When taipo'o talk about Native Americans they don't really mean that we are Americans like they are. They think of us as separate from them. That's another reason I think Native American is a weird name. I guess in a way I don't exactly feel American because I don't live in the same America that other Americans live in. Like 25% of us were sterilized by the government in the 70s and the government even admitted to it, but I don't know why they did that to us. We are not allowed to prosecute taipo'o even if they do things to us because of a guy named Mark David Oliphant (is that spelled right) who hurt people on the Suquamish reservation and the Supreme Court said the Suquamish couldn't detain him for it because he was white. We are not allowed to prosecute the bad Natives either (like my father) because of something called the Major Crimes Act. All of this means that we are a lawless people, and trying to figure out how to handle ourselves, and sometimes we make big mistakes. We don't always know how to protect ourselves, but we're trying. I just hope Creator opens our hearts and minds and shows us the right thing to do.
Sometimes I am scared because I think the people in charge are still trying to get rid of us. It's like, give it a break already. I think it makes some taipo'o uncomfortable to talk about us because then they have to acknowledge that what happened to us was wrong. That or they think we should get over it, but we did get over it. The thing is, it is still happening today. Like did you know that all of America's military testing is being done on Indian land? We did not consent to that. I mean why would we consent to that. So far the US army has dropped 650 nuclear bombs on the Western Shoshone reservation (Newe Sogobia) which is why my father had to move away from there when he was little. Many Western Shoshone have radiation poisoning and at least sixty-five people have died from it. What if Nettlebush is next? Where do you go when nowhere is safe? America even has a plan to transport all of their nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain which also belongs to our tribe and not to the US. I wish I were making this up. Some taipo'o get really annoyed when we talk about this stuff. We are expected to keep quiet about our own lives, even though we are the ones who have to live them. It's inconvenient if we talk about Indian Country, which scares me, because if our lives are only a matter of convenience then that means we are not being seen as human beings. Why is it inconvenient anyway? I think that people just want to pretend that all the bad stuff in America happened in the past and that everyone is equal today, and when we talk about our real lives that makes it harder to go on pretending. I wish people cared about us even a little. I wish they cared about us because we care about them. That is what Nu Mantu Satu means: All Are Related.
Because I am Native American I know the history of this continent. I don't just mean the history that started in 1492 but the history that started thousands of years ago. I know why the Puma is sacred and where we built our observatories and where they are still hidden today. I know why the Yahoo Falls are off limits to all men, both white and Indian, so DON'T GO THERE DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT OR YOU COULD GET WHAT'S COMING TO YOU. I know why it thunders on the prairies and how the Rockies got their name. Do taipo'o know that they weren't always rocky? I don't think so. I know who built the Cahokia necropolis and why they abandoned it. I know when the Grand Canyon formed and that there was a huge conflict there that changed the continent forever, but taipo'o don't know how. I feel bad for non-Natives because they will never really have the history or the connection and it is sort of like they are living in somebody else's house. But we will let them live under our roof. That is what it means to be Native American. This land is my very spirit. When bad things happen, I just remember that we have survived worse.
Rafael -- Please do not use your homework assignments to yell at people. B-. --Mr. Red Clay
Rose Christo, Overlooked
Thank you for reading books on BookFrom.Net Share this book with friends