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This was sent to me by one of my friends:
Anpetu Waste Mitakolapi!
Greetings to all my friends!
My heart is heavy and many of you know why. But many do not. It seems that the more things changethe more they stay the same. Throughout the history of time there have been wars, plundering, genocide, encroachments and many other acts of violence. These things have all come about because of greed and ignorance. Greed is no respecter of persons and ignorance is lack of knowledge and education.
We (all Native American people) are facing new, yet very old, challenges and in order to win we MUST come together as one. This is not time to have a closed communion and say, Youre whiteget out of my face! to those who wish only to help us in our stand for that in which we believe. There are many, many people who are not just sympathetic to our causes but believe as we do in the land, the sky and the circle of life.
There continue to be battles to take our lands, lands that were given to us in treaty. Actually lands that were ALREADY ours but places the wasicus did not want. They took and kept the best places for themselves and now everybody and their brother have come here and keep coming here. We have people demonstrating and fighting for rights and freebies and they are not even citizens of this country and these things are being allowed. Yet we have elders and children that live in absolute squalor, without hospitals, without proper education to be able to help themselves and without the ability to properly fight opposition without resorting to violent means.
It takes many voices to make one; it takes many drops of pure, sweet rain to fill a ditch; a ditch that flows in to a stream; a stream that flows to the river; a river that flows to the ocean. All that started with just one simple drop of rain. We are ALL one simple drop of rain but it must be a gentle, steady outpouring of heartfelt love for this land and universenot a devastating hurricane. We all love a good soft, gentle rain but that hurricane, such as Rita that came near my home last fall, causes much alarm and puts everyone on the defensive.
My Brothers and Sisters, we need now more than ever to come together as that gentle rain. I admit my first instinct is to grab a scalping blade and a lance, but our elders knew that such things were a delicate matter that needed much counsel. And they knew that every action has retribution. They would hold counsel, sometimes for days, before reaching any decision of action and tried to work things out before going into a battle or war. My people have always fought for family and way of life and our families and way of life is being threatened now just as in the past.
I understand that there is talk of uranium testing on Shoshone land. Add that to the encroachment of Lakota land at Bear Butte, the attempt to push the Navajo and Hopi off their lands for coal and the problems with our people at Six Nations Reserve in Ontario. These are FOUR negative things in less than a month! Now, more than ever, we need to stand firm in our beliefs and ALL Native American people need to join and become ONE voice. I recently read where the Natives of Alaska are having pizza flown in to their villages. Is nothing sacred anymore? If and since we are having problems we need to look at ourselves. We need to look at how we have allowed ourselves to be sold out to the ways of the white man and have not, even secretly, maintained our traditional ways and beliefs. We have allowed ourselves to buy into the casino crap, the new pickup trucks and suvs, the big fancy houses (that some can afford) and many other things that are not traditional to our people.
We have and need a since of urgency to get back to OUR traditions and ways of life. If we do not respect ourselves and Unci Maka (Grandmother Earth), then how can we expect others to show us the respect we deserve?
The Musk ox in the great north band together in a circle and put their children in the center when they are threatened. We as Native Americans must do the same right now. We must avoid violence, we must fight with our hearts and words, but most of all WE MUST STAND TOGETHER as ONE VOICE. WE must try to avoid another Wounded Knee. We must honor our ancestors and fight in an honorable and compassionate way. We are the caretakers of the earth for we are Earth People and we need to start acting like it.
Ho hecetuMitakuye Oyasin
Sunkmanitutanka Waykinyan
Thunderwolf
A note to the moderator or administrator:
Could you please delete the above post, since I just found out that the person who forwarded it to me did not wish me to copy and distribute it.
Pila huk./Thanks.
Todd
I am going to ask my friend if I would be allowed to keep his post up on this thread, and/or provide a link. If he will allow it, that would be great and we can keep it up and more people will have a chance to read it, but if he does not, I will have to respect and abide by his decision, and the post will have to be removed. Hopefully, he will allow the post to remain.
Pila huk./Thanks.
Todd
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