By Frank John King III
Publisher
National Native Media
December 29, 2015
Dakota Territory
In order to find the underlying cause of an issue you must first understand the origin of and history of its truth. Once you realize this truth, the solutions, no matter how unconventional they may be, will present themselves.
It doesn’t take effort to see what is happening on these reservations. It doesn’t take an educated person to know what role that reservation corruption plays in the continuous damnation of reservation tribes.
Corrupt and or inanimate officials, mothers, fathers, tribal members and violent poverty are interwoven into the tattered fabric of reservation communities and families. One begets the other, where one corruption ends another is born.
Some individuals may say that they aren’t responsible for this violent tribal poverty without fully understanding how much that they and their children are defined by it. It is a fact that the reservation people of today carry the legacy of the brainwashed and violently abused generations long ago. Historically bred to individually subjugate themselves, label themselves, and to hate themselves. Through this history the people became their own enemy.
To deny that any native person (elected official or tribal member) isn’t responsible for this oppressed environment is simply untrue. Denial of this responsibility is a personal mental instability.
Ultimately, though, just as everyone is responsible for their own individual actions so must they be responsible for the fate that they create through these actions. It is in the irresponsible and violent acts that all cycles of abuse continue to roll forth from one “Reservation” generation to the next.
When you actually step back and take a good look at this generational event you see that the only true victim is the child who’s politics are confined to survival and food. They come into this world with no opinion or racism. They are born without self-hate or self-destruction. They don’t have doubt or disdain and they don’t judge or express violence. They are only dependent on the adults to guide their fate.
If their parents emotionally hate themselves and violently hate each other, if they are born out of a reservation one night stand, if their biological purpose was for a welfare check and not love, if they were born to support an addiction… then their suicide rope was already woven into their psyche once they opened their eyes to this world. They become hopelessly synthesized into this violent reservation dogma.
Societal Schizophrenia
These reservation communities are self-medicating and self-mutilating themselves in their normalized violent and substance abuse state of mind for a reason. These reasons may vary from person to person but they ALL originate in child abuse (physical or sexual) and neglect. If violent reservation ghetto-ism is the weed then child abuse (physical or sexual) is the root.
The greatest perpetuated corruption, on every level, is to deny this fact. When a reservation community normalizes violence and abuse over many generations it becomes embedded into the characteristics of the people. The people learn to admire the violent acts over the nonviolent acts, they honor the evil over the good they empower failure over success.
Ultimately their individual pain is still there seeking self-medication without facing their family demons. Coming to an accord with your own pain and accepting it without seeking resolve leads to self-demoralization.
In every generation the new stage is set. The characters are stepping in to replace the old ones and another corruption begins. This sadistic heritage cycles once again. This is the true broken hoop of reservation mental health.
The reservation families are all living cells of a greater tribal entity, when the majority of them are addicted the whole being becomes emotionally and mentally sick. Hope becomes the discriminated minority.
When a reservation community can’t disassociate what is real and what isn’t real, what is inappropriate behavior and what isn’t, what is violent and what isn’t or what is sexual abuse and what isn’t…this is a public health crisis. This is societal schizophrenia.
Oppression flourishes in this mentality. Depression becomes the inherent language of the people. Poverty at this point becomes more of a traditional way of life, binding everyone together into a de-facto violent ghetto reservation culture. IT becomes an accustomed way of life. Denial becomes the tall dark man standing at the threshold of another native youth suicide.
It is laughable to believe that, under these circumstances, giving money to change “reservation poverty” would actually be a solution. Would you give money to a meth addict on the street? It would be like prescribing gasoline to fight leukemia.
This reservation poverty isn’t caused by a lack of money or jobs as the bureaucratic, on reservation, poverty pimp programs would like the feds to believe. Yes there are limited jobs on the reservations but it’s not caused by a lack of financial resources or limitations. It is caused by the over all mental instability of its people. It is caused by a lack of culture, an indigenous culture, which teaches love, self-respect and appropriate social behavior. It is caused by hate.
Cultural self-discovery is the only path to change. The teachings of the Sacred Pipe have laws that address the issues of meth use and meth addicts. It may not be what the people want to accept but one must not question the sacred laws of their Great Spirit.
The original cultures of all tribes teach what’s right and what’s wrong, what is family and what isn’t, what is healthy and what is a sickness. These traditional prayers doctor the minds of the people and provide the punishments for those who break these laws.
The fact that the people are self-medicating themselves so that they don’t have to cope with the reality of the environment in which they live should be enough proof to show anyone with common sense that what is currently being done by the tribal political and social hypocrisies it isn’t working.
Traditional prayer has more power to heal our people than any other imposed religion, including Christianity. A traditional religion defines who you are and who your ancestors were. Did our people arrive with Columbus? Did our ancestors suffer under the Kings of Europe? Did the grandfathers ride with the 7th Calvary?
Again, denial of truth is denying your own path to self-discovery.
We have all heard this story of our past before…
If violent reservation ghetto-ism is the weed and child abuse (physical or sexual) is the root then the boarding school history is truly the seed.
To remove the hope in the indigenous people to steal their land and rights, the violently greedy and politically motivated society had to erase the living culture out of the minds of the children. This happened by first labeling indigenous people as an uncivilized threat. Once this labeling was established and driven into the psyche of American politics and culture, killing the culture of the indigenous people became manifestly justifiable.
This “justified Indian solution” was designed to create generational inferior families and communities. When the first generation abuse victims were beaten and raped by the Nuns and Black Robed molesters in the boarding school institutions of long ago the seed of contemporary reservation life was planted. A beaten child grows up not to question the whip or the lies, and so passes this on to their children and grandchildren.
The old sacred medicines of our tribes, that are so desperately needed today, became violently erased by these policies imposed upon the our grandparents of long ago and yet that Christian fear still remained embedded into the psychological scare tissue of todays reservation families.
Violence became that necessary act needed to kill the great cultures of our people. Christianity, as a weapon used against the children, was wielded in a sadistic way to control the future generations. Generations made to believe that indigenous cultures were evil and that their church was the only way to pray. To be civilized meant to pray like them and forgive them for what they did. Today you are a byproduct of that Christian based legislative agenda.
Cluster Housing Oppression
Nothing has changed on these Indian reservations because of this truth. Indigenous children are born into a sick and corrupted society guided by the delusional heritage of a de-facto racist Christian belief that the local red-neck/land thieves imposed upon them long before their generations were ever conceived.
The children are labeled by the white society as a child of a lazy, subhuman and substandard race. Once they are born into these reservation families and communities the young mothers sign away what little is left of their children’s sovereignty and heritage to the State Department of Social Services. They created this right of passage for our women and no one questions it. A tribe is truly only as sovereign as their children.
Many generations have become mentally lethargic and psychologically sick, gulping the mainstream poisoned reality of welfare. Welfare provides addicts a revenue for addiction, it provides children for state foster care, it provides prisoners for prisons.
The choice to change this has always been a difficult one to an “addict” culture. Many children for many men will eventually be the undoing of tribal sovereignty. This isn’t a tribal custom this is a cry for help.
The blame of these endemic problems that flourish today, in truth, falls squarely in the arms of the people. People have a choice to change their mind, change their actions but wanting change and coping with reality are incredibly distant to someone who can’t wake up from their societal schizophrenia.
Once a person has accepted their lineal defeatism they accepted their fate, giving birth to children who witness no hope or future but to follow in the miserable footsteps of their reservation parents who see it as normal.
Tribal corruption, embezzlement, physical and sexual abuse, violence, addiction are all characteristics of these historically dysfunctional reservation communities today.
This cycle of abuse is so malevolent and insidious that it has become a subculture to the tribes. But in truth all these violent acts are played out behind the closed doors of the cluster housing shacks occupied by the reservation addicts. They beat one another with the fist of sovereignty and call that “love”.
The people question why their reservations are the way they are but when a sick and violent society becomes a generational reality… the truth, even if it is right in front of their eyes, can never be seen or comprehended.
Living on the reservation one can’t truly understand what they are inherently taught not to accept. If your parents and grandparents, great grandparents and great-great grandparents didn’t question their situation then why should the children and adults of today? Why should you?
Meth and the Sovereign Nation
Over the years our people have fought with the demons of substance abuse. Again this is a choice that all human beings make. Substance abuse doesn’t discriminate nor does it care who you are.
Alcohol was the first evil that was brought into our camps. Long ago the local whites, for their enjoyment, would set out a case of whiskey and watch the “Indians” kill one another. Back then the native people didn’t know that this would make them insane, they only knew that they could escape from their reality with it. Their insanity was byproduct amusement for the whites.
Today the evil in the camp is meth. Meth is the new case of whiskey but today we all are witnesses to the effects that it is having on our people. It is sad to watch one of the relatives kill themselves with meth. You can see it their eyes and in their actions, they are insane and in their insanity they drag their children behind them. They believe that you don’t see their addiction. Meth rots away their reality. It provides an unholy escape but at a great cost.
Rotting teeth and scabs, the look of death around their eyes. Their aura of lunacy precedes them. They scurry to find the next hit rambling their insanity in the forked tongue of denial. To a native society that can’t even conquer alcoholism… meth is the sickle that reaps the souls of the native people.
There is no way of politically and or legislatively diminishing this epidemic, you cant fight evil with politics. Expecting an unhealthy nation to police its meth self only brings out more political problems. It is an impossibility to combat an evil such as this with good intent and no action.
The only way to eradicate this evil is to fight it with another form of evil. Use the people who know this environment. Give the people who are coming from the prisons the opportunity to combat it. No one on the reservation ghetto is going to openly rat out to law enforcement but they would take direction from someone who speaks their language, whose reputation is respected in these reservation ghettos.
It is unconventional but these desperate times require desperate solutions.
Recreating warrior societies within the communities to hunt down and remove the dealers and the providers. To help guide those who have fallen to stand again and reclaim their culture and their families.
The tribes can banish but the warriors can scold. This approach solves two problems: One, the prisoners returning home have a purpose. Two, the meth dealers and addicts have an enemy that they can’t win against.
The Sacred Laws
Reclaiming the old ways in contemporary times is easy. Don’t let others distract the solution with lame political excuses like blood quantum or non-speaker. They learned how to put labels on each other from the white society. Blood Quantum is a BIA abortion and speaking or not speaking is a nonissue when it comes to defending the tribes internally. The only true distinction that should be asked is “are you a Christian or a Traditional” but that’s another story.
The First Laws of the Great Spirit are obvious. Never put your people in danger, Lead by example, Never abuse yourself with ego and hate (addictions), Teach your children the traditional culture, take care of your elderly, and never bring evil into the camp.
To learn the ceremonies and the medicines you must first commit to living the first laws. Do not fear your culture. If there is to be change you must first rediscover your original root.
My Grandfathers Teachings
Chief Leonard Crow Dog
“Yes! Yes! Good morning, I say. Good morning to Grandfather first. To Grandfather, good morning, I say. Grandmother Earth, I say, thank you. For walking and living [on Grandmother Earth], I say, thank you. For all the generations she has given us, I give thanks. So, we will understand things well, then, we will understand more clearly and we will hear clearly.
I am Crow Dog, keeper of medicine. I am from the Rosebud country. We come from the generation that was given to us. I am from the Aske (Wrapped Braids) people family, the Wakicuƞze (the ones who make decisions) people, Wagluhe (the Loafer band of the Oglala) people, and the Wowaheċuƞ (People who have values) people, the Ṫawiċoḣ’aƞ Wak̇aƞ (Their Sacred Ways) people, the Ṫawokaġe Wak̇aƞ (Make Sacred Things) people, and the Ṫawouƞspe Waṡt̄e (Teach Good Things) people. I am Crow Dog. I am standing at what is now the fourth generation and living into the fifth generation.
So, the first thing I will say is, first is this buffalo, and the tipi, and people, some people with whom I have brought my way of life and shared prayers with. So now, in the future, we will live with the white man. And we live with them and you know their language and understand it well. You will understand their language clearly, but now, some words can’t be translated. You will interpret those words for the generation that is coming, and with visions you will make them understand [those words]. If this happens, we will be a good nation.
Teachings for the common man have been put on this earth. The seventh generation of the people, and the generation that will walk [the earth] have talked to each other and prepared one another for that. We come from this nation. We are people of peace and for that we are called Lakota, also, we are called the common man. A very good vision was given to us, one of having wisdom and being watchful and talking to one another about it. So listen carefully!
The fathers, grandfathers came together and talked to each other. They tanned a hide, a buffalo hide. They placed marks on it [to tell stories and events]. So from these, from the counts that were marked, they told stories. Some men, the men of wisdom, told about this for the future. So as you go [in the future], [remember] they said this land is very sacred. This land, this earth [has] many [different] paths. And those [paths] have been made sacred, sacred, but you will pursue them. You will pursue [these paths] with honor and respect. And with this [the men of wisdom] will talk to you in a vision and a teaching. So tell this to each other as you go. This is how they told me.
The father grandfathers who were eighty, seventy and ninety-three years old told me stories. And so, what they told me, they told me this way, we will talk to you about spirituality. The words that you will speak, we will tell you, is the way you tell. As you tell it, tell it because it is the way. And don’t tell it after us, and don’t shorten it, they said. The future generations will use it, too, they said. So again tell them as we have told you, and as you tell, you will reach their spirit through their thoughts and teachings, they said. So, then you will talk to each other, they said. Even though you don’t say this, the spirit will hear it, and the body will hear it. So, you will tell them, so they can understand it.
The grandchildren will go, and as they are going, they said, grandchildren, look, they said. You will be walking with the white man. You will walk with people who have white skin. And they will show you many good things. But somewhere, greed will come, they said. If greed comes, be watchful. There are many dense forests. Walk through them and realize that if you rely on Grandfather’s eyes, ears, and heart, then your relatives will follow. And then, treat others with compassion and don’t get angry. When someone talks to listen! Have compassion for others! And look at people’s needs.
So, when the white man talks to you different, you will translate it your way. And inside of the buffalo skull, there is the brain, they said. Inside of the buffalo skull, there is his heart, kidney, liver are inside. And there is the lung, and veins are there inside of it. From those they will talk to you, you are going to translate it, understand and be grateful for it.
And so, my relatives, this morning, now we are standing with the white man. In the beginning, the very first time they came, they couldn’t understand our language. With their spirit, they brought a church and put it up. But somehow the spirit that we talk with, cannot reach them. Our spirit can’t reach them. But our own spirit, the spirit that is inside, we know it. And so, we do things with honor, and we never get greedy.
They have stolen riches, they have stolen gold. They have stolen oil. They have stolen coal. The earth has many ways. The rocks have been placed in it also, so that they will hear you and understand you. Do it this way. The people… the white man will stand like a dense forest, but you have a [way of] life that nobody ever will get into. We have given you a strong spirit.
Boy! You must realize this! Girl! You must realize this! The new lifestyles that you will walk with, have laws. You will walk with people who make things happen. So, what they have said, has been a lesson, a very good lesson today. It has helped many and has been good for you.
Grandchild, take it with respect and it will be good for you, so you can walk the earth with wealth and good things. If you find something, hear something, or see something, some men will get greedy, some men with white skin. The long knives will put barriers. The long knives will take something that is not theirs without asking. And in the future, they might give you a place to live, and that will be the only place you will have control.
Long ago, a buffalo, and an eagle was flying looking for a place to make a nest, standing there all spread out. And they will control it. So, they will take the egg and put it in another place. So the eagle would be sad. The buffalo will be sad. The deer will be sad. The beaver will be sad. The wolves will howl, he said. The birds will be lost. You will never have a homeplace, they said. But they will make themselves a homeplace, they said. The reason for this is that they made these laws, but they don’t keep them.
This paper, look at this paper…the health, the Lakota way of life… If you have the sickness, we will teach you how to live with them. Do you agree with that, they said. Then there was a loud “Yes!” Crazy Horse did not agree. I do not agree with us living with the white man at all. But Red Cloud agreed it was alright. Because he agreed, on that day Spotted Tail said, “Yes, if that’s the way, that is how it will be.” Iron Shell said, “Yes, I will touch it. I will touch this paper. I will touch this letter.” Iron Nation Said “Yes I will touch the paper”. So now, the generations that have come since then are standing here.
I don’t feel bad. Me, I don’t feel sad for the Lakota, I feel sad for the white people, because when they take something from the earth, they don’t pray. They keep digging and digging and take the oil out, gold, the sand and the coal. The white people never make offerings. They don’t know about offerings. So today, think about this, my relatives. They have made a treaty with us, so now we will live with many [treaties]. Then later, they made another treaty. They called names, they called names. They made the fourteenth new law. When they made that, the Lakota, the common man with this law will be put inside the fence,that is where we will go home. And only there you will have control.
And the buffalo, a man tried to annihilate the buffalo, but he couldn’t do it. The buffalo has a spirit, sacredness. Its pitiful, they will live only a short time. So now we have put them inside of a fence. The buffalo will be happy living on this earth, on this hunting ground, only when they go to over to that hill if they want to, or drink water, there is water there, from a pond, or drink water from a spring over here. The medicine plants and grass have all been changed. They feed them like we eat with their mouths open so their young ones are sad. But there is the pipe and tobacco that is good.
Think very hard about this, my relatives, and try very hard to understand. This is sad. You will set the grandfathers’ ways and you will walk with them. Over there, Grandfather has made a better land for us, a land where… No matter what a hard time you have on this earth, Grandfather has made a land for us to live there. There will be no suffering or sadness, he said. So he said there is a story. “Grandfather! Grandmother! are the white men going to that sacred land too?” Grandmother said, “no, the white men are not going there.” Why? “They have made us suffer on earth and made us carry our homes. They will never reach life, she said. Nobody will reach life, she said.
And so, they make laws that they do not keep. The hunting ground where you live are governed by their laws. they made laws for you. The feathers that you use to wear, the eagle plume that the girls use to wear, by that we know who you are, we know who you are, they said. Grandchild, I recognize you, I know who you are. So now there are papers, identification cards that you must have and so they will know who you are. So even as you are wearing the feather, the feather has a design which is inside of it. The old man knew this and he understood. The eagle feather also has a voice inside of it.
My relatives, it is different now. But the spirit inside us, no matter if we are having a hard time, and no matter if we are suffering, and no matter how we die, our spirit will never die. We will go to the land that Grandfather has made for us. We will live there. Crazy Horse lives there. Big Foot lives there. Sitting Bull lives there. Iron Nation lives there. Our grandfathers take off the things they wear in this world and live there. It is a land where the world will never end. The birds will sing, and the animals… The drum beat will never end in that world where we will live.
So that’s where we are standing today. The teachings are very short, they say, the white man’s teachings are very short. Why? They argue and fight about these teachings since they came to our land on a boat. So Grandmother, Grandfather, they have compassion for everyone. They had no food, they had nothing to eat. They showed them food, showed them what food to put in their mouths.
So look! they got greedy. They stole all the land. They say they own the land and that they are the boss. You will live our way and go by our laws. If you don’t go by them, there will be places where you will be tied up. Then we realized that the things they showed us would lead to us being tied up. Then they made more laws, laws that will be supreme laws.
If a man does something wrong, they put him behind an iron door [in jail]. Some men will be seated as judges, there are twelve men and women, but for the common man nobody speaks up. There are good lawyers, but some lawyers cannot translate our language. So, the person who takes blood will look at your blood and say, Yes, you did! You did this, and because of that now you will go to jail.
You will be tied up in all four directions like the wind. When you are traveling on the roads, you are nervous because they watch you to see if you are obeying their laws. The old men who I live with, who live here inside (of the buffalo skull), have interpreted this for me. Look at this hand! Only a few men have a hand like this. They have this hand, they have this hand and they touch sacred objects. And on the other hand, look, there is a cross. How? So, sacred, the Great Spirit makes good things. But they did a bad thing. They accused him, and nailed him on the cross. They treat us the same way they treated him, murdering in your home. If there is a law on this earth that sits highest, it is for killing people in their homes, but because they say they are the boss, they don’t need a paper and judge. They have a lawyer [to help them]. They have twelve on their juries. So there are twelve, but they are all white people, so they just eat us up. And they look at your paper, and, no, the man is lying. We are boss of the world, what we say, will be. They have treated us very badly since then. So, you must understand all of this!
The children who are born – do you see this tipi? Children are born inside there. There’s a fire inside there. And so, when a woman has a child, the afterbirth is tied in a bundle and touched [to the child]. They hang it out there and go inside. And so the child will never be lost, never be lost. The child… the child already has a teaching and a vision. From the beginning, [the child] already has a good understanding and a vision. And they already know father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, uncle, aunt, male cousin, female cousin, my grandchild, my nephew, these are my relatives.
These things are in place today and they will never go away. Grandmother has compassion for us. Grandfather has compassion for us. They say, Grandchild! Grandchild! Grandchild! My grandchildren, in the future you will live with the white man and you will have a hard time with this. But grandchildren, remember this! No matter what, your spirit will never change! You may try to change it, but you will never change yourself. Grandfather has given you sacred breath, to the red man, the red girl, the red baby, the red boy, here they put their own. This knowledge reaches from the earth to the sky, and thus they will never change you, they said. And you will never change yourself, they said.
So today, this day, the laws that they have made, for our land, communities, and reservations, we have been standing on top of this for fifty years. During [the fifty years] they made more laws, those laws they follow, they really follow the law. Yes, the grandfathers have put down the laws for the Seven Council Fires, but why can’t they follow those [our laws]. A man who steals will not ever live here, they say. They say that, yet they still steal. When they first came, we touched their treaty. Grandfather touched it. From that time, over there, buffalo, deer, fish, beaver, the animals that we eat, they are all gone. No more our dried meat. They have given us stringy food in a little pot. The tea that we drank now has been replaced by coffee.
My relatives, children, the white man has gotten inside of our bodies. How? So the love and good feelings that we have for one another now have somehow melted away. So the grandchildren walk around crying, father! Mother! Grandfather! The pipe is here, the tobacco is here. So think about it again! Think again! Recognize the Life Giver, there is a story there. I asked the one who interprets for me, Is the Bible good or not good, not good he said.
And so, go to the enemy’s hill, he said, and pour sand over yourself, he said. Take the Bible and put it there, he said. I will read it to you, he said. How? Yes, he read to me the words of the Life Giver, and here, that’s it! What he read to me was like a thought I already had deep inside my spirit. So, the red man, the red woman, the red grandmother, the adopted relatives, if you do it this way, you will go to the place where life has no end, where Grandfather lives. Grandfather lives.
If you don’t do it the right way, you will put yourself in suffering. The old man saw this in a vision and he told me about it. You are not at a white man’s school for these teachings, but I have read them to you, he said. So do it this way, and when you talk, do it the way I told you. When you talk, I will come and before you finish talking, I will show you these teachings, he said. Today I use this when I am talking. He said to pass it on. Pass it on, when you pass it, it will benefit the people, he said that.
I have now reached sixty-seven years and I am feeling nervous for what is to come, how, but the wind – how, the birds are flying, flying in front of me, they have gone past me. The wolf walks by, stops and stands there, looks around and passes by. The puppies are playing, see them. The birds are peeking from the nest in the chimney and peeking this way and looking at me. So, they talk and the old man interpreted for me. They are thanking you, he said. So, yes, [I said].
This day is sad and very difficult as I have little time left with my grandchildren. It will be like this. If you want the white man to speak the truth, let him interpret himself. And let him understand himself. They have made treaties, but they don’t live by them. Now, fifty laws. Look! Now, the people see these laws that we are living [under], we are living [under]. The red man is the [best], they say. He is the first man, they have said. And so, they have tried to change our life, they have tried to change our life, but, well, our spirit will never change. The breath from our nose will never change. Even though you are nothing, your spirit will never change, they said.
Grandchildren, there are four foods, grandmother told grandchildren. You must honor and respect the four sacred foods. So what are these foods? Corn wasna, dried meat, chokecherries, and tea. When you keep them in your home, nothing will go wrong, nothing will change. Today, you will show honor and respect in the most sacred way. Most cherish your female cousin, they said. Most cherish your older sister, they said. Most cherish your younger sister. Most cherish your female cousin. Cherish your male cousin. When you do it this way, even though they make a law against you, that law will never reach your spirit. Have honor.
And so my language is the language of the common man, Lakota. I speak from many ways, many ways of the language of the common man, some for five or seven. The old men have interpreted these [ways] for me, they talked for me. Your body belongs to us, they said. The eagle will interpret for me. The buffalo will interpret for you.
A snake was going, a rattlesnake was going, so I had bad thoughts. I took a stick and a rock and I thought I would kill him. So I raised my hand with the stick and the rock to hit him. And here, Friend, don’t do this, [the snake] said. I have been helping you, he said. Then I shed tears because he called me “friend.” It rattled and inside that rattle I could hear men talking. So I let this snake live with us in our home as part of our family. Some may think I’m crazy, but I will make them understand. Here this old man rattlesnake lives with us and I bring him food.
My relatives, learn to live with each other and have pity on each other and cherish each other. If someone says something about you, ask them if they are finished, then just say “thank you.” Now, if [somebody] strikes your cheek, show the other side. These things are very hard to do.
When I remember my sister, I don’t know what to do. And so, I heard the words of the Great Spirit, Grandfather, so [he said], Again, again you live in happiness,- behind me,- again you live in happiness, he said. And so, my bad thoughts are gone today. Nothing different will ever enter my mind. With the long knives, I live really arguing. They made us sign and touch some treaties, but they couldn’t do it right. They made the law, and there is nothing we can do to change it. That is what we stand on now. So there, when we only hear Grandfather’s words, and when we stay near him as we go, and no matter what anyone says, Grandfather is first and we will make it if he helps us.
So think about it very carefully. There are many different kinds of horses, animals. This summer they gave me some horses. And so, my sister, her name was [First Woman], they came and stood here, patted on my shoulders. This made me very sad. This is all I tell you now. I say thank you to all of you, all of my relatives, have compassion for one another! Have compassion for one another! Have compassion and comfort each other! Love one another! And tell each other good things. That will be it. Thank you.”
Wopila.
Red Ghetto Rebel 