Answers are sometimes hard to come by and when they do appear they can be elusive if too many choices are alongside. We often ask why, and when we receive the answer, we dismiss it as too complicated or too simple. Maybe we are more content with the question than with the answer.
What am I saying?, what am I getting at?.
In Indian Country, we run into the same situations again and again. And it always involves a white man as the nemesis.
Historically it has always been a "corporate initiative" disguised as Manifest Destiny, Doctrine of Discovery, religious freedom, Democracy, or eminent domain. And the American nationalist objective has always been the same. Win at any cost.
The land, the minerals, the water, the air, families, sovereignty, independence, the vote. They have all suffered as we have suffered under a colonialist autocratic militaristic regime.
But the lie has always been that we live in the greatest country in the world. And it's a lie that many of us poor Indians have accepted. We have stopped fighting because it is too hard. And when we stop to ask why we are fighting we are seen as deviant, ungrateful, radical, uneducated, selfish.
The government and their allies say "why don't you just accept the fact that you lost and we won, so whatever we choose for you, you must accept.
We want your land, hand it over, we want your children, hand them over, we want your water, hand it over, and don't question why, that's just the way it is. And if you don't like it you can go back to where you came from.
As we sit and starve on our own reservations, or what's left of them.
Civilization is a death knell. It's a guillotine set up to destroy hope, faith, and justice. And the dominant system, which is racist, bigoted, defamatory, and destructive, gets stronger, richer, and more aloof and it becomes the Great White Father that's never home.
And we are left with bloated bellies, diabetes, suicide, and inadequate health care.
For every victory, we achieve there are a thousand battles lost.
In North Dakota on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, we won a temporary victory. A victory led by Native women. In this battle for clean and safe water, we once again experienced the great militaristic animosity of the state and federal government.
So nothing has changed. We remain at war. The United States has not changed, federal policy has not changed.
We have changed. We have stopped being constant victims of domestic violence, alcoholism, drug abuse, suicide, and constant injustice. We have taken charge of every available resource to create a better way of life for our families.
But America still sees us as a national threat. An obstacle to their freedom and national growth.
And forces in the national legal and political system, which remains just as racist as ever, continue to attack and chip away at even the smallest sign of progress on our part.
God created us and put us here in the western hemisphere, but he is sure is taking his time in uncovering our greater purpose.
We are great believers in our prophecies. But a good prophecy hasn't come down the pike in a long time. All our chiefs and headmen are passing away. Our mothers and grandmothers are moving slower.
The great black snake is in slumber. And when he wakes again who shall stand to do battle.
