Lakota
I'm very small
I am called Standing Tall
My story to be read as I live through it all
Our Dakota lands are forest and vast
Where our ancestors have hunted
From long in the past
Our tribes are, a confederation of seven
With our language of Lakota, Sioux heaven
We stand proud as we remember our past
And look to our gods to make it all last
A silhouette on the prairie hill I see
This shape in the distance is new to me
As we sleep in the night, we hear guns and blows
We arise from our camp, to look for the noise
We creep on the prairie to their surprise
Under the moon, where the land would flow
No longer the Buffalo
We mount our ponies to challenge these men
What gives them this right to kill and maim
Bodies of beasts, furs cut away
Missing heads, a ghastly slay
On reaching their camp our bows stretched
Arrows screech, hitting the wretched
Watching them fall to the prairie floor
Just like the Buffalo did hours before
Years have passed as we are moved from our lands
These poisonous men and their poisonous glands
Bringing illness fever and strife
Ending many a Lakota life
We reach a point in History
Which made the white man sit up and see
Their Golden Child, General George Custer
And the Little Big Horn, my what a disaster
Arapaho, Cheyenne and us Lakota too
Sliced the Blue Jackets, their Scouts too
The US Cavalry would have their glee
At the Battle of Wounded Knee
Where Sitting Bull would finally rest
Standing Tall's story last's the test
If we Indians had the same resources
Like the silhouette on the hill
These prairies we always had. would be ours still
Gift for Gentle Deer
Cherokee warrior i am
First son of the chief
Named, Bright Cloud
After my ancestors belief
Bride i must choose
For my sons to be born
Ceremonial dress
Tee-pee adorned
My gift to my wife
A beast so grand
Lipizzaner so white
Standing 15 hands
On the day of our wedding
Ohio River so blue
Our ancestors above
Look down on us, two
Warriors and families
Surround our souls
As we are joined together
Like a mare and her foal
Ceremony ends
To our Tee-pee we go
Ancestral chants
In the background slows
Through the night as we dream
As our spirits flow
As i wake in the morning
Our life starts to grow
Years pass
For this Deer and her Cloud
Three sons she has bore
Standing tall and so proud
< for Gentle Deer >
Spiritual winds,
Eastern Algonquian
Oliver O. Howard The Christian General
Respect in uniform
A man with respect
Major Oliver O. Howard
One of the US Armies best
A courageous soldier
With an order to follow
Dis-quell the Indian Wars
So there be peace tomorrow
Born in Maine
His dad died when he was nine
But this little boy
Turned out oh so fine
At nineteen, he graduated
A young man, already well rated
1854 Military pass
This bright young man, 4th in his class
Time advances to the Indian Wars
To do his duties, soldier sworn
To quell the fighting, peace be ours
Chief Joseph and the Indian colors
His task achieved, tho Indian losses
Orders he served, from Washington's bosses
Chief Joseph, from his lands he was moved
To Oklahoma, situation defused
1894 the retirement of he
Major General what he rose to be
Universities and College named in his name
This quite amazing soldier of Military Fame
" When i heard about this gentleman, it desired me to write.
Unknown to me he has actually been in the historical background of one of my poems,
and an ancestor of one of our poets "
The American
On the Greatest country on this Earth
The American, country of their birth
Sioux, Cree, Apache
Native Indians all of thee
For generations they hunt and live
Summer bloom, Winter sieve
Move their tribes on freedom lands
Explorers show their poisonous glands
Spaniards, British, French too
Expect to take your lands from you
Many battles many deaths
Arrows against their weaponry strength
Colonial life as races bond
Indian kids, haired blonde
Civilization hope, wars fade
Has this great country made the grade
This country takes another turn
Whilst neighbors fight and burn
The North and South differ so
Free the slaves, let them go
Awesome words from Abe the man
Freedom to all, his major plan
But blinkered sight from those so grand
Who actually owns this wonderful land
Decades pass, the States grow
Neighbor hoods flourish - flow
American Hispanic, Negro too
Europeans like me and you
But sadly in the background mist
The most important has been missed
Do I need to tell you who they are?
Indigenous Man, your ultimate clan
They are The American
White Mans Gift
From their first step
On my tribal lands
The sickness starts
From their poisoned glands
My land they take
They call it home
Our prairie soul
Where my buffalo roam
Degraded with uproot
Barren land to land
Their grass is green
While ours is sand
Strong tribes diminish
Illness rife
Cholera
White mans strife
Their eventual
Was to wipe us out
Brave nations
No longer shout
Many battles and conflicts
Arrows against guns
Their ultimate
Have us on the run
As I look back
At these history rifts
Where would we be
Without those
White Mans Gifts
Massacred Nation
The year 1890
December 29th
Wounded Knee, South Dakota
My tribe lost their lives
The USS 7th
On their orders so
To round up the Sioux
Railroad herd them and go
Us Lakota were next
To disarm their request
But my cousin Black Coyote
At best he was deaf
Not hearing the orders
To lay down our guns
A chain reaction
Ensued on my tribal ones
Chaos and mayhem
Distressed our grounds
This proud nation
Beaten down
Men, women and children
300 slain
Another reminder
For the white mans gain
To disrespect the fallen
Slows our souls to our gods
We were left in a blizzard
Hardened like logs
In three days we rose
Civilians did lift
And dumped us unceremoniously
In a hole in the drift
My corpse and my peoples
Stripped and robbed
As flakes of snow
Confirm our spirits have sobbed
As i am reborn again
In another country
It gives me the freedom
To look back and see
That December day in 1890
Gunning down innocent ones
Not so mighty
The Medal of Honor
In their distinguished past
The record still stands
On their chests they flash
But attitudes change
As two centuries pass
The Medal Of Honor
Has won back its class
No longer the weak
Gunned down by the strong
Its man against man
Sometimes they do wrong
So as i sit back in my adopted nation
Will i live again past this lives station
Writing the wrongs of modern man
This Lakota warrior who never