My name is Ashley Smith, and I am 23 years old. I have blonde hair and brown eyes.

have a dog who I treat like my child and even throw birthday parties for. I think that my culture

would simply be called “American Culture” since my family has never really taught me about

my heritage.

Smith comes from somewhere in England, where my father’s family is from. My father’s

family owned and tended to a family farm since the 1800s. Growing up I learned how to work

hard to help the family on our farm, with the help of my sisters of course. I am the youngest of

five daughters. I am white/Caucasian and my family is from Ireland, Switzerland, Holland, and

other English countries. My maternal grandfather came to the United States from Ireland and

my maternal grandmother came to the US from Switzerland, around the end of World War II.

As a child, my family mostly celebrated and adapted the Irish holidays because that is also how

my mother grew up. We also celebrated Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, and my family’s

favorite holiday was Independence Day.

I think by the time I was 10 years old my parents were tired of raising children, so I

pretty much took care of myself. I did not have a curfew and my parents did not keep up with

my studies. They just trusted me to take care of it. My sisters are all quite a bit older than me,

so I was kind of on my own. They were all in high school or adulthood when I was just starting

elementary school. We have a very close relationship though, and I value my friendships with

each of them.

I was raised in a small town of about 3,000 people called Cut Bank, Montana. This town

was predominately white and Native American and most of the residents had lived there their
whole life. The major industry in Cut Bank was farming and oil, my family was part of the

agriculture industry.

Right outside of Cut Bank was the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. Because of the

proximity, most of my history education consisted of Native American history. I learned and

understood a lot about the Blackfeet Tribe’s culture. Unfortunately, with always learning or

talking about their culture, a lot of the white people in town did not care for the Natives. I

would go as far as to saying that most of the town was racist. Being raised in that kind of

hateful environment is obviously detrimental, but thankfully I removed myself from it when I

graduated high school.

After leaving my hometown, I moved to a more diverse city called Missoula. Living here

increased my developing open-mindedness as I was experiencing new and exciting things. From

Missoula I moved to Las Vegas and even after living somewhere with more diversity than I was

accustomed to, I was kind of culture shocked.

I would consider myself the “black sheep” of the family considering we have opposing

beliefs. I was raised to believe in God and Christianity, but now that I am older and able to form

my own beliefs, I consider myself to be agnostic. I think the behaviors and attitude my family

have towards other people is negative, so I have been growing out of that for the last 8 years. I

strive to be an accepting and inclusive person because I never really had someone like that

around when I was growing up.

After writing this all out, I’m apprehensive to believe that I have much culture, especially

anything worth sharing with others. However, I liked writing this and seeing my growth.