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Student Profile: Native Roots
By David Cardenas
dcarden5@mscd.edu

Photo by Geof Wollerman • gwollerm@mscd.edu Larry Quintana in front of the Auraria Library.

Growing up on the Nisqually Indian reservation, Larry Quintana learned a different side of U.S. history than is found in most textbooks.

That history has been passed down by tribal leaders from generation to generation, and Quintana is now passing his tribe’s history down to others in hopes of keeping the Nisqually culture alive.

The Nisqually reservation lies on the Nisqually river valley near the river’s delta in the state of Washington. It was on this closed-off land that Quintana learned the ways of the Nisqually.

“There was no outside influence on the reservation,” Quintana said. “The only education I learned was from the side of the tribe, their history, the elders, and what our people have went through to survive in this day and age.”

It was through this type of education that he learned the Nisqually stories, songs, religion and language, in which, Quintana said, he’s 75 percent fluent.

Unfortunately, the old ways of the Nisqually have been slowly dying, with only five remaining elders preserving the existing knowledge of their history and of the ancient language of Lushootseed.

In an attempt to keep Nisqually culture alive, Quintana has adopted old traditions, such as the sweat lodge religion, and passed them on to his family.

“(It’s important) for their own history and their own cultural survival to know something that the entire world knows nothing about,” he said.

For the Nisqually, like most Native American tribes, spirituality is key. According to Quintana, sweat lodge religion uses the symbolic meanings of the compass directions, and other sacred traditions, to flush out bad spirits with extreme heat.

It’s the sweat lodges that have brought him back to school after a 20-year hiatus. Quintana now attends Metro and is majoring in counseling and mental health in order to open – with the help from the Nisqually tribe – a Native American drug and alcohol rehabilitation center.

Many Native Americans who need help with addiction choose not to attend certain rehab centers for fear that they would have to convert to specific religions that would conflict with their own beliefs.

“They would like to see a place where I can establish sweat lodges along with a drug counseling aspect and use those two for them to open up,” Quintana said. “If they know what we’re about, (then) they know that ‘Hey, there’s a sweat lodge over there, I’d like to go sweat and sing my language and play some drums or do some art.’”

The demand for a center of this kind is large because drug use among Native Americans is high. According to Quintana, the use of drugs and alcohol on reservations is even more prevalent than in large cities.

Quintana works for the Native American Prisoner Support Group, which helps set up sweat lodges throughout correctional facilities in Colorado. There are an estimated 20 sweat lodges in Colorado that cater to prisoners.

“It purifies you. It takes will to withstand the heat,” Quintana said. “You’re giving a little bit to yourself for your people or whatever is happening in your life. You want to give yourself and that’s through the suffering of the heat.”

With the use of sweat lodges, Quintana teaches others prayers, songs and even how to withstand the amount of heat produced in a lodge session. The heat can be so intense that many pass out from exhaustion. But Quintana described the experience as something spiritual that penetrates the soul.

“I feel so in tone with sounds and my heart and my surroundings,” Quintana added. “You build a synergy when you’re in there. So everyone is in tone with everybody when singing the songs, and it displaces the heat.”