What Am I?
I just read an article on the Battle for Indian Blood. This is the saddest thing. How can a piece of paper or a drop of blood say what is in your heart and what courses thru your viens.
I was brought up white and lived on military reservations instead of indian reservations. Yet I always felt I was different. I always cried inside at the movies of cowboys and indians when the indian was mistreated. But I dont have a degree of blood paper. At least not yet.
I dont want this piece of paper for government money or benefits. I want to belong . I want to be able to fit in and be welcomed among the people that I feel comfortable with. I want to be able to go to the old ones and have them teach me the old ways.
I dont need a piece of paper to tell me what is inside of me. I have the physical characteristics of the indian and the heart of one. I know what I feel and I know who I am. I dont need some person telling me you cant feel this way because you dont have enough blood in you, or you dont have the proof we need. What is this?
I have Cherokee blood and my children have Cherokee and Apache and we are very proud of that blood. And we claim it and we dont look for anything to reward us for it. We dont mention our white blood ......that is the blood in us that we arent too proud of.
There are alot of good white people and there are some bad tribal members. But the indian way is the best way as far as we are concerned.
Indians dont destroy thier food and water supply. Now do they?
My heart is saddened by the cutting down of all the trees for new housing developments and shopping malls. I cry over the dead critters along the roads. I cry over the poverty of the native americans who have so much love and caring for the earth and all living things. I think of the pain my ancesters felt so long ago. And pain for the torture they endured just for bieng indians. I hurt for the ones that claimed to be white so as to be able to live a better life. I cry for the ones that have tribal membership yet have a white heart.
So keep your piece of paper because my heart knows and grandfather spirit knows and that is all that is important.
I am an indian and I am proud of that fact. It is in my blood and in my heart and that is where the importance lies.
No man on this earth will ever be able to take away that feeling deep inside of me. I am an indian and I am proud of it. !!!!!
Perhaps my spirit is from another time. Those who believe in reincarnation would say that is why I have this so strongly in my heart. I dont know why it is. But it has always been there. And no piece of paper or no one can take that from me.
I know a full blood that is whiter than me and has bright red hair....and green eyes. Must admit that was a strange sight to see her standing among the other full blood that were dark.
You can say you are half Getman and you arent asked for a paper or some kind of proof. Yet you say you are indian and you have to have the proof. I have proof. The feeling in me and grandfather spirit. And that is the only proof I need..
