America’s Paranoid Fear and Denigration of Indians

American Indians—they attacked trains
Of Conestoga and canvas-fitted farm wagons—
Headed westward to settle on farmland
And to build towns.

They raided military forts and outposts created to protect
Pioneers and settlers; they were brutal to the Whites
Who migrated to already “empty” land—
Mostly “uninhabited” by humans, or to land recently “cleared”
By the U.S. military to open it for White Americans—
Often cleared by long death marches to inhospitable land far away.

American Indians—“They, Them, Savages, Can’t Be Trusted, Devious, Dangerous, Intrusive, Raiders, Massacre Us in Guerilla Warfare, Obstacles to Whites’ carrying out God’s Will”….

American Indians—who could imagine that they might be
Defending themselves against endless waves of White intruders
Who felt it was their God-Given Right to invade,
Take, claim, possess, occupy, own?!
You still don’t get it?

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Indians attack because
That is who they are—
We attack to defend ourselves against them.
It’s that simple: They “make” us anxious, wary—
So we must always keep our powder dry…
And please don’t start talking to me about genocide,
A story to get more government handouts.

Could history be a hall of mirrors,
A screening room for our projections?
Deep inside, maybe we are the “wild Indians”
Who fire at us with our Springfield muzzleloaders,
Repeating rifles, and Spencer carbines, our guilt, and our hate.
Who’s who in this deadly game, now over four centuries old?

So, then, who cannot be trusted—
Us, them, or by now, all of us?

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