" Our sense of history works this way: everything is connected. In order to understand where you are going and how to get there, you must know where you are now. In order to understand that, you must know where it is that you have been." Matthew King - Ogalala Lakota Elder

Indigenous people of the America’s have different explanations of how they came into being. Each tribe has a special relationship to the spirit forces in the universe. Our anthologies that are still told in the oral tradition reveal our worldview. They teach us the lessons of life, our origins, history, how all life was created, and guide us into the future. Indian prophecies, of long ago, told of the coming of the white race. These people would bring disease and be motivated by greed and racism. They would care nothing about the sacredness of the mother earth, poisoning her until the trees would start to die from the tops down.

The "New World" that Columbus supposedly discovered was actually a very Old World. By the time of his arrival, over 75,000,000 people who spoke over 2,000 very distinct languages populated the Americas. Each and every tribe rich with the diversity of there separate cultures. Many Indian stories of origin say that their people came from a sacred geographic place in the Americas. Some say they traveled from the east, up through South America, Central America and then into the North America.

These stories are verified by the oldest radio carbon dates, being in South America. Archeologists, historians and educators still teach the Bering Straight Theory as the origin of man in the Americas. Indian people aggressively oppose this migration doctrine because it does not contain any of the memories and traditions that have been passed down to us for tens of thousands of years.

One explanation of Indian history, in North America, starts with this outdated concept, of the brutal invasion of the Europeans. It is easier on the conscience of the invaders to believe this land was unexploited and inhabited for only a short period of time and ready for the taking by the immigrants of the late 1400’s. The era of the Manifest Destiny was beginning. Policy of the imperialistic expansion was defended as necessary. Indian people would begin to endure the most horrific holocaust in the history of the world. Like the Jews that died in ovens, the fire of the Indians would be massacres and disease. Often blankets were deliberately contaminated with small pox and brought into the Indian villages. The intruders were well aware of the plagues that decimated the populations in Europe. They knew the diseases they carried would surely ravage the Indian population. The settlers would continue to shatter the lives of Indian people by taking their land and resources.

Christianity and its beliefs of conquering nature, the subservience of women and a God that punishes its people were beliefs foreign to Indian people. Christianity offered eternal life (heaven and hell), and social and individual disintegration. It offers no real or concrete explanation of the means for human life or existence. Christianity was forced upon tribal people as their primary religion due to their ceremonies being outlawed by the United States Government. Despite the strenuous efforts of Christian missionaries and the U.S. government to eradicate sacred ceremonies, these traditions still flourished.

The scientific community continuously bickers over accurate population figures since the conquest and through the colonization of the indigenous homelands. Modern scholars prefer to give much lower estimations then earlier research has shown. Through out American history we have shown the perpetrators in a more acceptable position by deliberately changing the statistics. The U.S. government excepts the Jewish holocaust because it did not happen in our country. To acknowledge that millions of more Indians died at the hands of our own government, would mean not only would they have to rewrite American history, but worse yet, they would have to openly admit to the genocide committed against the Indian people in the United States.

In the 1800’s, efforts to reform, breed out the savagery, and acculturate Indian people took on a new form. The tribes were no longer willing to turn over land and resources to its rapacious predator, the white man. Resistance lead to the most pernicious and culturally damaging legislation ever inflicted on Indian people. In the early 1800’s a systematic collection of Indian human remains (skulls) to prove racial inferiority, resulted in the taken of Indian lands, relocation of tribes and extended policies of the genocide in the United States. Tribes across the United States were relocated, and moved to reservations, a politically correct code word for concentration camps.

In the winter of 1838, when gold was discovered on the Cherokee land in the South east, the United States government escorted 16,000 people west of the Mississippi. The infamous Trail of Tears resulted in over 4,000 deaths. It is known to my people as "nuna da ut sun y," "the trail where they cried."

Indians were moved to areas that the government thought were the most impoverished geographic areas in the country. These people were now isolated, with the land too poor to farm. Indians also had to endure the stealing of their children by the government, who put the children in boarding schools. Their hair was cut and they wore typical white mans clothing. The kids were beaten for practicing their traditions or speaking their native language.

From 1778 to 1871, Indian people and the United States government signed 372 treaties. In 1877, the government instituted the Allotment Act; to help Indians become self-supporting and break them of their savage habits. The land was divided into parcels that went to families, rather then tribes. The Dawes Act (Allotment Act) made it easier for whites to obtain Indian land through lease purchasing or stealing. It had devastating effects on the Indian country. By 1934, 2/3 of all native people had immeasurable to no land. The Dawes Act resulted in the largest taking of Indian land in United States history. The original inhabitants of this land that we call America didn’t receive U.S. citizenship until 1924. The warriors were honored for their strength, courage, and feats during World War I. Only through embarrassment did the United States government finally give Indian people the right to vote. It wasn’t until 1978, when the American Indian Religious Freedom Act was passed, that allowed people to legally practice their Indian religions.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs, (B.I.A.) was a puppet of the U.S. government. Many of the tribe’s federal status were terminated. In the 1950’s the National Congress of the American Indians fought against termination and became involved with Native land claims. In 1964, the American Indian Movement, (A.I.M.) started policing the streets in Minneapolis where police routinely brutalized Indian people. A.I.M. members supported the efforts at Wounded Knee, the reclaiming of Alcatrez Island and the take over of the B.I.A. office in Washington DC With the Civil Rights Movement of the 60’s Indian activists were heard as well.

Through out the abhorrent history in America, since the European invasion, our ancestor’s remains have been collected in federal repositories, museums and Universities. These were not just ancient remains, but, hands, feet, scalps, genitals, and other body parts collected and displayed as trophies. In 1990, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act was passed. This is a federal law that allows tribe’s nation wide to reclaim over 200 thousand of their ancestors and sacred objects. These claims go through the National Park Service. Indian people are viewed as a natural resource, not as people.

The genocide continues against Indian people today. The land given to Indians was thought to be sterile, but contains many valuable minerals. The government to mining companies who leave behind contaminated soil and water leases Indian land. Toxic and nuclear waste is dumped on reservations. The federal government feels these poisons wont impact any "significant communities." Our people have higher rates of cancer and disease. The promised health care has all but been taken from us.

The Smithsonian Institute sent hoards of ethnologists into the Native community in the 18^th and 19^th centuries to record what was left of a "Vanishing Race." The Natives have overcome all, the past obstacles. We continue to survive. Tribal colleges have sprung up on many reservations. Our people are becoming more educated. We look to one another for answers concerning sovereignty, alcoholism, poverty, and new political structures. The most successful tribes have been self-sufficient and not relying on a government that has betrayed them for 500 years.

What Every Indian Knows
By: Pam Colorado

Auschwitz ovens
burn bright
in America
Twenty- four million
perished in flames
Nazi
not a people
but
a way of life.
Trail of Tears, humans
ends in Oklahoma
an Indian name for
Red Earth
redder still
soaked in blood
of two hundred
removed tribes
the oven burn bright
in America
Ancestral ashes
sweep the nations
carried in
Prevailing winds
Survivors know
the oven door stands wide
and some like mouse
cat crazed and frenzied
turn
and run into the jaws
at night
the cat calls softly
to the resting
us.

  Acknowledgments:

We honor the ancestors who guide us everyday and the elders who are the wisdom keepers and backbone of our communities. To Rogers Clinch Chief of Aniyunweya whose wisdom has been passed on to my mom, who has shared these traditions with that and me have helped shape the person I am. To Curly Bear Wagner for his unconditional love, lessons, and sense of humor. The strong women who have influenced me with their strength, unity, and beauty. To all the Indian people that have fought so hard to save our life ways.