In this powerful episode of Real Native Roots: Untold Stories, Vickie welcomes her longtime sister and truth-teller Dar “Diamond D” for a wide-ranging, deeply human conversation about identity, land, governance, media, healing, and courage.

Dar is Mohawk, a border-tribe woman raised between matriarchs, ironworkers, longhouses, cities, and ceremony. Her life story moves from the St. Lawrence River to Los Angeles, Arizona, and finally Alaska, where land, water, and community helped her gather the many threads of her life into clarity.

Together, Vickie and Dar explore what it means to grow into your name, to survive trauma without losing humor, to tell Indigenous truth even when it’s dangerous, and to reclaim traditional governance rooted in consensus rather than colonial crumbs. Dar shares stories from investigative journalism, surviving a death threat, working in MMIP and victim services, running Native media spaces, mentoring youth, and holding community with both sharp honesty and deep love.

This episode is about remembering who we are, refusing fear, lifting one another instead of pulling each other down, and returning to the waters that once gathered us.

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