When I was an elementary student in Virginia, my instructors told me that the Native people of Turtle Island were nomadic, constantly moving about and having a total disregard for the value of the land. This did not make a whole lot of sense, especially when I was also told that when they left an area, the blackened ground of their fires was the only evidence that they had been there at all. This hardly seemed like an uncaring people to me. At ten years of age, I had already witnessed the remains of quite a few examples of European's tired of a location. In fact, my friends and I used to play in a couple of such ruins much to the dismay of our parents.
John Bakeless in "America as Seen by Its First Explorers-The Eyes of Discovery," quotes the explorers accounts of a land where forests were so thick that it was difficult to navigate them on horseback. Virgin woodlands containing enormous trees are consistently mentioned by these early explorers. This was apparently the case from Georgia to Canada. Four-leggers, winged ones and fishes seemed in phenomenal abundance.
I have often said that if there ever really was a "Garden of Eden," it had to be the Eastern Woodlands of Turtle Island.
Now, less than four hundred years later, the forests are gone. The four-leggers and winged ones struggle for enough room to live. Even the fish are pressed to find water clean enough to swim in. All this thanks to a people who saw "value" in the land.
From the minute the first Europe and stumbled off the boat, they insisted on laying claim to the land. This was a concept totally alien to the inhabitants of Turtle Island. We realized that the land was Creator's and that we, as his children, were merely "care-takers" of it. We were obligated to share our homelands with any who should ask as there was plenty of room for all. The presentation of gifts was a courtesy extended by anyone wishing to share a part of one's homeland as an expression of thanks. The introduction of treaties and bills of purchase were unheard of. After all, who could be so ignorant as to believe that one could "own" the land?
Soon, as the Europeans became more numerous, these land titles suddenly said that we had to leave our homelands. That we had traded or sold our rights to re main in our own places of birth. Such actions often orchestrated and sealed with a jug of rum shows the character of these original "boat People."
From their very beginning, the primary concern seems to have been in what they could get out of the land. If not the furs and minerals, then just making it a "Possession" would have to do. This invading race left its scars wherever it ventured. All was laid to waste that found itself to be in the path of these locusts. This is evidenced by the amount of virgin forest left in the East alone.
Today still finds the corporate "Rapists" at work. Nestle's and Kellog's are presently assaulting the land in Fogelsville, PA. Countless acres of land are entombed beneath concrete and asphalt. In the last five years I have witnessed the industrial parks of Upper Macungie Township devour the land. What they have missed, the housing developers have grabbed. As a Native who is very much attached to the land, I can see it as nothing less than "Gang Rape." With the sellers of the land, such as the Jandls of Lehigh County and others like them who supply land for the Rapists needs, no different than one who helps restrain a victim until it is their turn to violate them also.
Of course, the "Rapists" figure that I, like my ancestors, don't realize the "value" of the land. But then they also have a problem understanding how the four-leggers and winged ones have every bit as much right, and possibly more, to live. As with the Native population before them, nothing can stand in the way of this progress called "greed!"
Eastern Europe seems to have bred a cancerous race that has spread across the face of the Earth. Denuding that continent and spreading throughout the Middle East and Africa. Turtle Island is in the final stage of debauchery as the disease spreads throughout Central and South America.
If there is any solace to be found it is in the knowledge that the time of the Rapists is coming to an end. With the prophecies of so many Nations pointing to the final days of the Oppressors, we can look to what the future holds in store.
A project was undertaken in a park in Allentown, PA a few years ago in which a portion of a stream was allowed to reclaim itself. This relatively small section in the park produced plant life new to the section and a species of fish was observed that hadn't been seen for some time. These events took place in a two year time period. This shows the capability of Mother Earth once the blight of "Greed" is removed from her.
Even though acres and acres lie beneath concrete tombs, saturated with the toxins of construction, the land is not dead. Only held captive by the same entity that has oppressed the Native children. The asphalt, concrete and steel are the fruits of this entity, erected in direct contradiction with Nature. The Caretakers realize that nothing built in contradiction with Nature can survive her wrath. Take notice that in times of earthquakes, floods and other acts of nature, it is the man-made structures that sustain the greatest damage. It brings a smile to my face when I think of an earthquake an hour in duration, shaking the whole of Turtle Island with an unheard of magnitude of say fifteen or twenty on the Richter scale. Such an event would not only tear down the "Rapist's Monuments," but would also till the soil bringing new life to the surface.
Certain prophecies indicate that this is to be. John Heckwelder, the Moravian missionary, was told that one day the Great Turtle would again slip beneath the waters and in doing so would wash away all signs of the White race, leaving the Lenape children to again be the caretakers of Turtle Island. Prophecies among the Cherokee speak of a time when the present order of abuse and destruction will come to a violent end, with less than a third of the population surviving. This accounts for how Mother Earth will be able to sustain the caretakers left behind. The time of occurrence varies, but all speak of it being preceded by a willful destruction of Mother Earth. Could the current assault on our Mother be the time that is spoken of?
We of the Native way of life realize that we must stand accountable for the abuses we inflict on those things that make up our environment. Perhaps this explains why so little evidence remained when we moved a village.
After five hundred years on Turtle Island, the European "Master Race" has learned to recycle plastic, paper and glass. Still, for the most part, failing to realize that the people whom they considered to be sub-human had been recycling whole villages for thousands of years before their arrival.
Our attachment to Turtle Island leads us to call it "Our Land." The words of the first explorers indicate the care we extended to our Mother. It is no wonder that two cultures so diverse can never see eye to eye. Knowing that the land was only for our "use" may explain why we treated it with such reverence. Perhaps it is the misguided delusion that the "Rapists" believe that they can own the land that justifies their actions, in their own minds that is.
As a Native person, I find comfort in the prophecies. I believe them to be true, and through that belief I know that one day we will again be able to call Turtle Island "Our Land."
About the Eagle
By Charles Buffalo
The city is Leningrad, Russia. It is in ruin from the bombardment it has been receiving for days and nights that seem without end from a force determined to dictate the future of the world. The eagle is the masthead of this bearer of atrocity. Millions of Jews and other undesirable minorities have been exterminated and the wrath of the Axis Powers, with Albanians in collaboration, continues. Huddled among the ruins, a spirited People hang on. Many are dead and dying, but still they refuse to let the will of the Nazi Third Reich be exerted upon them. The Aggressor sensing that its own failure to conquer is at hand begins irrational atrocities all over. Anything becomes its target, even that which in no way can be considered a military objective. In the final days of its madness the Reich sends countless men, women and children to their deaths. It sends its soldiers into situations of certain slaughter. But through it all, the People of Leningrad continue to hang on. Their stand is instrumental in the salvation of Europe from the Aggressor.
The city is Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Bombs and Missiles rip into it. Spirited People huddle in shelters, valiantly attempting to repel the Aggressor who wishes to exert its will upon the world. An eagle is the masthead of the leader in this bombardment. And just as in the past, Albanians have welcomed this Aggressor. Only this time Jews aren't the undesirables, this time it is Serbs. The inability of the Aggressor to exert its will upon these People has caused it to forsake the lives of the millions who live there. In its madness, it has now turned to the bombardment of non military targets. Civilian men, women and children are as likely to be exterminated as are the supposed military enemies. Now the question remains, will these courageous People huddled in shelters, enduring days and nights of bombings that seem to be without end, be able to hang on and be instrumental in the salvation of Europe from this Aggressor too?
This Eagle has shown its ability to dominate. Its NATO allies seemingly beckon to its every call, The United Nations is little more than a puppet to it. And now it seems that even the World Tribunal Court is its slave, condemning only those the Eagle sees fit, ignoring the atrocities that are dealt out at the hands of the master.
As with the Eagle before it, there is an apparent sense of eventual failure in this conquest. It responds to this with the senseless waste of its young men and women as it desperately sends them streaking into the wake of anti-aircraft units that literally turn the skies of Yugoslavia into fire? Can anyone truly believe that these missions go without loss when pitted against weaponry developed by the Nation that once held the Eagle at bay? And how long will it be before the Eagle sends its young men and women into the gunsight of those courageous People defending their Land in a ground assault? Spirit always favors the warrior who stands in defense so the losses will be great. The soldiers of the Eagle will not find a retreating army upon the sands here, but instead brave souls with their backs to the wall. This will not bother the Eagle though, humanity has no meaning to its objectives, I wonder, will it have any meaning to the People of the Eagle?
This Eagle feeds on civil strife. Like an infection waiting to take hold of an unguarded wound, it leaps at the slightest opportunity. Whenever there is civil conflict, one side is always ready to welcome an intruder, and just as was the case in WW II, the same People have invited and sided with yet another Eagle. And once again, the courageous Serbian People have been called to mount a defense against it.
The Eagle has recently slapped the face of a Nation that has military strength by bombing its embassy. It is also further disrupting the economy of another once great Nation by cutting off almost all its trade routes with Europe. The Eagle continues to insult even those who are part of its NATO alliance by demanding use of their air space and land even when they protest it, and it ignores any suggestion by those Nations or others that the atrocities be brought to a halt. Economic hardship to those allying does not concern it either, the Eagle only knows how to take and nothing else matters.
How long will it be until there is an alignment that decides the Eagle has flown long enough? Will the sting of a slapped face be sufficient to keep a Nation quietly sitting in a corner? Will the Nation that helped hold the Eagle of WWII at bay ever awaken and see the sufferings felt by its own being imposed on another? And what of the Nations that now follow along in tow? Would they not be better considering the certain fates that await them at the hands of the Eagle rather than assisting it in these Atrocities?
And where is the voice of the People who stand under the flag of the Eagle? Have they not seen how well the Eagle is teaching their children? How many more school shootings must occur before they realize that their children are only following the example of the Eagle? The majority speak out against more gun controls, but their leaders continue to pass the laws regardless. Are the People too blind to realize that each passing infringement on their own rights only lessens their chance to control the Eagle in the future? Didn't President Thomas Jefferson say something about the necessity of occasional revolution to keep the government serving the people? Is it not time for the people to demand that those who head the atrocities of the Eagle be brought to trial? How can there be justice when any of those of the Eagle remain free from liabity of the innocents killed by its madness? Do they think that the children ripped apart by the Eagle's bombs were of any less importance than their own who fell in the classrooms? Isn't it time for the People of the Eagle to acknowledge that they are being led to certain darkness. Time to stop listening to the media propaganda and the ghost written false words presented to them by those who are only making the People of the Eagle more hated throughout the World with each passing day?
The Eagle has been spreading its wings for almost fifty years now. Intervening and dealing out atrocities to any and all who have stood in its way. All in the name of conquest and greed. Nostradamus predicted that "the great king of terror will fall from the sky in the seventh month of the year 1999." As I review what has happened and continues to happen to my People in the land of the Eagle, and watch the atrocities dealt the Peoples of the World at the hands of the Eagle, I have little doubt just who this king is, and unless the People of the Eagle decide to make a stand and demand that these senseless aggressions cease immediately, I believe that many of them will be huddled in shelters themselves as the great king of terror falls from the sky.
E-Mail the author: Charles Buffalo
