This month we join our community in the acknowledgement and celebration of Native American Heritage Month, as we take the time to recognize the people, culture, traditions, and sovereignty that exists for the Native Americans and Alaskan natives who presided over 14,000 years before this land became the modern United States.

The Glendale, California and Plano, Texas native lands our corporate offices live on today are the ancestral homelands of many Tongva and Wichita Tribes and Indigenous people, respectively.

In celebration, we asked our team members how their heritage has shaped who they are today.

• It means a lot to me that Public Storage is celebrating this month. I am Lipan Apache; we are a strong band of people from the Western region who are known to work hard and create a way through diversity no matter the climate, landscape or obstacle ahead. I admire the amount of persistence and adaptation it took for them to survive, and believe these traditions that have been passed down have molded me into the person I am.

Angela Davis, Commercial Asset Real Estate Manager

• As a younger person, I may have not understood the importance of carrying out traditions. Throughout the years, traditions are the root to every culture. I am extremely grateful for my immediate family and tribal family for instilling these values and to see the value in all cultures.

Dustin Laroux, Human Resources Manager

“It makes me very proud to see that Native Americans are being recognized in a positive way through Public Storage and that PS takes pride in recognizing our heritage to show diversity throughout the company. I love my family, heritage and being able to have the ability to express that in doing my best to making a strong team and impression for whomever comes under my “wings.” I am very happy to acknowledge being one of the first female Native Americans in my family to be able to go to college and to be successful in the business aspect of being with PS for over nine years in these trying times in our society and will continue to try to be an asset to the company.

Michelle White, Key Training Professional

“There is no accomplishment I am more proud of than my own family. There is a great privilege in being able to contribute to our collective growth and success. Here at Public Storage I get a similar sense of pride in being able to contribute my part to the success of the goals and the objectives of my work team “family.”

Joshua Hunt, Senior Architect