Being Indian IsFeeding anyone and everyone who comes to your door hungry, with whatever you have.
Being Indian Is
Having every third person you meet tell you about his great-grandmother who was a real Cherokee princess.
Being Indian Is
Being broke all year long because you try to make every pow wow, basketball, and softball tourney.
Being Indian is
Knowing what the pow-wow trail, basketball/softball circuit really means.
Being Indian Is
Loving frybread and dry meat.
Being Indian is
Knowing at least someone with a Haskell Story.
Being Indian is
Knowing how to snag and then lie about it.
Being Indian means
To find "True Love" not Indian Love.
Being Indian Is
Masking your emotions in times of stress.
Being Indian is
To not pay your phone bill or light bill to feed your family.
Being Indian Is
Respecting your elders who have earned it.
Being Indian Is
Never giving up the struggle for survival.
Being Indian Is
Trading your surplus commodities for something you are in more need of.
Being Indian Is
Being known for your great sense of humor and having the ability to make jokes and laughter out of the worse situation.
Being Indian Is
Not rioting in the streets but occupying godforsaken places like Alcatraz, Mount Rushmore, the New York-Canadian bridge, etc.and Whiteclay, Nebraska!!!
Being Indian is
To be judged harder by other natives then non-natives.
Being Indian Is
Owning land and not being able to rent, leases, sell or even farm it yourself without BIA approval.
Being Indian Is
Feeling Red Eagle, Medicine Cloud, and Lone Bear are more beautiful names than Smith, Johnson, or Jones.
Being Indian Is
Watching your daughter give away her only pair of overshoes to somebody who needs them more than her.
Being Indian Is
Having your all-Indian school team playing against 7 men on the basketball court.
Being Indian Is
Playing basketball at the outdoor hoops on the rez till 3:00 am.
Being Indian Is
Either borrowing or lending money to your skin brothers and sisters at least once a week.
Being Indian Is
Having people ask if they can touch your hair or take your picture.
Being Indian is
To be asked consistently if you still live in tipis or ride horses every where you go.
Being Indian Is
Worrying about diabetes.
Being Indian Is
Knowing why the rez car in "Smoke Signals" was funny!
Being Indian is
Knowing what they meant in Smoke Signals by do you have your passports.
Being Indian is
Knowing how to barter or trade.
Being Indian Is
Having more cousins than trees have leaves.
Being Indian Is
Cutting the mold off the commodity cheese so you can eat it anyway.
Being Indian Is
Having to explain *again* why you don't like the mascot. (So don't explain more than once, more than likely,they will abuse your words anyway)
Being Indian Is
Cursing F.A.S.
Being Indian Is
Fighting the likes of Slade Gordon.
Being Indian Is
Knowing the Reservation of Education.
Being Indian is
Understanding that the worst thing the white man could have done is educate us and watching his fear of how much we actually know his world.
Being Indian Is
Eating salmon for the 6th meal in a row.
Being Indian Is
Knowing to many people that have died of cirrhosis, exposure, or an "accident".
Being Indian Is
Knowing history started before 1492.
Being Indian Is
Laughing with your friends so much your face muscles hurt.
Being Indian Is
Singing 49 songs using a garbage can for a drum.
Being Indian Is
Road trips cross-country . . . just because ...
Being Indian is
Knowing you treaty rights.... 1794,1855,1868
Being Indian is
Having the strength to move your family at any given moment, for any given reason of another . . . and making it . . .
Being Indian Is
Reading about your ancestors and relations in an anthropologist paper.
Being Indian Is
Knowing someone in Oklahoma City, Albuquerque, San Francisco, Minneapolis or any other relocation center.
Being Indian Is
Losing your job after the grant ends.
Being Indian is
Losing your job because you're different.
Being Indian Is
Having a song come to you at the oddest times!
Being Indian Is
Counting the number of brown people photographed in magazine advertisements.
Being Indian Is
Celebrating the whale hunt.
Being Indian Is
Full of acronyms that affect your world (BIA, IHS, CSBG, ANA, FEMA, CCDBG, JTPA, , SYEP, JOM, NIEA, UNITY).......
Being Indian is
Not a right-- it's a privilege
Being Indian is
Knowing your language or trying to learn it.
Being Indian is
Concern about Bush and the next 4 years and where Slade will end up
Being Indian Is
Celebrating your 4th cousins twice removed birthday with the rest of your family
Being Indian is
Driving the Rez bomb one-year too long
Being Indian is
Being mistaken as Mexican cause you're brown
Being Indian is
Having strangers tell you how cool you are in bars (when they are drunk) and they had an Indian friend when they were young
Being Indian is
Living the digital divide
Being Indian is
yummy commod canned meat and instant mashed potatoes... again
Being Indian is
Hating macaroni necklaces
Being Indian is
Knowing the guy who cried a tear for the environment wasn't Native
Being Indian is
Waiting for the next red Michael Jordan
Being Indians is
Admitting you don't like pow wows, beads, the smell of sage or being related to everyone on the rez
Being Indian is
Being proud of Jim Thorpe and Billy Mills
Being Indian is
Knowing sovereignty is a two-edge sword full of good and bad
Being Indian is
Understanding the difference between a cousin and a cozin
Being Indian is
Knowing that per caps are another form of termination
Being Indian Is
PRIDE, BEAUTY & FOREVER..... IT's REALLY AN INDIAN THING THAT SOME MAY NOT UNDERSTAND
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The Way Out
Email: spottedeaglehorse2@home.com
