street roots
July 20, 2012
Beginning
By Harold Thompson
Little is really known about the American Indian
Or what links our human soul with the Earth.
The Indian believed that this land was created for us
By the Great Spirit and that it would be ours ...
Forever
The New World — this is what the white man called our
land
But it was not new at all
The redman had inhabited America for centuries.
A proud, happy people
We were here long before the white man came
Every day was new
Our village was filled with smiling faces
And the laughing voices of children
Who roamed the wide-open spaces
The man in the sky:
The spirit of our life and tribal graces
Oh! I want things like they were again
Oh! I want peace with my soul again
Our people have survived
And our eyes glow with memories
The reservation is our home
But for now, we’ll let it be
The Indian people have been out there
On the ghetto of the reservation
For a long long time
We have existed without adequate food,
Clothing, shelter, or medicine
To name but a few
In their place we have been given malnutrition,
Poverty, disease, suicide and
Bureaucratic promises of a better tomorrow
Your America has not been a land of your proclaimed
Equality, “Liberty and Justice for All!”
May your God forgive you
Stalking around narrow paths
We were used to hunting every day
The rivers gave us fish
The woodlands gave us deer and other wild game
Here upon this land
We built our homes and raised our families
Life was free and natural
As we moved swiftly among the trees
This was our country
It was here that we lived for centuries
The battle is not over and our struggle has begun
A new hope has been born and
Our sunny day will come
The treatment of our people has been
A national tragedy and disgrace!
Look up in the sky as the wind whispers
In the trees atop a floating cloud
That echoes to be free.
The time has come to put an end to that disgrace
Wounded Knee, Alcatraz
Whatever necessary
In time, we’ll get back the life
That you took away
And your land of make believe
Will be ours again ...
Someday
We must now manage our own affairs
And control our own lives
And through it all always remain to be
The True American
Fallen Off
the Edge
Establishing Roots for the 7th Generation
RESOURCES FOR RENTERS. H O M EBU YER S A N D H O M E O W N E R S
A tte n d w orkshops and enjoy a fre e lunch
| j S j k ''" ; '
W in $400 rent o r mortgage assistance
$2,500 down payment assistance
A new book by A rt Garcia
"Fallen Off the Edge" is a chronicle
of one man's experiences after returning
from the Vietnam War. Told through the
eyes of Street Roots columnist Art
Garcia, this book celebrates the major
victories born from a series of
questionable choices. Art's jocular
storytelling takes the reader along with
him in and out of the California prison
system over the course of 10 years until
he found the strength and courage to
pull himself up from the fall.
The book is available online at www.
blurb.com under searchword Art Garcia.
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HOUSING TO HOMEOWNERSHIP FAIR
S A T U R D A Y , JU LY
10AM
1° 3 P M
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O rig in a l a rtw o rk fro m The Hand I M i
oy ~ - -
courtesy o f WRAP (Western Regional Advocacy Proj
*»fcrettowreifMU Robodgntag and Mortgage Sm-iong Settlement}.
Tha Slew York Times 1 April 2OU.
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