Canku Ota

(Many Paths)

An Online Newsletter Celebrating Native America

November 4, 2000 - Issue 22

Being Indian Is ...
Walk In Beauty by Sam English

BEING INDIAN IS ......	loving fry bread and corn soup.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	having 9 out of 10 people tell you how great they believe Jim Thorpe, Squanto, Tonto, and Little Beaver are.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	having the greatest grandparents in the world.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	having your teenage child come home from school and ask you about "the strange beliefs" of Indians that the teacher mentioned in school today.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	waiting (impatiently) for the new Tecumseh, Osceola, Crazy Horse, and Geronimo to appear.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	feeding anyone and everyone who comes to your door with whatever you have.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	knowing the Great Spirit.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	having a large family of over a million brothers and sisters!
BEING INDIAN IS ......	feeling that Little Bear, Prays-for-All, Big Heart are more beautiful names than Jones, Smith or Brown.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	never making quick evaluations of people, but reserving judgment until their actions show what kind of people they really are.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	never giving up the struggle for survival.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	standing up for life principles and truths unashamed without having compromise your values.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	not only being proud of who you were born from, but mindful of how you conduct yourself in the world.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	having heard your grandparents and yourself say, "When they honor the treaties and we get our land claim payments"...then suddenly realize your children are saying the same words also.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	hearing from non-Indians how rotten the government has treated Indians, but still voting them back into office.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	listening to people tell you about their grandmother or great grandmother that was a Cherokee Indian Princess.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	seeing other Indians in search for an Indian identity.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	having to prove with documentation that you are one, when other races and people in the country don't have to.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	learning of people becoming Indian without having an Indian mother or father.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	finding out that people think all Indians lived in tipis.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	being told that Columbus discovered America from his ship, when we were watching him from the shore.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	trying to relate to people who say they are mathematically 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, etc. degree of blood.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	being whipped for speaking your own tribal language when on the school ground premises.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	going to school when you're young and having the teacher skip over the Indian chapter in the history book.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	seeing others forget the true meaning of Thanksgiving.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	having others make jokes about your heritage and culture.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	living in two worlds.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	knowing the word, "Indian", is not your true name.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	being called "Chief" or "Tonto" by patronizing non-Indians.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	being human, with human thoughts and feelings like your non-Indian brothers and sisters.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	holding onto a piece of paper treaty that was signed, but never honored.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	seeing elders die and the language & customs with them.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	seeing Mother Earth destroyed by those who don't know Her.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	hearing others think all Indians wear war bonnets.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	sad.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	hard.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	crying.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	laughing.
BEING INDIAN IS ......	forever!

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