Yesterday and Today
Women /Attrition/MeHenWa (truth)
“no mans land”
the ground
between trenches
she
gives birth to
Kills-In-The-Night
water womb elemental
runs for the river
children surrounding
it’s a suicide mission
out
in the middle
but there’s no other way to survive
our bodies our strongholds
supple round
fully exposed
on all sides
my uber driver said:“my great grandmother was Cherokee”
down here
we hear that all the time
Mvskoke and Cherokee enemies until we had to unite
he said “she had that pretty nose”
Pretty Nose
never lied
the whole country smelled of rotting meat
“Even the flowers could not put down the bad smell.
Our hearts were heavy like stones.
And yet nobody believed, even then, that the white man could kill all the buffalo. Since the beginning of things
there had always been so many!
even our enemies would not do such a thing no matter what was in their hearts towards us. Yet the white man did it-
even when
he did not
want
the meat.”
ManyWounds speaks: “ I will never trust you
when you say peace”
attrition grinds down the resources until nobody can fight
Kills- In -The- Night was a woman who lived until 1944.
She was Apassalooke Tribe or what you may know as Crow
Scribes took notes
stories passed on
true history alive
if you go seek
you’ll find
“Those happiest days of my life were spent following the buffalo herds over our beautiful country. My mother and father and my man, Goes Ahead were all so very kind, and we were all so happy. Then when my children came I believed I had everything that was good on this world. There was always plenty of good fat meat for everybody to eat.”
Visions of Sitting Bull Lakota leader
“Grasshoppers fell from the sky”
upside down world we live in only the deadly survive
there was a glimmer of hope when that yellow hair died
in all his vain glory.
he still a coward
in the story
Sole survivor phenomenon
leave one alive to tell the rest
twernt no internet
to the victors
go the lies
history to write
thousands of whites came forward to say they saw it all that sonic war that day
not long ago really they just frame it that way
“we had them savages licked”
then
grasshoppers
fell down
death
was on every side
phezisia wakpa
“The Battle of Little Big Horn”
Fast Eagle in the
Greasy Grass
held onto Custer while
Many Robes stabbed him
in the back.
Some say his own men shot him.
To them that was better than fact.
She Walks With Her Robe spoke
“My Heart was bad. Revenge! Revenge! For my brother's death I killed. I thought of the death of my young brother, One Hawk. I ran and got my black horse. I painted my face with crimson and braided my black hair tight. I was mourning. I was a woman, but I was not afraid."
“Not afraid.” repeats
Kills-In-The-Night
Yellow Bird
watches above a bird woman is strong and tall
before the bad stories
she still sees it all
the tellers told
Buffalo Calf Road Woman knocked
that long hair
off his horse
Cheyenne
and love for
Black Coyote’s wife
who fights side by side with women who sees when they close their eyes
Nanyehi chewed her husbands bullets before she loaded his gun
Lozen was a prophet a seer fast and fierce and revered—she delivered a baby on the battlefield rode the woman and child to safety
then took five men out with her rifle and seven with her knife
The People turned into crows
The soldier wrote: “We had them trapped smoke them out in the cave but when we went inside they were gone”
journals of soldiers still in existence
Aazhaweyaa was an Ojibwe warrior
a woman who
wore the bonnet
she got it
because she earned it
not because she bought it
she became a lumber barons maid
the pain of marginalization
mid 19th century
Old -Lady-Grieves-The-Enemy
she still killed to defend the village
and that’s the name they gave her maybe she cried while she did it but I doubt it
American Genocide
It’s a war on you and yours too you better believe it
welcome
to the reservation
Today:
Warriors and Healers non violent
Speak Life Speak Peace
We can’t out man them but we can out think
we watch
come from good stock spiritual elders medicine women given that assignment not self declaration and wisdom keepers
writers
artist
storytellers like her like me
fight 13 grandmothers for
the right to use plant medicine without legal restrictions
seed sovereignty
against attrition in the form of first language annihilation
Autumn Peltier
Faith Spotted Eagle
Ladonna Brave Bull
Protecting the first medicine
WATER
#nopipelines
“We Are Water Protectors” book ban.Why?
Black Snake will kill
Man Camps devour
The Women Stand
Enbridge Line 5
threatens 40% of Great Lakes wetlands and the last wild rice beds
Nez Perce women in court standing up for salmon and the Columbia River where nuclear waste has been leaking for fifty years
Payahunnadu in Owen’s Valley California standing for land
fighting open pit mine
Pebble Mine Bristol Bay Indigenous Women
Sacred Site Reclamation
Bones of children and mothers
Brothers fathers
Fallen
MMIW
Native Women bare a disproportionate amount of the burden created by climate change and destruction through policy and the burden of gender violence ten times more likely to go missing or murdered than any other group of women on the planet
Yet they protect 80 % of the remaining bio diversity
Support respect say thank you
Mvto (Ma-Dough) in Mvskoke
My daughter stands too
in a rezzy car
layin’ it down
deadly
pretty thunder
got shit to do
Lakota Grandmother
Honey from the Bees
Can you see me?
Mic check
Wasssshtay! 🪶
Yes