The People

"Bill of Rights" by J.D. Challenger
A Bill of Rights ; A Bill of Goods

Betrayal of Trust and Broken Friendship

When the first of the white race arrived on the shores of the North American continent, the People were in awe of these pale skinned visitors.  Seeing them as almost gods, they extended their hands in friendship to the White Man.  It took little time for the People to discover how helpless these strange white people were, in spite of the powerful magic in the weapons they carried.  The whites both feared and needed the People in order to survive in a land they hoped to make their new home.  Quickly they returned the hand of friendship and presented a face of trust to the natives who met them on the shores.  The People taught their new friends to hunt and farm by using the traditions that had been handed down for generations.   In hard times they shared their food and warm clothing with this new race.  In time the whites learned the ways of survival well and looked with lustful eyes at the land the People had inhabited for centuries.  Only one thing stood in the way of the whites and their goal of owning this rich new world...The People.  This began the darkest pages of the history of America and the attempted  annihilation of entire race of people.

For generations the plight of the American Indian went unnoticed by the majority of Americans. They were often portrayed as savages, with little or no intelligence, and their race was maligned in films, art and literature. One only needs to watch one or two old "western" movies to know this is true. From the time the first Europeans set foot on this continent the Native American way of life was in jeopardy and the tragedy of the genocide of these people remained hidden for many years. Within a century after helping the first white settlers to survive in this land, the Indian had been pushed half way across the continent and their numbers reduced to a handful of their former population.  Their loss should not only be counted in numbers of human lives lost, but must also recount the loss of wisdom and traditions that were buried along with them.

The loss of the Indian way of life was a sadness that still is felt in the heart of anyone with Native American roots. In an attempt to force the Indian into conforming to their European ways, the government stripped away a heritage that can never be replaced. Sacred writings, totems, tokens and other religious items were collected and destroyed in a methodical purging of all traces of native traditions and beliefs. Children were no longer allowed to sit at the feet of the tribal elders to be educated but were sent off to the white man's schools to learn the history and fundamentals of life. Stories and legends that were once proudly told around a bright fire were now whispered in darkness among the scattered remnants of an all but defeated people.

Only one thing prevented the complete loss of all Native American traditions: the spirit of the Indian People. This spirit was something that had not been considered by the government. For generations the Native Americans had passed down their history and beliefs in song, dance and art. While writings, carvings, paintings and tokens could be burned and destroyed, things that lived in the hearts and minds of the people could not. Songs gave voice to the history of their ancestors, dance gave witness to the beliefs in their hearts and words were implanted in their minds that remembered what was sacred and holy to them. Their proud spirit found a way to survive even the most hostile attempts to extinguish it. It was alive then, and it is alive today, in the heart of every man, woman and child that has a drop of Native American blood running through their veins. I, for one, am very proud to be among those people.

Words of Betrayal

Black Hawk
Sauk and Fox Brave

The path to glory is rough, and many gloomy hours obscure it. May the Great Spirit shed light on your path, so that you may never experience the humility that the power of this American government has reduced me to . This is the wish of a man who, in his native forests, was once proud and bold as yourself.

Shingis
Delaware Chief

The white people think we have no brains in our heads. They are great and powerful, and that makes them make war with us. We are but a little handful to what you are.

But remember.....when you hunt for a rattlesnake, you usually cannot find it---and perhaps it will bite you before you see it.

Sitting Bull (Tatanka Yotanka)
Teton Sioux

What treaty that the whites have kept has the red man broken? Not one. What treaty that the white man ever made with us have they kept? Not one. When I was a boy the Sioux owned the world, the sun rose and set on their land; they sent ten thousand men to battle. Where are the warriors today? Who slew them? Where are our lands? Who owns them? What white man can say I ever stole his land or a penny of his money? Yet, they say I am a thief. What white woman, however lonely, was ever captive or insulted by me? Yet they say I am a bad Indian. What white man has ever seen me drunk? Who has ever come to me hungry and unfed? Who has ever seen me beat my wives or abuse my children? What law have I broken? Is it wrong for me to love my own? Is it wicked for me because my skin is red? Because I am Sioux; because I was born where my father lived; because I would die for my people and my country?

Chief Joseph
Nez Perce Chief
(from a speech made on January 14, 1879)

Good words do not last long unless they amount to something. Words do not pay for my dead people. They do not pay for my country, now overrun by white men. They do not protect my father's grave. They do not pay for all my horses and cattle.

Good words will not give me back my children. Good words will not make good the promise of your War Chief. Good words will not give my people good health and stop them from dying. Good words will not get my people a home where they can live in peace and take care of themselves.

I am tired of talk that comes to nothing. It makes my heart sick when I remember all the good words and all the broken promises. There has been too much talking by men who had not right to talk...

Chief Joseph continues...

I know that my race must change. We cannot hold our own with the white men as we are. We ask only an even chance to live as other men live. We ask to be recognized as men. We ask that the same laws shall work alike on all men. If the Indian breaks the law, punish him by the law. If the white man breaks the law, punish him also.

Let me be a free man--free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to think and talk and act for myself--and I will obey every law, or submit to the penalty.

When the white man treats the Indian as the Indians treat each other, then we will have no more wars. We shall all be alike--brothers of one father and mother, with one sky above us and one country around us, and one government for all. Then the Great Spirit Chief who rules above will smile upon this land, and send rain to wash out the bloody spots from the face of the earth that were made by brothers' hands. For this time the Indian race is waiting and praying.

I hope that no more groans of wounded men and women will ever go to the ear of the Great Spirit Chief above, and that all people may be one people.

Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea)
Mohawk

In the government you call civilized, the happiness of the people is constantly sacrificed to the splendor of the empire. Hence the origin of your codes of criminal and civil laws; hence your dungeons and prisons. We have no prisons; we have no pompous parade of courts; we have no written laws; and yet judges are highly revered among us as they are among you, and their decisions are as much regarded.

We have among us no exalted villains above the control of our laws. Daring wickedness is here never allowed to triumph over helpless innocence. The estates of widows and orphans are never devoured by enterprising swindlers.

We have no robbery under the pretext of law.

Chief Joseph
Nez Perce Chief

I believe much trouble and blood would be saved if we opened our hearts more. I will tell you in my way how the Indian sees things. The white man has more words to tell you how they look to him, but it does not require many words to speak the truth.

Black Hawk
Saul and Fox Brave

How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong look like right.

Spirit Voices
Copyright©1997