IT AIN’T EASY BEING INDIAN: March 2018

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photo of ricey wild

BY RICEY WILD

I summon calmness. I summon clarity. I summon spirit. I did not summon Purrince who is trying to lie in my lap while writing this. (I gave him a gentle ‘git’).

In order to write I am playing music that not only takes me back in the day but is also happy. Pressure is easing. Shoulders are down. My fingers are at the ready. Now what?

LOL! I try to live a quiet life even though it’s really boring at times and I end up being all mad at myself for wanting it at all. Then life, like an old unpaid bill, shows up and I have to deal with it. Sometimes yelling and snorts of disgust are involved, so it ain’t pretty but there it is. I just want my Chewy.com order on time. That and my satellite to not go out in inclement weather. 😉 Apparently that’s too much to ask. Hai!!!

Yet I am very well cared for by many people whose business it is to make life easier for me and so many others who need their help. I honor them and that they made it their purpose to help out the old (getting there), infirm (me) and needy. That is how we care for each other now and back in the day. I have written that I suck at ‘thank yous’ by card but I do express my appreciation for people who don’t have to put out like they do and do it anywayz. Yooz are the Rocks of my world and I thank you now. Chii miigwech. It means so much to me that I’m not alone, especially when I feel so abandoned.

I have an anonymous friend, a Korean War Veteran, I want to reply to. He’s written to me and asked what do we do if ‘they’ build a wall around reservations?I’ve taken my time thinking about that and ain’t none of it pretty. It causes my Indigenous blood to boil. Truth is, ‘they’ have already created borders where none used to exist, and in that I include our Mexican, Central American and South American relations, and our relatives north of the border.

It’s my belief that before the European invaders came we had well-established commerce and relationships with each other. Look up Cahokia for more information. The gigantic city was in the middle of this continent. But white people don’t give credit where credit is due, writing that we ‘savages’ could not have possibly created such a civilization on our own. Then the so-called archaeologists wondered why the city was seemingly abandoned? Tch! In my opinion it was because their ancestors were on our shores and they made mad haste to outrun the imminent holocaust.

There are borders that have no actual brick and mortar or fencing at all, but are more like tractor beams where one cannot escape once caught in them. The sad thing is we are born into our situations as determined by the cultural majority, wherever or whoever that is for you. That means racism and oppression: poverty and continued genocide are the pseudo-electrified fence no matter if we Indigenous People live in the city or reservation. No matter what we do or say to prove that we are equal or better, we still have the stigma of being seen as ‘less than” the ruling majority.

The being ‘less’ is on them I say. I think that’s why so much activism is on the rise, including being more informed. I have said before the white man’s technology will prove what we’ve always known, that we Indigenous People were put here by the Star People and thus these ARE OUR HOMELANDS. Now we can use their technology to communicate our revolution, no matter how many bullets fly or how many water cannons are used illegally by the U.S. and elsewhere. Look, we’ve survived almost complete annihilation by the European colonists and we can deal with this, too. Borders? Fences? I fart in their general direction. (For credit, that last line is directly from Monty Python.)

So my answer, my dear friend, is that they try and contain us but our minds and spirits are ours and can never to be sullied by hate unless we choose that. You served in the U.S. Military for your country and for that I thank you. I honor you personally and chii miig-wech for thinking of, and caring for me. You know what I mean.

I’m not an emotionally blubbery type of person yet I’m not stoic either. I have the gift to say to so many “Chii miigwech” (Thank you in Ojibwe) just for being yooz. Lorri, Ima miss you so hard! Jason, you and your kindness means so much to me!

No one get all salty if I left yooz out. I appreciate YOU!!!