I am an Indian and while I have learned much from civilization, I have never lost my Indian sense of right and justice. When I reduce civilization to its most basic terms, terms it becomes a system of life based on trade. Each man stakes his powers, the product of his labor, his social, political, and religious standing against his neighbor. To gain what? To gain control over his fellow workers, and the results of their labor. Is there not something worthy of perpetuation in our Indian spirit of democracy, where Earth,our mother, was free to all, and no one sought to impoverish or enslave his neighbor? Where the good things of Earth were not ours to hold against our brothers and sisters, but were ours to use and enjoy together with them, and with whom it was our privilege to share? Indeed, our contribution to our nation and the world is not to be measured in the material realm. Our greatest contribution has been spiritual and philosophical. Silently, by example only, in wordless patience, we have held stoutly to our native vision of personal faithfulness to duty devotion to a trust. We have not advertised our faithfulness nor made capital of our honor. But again and again we have proved our worth as citizens of this county by our consistency in the face of hardship and death. Prejudice and racial injustice have been no excuse for our breaking our word. This simplicity and fairness has cost us dear. It has cost us our land and our freedom, and even the extinction of our race as a separate people. But, as an ideal, we live and will live, not only in the splendor of our past, the poetry of our legends and art, not only the interfusion of our blood with yours, and in our faithful adherence to the ideals of American citizenship, but in the living heart of the In Indian Nation..... Aho. Written by OHIYESA 1857.
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 06:21:37 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015