Vincent Schilling

VINCENT SCHILLING: "We are predefined by what we were in our history. I've had multiple times myself, people tell me, 'Well, you don’t look Indian.'"

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Vincent Schilling speaks at schools and companies about cultural diversity. He often begins by asking people to think about what they believe a Native American looks like.

VINCENT SCHILLING: "And the standard answers I'll get are, you know, a gentleman sitting on the hill on horseback. He's got a full-feathered headdress. Or he's sitting cross-legged with his moccasins and a bow and arrow and a tepee in the background type of thing."

He says educating people is important to breaking down cultural stereotypes.

VINCENT SCHILLING: "Even if it's one person at a time, talking to these kids or talking to these folks who are working at different places and saying: 'Look, here is Jordin Tootoo, he's a professional hockey player. Here is Alwyn Morris, Olympic gold medalist in kayaking. Cory Witherill, Indy race car driver."

STEVE EMBER: Mr. Schilling lives in Virginia, hundreds of kilometers from his tribe's reservation in the state of New York. But nationally about five hundred thousand people live on tribal reservations and federal lands.

VINCENT SCHILLING: "Native American reservations are probably one of our nation’s best kept secrets. What you will see a lot of times on a native reservation is there are some folks who are living well, but there are a lot places on reservations that are living in complete and abject poverty."