It seems the
natural inclination of the Euro-American to separate the whole is steadfast. It
plays in every aspect of American life, and irregardless of the outcome, the
consequences he continues the practice. The restlessness of the Whites my
ancestors observed and commented on has not abated, and in the whites’ urgency
has not rested even upon the heaps of spoils littering the land once ours to
roam and care for.
It is a sad puzzle
trying to understand why we feel compelled to duplicate him. It has cost him
peace of mind fearfully and continually looking for the Boogey Man to come get
him, and for the chickens to come home to roost. It has cost us our children
and our wisdoms are for sale now. The schools he sends our children to are drumming
into student and teachers not to touch each other.
"It is bad.”
they say.
The calves drink
from plastic tubs, the chickens live in cages never to touch the ground, church
is separate from state, and God is in a compartment until he is needed for the
acquisition of something or a war is questioned on moral grounds.
It is tough being
of the People trying to walk the Red Road, or live and embody the teachings of
Yoruba ancestors in a country that walks upon the continent and cannot see
Turtle Island, or hear the voices of African women and men in the Atlantic
Ocean howling in terror and rage and bewilderment! For the ‘visitors’ so much
separation between their heads, and their hearts has severed the ties between
the Above and the Below and their inner and the outer being creating an
insanity from imbalance the world has not seen since the waters flooded the
Earth as our Creation stories tell us. Garbage floats above the planet, sewage
and plastics float in the waters, the air changes color and the ground moans in
shifting waves adjusting to upheaval and disrespect.
The gifts the
whites brought us were a mixed blessing, and only a few, in the old days, could
live a period of their tribal lives without him, but eventually he caught us
all, and explained that his way was the way of progress. We lost our land, gave
up our freedoms and lost our religion, and our rituals were outlawed. When
restored in 1978 we found so many white people trying to heal themselves
through our Medicine Ways.
It was like the Old
Ones said when they dreamed their visions as the whites covered the forests and
prairies with their stool, their cattle, their smells, and towns. “The
grandchildren of those who took our lands, and killed us would come to our
lodges to heal themselves.” © Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 1.9.13
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