Families often rose early. Fires were tended, meals prepared, and daily tasks planned before the heat of the day arrived. Depending on the region and the family's circumstances, breakfast might include corn-based foods, beans, squash, wild game, or whatever had been preserved from previous harvests.

The raven holds different meanings in different cultures, but throughout many Native traditions it is associated with intelligence, adaptability, observation, and the ability to move between worlds. Ravens are known for their resourcefulness and their ability to survive in changing conditions.

Only the realization that identity is not something handed down fully formed. It is shaped, often painfully, by the choices we make when we cannot satisfy every part of who we are.

History often feels fixed when we look back on it, as if there were no real alternatives. But the people who lived it stood in moments like this one, not knowing what their decisions would lead to.

History gives us a record of what happened. Names, places, events—they form the backbone of the past. But every now and then, a single unanswered question opens the door to something more.