Sevan Matossian (00:03):
Bam we’re live.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
That’s a sound of a 360 degree barbell brush by hybrid athletics.
Sevan Matossian (00:15):
Roger, where are you? Where are you? Roger. Good morning guys. Pretty cool show today. Two of my favorite topics due to has taken his life life seriously and, uh, taking accountability and transformation to the next level. Next level, Dr. Roger Boyer. Wow. It feels like I have cotton mouth. I don’t even smoke weed. What’s going on yesterday was my birthday. I had, uh, yeah. Yeah, not good, not good. I mean, I had a lot of friends over, uh, just kind of impromptu. I think, I think I told you guys the story. What happened? A friend of mine had ordered a caterer for a huge party. He was supposed to have Monday night. Uh, he then decided he wasn’t going to use Catering service. And uh, so then what ended up happening was I got the catering service for free at my house on Wednesday. I had a big party and I had cheesecake last night. I don’t think I’ve had cheesecake in 20 years. And I, I feel like shit to be honest. Good morning.
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (01:26):
Hey, good morning. How are you? Savan
Sevan Matossian (01:28):
Oh, good. Yeah, that’s much better when you first came on, it sounded like you were in, in a, uh, grinder much better.
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (01:34):
Uh, yeah, we’re uh, we’re enjoying the, uh, local coffee shop this morning, so great to great to see ya.
Sevan Matossian (01:41):
I love it. Hey, this is probably one of my, these are my two favorite topics. Uh, just what you’ve done with your life and just the, just grabbing a hold of your life and taking charge and changing your life and then the CrossFit of one. So, uh, thanks for coming on it. I, I’ve been excited about this all week. I’ve been telling my wife, I’m like, oh, I love these kind of shows. I love these kind of shows.
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (02:03):
No, it’s been easy. Yeah. It’s been an amazing journey, you know, especially when it comes to, you know, the choices that we have to make and trying times, especially with COVID it’s, it’s always nice to be able have an opportunity to share good stories. Yeah. I appreciate you guys allowing, allowing me the time to share with you guys this morning. So
Sevan Matossian (02:20):
D dude it’s it’s it’s it’s um, man, I, I was gonna say, I hope, but I know this is gonna affect a lot of people’s lives. There’s a lot of people who want to hear these stories because, um, it, you know, when you have things that seem UN surmountable and you see someone do it first, I mean, what they what’s the example people always use the four minute mile, right? No one could break the four minute mile one guy broke it. And then within a couple months, you know, all sorts of dudes were breaking it. So what, what you’ve done and what we’re about to talk about today, I think is gonna change a lot of people’s lives.
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (02:50):
Well, I don’t know. I think, uh, you know, 22.2 is a little bit difficult to up and down that ladder. So anyway, so, but one day I’ll get there. I’m sure.
Sevan Matossian (02:59):
Um, where, where are you?
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (03:01):
So currently right now, we’re traveling back to Vancouver island. I’d been over in, uh, grand rapids, Michigan area, visiting my mother who is struggling with, uh, C O P D. And, and so we’re just traveling back to Vancouver island. That’s where our home is.
Sevan Matossian (03:16):
And in Vancouver island is on the west coast of, uh, Canada, correct?
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (03:21):
Yeah, that’s correct. So we live in a little town called Qualcomm beach, which is actually just north of, uh, about 45 minutes north of where pat Del nor trains out CrossFit nine. So you just take a little ferry over from Vancouver and then you’re right in our, our backyard.
Sevan Matossian (03:38):
So you’re on island.
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (03:40):
We are on the island. That’s correct. Yep.
Sevan Matossian (03:42):
Um, is it who else is on the island with you? I isn’t the other, uh, um, oh shit. I can’t believe his name is slipping me.
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (03:49):
So there’s, uh, Adam Davidson as well at CrossFit. Lolo is down in V in the Victoria area. And so that’s been nice to connect with him and Michelle. So it’s a great community out here. Sovan don’t you guys should come.
Sevan Matossian (04:00):
I was out there once. Who’s the old school guy. I can’t believe his name is Who’s the old school guy, the redhead Harry real buff does, like, we always tease him cuz he has like a two hour warmup before every event.
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (04:14):
Not too sure. Luke Parker maybe.
Sevan Matossian (04:16):
Yes, yes, yes. Yes. Luke is Parker, is he over there on the island?
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (04:20):
Uh, I’m not too sure. We just moved here about 14 months ago. So we’re just trying to alate and figure out what the CrossFit scene is. And so we’ve tried to visit all the, all the boxes here. We, uh, our new member of CrossFit, Qualcomm beach with Luke and, and Maggie. So it’s, it’s been amazing to actually just see the whales in the bay every day. So I’m just happy about that and the mountains in the back. It’s beautiful. So I can’t pick a better place than in the, uh, traditional territory of the, um, the new channel tribal council. Uh, it’s just beautiful here at Devon. So hopefully one day you’ll be able to come up and enjoy it.
Sevan Matossian (04:56):
Tell me the name of the tribal, the tribe up there.
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (04:59):
So there’s lots of tribes. There’s 51, uh, designated first nation reserves on Vancouver island. Uh, but the tribal council that, uh, I’m on the territory of is called the new China tribal council. And so it’s actually headquarters out of a place called Portel. Uh, and they’re represented by four team. First nations have been very progressive and from a political perspective, uh, they actually submitted back in 2009, which is a big intersection with my story. Uh, a national chief called Sean alio, who was really progressive in, you know, building, you know, an economic base for us to be able to not only survive but thrive. So there’s a lot of history here on the island and, and for small, an indigenous population of about 10,000 total out of the 14 first nations, it’s, uh, it’s pretty surmountable of what they’ve been able to do. And it’s one of the beautiful places that Tofino is in, in their traditional territory. And that’s where they have the world class surfing every year is in the Tofino area. So, you know, that’s something you and I have in common being in California and being in a surfing culture guys come up here all the time to break big waves. So
Sevan Matossian (06:10):
Are you, are you, um, you’re an Amer born and raised in the states and now you’re a Canadian.
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (06:14):
Yeah. So my dad’s Canadian from a little town called blind river Ontario, and that’s where my Nish NAIC heritage comes from. And my mom is actually from Kalamazoo, Michigan. And so I was born and raised in a little small town called Reed city, which is about an hour north of grand rapids,
Sevan Matossian (06:31):
Nish, NAIC, and Kalamazoo. You get to say, you get to say fun words. Um, uh NNO is a, is a tribe.
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (06:39):
Yeah, so we we’re about 1.4 to 1.7 million. I mean, ultimately the, the data that’s out there is pretty skewed because of the way that it’s taken by the census. But so we’re a larger tribe. We’re probably one of the biggest tribes that joins a border between Canada and the United States. And I think the other thing that’s significant about us as being an EOB or Ojibwe or Chippewa is also what we’re called, um, is the abilities around the J treaty. So we signed a J treaty back in, in the 1400, in 1492 and 1512, that really said that we don’t have any borders so we can free really come and go between the countries.
Sevan Matossian (07:21):
Wait, you gotta bear with me here a second. I gotta paint some, yeah, just some really ignorant shit, but, but I gotta do it. So yeah, these people called DIC and the Chippewa they’re a, uh, indigenous and, and I guess by indigenous, that means they were the people who were in, um, on the land before the, of Europeans came and their home is, uh, basically where the border, where the imaginary border is between Canada and the, um, United States, imaginary, I guess you could also call it legal and, and, and, and what section of, um, on the west and the middle or on the east, or that entire from, from coast to coast, from it Atlantic to Pacific. Where is there, like, I guess you would say home,
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (08:02):
Would you, well, yeah, so great question Sivan. So the Inno people are actually a part of the three fire Confederacy. So the land mass that we occupy is actually Ontario, Manitoba, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, lower parts of Ohio, Illinois, or in, um, Indiana, and then also in Quebec. So we have a vast land mass, um, to be able to, to occupy and prior to, to the newcomers coming or, or colonization, we actually freely went back and forth in the waters of the great lakes and did trade amongst each other. So this is our, our traditional territory and in Michigan alone, where I’m originally from, there are 11, uh, first nation reserves that represent the Michigan inner tribal council. And they’re in Abe. So, and there’s not a CrossFit affiliate on any of them, so
Sevan Matossian (08:53):
Wow. And we will get to that. I just wanna talk about the history a little bit more so on your, your is your dad, he, your dad is AOB ni uh, oh, I, I lost your audio brother. Roger. I can’t hear you. Maybe you got muted. No, no, sir. Maybe the Bluetooth disconnected. Good time for a coffee break. Holy cow. It is St. Patrick’s day. Happy St. Patrick’s day while, uh, Roger here, figures out, figures out his, um, audio. I gotta say I had cheesecake last night and I, I think it like disrupted my sleep, like severely, severely. I feel like I was just watching my brain the whole night and then it was just mourning. No, sir. You still look good. Your camera works great, but no, no. Hear, hear, can you hear me? Oh, that’s a trip. Uh, you wanna log out and log back in that can’t hurt. Give it, give it a, just a complete reboot. I love all these words. Nish, NAIC, Chippewa Kalamazoo. What was the other one? It was another one. How was the, it was good. It was mellow. I’m fitty I’m fitty but I had, um, two pineapple chili kombuchas, which is crazy for me. And a piece of cheesecake. Oh yeah. I hear you
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (10:22):
Sivan. Can you hear
Sevan Matossian (10:23):
Me? Yes. Yes. I hope everyone got to take a pee break.
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (10:26):
Wonderful and happy St. Patrick’s day to you guys.
Sevan Matossian (10:29):
Yeah. Thank you. I can’t even believe it’s St. Patrick Day. I don’t even know what that means, but I, but I think you’re just supposed to wear green. I got my green on.
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (10:36):
Yeah,
Sevan Matossian (10:37):
I’m probably gonna get in trouble for that. There’s probably some reason you’re not supposed to celebrate St. Patrick’s day,
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (10:41):
Especially in camel, you know, the everything about being PC these days.
Sevan Matossian (10:45):
Yes, I, um, it was funny last night. My, uh, I had some guests over at my house and my guests, um, told, um, taught my kids how to make a, oh, that’s why they were doing that. I didn’t realize it was St. Patrick Day. They were making Lecan traps in the backyard to catch a Lecan. I’m like, dude, what are we gonna do with it? Once we catch it? And the kids, the kids are crazy. They’re like, oh, we’ll let it go. We’ll keep it in the house. I’m like, what? Um, okay, so there’s the, there’s the tribe. Now? This is the part that I’m kind of, I, I wanted to dig into just really quick. I know I’m following into, yeah. You said that there was a treaty sign in 1492 or 15, 12. I didn’t even know people signed treaties back then and who was the treaty with?
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (11:26):
So the treaties actually with the, the American government that allowed for us as an EOBs to freely pass between in Canada and the us as they were char starting to fulfill their manifest destiny protocol. And, and we can get into that later or at a different time. But the idea that, you know, when was there,
Sevan Matossian (11:44):
There was a us government in 1492. Isn’t that when, um, uh, uh, Mr. Columbus came over, isn’t that the same 1492 sailed ocean blue or something? Who, who did they sign the, yeah, it,
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (11:56):
It was, it was, it was the early, it was the early signing of the treaties with the Michigan government at the time. Because if you remember in, uh, if we, if we move,
Sevan Matossian (12:04):
Which I don’t, I don’t remember. I don’t know shit. So
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (12:07):
Yeah. So the, so the treaty that I’m actually referring to, I just, I just fact checked it. It’s around, sorry. It’s around 1827 is when that Jay treaty was signed.
Sevan Matossian (12:16):
Okay. And so,
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (12:17):
Okay. So it was after the actual, the initial Abbe were recruited to fight in the, the war of 1812. So that particular war after that, there was a, a peace treaty that was signed that allowed for us to have frequent access between the two countries. Okay. Because we were allies on both sides of that war.
Sevan Matossian (12:36):
Isn’t it so good to be alive now where we’re in 2022 where we’re civilized and we would never fight with other human beings or hurt them or kill them
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (12:45):
These two. Well, I don’t know that that happens all the time. You’re talking.
Sevan Matossian (12:50):
Oh yeah, shit. You’re right. Darn
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (12:51):
It. It’s still happening to this day, so, oh, darn
Sevan Matossian (12:54):
Darnit.
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (12:55):
Yeah. Yeah,
Sevan Matossian (12:56):
Man mankind.
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (12:58):
I mean, we just recently, we just recently found out that, that we had Mon unmarked graves in all of our Indian residential schools. So I’m sure if you wanna open up that, that bag of tricks today.
Sevan Matossian (13:08):
So I, I know it’s, it’s, it is, it is absolutely nuts. It, it is a absolutely nuts. Um, okay. So, so, um, when you were raised by your dad, I’m assuming I’m, I’m making that assumption, correct me if I’m wrong, but, um, was that a big part of your upbringing, um, talking about your, your history, who, who you are as a person who your people are on the, um, ni ABIC side?
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (13:34):
Yeah. So interestingly enough, it was, it was something that we had partake in, like the, the powwows that were around the community would attend. The powwow would attend ceremonies, but it wasn’t few remember of history. Again, it, it, you know, my dad was raised in a time that it wasn’t cool to be in it. Wasn’t the FA and cool thing to do. And so my actually carried a lot of shame with them around being indigenous because of, of some of the sociopolitical issues of the day. And, and really focusing on unemployment was huge on our first nations, back in the 1950s and sixties, when my dad was, was trying to figure who he was as a young individual. And so he actually had to leave the community in order to find employment. And so that was a part of his shame, uh, background, where he wasn’t actually proud to be indigenous. And so it wasn’t until later in life that we actually realized what it meant to be Anish NABE, to be part of a community, to have that connection, to understand our ceremonies, and also because of colonization it, that information is not even to this day readily available for most of us.
Sevan Matossian (14:43):
What information
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (14:44):
Well, information about culture, information about, uh, you know, like you said, historical information about Indian residential schools, uh, and you know about how our people were acculturated assimilated, uh, all of the, even the ideas around treaty relationships and how do we live well, uh, in these treaty relationships. And so, again, I didn’t learn any of that stuff until way later in life, you know, until I went and became educated and, and started to educate myself, because it just wasn’t something that we talked around around the table. So
Sevan Matossian (15:18):
It it’s a, it’s a trip. Um, it’s a trip people’s heritage. I had this lady on here the other day, she holds like, all these world records for eating. Her name is, um, Leah shut Keever. She lives in, um, uh, in the UK beautiful woman, beautiful woman. And she holds all these crazy records. Uh, Roger, like, um, uh, a hot dog eating biggest bowl of cereal eating. Uh, she just can swallow eggs, whole. She does all this cool, crazy shit. I insane body. She’s a fitness girl. Um, she does just, it’s a trip, but anyway, uh, during the into conversation, I’m like, oh, you’re a Jew. And I saw her whole face panic, and I’m like, what? What’s up? And, and, and she’s like, oh, I don’t really tell anyone that, yeah, I am Jewish. Or like some when, you know, I didn’t have it too bad, but like, you know, I went to a school where everyone was, um, you know, probably Irish and, you know, some sort some, or to descent like that. And, uh, it was weird being Armenian. Yeah. You know what I mean? Or like
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (16:19):
People
Sevan Matossian (16:19):
From Iran or Iraq and, you know, cuz like you go, we go to a country with it. We go to war with a country back to the fighting thing. We go to a war with a country like Iraq and then all the citizens in this country who are, you know, Iraq or Iranian start to feel like shit. Right. Cuz everyone’s like, it’s a, it’s like after nine 11, uh, you, you go to the airport and you get on the plane and there’s a dude with a turban getting on a plane and you’re like, you know, cuz the last, last image you saw the guy with the turban on was blowing shit up. It’s tough.
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (16:45):
Well, and I think, and I, and I think like us, every time Thanksgiving comes around, we all get traumatized because the stories are retold about, you know, how our kids were taken away from us and put into Indian residential schools. And then also we get retraumatized by de and what happened, you know, in our country, both that that’s a shared history between Canada and the United States. So for us,
Sevan Matossian (17:06):
Tell me about Thanksgiving. I’d never heard that. Tell me about Thanksgiving.
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (17:10):
Yeah. So the, the historical story has always been, you know, great Christopher Columbus came and, you know, came, came to the states in 1492 and you know, the PS and the Indians, they all sat together and they had this great feast called Thanksgiving. But the reality is, is if you read the historical documents, uh, you know, some from some of the anthropologists and especially those wonderful Catholics out there who I love the most because they were great historians. Like if you read the Jesuit relations, you’ll read some of the stories about what actually happened on some of those encounters. And in particular, most of the, the newcomers who first came, especially, uh, in those times and as well as in Toronto, um, when they came, they were actually full of sickness and they were full of starvation because they’d been on the boats for so long.
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (17:57):
And so, you know, us as indigenous people and our, and my ancestors, you know, actually aided them and put them back to wellness and back to health. And that’s why they were able to send back the people back to the queen to be able to tell them about how amazing the people were and how amazing the land was. And then the story abruptly changed. And so, you know, coming back and, and feeling as though that this was divine and God had given them this land and all of a sudden now it’s theirs. And so then my people are the ones that had to pay for that.
Sevan Matossian (18:30):
And, and, and, and thank and Thanksgiving where on one hand in, you know, I guess you could say in American culture, it’s a celebration and in the, um, indigenous culture, it’s, it’s a moment of mourning.
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (18:41):
It is, it’s almost, yeah, it could, because around that day in, in the United States, it’s usually, uh, the third week of November and in Canada, it’s the second and week of October. So around that time, we also share a very sacred day as the initial that called the day of the dead. And so it’s this idea around, you know, on, you know, honoring our, our people that have gone past, uh, and telling the stories and it always reminds, like you said, that day of morning of saying, Hey, this is the truth. This is the, the history. And then how do we reconcile around it? So
Sevan Matossian (19:13):
Man, and it’s not even, it it’s crazy cuz it’s not even that long ago. I mean, going back to 1492 is, but going back to 1827 is not.
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (19:21):
Yeah. And, and just, you know, for the viewers, I think historically they need to understand that like Canada hasn’t even become a country until 1852. So we didn’t sign the here on Robinson treaty with Canada, my own people, my own tribe being Mrs. Sagi first nation. We didn’t sign that here on Robinson treaty until 1852. And so this isn’t like something that happened hundreds of hundreds of years ago. This is like what happened yesterday and in Canada with the cam loops, Indian residential school, that Indian residential school didn’t close in 19 97, 98. Wow. So this is like in the last 20, 30 years that these atrocities still happen where, you know, our people were going to day school and, and being acculturated and assimilated and, and really ripped of their cultural identity. So again, it’s, it’s, it’s telling the truth and that’s why I really appreciate the Canadian stance. And the leaders here in Canada who have actually done the investments of looking at what does it mean to live in a culturally safe and sensitive way and actually invested resources in the truth and reconciliation commission, uh, led by justice Sinclair. So it’s an amazing work that we’re trying to do to be able to, you know, almost repatriate our history and our culture. Sure. An identity and our ceremonies and all that stuff. So it’s, it’s amazing. And to be able to do that here in Canada,
Sevan Matossian (20:39):
Um, I, I wanna go back to 2009, but if we have time, I’d like to come back and visit this. Okay. And, and, and, and talk about this because it’s interesting because I was, I I’m, I’m Armenian on both sides and I was raised with a strong, strong, um, narrative around the Armenian genocide because basically anyone who’s who’s Armenian who’s alive in the United States is there’s a pretty significant argument that they’re so lucky to be alive. Millions of Armenians were killed and they were basical just fleeing in 1915 from that, that sort of Armenia Turkish region. And they scattered to the wind. Right. And
Sevan Matossian (21:16):
I go back and, and so, so April 15th and we have all these days now, you know, since the day I was born to remember the genocide and there’s this pounding in and there’s this like, why doesn’t the Turkish government recognize it? And there’s just all of this stuff around this really sad day, right? These sad years, these killings, these escaping, I mean, shit. I mean, I mean, my, my family has a very strong history with it. My, um, my, uh, great-grandparents and grandparents were moved to a 10 by 10 square foot, uh, concrete hut where my dad was raised with his 10 brothers and sisters, um, in Lebanon. Right? No running water, no electricity, no bathrooms, none of that shit. And that’s how my dad was brought up, but, but I’d like to go back and, and hopefully if we have time be like, Hey, Or maybe it’s a different show, what, what are the implications of, of sharing that with the next generation in a way that makes them victims instead of why I don’t know what the other option is. Right. Well,
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (22:11):
I think, I think Vic Victor versus victims, right. Because victimization is reliving and staying in that position. And I hope our indigenous people and my kids, I mean, you, you seen beautiful pictures of my, my kids. And so, you know, the idea
Sevan Matossian (22:25):
By the way you got a pose.
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (22:26):
Yeah. So, I mean, ultimately the idea is that generation is always better and more prepared than we were. Right. And so the idea is to really move from that victimization and find the healing. And, and again, like I said, uh, I know we’re CrossFit focused, but it’s, you know, it’s about finding our culture and our space in place within the world, so, right. Yeah. I think that would be a great, I think that would be a great, uh, a show.
Sevan Matossian (22:51):
I, I, I feel like I was, um, not intentionally, but through the stories, um, I was taught to not like Turkish people and I don’t think that, I don’t think that component of it helped me at all now was the 49. You know what I mean? So like, I wish the history could have been taught in a way anyway, anyway, what well, well, and, and maybe it’s different the way you were brought up too, but, um, there needs to be a way that it’s taught to where I don’t, I, I don’t want my, I want my kids to know the history. I don’t want ’em to carry the baggage.
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (23:23):
Yeah. And I totally agree with you. And I think like for me, in my background, the way we were raised, we were raised Roman Catholic by the victimizer. So, I mean, ultimately, you know, I’m I hearing this burden of this cross that actually was used as a weapon to actually kill my people. And I’m not talking my people as in, you know, first nations across Canada and the us, I’m talking about my direct ancestors at the Spanish Indian residential school in Spanish, Ontario. Like this is a, this is something that actually is directly close to the nucleus of my home and my narrative as a human being. And so I, I think, you know, when it comes to that, you carry that and you go through that. I think it’s the stages of grief where you go through that and you, you have that hatred. And you’re like at the end of the day and being indigenous, I experienced racism on the daily in very different ways. And I totally savant, to be honest with you was blind, blindsided and blind of it for, for a long, long time. You know, until I sat in moose jaw Saskatchewan and sat there for 97 minutes waiting to get a, a coffee and a, and a menu to be able to order and people like, well, they just don’t treat Indians that way. So
Sevan Matossian (24:27):
How did they, how did they know? How did they, how did they know? Uhoh I lost you, wait, wait, this is the good part of the story. Shit. If you have to log in and log out again, do it awesome. Feel free, feel free. Yeah. Do it. We get to the bottom of this. How do they know? Do you guys know I’m Armenian? Could you look at me and tell that I’m Armenian show a little, how do they know that he is, we’ll get to this?
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (25:00):
Is that better?
Sevan Matossian (25:01):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You man. Thank you. Perfect.
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (25:03):
Sorry about
Sevan Matossian (25:04):
That. How do they know? How do they know? Um, like, like I know you’re not Chinese.
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (25:09):
Yeah, totally.
Sevan Matossian (25:10):
How do they know that you’re a, uh, UHIC, you need to wait 97 minutes for your coffee.
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (25:17):
Well, and, and ultimately where we were in moose jaw, the, the ideas at that particular establishment, they, I, when I walked in at that time, I was 400 pounds. I had braids, you know, down to the back, uh, and know, and I looked indigenous, I looked native, I looked Indian. Right. And so ultimately me and my, at that time, my five kids walk in and they all, as you can tell beautiful, you know, pons looking, you know, Indian girls sitting around, uh, waiting to be served. It just sparked into them a prejudice that they felt like they needed to treat us differently. So, I mean, ultimately I never actually entered into the conversation like I have in the PA in, in the past of, of asking them, you know, why did we have to wait? Or why did we have to experience that? Um, but in that particular situation, I’m not sure how they knew. All I knew is that I had to wait a lot extra time to be served then not. So yeah, you can tell we’re all in there.
Sevan Matossian (26:17):
So look at that posse that’s so going guys, sorry, I shouldn’t say happy birthday up there. What’s going on here? Yeah. Uh, yeah, that’s great. Oh my
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (26:25):
Goodness. So those are my four beautiful daughters, uh, harmony, Emily, Sophia and Hayden. And, uh, and ultimately when we walk in, we are the Boyer bred or as we, as we’re known as the Maw, Alan, so we’re the bear clan. So
Sevan Matossian (26:38):
What, what’s the, what’s the age range?
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (26:41):
So harmony just turned, uh, 13. Emily will turn 12 at the end of this month. Sophia is, uh, nine and Hayden is 10. Wow. And then we have an older daughter who’s 16 Natalie. So,
Sevan Matossian (26:57):
Wow. I’m, I’m impressed. You can, um, I’m impressed. You can remember. Do you know other birthday? Can you, do you remember all that stuff?
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (27:05):
Yeah, well it’s just because we just went through it. So the blessing about having them all when we did is that they’re, we have three birthdays in February, one in January and one in March. So, so we get ’em all over and done with, from January to March
Sevan Matossian (27:18):
Lickity split, you know, I was in a, um, um, I was in a meeting one time with my wife and, and, uh, with a, uh, family friend on her side, who’s the vice president of a large, uh, bank chain in Southern California. And we were sitting there talking and, uh, we were discussing like our finances and she was giving us advice on where to invest in the future. And it came up that her bank branches of her bank, that she was in charge of this huge swath of branches and, um, that they didn’t lend money to, um, Armenians. Now there’s like a million there’s over a million Armenians in, in, um, in Los Angeles, it’s the largest, uh, you know, congregation of Armenians outside of Armenia. And she basically said if they see an Ian or a Y N on the NA on the, um, last name that that be like, oh, and, um, we have a perfect bank for you and they, and they send you to a bank outside of the district. And I said, and I, and I, I knew the answer to this. And she said, why? I said why? And she said, because the Armenians down there don’t have a good reputation for paying back their loans. And it, it it’s, um,
Sevan Matossian (28:22):
You know, I didn’t, I didn’t fucking like it. I didn’t. Yeah. But it’s in it’s interest. It’s, um, this is just, you know, this is seven, eight years ago and, uh, yeah. There’s people out there with strong opinions and, um, yeah. You know, I don’t know any, I, I never, I don’t know any indigenous people really, like, I’m trying to think like,
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (28:42):
Well, you know me now, Sivan,
Sevan Matossian (28:43):
I do know you, but I’m trying to think, like, did I have a role with indigenous kids? Like in, in elementary school, did I know any or high school? I, I looked at the demographics for Santa Cruz one time and it was like 1.4%. Um, I forget what it was. I, I thought maybe it said native American.
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (29:00):
Yeah. Well, you might know, you might know lots of them, but they just don’t self-identify because again, they’ve gone through to that genocide and that, that bad history that they don’t wanna relate to, to all that or deal with that. Right. So ultimately you may have ran or, you know, I’m sure that you’ve thrown down with lots of indigenous people. They’ve just not disclosed that, Hey, you know, I’m happy to be indigenous. I’m proud to be indigenous. Right,
Sevan Matossian (29:24):
Right. Right. Just like when I get, when I go to the names in LA, I tell everyone I’m Japanese.
Dr. Robert A. Boyer II (29:31):
Yeah, exactly. Uh, I mean, I, I know just even recently with the articles that came out last summer, you know, there’s a huge dysphoria of a Navajo presence in the LA area. Like it’s, it’s amazing. It makes sense. A lot of people have moved from, you know, the reservation on the Navajo reserve and moved into LA just cuz the proximity,
Sevan Matossian (29:53):
Hey dude, if you, I mean you, if I had ed Calder ed caldron on, uh, and, and, and I had a.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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