NATIVE IN THINKING AND EXPRESSION This book is about protecting a way of speaking and teaching. When an Elder in my community passes away, I often hear people say they wish they had recorded what that Elder knew. This book is my way of doing that for the extraordinary Elders who gave me the chance to learn alongside them. Illness is a gift, and experience is the teacher. I SEE A SOUL brings forward something rarely found in health writing: true stories and teachings from Native Elders about illness, identity, grief, and healing. These pages offer clear lessons on caring for one another and on how Elders interpret illness through life experience. This is not borrowed wellness language or outside theory. It is knowledge carried forward by Elders who have helped people through hardship and change. Native readers and those separated from their communities can use these stories to reconnect with their cultural understanding. The insights are also valuable for helpers, caretakers, clinicians, and health workers who want respectful understanding rather than assumptions. Most of all, this book is for anyone who wants to understand illness more humanely. It is an invitation to listen, reflect, and see life, health, and healing with greater compassion, responsibility, and spiritual awareness.