Here's what I was told by a Mi'kmaw person from the US:
'I've always been fascinated by the culture. Within Russia, there's a lot of different ethnic groups. There seems to be a kind of warrior spirit to the people, which is very similar to my people, so they resonated with me. I started out a long time ago in the 90s, training in sabmo and some other martial arts, where there was a lot of Russian books that I couldn't read. I always wanted to be able to read that stuff. There's so much scientific knowledge, so much sport science, so much medicine science that comes from Russia that we largely can't read unless it's translated into English, and I don't think we're scratching the surface of what's out there. So I think it's very important as a world language. I'm also very happy to just hear the perspective and the point of view from Russian people; to me, that's important to hear from the people themselves. Everything about the country is very intriguing to me, especially the Taiga forests, Siberia, areas more near Alaska. I come from the North Woods, from the north of the United States and Canada. My tribe is the Mi'kmaw tribe, or L’nu’k, we call ourselves. Anything to do with a lot of nature and vast areas is something that's going to capture my attention. I feel like the Russian people have a very cool mix of East and West that's very unique, and I appreciate it.'
