Let us give thanks
For our new friends
And to their welcoming
Spirit upon our arrival
We owe much gratitude
For they nursed our sick
Taught us to harvest
From sacred ground
Hunt for daily sustenance
And show reverence
For our worthy prey
These peaceful warriors
With pride and poise
A primitive people
The earth and it’s creatures
Held high in spiritual regard
This feast of gratitude
So shallow and empty
Now knowing the devastation
That was to unfold
Was this a celebration,
Or something different?
Perhaps a case of
“Keeping the friends close,
But the enemies closer”.
Are we not entitled
To claim this new land
For our very own?
So vast and glorious
Yet there cannot be
Room for both cultures
To peacefully coexist
The conflict of the natives
Crude, uneducated savages
Against the pilgrimage of
The colonies upper class
False promises are made
Evil underhandedness inflicted
Upon an unsuspecting race.
Peaceful and Warrior tribes alike
Fall victim to the influence
Of military might from the East
Uprising becomes the downfall
Of so many innocent peoples
“This land is your land,
This land is my land”
So long as you leave it to us
And go peacefully into the night.
Villages burned, women, children
Taken away or left for dead
Brave warriors struggle on
Outnumbered, outgunned, cast out
Sent away to lands unseen
Until the cycle begins again.
So many years have passed
Since those troubling times
Perhaps we have forgotten
Just how much the native tribes
Truly gave up by offering help
To strangely dressed white men
In their giant sailing ships
So on this day of giving thanks
Let us take a moment to reflect
On lives lost and races forever changed
By the early onset of the very things
That continue to plague us today
Greed and War in the name of “Progress”
Our “NEW WORLD” now shows her age
As we mercilessly continue our assault
On her very existence.
We should reflect on the very things
That made the Indian tribes a proud
And respectfully spiritual people.
It mattered not their tribe or clan
When all was said and done they
Were reigned over by the Earth
And the spirit guides of her many animals.
We cannot reverse the damage
Imposed upon the first inhabitants
So let us at least reverse the course
Of destruction on the one they held
So high in spiritual regard.
JMC813 