About

Welcome to Blue Sky Thunder: Weathering the AI Landscape in NDN Country.

I’m a lifelong Michigan resident and member of the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians. I’m a writer currently working on a sci-fi story that may not be so sci-fi in the coming days as the world is moving incredibly fast with AI. I wonder if by the time I finish my story it will already be obsolete!

A lot of my research is in AI, and because of that, I read a lot of articles and listen to many podcasts, much from the creators of the AI we are seeing now as well as the guys who were jumpstarting it with silicon chips back in the day.

What keeps coming through in all these conversations: humanity—and our tribes especially—are at the threshold of major disruption in how we work, do business, learn, and from what I understand, even changing how we will be spending our days, once the dust settles, if it ever truly does.

That brings me to this blog. I found myself wanting to write to our tribal colleges, to our councils and tribal members, wanting to ask how we’re addressing education, how we’re using AI, and how we’ll assure our younger generations are thriving, not just surviving. I wonder what our members will be doing in 15 years, if we’ll be working side by side with androids tending vertical gardens and telling them to stop squeezing the seed pods so hard or they’ll break it open! 

So as I am navigating my inner landscape of adapting and exploring and utilizing my AIs for research and brainstorming, I also hope to have those conversations with our people to see what’s happening in our own community as well as out there in NDN country.

I would also love to hear your thoughts or recommendations. Please feel free to drop me a note on the Contact page.

Miigwetch!