Space Camp, a Porch-"a", and a Ruby.

By Lael Echo-Hawk

She: Do you want to go to Space Camp?

Me: What is a Space Camp?

She: You will like it. I promise.

Me: Ok Ruby, whatever you think is good with me.

Johnson O'Malley sent me to Space Camp. 

Well, me and this Inipuiat kid. But he was more the "sit on the lunchroom table cross-legged while rolling meditation balls around in his hand talking to his followers" and I was more the "Alabama is hot as hell, that boy and his uni-brow is cute but why does he keep saying Porsh-a?"(this was WAAAY before Porsha from RHOA). @Porsha4real

Look, for this lil Ndn girl born and raised deep in the Interior of Alaska, trekking from Delta Junction, Alaska to Huntsville Alabama for Space Camp was the equivalent of going to the moon!

So after packing as many of my belongings as possible into giant duffel bag, my family piled into our 15 passenger van and drove 98 miles to Fairbanks.  After a small stop-off to meet my Uncle Larry and his crew for the first time, a quick “sister -Elisabeth-save-our-little-brother-from-drowning-in-the-Chena-River” and I was off!

Truthfully, I have no idea how I got from Fairbanks to Huntsville. That's a long way for a 14-year old kid who had never been on a plane before. I assume my buddy helped navigate or maybe they gave us signs to hang around our neck so that we could be shuttled from one gate to another, but I have no recollection. 

What I do remember is that incredible week where I learned about the universe and it terrified me! 

I slept in bunkers, wore official NASA gear (I still have my shorts), got nauseous on the Gravitron (but of course NASA called it some other type of official anti-gravity machine), and caught a boyfriend with a cute smile, unibrow and... a Porsh-a. I had absolutely no idea what a “Porche”, “Porsh-a” or “Porsché was.  15 passenger Chevy van with a cord to plug in when it was -40 degrees outside, yes, snow machine yes, dog sled yes, Porch-a??? uh, no. But hey, those braces and that Cali tan was H-O-T!

So what's the point of this story?  Two words- Ruby Hollembaek. 

Ruby was the wonderful native woman who found the grant and convinced me to apply.

Justice Thurgood Marshall (the first African-American Supreme Court Justice) said "None of us got here by solely pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody, a parent, a teacher, an Ivy League crony, or a few nuns, bent down and helped us pull up our boots."

Ruby helped me find my boots. 

While I didn't go on to become the first Ndn astronaut (turns out I'm terrified by the vastness of space and anti-gravity made me puke!). But that experience exposed a little teen from the middle of nowhere to the world.

As an adult I have learned that many of my friends had their own jewel, their own “Ruby”.  A person who saw the potential in them and me and worked hard to give us the opportunity to develop that potential. Those people who helped us “find our boots” are the heart and soul of the Brightside of the Rez.

If you are reading this and have your own Ruby, comment with their name and then send this to them and their family. 

Ruby, Thank you. I could not have become “me” without you. 

With all my respect and wearing fabulous boots, 

Lael

Lael Echo-Hawk is a tribal attorney practicing out of Seattle, Washington.  The closest she got to outer space was the Star Trek Experience at the old Las Vegas Hilton.