Native American Nature

While there is some controversy, including various origin theories, most scientific experts believe that human life began in Africa, dubbed "the cradle of civilization." Whether one believes in creation or evolution, Africa is believed to be where humanity came to life. In due time, the peoples and tribes of the region began to gradually migrate throughout the world. In essence, we are all related.
According to the prevailing theory, the tribes who migrated north, traveled through Siberia, over the Bering Straits, above Alaska, then crossed into the "Americas", spreading east inland and south along the coast, becoming the natives of this land.
Some of these natives built a civilization, Aztlan, that was, and is, located in the U.S. southwest, the region possessed by the United States after its war with Mexico in 1848.
For various reasons, the tribes of Aztlan began to migrate from their homeland in various migrations over countless, varied generations. Some travelled to the West, becoming, among others, the Tongva tribe; some to the North, becoming the Paiute tribe among other tribes; and to the East, becoming the Kiowa tribe among others; and lastly, to the South, where one of several tribes to leave, the Mexica, reached the prophetic locale for their capital city, the great Tenochtitlan.
Aztlan is a cradle of Native civilization in "North America." The descendants of those first peoples, our ancestors, are native to the land. As U.S. born with Mexican roots, my racial identity is Native and my ethnicity/culture is Chicano. I know my identity as a Native Chicano!
Our Native blood became mixed with European blood upon their invasion of our land. And, that is exactly what it was - a rampaging invasion that brought us a foreign religion, foreign names, and a foreign language to our people.
We acknowledge and we recognize the European blood in our veins, but we have no reason to honor it, to "celebrate" it. After all, it is the blood of the colonizer, our oppressor.
But, it is no cause to carry self-hate, either. That is not productive. We are each the product of all our ancestors. I choose to identify with my Indigenous ancestors.
While I may carry Spanish blood, my heart and my spirit do not yearn for Europe or Spain, they yearn for Aztlan, our homeland!