Why does Junior say he would always love his tribe? What do you think this reveals about Junior?

On page 160, Junior says "no matter what else happened between my tribe and me, I would always love them for giving me peace on the day of my grandmother's funeral".  Although Junior loved his tribe for leaving him alone on the day of the funeral, he loved his tribe for more reasons then this.  Junior wanted to leave the tribe to improve his situation, including transferring to Reardan so that he could get a better education and leaving all the negative aspects of the tribe behind, however, Junior still appreciated many things about the tribe.  He still loved his family, he loved his friends and he loved how his family and friends came together during difficult times.  Even though many people were angry and believed that Junior was a traitor for leaving the reservation, the funeral was not about him, but it was about Grandmother and the "two thousand Indians (and a few white folks) [who] sat and stood on the football field [to say] good-bye to the greatest Spokane Indian in history". (page 161)  This reveals that there was something that he and the tribe all had in common and that they would never lose even if he had left the reservation. Junior knew that deep down all the tribes people understood the grief that he felt because they all felt the same grief, and you have to experience the same bad things to understand how this feels.  Junior's friends at school were supportive, but it was only the tribe that could really understand how he felt, and he loved them for it.

Is there a some connection that you have with your culture that people outside of your culture can't really understand or feel?  Is there a group of people who you can call family, but are not related? Have you ever been in a situation where a friend or friends stood up for you even thou it was not a popular thing to do?