be a car crash sounds and stuff like that,

and people honking and neighbors yelling.

It's like, really quiet.

My friend, she just goes,

"Why does it take you four hours to get to the store?" Hey.

[DOGS BARKING]

ILII: Hey, don't come at me.

I told her, well, it's 'cause the store's like two hours away.

So there's that.

I guess some of the major differences are

that there aren't many people with water,

and sometimes the electricity goes out,

and some people don't even have electricity.

And if you go on like specific rock formations are like really high,

so you can see like a certain, like mountain range.

Hey.

Lord have mercy.

Hey.

Lord have mercy.

[SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYS]

[EXCITED YELLING AND LAUGHING]

GRANITE SLOAN: I won't fit.

Mum's side of the families is all smart, and they know a lot of stuff.

My dad's side of the family is all full of sports,

and we had a couple of people who went to college to play sports.

And so it's a big choice.

But I want to get a basketball scholarship.

My biggest dream I'm really going for is to play college basketball,

and hopefully I could get me somewhere.

[SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYS]

NOAH BEGAY: But for now, you can basically control

anything you want inside of the game.

You can make your own mat.

You can pick your own skin, you can build anything on board,

and you can make it look like New York,

Times Square or anything like that.

But there was a big X k*ll.

I think that's the worst k*ll ever.

Doing that to a bunch of people that have high-end

gaming PCs that are over like four grand.

I'm out here on the reservation with bad internet,

I can still pick X them, and k*ll them, and win against them.

I don't know.

Maybe that's the big reason why I enjoy playing Fortnite.

[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS]

[PHONE RINGS]

[BIRDS CHIRPING]

[MACHINE BUZZES]

[STUDENTS CHATTING]

SPEAKER: OK, students.

over here, there are one, two, three,

four, five, six, seven, volleyballs.

Two, four, five badminton, what are they called birdies, right?

Nerf football and a softball,

and then this stick from the volleyball nets.

All of those things, where do they come from?

OK, they're on top of the lights.

How do they get up there?

Magic?

Levitation?

I just meditate for a while.

Do you see them rising up now?

Yeah, people are throwing them and kicking them up there, right?

That's the most stuff that has ever been up there.

It is worse this year than it has ever been.

What is the number one rule for the school?

What is the number one rule for the school?

I want to hear it from everybody.

I can't hear you guys.

STUDENTS: One, two, three, respect.

SPEAKER: There you go.

OK.

That really wasn't very loud, but if you respect the gym,

you get to use the gym.

If you don't respect the gym, the gym's closed.

SPEAKER: [INAUDIBLE], hey, do this sort.

Read it, read it.

SPEAKER: [SPEAKS NAVAJO].

GRANITE SLOAN: [SPEAKS NAVAJO].

SPEAKER: [SPEAKS NAVAJO].

SPEAKER: Cobbie.

ILII: [SPEAKS NAVAJO].

Yeah, these three are clans, so that's probably

why you couldn't find the definition.

Yeah.

GRANITE SLOAN: Today is Valentine's Day, February , .

SPEAKER: I know.

GRANITE SLOAN: OK.

Two, three, four.

Oh, man.

SPEAKER: OK, for Valentine's Day.

[LAUGHS] I mean, I don't have a Valentine.

GRANITE SLOAN: Are you sleepy?

ILII: So nothing happened on Valentine's Day [LAUGHS].

SPEAKER: Loneliness.

ILII: Oh, right, OK, so I went to a cent store, this one time, right?

And I got like a bag of like kisses.

I had been writing to people, mostly girls,

and I was, hey, do you want to kiss?

This one girl almost punched me in the face for it.

I was like, no, no, no.

I pulled out the bag of candy, and was like oh, yeah, no.

I almost got punched in the face.

SPEAKER: Alright.

Alright, Noah.

So you're getting excited about graduation then?

Rounding the corner here.

You're losing one participation point a week, it seems like.

So what's going on?

NOAH BEGAY: Missing too many days.

SPEAKER: Missing days definitely that hurts.

You need to get your rest, and you need to get in to school.

[LAUGHS] How do you feel about this graduation?

Pretty good with him graduating, finished?

[RELAXING SOUNDS OF A WATER STREAM]

NOAH BEGAY: Paul?

Would you bunny hop over that little creek?

PAUL BEGAY: Yeah.

NOAH BEGAY: What about down this?

PAUL BEGAY: No.

NOAH BEGAY: Why?

PAUL BEGAY: I'd break my bike.

Oh.

NOAH BEGAY: Oh, shot.

Paul, slip through.

PAUL BEGAY: Yeah.

NOAH BEGAY: You think I'd be good enough to be a streamer?

Playing Fortnite, uploading it to YouTube?

Maybe someday I'll be like that.

PAUL BEGAY: Maybe someday.

NOAH BEGAY: You're going to crash your bike like last time,

trying to chase someone, go down a hill.

PAUL BEGAY: Man.

NOAH BEGAY: Oh, can you do a wheelie?

Oh, you poor bloke, but with a bike.

PAUL BEGAY: No.

NOAH BEGAY: Come on, park, poor bloke.

That weird look, you poor bloke.

I'm a bike hopper.

PAUL BEGAY: No.

NOAH BEGAY: It's you.

You're patrolling the school.

[BLEATING GOATS]

ILII: Dude.

I can't get this open.

I can see, you know.

Why?

No, you have the chain.

I swear.

Move.

Really?

Oh, Jesus.

Only person at [INAUDIBLE] is gonna get mad at us.

So I usually draw when I'm particularly sad and stuff like that.

I'll show the best ones because I'm insecure.

So this one's probably one of my favorites,

which is weird because I don't like any of my drawings.

My friend, Simela is like an online friend that I like

roleplay with because I'm lonely and a loser.

So yeah, I just drew this for her.

SPEAKER: What?

You have friends?

ILII: I know.

I do have friends, so screw you.

The main character for the comic I've been really wanting to make,

Marvis Begay because Begays are a really common Navajo name.

I wanted to include mostly the culture and the celebrations that we do.

Mainly the language.

It's kind of what I want to do is make comics or something,

but kind of terrible at it.

If I had to choose a dream job,

I would probably go for a suicide hotline operator prevention,

I mean, suicide prevention hotline operator,

because that's said it so wrong [LAUGHS].

It's probably because a lot of my friends are depressed,

and I have to help them out a lot.

And I want to say I'm good at it, but I'm used to it by now.

[LOUD BOUNCING BALL]

SPEAKER: The one time between the legs, and go off again.

Do a free throw, rebound, block out, put it back up, layup.

Use your backboard.

Use your backboard, put it back up, put it back up.

Don't give up on it.

Every missed shot counts, so you've got to get your rebound.

[KEYS JINGLING]

SPEAKER: Need a hand?

SPEAKER: Yes, please.

Perfectomundo.

SPEAKER: That's my favorite one.

SPEAKER: Yeah, that's awesome.

OK, thank you.

Wherever you went.

OK.

Alright, Lauren, yelling is three, right?

Good job.

Carol Nina isn't here.

L, you're going to get some extra points, a lot.

Asia, you're going to get some extra points, a lot.

GRANITE SLOAN: Asia, imagine if your whole head looked like that.

ASIA: Like this?

GRANITE SLOAN: Yeah.

ASIA: I would Grant's forehead [INAUDIBLE] for it.

SPEAKER: Hey, let's not talk about receding hairline, OK?

It happens.

Actually my hairline still good.

It's back here I got the problem, right?

GRANITE SLOAN: Hey.

SPEAKER: Yeah.

It's getting in lost back there.

GRANITE SLOAN: Mine's too [INAUDIBLE].

SPEAKER: That's right.

SPEAKER: For we are Navajo first.

[SPEAKS NAVAJO].

Respect yourself, who you are, where you come from,

your belief, very, very, very important.

Culture is what you learn to be Navajo, what you learned at home.

So we're going to learn about Navajo culture

as far as putting food on the table.

Your parents were raised, your grandpa was raised for survival.

They used every little bit of the livestock down to the height.

The way [UNKNOWN] butchering today might not be how your elderly's,

how your mom, how your dad does it at home.

Improvise, and expand from what you have.

Stand on the side here.

Grab here, this one.

'Cause I'm gonna be cutting right here.

You'll get in trouble how you put the head down.

Grandma is gonna get mad at you if you put

the head down like this on the table.

[SPEAKS NAVAJO] Even though the sheep is dead,

grandma still respects the head, the part of the mutton.

The reason why I'm teaching Navajo language and culture

is the fact that we're about to lose it.

We're at the very end of this trail.

What I like to call it, and it's been prophesied,

and our elders have been talking about it way back

ever since I was a kid, I heard about it.

If we lose our culture or language, we lose everything.

And it goes on to say that might be the end of the world for us,

as far as Native American goes.

Even though we're out in Navajo Man where it's really isolated.

At the very end up in Navajo Nation border light about

% of students don't even know how to talk Navajo.

So that was really surprising.

So that is my job to get the culture and the language going again.

And I think that's one reason behind

losing our culture and our language,

which is technology took our kids away from us.

NOAH BEGAY: I spent like at least on Fortnite.

My grandparents, they're always been there for me.

They always put time aside for all of us.

I consider them as ma's parents and my regular parents.

My grandma gets mad at me for always

playing on the game and on my phone.

He told me that he misses the old us.

[SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYS]

NOAH BEGAY: This is a drawing I did because my grandpa really wanted a husky.

My parents, they're both alcoholics.

I don't know, just started drawing because they would just go out

and do whatever they want and come back and yell at us for no reason.

[SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYS]

[GOATS BLEATING IN THE DISTANCE]

ILII: Yeah, so my mom was in the Navy and right here is my dad.

I think my mom would like if you showed them that

picture instead 'cause she has makeup on.

Yes.

That's my mom, dad right here.

He's in Vegas right now.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hit you that hard.

Now you know how I feel whenever you make fun of my stutter.

I didn't even hit you.

SPEAKER: This right here, is Ella, and this right here, the little one is me.

I wasn't ready for the picture.

ILII: You got like a [INAUDIBLE] boyish cut [LAUGHS].

Let me go get my shoes.

How else done by now.

SPEAKER: That makes you beautiful, Ella.

ILII: Alright, go help Nana now.

SPEAKER: Fine.

You're bossy.

ILII: So, yeah, this is the drawing I'm going, I don't know if I am,

but if I do, I might enter to the Mental health awareness contest.

I learned pretty long time ago that the art doesn't

have to look good just as long as it has a meaning.

So, Picasso, what are you doing?

This is a social anxiety, at least the best way I could depict it.

Stuff she thinks they're saying, but really they're not.

At least I hope so.

Yeah, that's basically, most of my thoughts whenever

I walk down the hall, so that's fun.

SPEAKER: Could I have a marshmellow?

ILII: So I think being part of the LGBTQ community is gonna be hard,

and I think it's a lot harder,

especially when not really knowing where you stand or what you are.

So it's just lose one.

I don't know.

In a world, rural area is a bit harder to come out and stuff like that,

especially it contradicts your beliefs, your family's beliefs.

So, yeah, I think there'll be a lot harder to come

out because you literally have nowhere to go.

Look, just literally just mountains, deserts.

But my dad does is.

He's OK with it.

He doesn't really care.

He just doesn't think it's natural.

And I'm not entirely sure about my grandma either 'cause when

it appears on the news, that's what I'm looking for.

So she was going, eww, or she's scared or something.

So that just makes me feel better.

Why am I doing this again?

Do we still have the marshmallows in the freezer?

[SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYS]

SPEAKER: From here to here is different from here to here,

so we can just say one, two, three.

That's not how we do it, right?

SPEAKER: We have a senior who probably will not graduate this year.

At this point in time, he is doing basically nothing.

I've got a student has %.

A student who has .

Another one who has .

The board is of the opinion that we're a failing school.

What do I do about that?

SPEAKER: In a way having here doesn't mean that

we're automatically not successful.

We've got to hold students accountable to

their behaviors and their lack of work.

And that's it more successful than just giving them an A,

and they don't learn anything.

SPEAKER: Does it work better to help a student with

the stick or entice them with the carrot?

SPEAKER: Carrots.

SPEAKER: Carrots are usually more effective, right?

Plus, let's go back to Granite.

He's pretty bright, right?

He's very bright.

SPEAKER: trying.

SPEAKER: But he's got a bunch of Fs on his report card.

How does he feel as a person right now?

Does he feel successful or as a failure?

SPEAKER: He's just having a grudge.

SPEAKER: Who is he grudging against?

SPEAKER: There's a chip on his shoulder.

SPEAKER: Yeah, against whom?

SPEAKER: Everybody.

Himself.

SPEAKER: Everybody, OK.

SPEAKER: He's his own worst enemy.

SPEAKER: The basketball team, I mean, are we not trying to provide a rigorous,

challenging situation for him?

I believe we need music, and art, and theater,

and athletics with all these

different programs that these larger schools can run more easily.

SPEAKER: Yeah, you're right.

We don't have a lot of carrots to provide.

SPEAKER: We're going to be talking about big differences between living off of

the reservation and living on the reservation, or subtle differences.

Starting with L.

ILII: I think it's like the way that the kids behave because

there's like a lot less fights, I guess.

SPEAKER: There are less fights here?

ILII: Yeah, the ones at school, at least.

SPEAKER: I haven't seen one yet.

Where do you think you would feel more challenged

at school in the city or here?

SPEAKER: City.

SPEAKER: The city?

I'm glad you brought that up.

Make no mistake, we're trying to push,

and we're trying to push and have high standards here,

and we're going to listen to Evan's idea.

EVAN: Less g*y people.

SPEAKER: Do you think that's true?

EVAN: Hopefully.

SPEAKER: Hopefully?

OK.

Well, there are some personal views coming through.

Do you think there's more of a tendency here to not be open about that?

And maybe there are more people that we don't realize because it's

not really acceptable to talk about it or to be open about it.

Is that possible?

EVAN: Not sure.

SPEAKER: You're not sure?

OK, interesting.

I hadn't heard that one before.

Alright, how many of you have been without running water before?

How do you feel about running water?

SPEAKER: We still have none.

SPEAKER: So you still have none?

Granite, what's your difference that you're think of?

GRANITE SLOAN: Electricity.

SPEAKER: Electricity?

What's different?

GRANITE SLOAN: Most of us don't have electricity.

SPEAKER: OK, you have a generator or anything,

or just no electrical system at all?

Would you explain it, in other words, than yeah.

I don't want you to just answer my questions, yes or no.

Share your own thoughts and insight.

You brought it up.

One sentence, what's the biggest difference in electricity?

GRANITE SLOAN: [LAUGHS]I don't know.

SPEAKER: I'm not gonna accept, I don't know.

One sentence about the biggest difference between

electricity here and electricity off rez, please.

GRANITE SLOAN: Most of the people who live in the city have electricity.

SPEAKER: OK.

And it's different here?

GRANITE SLOAN: Yeah.

Yes.

Yep.

SPEAKER: Thank you, Granite.

GRANITE SLOAN: You're welcome [LAUGHS].

There's a lot of struggling IS like not really paying attention,

and I keep just slacking off.

I've been playing basketball ever since second grade.

At school, it really gets things out of my mind when I'm frustrated.

Things that frustrate me is school, family,

just people I really care about because I don't want them to leave.

My little brother who passed away.

And I'm just not really fully controlled when I think about him.

[SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYS]

SPEAKER: Left, left, keep going, keep going on, don't stop.

Keep going, keep going, keep going.

You can use your right, if you want to.

Keep going, keep going.

Don't give up, keep going.

[SPEAKS NAVAJO].

Just to inform you that our season's over.

We don't have enough people to come out to practice,

always the two of you, constantly here.

So I need to have at least five players in order to make a team.

To learn all the plays, the drills and everything

else that goes into practice.

So as far as I'm concerned, our season's over.

And maybe next fall we'll have a better turnout

than what we've been having this year,

so I just want to inform you on that.

I had to do it as a coach, but I'm sorry the season's over.

Do you agree with that?

OK, [SPEAKS NAVAJO].

SPEAKER: I am trying to be as positive as I can with Granite,

but I wonder if he's failing on purpose.

Is that possible?

LEONORA: Honestly, I think, doesn't improve and looks like you'll

be dealing with him for another three years here.

SPEAKER: I'm happy to do so, honestly.

LEONORA: I already warned him if he's not gonna pick it up here,

I'm gonna have to change everything.

SPEAKER: That's the most helpless feeling in the world, sometimes being a parent.

I know.

And I'm sorry.

LEONORA: He has his days.

He thinks about his brother a lot.

SPEAKER: Did he lose brother or?

LEONORA: Yes.

SPEAKER: I didn't know that.

Older or younger brother?

LEONORA: Five.

SPEAKER: Five years old?

I'm so sorry.

I'm sorry for you too.

Just forget it, of course.

LEONORA: Just don't know.

We're trying to figure things out, but it's hard.

[BLEATING GOATS]

LEONORA: OK, so this is Drew here, our sheep dog.

She is the nice one.

And these are her úpuppies.

These are her first litter of puppies.

They just bring us a lot of comfort.

It keeps us busy.

They keep us going, and they give us a reason

to wake up and go about our days.

Granite loved his brother so much, it affected Granite in a lot of ways.

Sometimes he just doesn't want to do anything.

One thing Granite always did was play basketball with his brother.

You know, I just don't want him to give

up on something that he loved and so.

We carry him with us wherever we go.

In the Navajo way, they always tell us before the sun rises,

you have your chance to talk to those that are gone.

So usually we're up before the sun, and we do a lot of praying,

and we just ask for my son to be with us.

[SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYS]

SPEAKER: [SPEAKS NAVAJO].

SPEAKER: [SPEAKS NAVAJO].

SPEAKER: [SPEAKS NAVAJO].

SPEAKER: Pick a song, Paul.

[CAR ENGINE ROARS]

NOAH BEGAY: What is that?

Oh, why are you so tired?

Can't run, you bitties.

You big bitties, and your tater tots stomach.

Are you the rez version of DJ Khaled?

Paul, what do you remember living at the old house?

PAUL BEGAY: Being yelled at.

NOAH BEGAY: The good old times.

I know, there's all weeds all over the place.

Let's go.

Sprocket said yes, Paul.

This is our childhood home back when Paul

was a little rez mutt, huh, Paul?

PAUL BEGAY: Oh, I thought somebody threw a rock at it.

NOAH BEGAY: Damn, look, it is.

It's a jungle.

My parents weren't really there.

They were always working, especially my dad.

He was always working out there doing construction work and everything.

He was never home.

He'd only come home like on the weekends,

but I would just cry for him because I was a little kid,

and we got to see him before.

It was good and everything, but ever since they had the divorce,

I don't know, he changed.

He would get mad at me for nothing, or he would just tell me to like,

I don't know, go k*ll myself or something.

[SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYS]

SPEAKER: Oh, OK.

Noah, we'll try to make it fall that way.

NOAH BEGAY: So this all good, uncle?

SPEAKER: Yeah, looks good.

[CHAIN SAW ROARS].

NOAH BEGAY: Falling.

Oh, there.

SPEAKER: Noah, your grandma and grandpa tell me that you're struggling in school.

What's going on?

How's your dad doing?

Is everything going good between you and him?

NOAH BEGAY: I don't know.

He's been kind of stressed out, and he takes it out on us.

Sometimes I don't like seeing my dad stressed out.

I don't know.

SPEAKER: You mean at work or at home?

NOAH BEGAY: At work.

When we go to school because he works there.

See him just in his office, sad, he's head down,

and you try to ask him what's wrong, but...

[CAR ENGINE ROARS]

SPEAKER: Wow.

[CHAIN SAW ROARS]

[SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYS]

JONAH: Noah is my son, and he's quiet and kind of like me,

I know he has stuff to do,

and I don't really bother him when he's in school,

and he doesn't really bother me at work, so.

Not with my ex anymore, so kind of separated, so the kids are separated.

They're old enough to understand who their mom is and who their dad is.

Noah is quiet like me.

I see him through me sometimes, and I tell him,

I say, Navajo life is hard.

You can't be a kid.

You have to grow up faster than what is expected.

You've got to prove yourself to people.

Then they know your value, and you know what you're worth,

then people will respect you, and treat you right.

[SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYS]

[CAR ENGINE ROARS]

LEONORA: Man, it looks like we have Daesha's family here.

Be careful.

Let's go over here.

No Spiderman this year.

SPEAKER: Okay.

[CHILDREN CHATTING]

GRANITE SLOAN: Give me one too.

DAESHA: Let me give you a big one.

I'm gonna sit down 'cause my legs are...

No.

GRANITE SLOAN: sh**t, I mean.

Where did you get this one, out of all of them?

DAESHA: I tried to get the highest one because they're the most yellow.

GRANITE SLOAN: That was a good one.

The good ones are really good.

DAESHA: A good one?

GRANITE SLOAN: [INAUDIBLE].

And I feel this part.

DAESHA: Yo, dude.

GRANITE SLOAN: Remember I broke my wrist here.

DAESHA: I got a sunburn.

GRANITE SLOAN: Oh, are we there.

You [LAUGHS].

DAESHA: Here, TJ.

You know who you remind me of.

You remind me of this one dude who used to send me vims.

[CHILDREN PLAYING]

DAESHA: Cyrus, yeah.

Are we going now?

OK.

Well, see you.

GRANITE SLOAN: You mean Cyrus [INAUDIBLE]?

DAESHA: Yeah.

Bye, dude.

GRANITE SLOAN: OK.

I'll see you later.

[SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYS]

SPEAKER: For me, to indigenous is to have an intimate

and interconnected relationship through a homeland.

And that's really important because land is tightship.

Every aspect of who we are.

Imagine a pizza with different slices and let's say slices.

Of the slices, I'm th Apache.

That's my particular blood quantum.

And Native Americans in the US are the only minority group

who have to prove their nativeness on their Indian card.

If it were up to the American government,

Natives wouldn't be around because after a certain time,

that blood will dilute.

And if we're not obligated to make these treaty contracts,

then the land is available.

The resources are available.

ILII NEANG: Not a lot of younger people practice or know their culture 'cause

to them it's like embarrassing, I guess you could say,

because not a lot of people understand it and therefore,

they get picked on a lot because of it.

There is a big, big, a much larger pressure when

it comes to knowing the language and knowing

the cultural things than our parents and all

that because they don't really teach us.

So now we just get judged everywhere we go for not knowing.

Yeah, so I've grown up in Vegas,

I don't want say I'm more of anything because I'm sort of stupid,

I've actually had questions too.

Move your big head.

There's one girl.

She was like, what are you, and I was like human.

And she's like, no, what race are you?

Oh, right, that question.

And I had to explain to her that I was Navajo and Cambodian.

She didn't know what Cambodian was, so I had to explain that.

There's like a lot of stuff people in general don't understand

about Navajos and Native Americans in general.

Like this one kid who didn't know what the Navajo people were,

and I had to explain to him,

it's Native American tribe, and he like,

Oh, so you guys sleep in teepees, right?

So I was like, No, you stupid.

I didn't say that though.

I didn't say it.

So I think I'd like to represented as, you know,

not red, not having a feather in my hair.

The media, they don't really...

First of all, they don't portray us at all.

when I see, like other people I talk about, like,

oh, we don't get represented enough in media.

I go, we don't get represented at all.

Literally all we get is Victor.

That's it, that's all we got.

ILII NEANG: Talk about hype-lingo.

Just take one.

Hurry.

Just take one.

# Happy Birthday to you.#

[CROSSTALK]

ILII NEANG: Stop spitting on it for god's sake.

Get your inhaler.

[SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYS]

ILII NEANG: It feels a lot nicer being out here and stuff like that.

AVIS: Yeah.

When we were growing up, we used to only talk Navajo, barely English.

ILII NEANG: I know you went to like a boarding school up in,

was it Salt Lake, right?

AVIS: Yeah, in Salt Lake and Flagstaff and Kayenta.

When somebody speaks Navajo, just one little word,

and they come, and they say,

go to the office, and they ask you why you're in the office,

and what did you do?

And you say, just said one little word of Navajo.

They open the drawer, and then they take

a bar of soap and hand it over to you.

Put it in your mouth, chew on it.

Next time, remember, no speaking Navajo.

That was the punishment that they used to give us.

Well, it's really sad when you think about when

the kids have to try and speak Navajo again,

when all these years people tried to let us forget our native language.

ILII NEANG: Do you know anything because I know my mom talked about it,

and stuff like that.

She said something Navajo and there's like

people call it two-spirited and all that,

and they're really considered sacred and stuff.

I know that's not like the actual word or anything like that,

but because of the colonization and stuff like that,

the actual words and the meanings were erased,

and not a lot of people talk about it.

But I guess there was an explanation for, you know,

a g*y and transgender people and all that.

So and Navajo and other indigenous cultures,

they just call them two-spirited people because,

you know, men, women and all that.

AVIS: Oh, yeah.

But it was a hush, hush.

Nobody talked about it, until a certain generation,

it started showing up.

ILII NEANG: Since we're not talking about anyone specific,

so what are your thoughts like.

AVIS: People who are gifted in certain ways.

could be a like a gift for them to that they're like that.

But, you know, just hang in there and live your

life the way you want to live your life.

Nobody's criticizing you.

Nobody's against you about it.

Everybody still loves you.

Family is family.

No matter what they're going through the families

are the ones that are in it with them.

They're not in it by themselves.

ILII NEANG: Fur got in my eye [LAUGHS].

AVIS: Yeah, it's what I probably would say.

ILII NEANG: Fur got in my eye.

AVIS: You are still loved.

[SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYS]

[GOATS BLEATING]

GRANITE SLOAN: Get the string.

[GOATS BLEATING]

[CAR ENGINE ROARS]

SPEAKER: Put them on the trampoline.

SPEAKER: Where do you want, it's gonna spin it out.

It's gonna spin out.

[CROSSTALK]

SPEAKER: How many girls aren't related it to you, Granite?

GRANITE SLOAN: Zero.

SPEAKER: Do you ask the girls if they're related?

If they're your...

GRANITE SLOAN: No.

SPEAKER: What their clan is?

GRANITE SLOAN: No.

LEONORA: [LAUGHS] That's why we're going to buy them all clan t-shirts.

DAESHA: What college do you think you wanna go to?

College.

GRANITE SLOAN: I don't know.

I don't like school.

DAESHA: OK.

GRANITE SLOAN: I'm good at nothing, [INAUDIBLE].

DAESHA: Shut up.

But we know what that attitude that is going to get you nowhere.

Yes.

Look at my deadbeat dad, living with his mom,

his grandma just laying around, not even helping.

Well, I want to go to college.

GRANITE SLOAN: Where you going to college at?

Where do you want to go?

DAESHA: I really don't know yet.

I'm still looking in.

I just want, like, prove to the people who thought

I was going to be like my mom and my dad.

And I know I can do it,

but sometimes I kind of feel lazy to do anything.

But I'll get there somehow, some way.

[SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYS]

BOTH: Wow.

[LAUGHTER]

JONAH: I used to stress a lot.

You guys know that.

I ended up in the hospital and I had anxiety attack because

I couldn't take all this stuff that was happening to me.

But this is where I regrouped and made me think about what

I have and stop worrying about what I could have had.

NOAH BEGAY: Sometimes you made me feel like I wasn't anything to anybody,

but there was times where I didn't fully

understand what you were going through,

why you couldn't see your own kids.

Or your kids weren't here after we left.

Things are meant to be the way they turn out

and you just go to accept it no matter what.

It's just the way life is.

I forgive all the things you said that hurt me,

but we get through everything as a family.

JONAH: There is no class or anything that prepares you for this,

you just go through it.

You weren't meant to go through it, I wasn't meant to go through it,

but we come out stronger and better family.

GRANITE SLOAN: Hey, out.

Don't let him get out.

Why is she not picking up?

I don't even know what I'm doing?

I'll just do like my mom and shaking this right here.

The thing fell apart again, the battery in the truck.

LEONORA: I told you not to turn it off.

GRANITE SLOAN: Oh.

LEONORA: Hold on.

GRANITE SLOAN: OK.

Oh, she's mad.

SPEAKER: What's up, bro?

[CAR ENGINE ROARS]

LEONORA: I hope you didn't touch this with your finger.

SPEAKER: He did.

LEONORA: You're going to have to scrub your fingers here.

Turn it on.

[CAR ENGINE ROARS]

LEONORA: Granite's brother used to like it when there's a little hill over here.

He would always tell us to drive faster, so we could jump the vehicle,

and the kids in the back backseat would just go up [LAUGHS].

My father once told me, when somebody passes, you should not be crying,

you're just going to make them feel bad for leaving,

but Granite loved his brother so much.

And the day we lost him, it just...

I guess you could say it ate him.

It eats him every day.

[SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYS]

LEONORA: And this was the day before he left.

This was his birthday.

[SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYS]

LEONORA: Hey, Granite have a seat.

OK, son, you turned Monday.

ALL: Yes.

LEONORA: Every year it seems like it gets harder providing for you,

but we do our best.

You're our first child.

Later in life, you're going to realize that

it's not always about a big birthday party,

or presents, or receiving money on your day.

It's something more valuable, more precious than that.

Dad and I, we always do what we can for you guys.

It's not much, but it's something.

We love you.

SPEAKER: In the name of Jesus.

[SPEAKS NAVAJO] Amen.

ALL: Amen.

# Happy Birthday dear Granite

# Happy birthday to you.#

[SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYS]

SPEAKER: What is the American dream?

Define it.

What is it?

And would you just share your single sentence with us, please?

ILII NEANG: Well the American dream varies from person to person,

but one that I see a lot is wanting our families to be safe.

SPEAKER: OK.

SPEAKER: The American dream is us having our own rights.

SPEAKER: OK.

Excellent.

What would be the most important of those rights, do you think to you?

Remember early in our country a lot of people were coming to

the United States because they were actually able to own, what here?

SPEAKER: Land.

SPEAKER: To own land, and that's not true of every place.

A lot of Europeans they weren't actually allowed to own their own land.

What can you do for yourself if you own a piece of land?

SPEAKER: Farm.

SPEAKER: You can farm it, and you can make money

and profit off of that farm, can't you?

What is your dream for your life?

Where do you want to be?

Who do you want to be?

What do you want to be?

What would be the coolest life to live?

SPEAKER: How am I going to know who I am as a Diné person?

When you really think about it like it's not too long

ago when the Diné people were taken to Fort Sumner,

or when I was living in Albuquerque,

that place is not too far from there.

So when I crossed the Rio Grande, I was thinking,

how on earth did our people walk across this when the river is high?

No wonder some of them drowned.

They say a land never forget, you know.

It knows your footprints, it knows your teardrops, it knows your sweat.

It knows your pain, and it can also heal you.

[SOLEMN PEACEFUL MUSIC PLAYS]

GRANITE SLOAN: Oh, my God, we're not even halfway there.

[BILLOWING WIND]

[HORSES RACING]

[CROWD CHEERS]

[SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYS]

NOAH BEGAY: Paul.

PAUL BEGAY: Huh?

NOAH BEGAY: When did your voice change?

PAUL BEGAY: Like a couple months ago.

NOAH BEGAY: You sound like the girl

PAUL BEGAY: Yep.

NOAH BEGAY: Now you're a man-boy.

Remember when dad calls you that, man-boy?

PAUL BEGAY: Yep, man-boy.

NOAH BEGAY: You're a man-boy.

PAUL BEGAY: What are you gonna do after high school, Noah?

NOAH BEGAY: I'll probably go to work.

[SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYS]

ILII NEANG: How do you say [SPEAKS NAVAJO]?

That's the only thing nana says.

[SPEAKS NAVAJO].

Yeah, anyway so this can do drawing won the art contest.

No idea how or why, but it did.

Yeah, so I got $ gift card from Walmart, which was fun.

I just got stuff for my niece's birthday party honestly,

I was like, hey, I get $, why not help out Nana.

So I ended up buying like most of the groceries.

I was hoping over the summer, I would like hopefully

improve my drawings and all that.

[THUNDER BOOMS IN THE DISTANCE]

SPEAKER: Hey, I have a question.

ILII NEANG: What?

I hope that happens with a brick.

Anyway, that was extremely morbid.

I think living in Vegas would be a lot easier than the reservation,

but I do like Navajo mountain a lot more.

SPEAKER: No, you don't.

You don't wanna go Navajo [INAUDIBLE].

You just want to be in Las Vegas all to yourself,

thinking about life and thinking about anything food, thinking about...

ILII NEANG: This is what I have to deal with on a daily basis.

SPEAKER: What's your answer, boy?

[LAUGHTER]

SPEAKER: Your wanna answer, boy?

I'm Mr. T.

Your T tender boy.

[LAUGHTER]

SPEAKER: T stands for tender boy.

[BIRDS CHIRPING]

NOAH BEGAY: I stopped playing Fortnite, man.

I just don't go on no more.

I've just been going outside more

and doing my work that needs to be done.

What you doing, Paul?

PAUL BEGAY: Nothing.

NOAH BEGAY: Get out of here.

PAUL BEGAY: God, man.

OK.

NOAH BEGAY: I'm here trying to do my work.

You know how grandma and grandpa is struggling,

trying to pay for all of us, Miley, Jordan, me, you.

Whatever money I make I give some to grandma and grandpa,

because they helped us out.

How you supposed to provide for the family if you're

not going to make it through high school?

You wanna place a bet?

PAUL BEGAY: Yeah.

NOAH BEGAY: That if I graduate, you got to go through high school and do the same.

PAUL BEGAY: I'll make that bet.

NOAH BEGAY: Other than that, I get to slap your big head.

[LAUGHTER]

[PEACEFUL UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYS]

[AUDIENCE CHATTER]

[AUDIENCE CHEERS]

SPEAKER: Nothing else than knowing I present to you

the graduating class of , [UNKNOWN].

[AUDIENCE APPLAUDS]

SPEAKER: Congratulations, man.

Good job.

[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYS]

[AUDIENCE CHEER LOUDLY]

[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYS]

ILII NEANG: Oh, yeah, I think it's a customer.

Just knock that one over, they'll believe it.

So extra, bro.

[SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYS]

NOAH BEGAY: Hey, Joey.

You wanna hold this one?

SPEAKER: Yeah.

GRANITE SLOAN: Hey, remember when we played Freddy Krueger in that wash?

DAESHA: Yeah.

Was it Freddy Krueger?

GRANITE SLOAN: Yeah.

DAESHA: And remember we'd wake up in the morning, go to each other's houses,

and then be back home at sundown.

GRANITE SLOAN: Yeah.

My life was pretty great when I was small.

DAESHA: Like spoiled?

GRANITE SLOAN: Yeah.

[SINGS IN NAVAJO].

DAESHA: That would be nice.

I remember I really used to hate my mom and dad.

Every time I'd return back from school I would like,

go back home and be like, Oh, my God.

Like ah, shucks, here we go again.

More yelling.

GRANITE SLOAN: Here we go again.

DAESHA: [LAUGHS] I remember when we were younger, my mom,

she would read us books and day by day she kind of

stopped and they both were into drinking more.

And for me, no one really helped us.

GRANITE SLOAN: Yeah, no one helped.

There is people there, but...

DAESHA: Oh, yeah, like Crystal.

GRANITE SLOAN: People who came by once in a while.

DAESHA: Yeah, but most of the time it's...

GRANITE SLOAN: It's just your family's there for you.

DAESHA: Yeah.

GRANITE SLOAN: Because it just comes back to your mind and think,

and you think what happened that night or day.

DAESHA: Yeah.

And then you're like, oh my goodness.

And then you start thinking about it more, and stuff like that.

GRANITE SLOAN: And then you break down.

DAESHA: And then you go into this state of mind, and you're like,

Holy, sh**t, and stuff like that.

GRANITE SLOAN: And then you start thinking it's your fault.

DAESHA: Yeah, that.

And you put guilt on yourself, you know.

Yeah, man, it was my fault.

And then you end up doing these stupid things like.

Yeah.

GRANITE SLOAN: So all you gotta do when something tragic happens?

Is just live with it.

This year, I'm taking things serious now,

and I said that last year was...

DAESHA: I know we didn't.

GRANITE SLOAN: And I was creeping around.

DAESHA: And I was like, look at you giving me

that broad face and stuff like that.

GRANITE SLOAN: No one told me to stop for anything except my mom,

but that, you know me, I don't listen.

DAESHA: Yeah, you don't.

GRANITE SLOAN: [LAUGHS] I know I do.

[PEACEFUL MUSIC PLAYS]

GRANITE SLOAN: Try and keep up with me.

[CAR ENGINE PURRS]

[PEACEFUL JAZZY MUSIC PLAYS]

[BILLOWING WIND]

[GOATS BLEATING IN THE DISTANCE]