Juan Perez with wife, Jodi, and daughter, Olivia. "We're all working together to make a better life for our children." Photo by Deborah McDonald

When Juan Perez left Salish Kootenai College for Sarajevo last summer, he had certain expectations about what he would find there. He had been invited to present the keynote address at an international student leadership conference. When he returned to his home in Montana, he was full of stories about the courage and spirit of the people struggling for freedom where the former nation of Yugoslavia disintegrated after the fall of communism a decade ago. As a result, he has committed himself to helping his infant daughter learn about the struggles of others around the world aspiring for a better life. “We need to experience the world first hand to get the whole story,” he said.

Perez, 33, is an energetic, well spoken, and amiable young man.  In my recent conversation with him, he showed the same poise and self-assurance that characterized his role as president of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium Student Congress. A member of the Klamath nation, he graduated a year ago from Salish Kootenai College (SKC) with a bachelor’s degree in Native American human services. He now is the tribal college’s student life coordinator. His wife, Jody, is an elementary education major at SKC and a Salish member. They have a 10-month-old daughter, Olivia.

As a tribal college student Perez was a visible leader, providing a student voice in the national initiatives of the consortium. Partly as a result of that visibility, the United States embassy in Sarajevo asked him to address the leadership conference organized by the cultural attaché.

Perez arrived in Sarajevo on July 24, a couple of days before the conference was to begin. From his history lessons, he knew the importance of Sarajevo as the place where Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated, sending the world into the First World War. In his walks around the city, Perez saw evidence of more recent history. Buildings, such as the office of a major newspaper, are purposely being preserved with bullet holes and artillery damage as a reminder of the three-year civil war. At several locations Perez saw the Sarajevo Rose—a red paint splatter memorializing those killed in the struggle.

His first night in Sarajevo he had dinner with Ivan, one of the members of Optor. Optor, which means “resistance,” is a student movement that emerged from Belgrade University in Yugoslavia in 1998 as part of the effort to bring down the Slobodan Milosevic regime. Ivan and Perez sat in a cafe across from the National Library, a site where people were shot as they tried to save irreplaceable cultural documents during the war.  Perez’s dinner companion was a bald, tough-looking, and intimidating presence. But the American soon saw that Ivan was both “a nice guy” and a very experienced, knowledgeable, and effective organizer.

The people of Sarajevo surprised Perez. While he had expected that everyone would be frightened and depressed after the war, he was instead “constantly amazed at their upbeat outlook.” One woman had spent four years living in her basement, but she finally decided she had to get on with living her life.

On one occasion Perez set out from his hotel feeling alien and alone in the foreign environment. He finally found a Pepsi, a token—no matter how mundane—of home. Still feeling the anxiety of a person who looks, acts, and speaks very differently from the citizens of Sarajevo, he passed an elderly woman sitting on the steps of an apartment building. Her smile and her wave, universal signs of friendship, helped him feel more comfortable in this foreign city.

These two women and many others earned Perez’s admiration for their courage and for their welcoming ways. “In my culture, it is very important to invite all people in—strangers as well as friends— and to feed them and make them welcome,” Perez said. The citizens of Sarajevo reminded him of his family and culture in this most important trait.

He left the city for the conference, which was held at a ski resort, site of the 1984 winter Olympic Games. The lack of radio and television provided Perez and the other students with uninterrupted time to meet and begin to get to know one another. About 30 students and 20 other persons representing non-governmental organizations from the Ukraine, Yugoslavia, and the Bosniak/Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina attended.

In his address, Perez spoke about tribal colleges and universities, the life of American Indians in the United States, and what Perez and Salish Kootenai College are doing to improve reservation communities. He showed everyone a photograph of his young daughter. Perez recognized that he and his audience shared an essential goal. The people of this complex region of many languages, religions, and political memories were firmly united with him: All were working in their home communities to make a better life for their children.

Perez went to Sarajevo as an ambassador of good will and friendship. He returned with an understanding that these different and diverse people were, in the most important ways, like him. The experience changed him, and he hopes to return someday with his daughter. “Sarajevo is a beautiful place of strong people,” he said. The people of this war-scarred region are working toward those universal goals that Perez and all of us share.

Jamie Robertson served as dean of instruction and interim president at Leech Lake Tribal College for the past 11 years.  He was a Fulbright Scholar in American Studies at the University of Barcelona, and he served in the Peace Corps in Latin America. He is now working and writing at his farm in Minnesota.