Who's Who

By Rainbow Walker, Kanoheda Aniyvwiya (Native American News,
Vol. 03, no.l 026, 1 July 1995

They are those who take. Those who rape the earth in search of treasure.

In search of fortune.

They are those who want, who desire, that which is not theirs, and they do not need.

They are those for whom the word respect can be found only coupled with the word self.

This respect is not of self; it is what they consider their due from everyone else.

It would not occur to them to accord this respect to anyone, or anything else.

For them, life is a play starring themselves. They are the only living being; all else that exists exists for their comfort or pleasure.

The best of them will admit all of this.

The worst will pretend to be philanthropists.

They do not, and cannot, understand the meaning of give.

They:

They live to take, and to take, and to take.

They will swell like ticks gorged on blood. They do not understand flow,

They live to accumulate.

Beware of calling them white men; they come in all colors.

They are the greedy, and greed is the worst disease imported to this land from Europe.

It was here before they came; but never, among any tribe, was it considered a virtue, and rewarded accordingly.

We are those who have seen these tendencies in ourselves and recognized their evil. We are those who have learned something about giving, about sharing - our last crumb if need be - with our relatives. We are those who understand that there is nothing mystical, airy-fairy or supernatural about the wheel of life and death. It is what it is, which is what the Creator made it to be.

We are those who have some grasp of the fact that the creation reveals the Creator to those with eyes.

We are those who seek the power only to help our relatives, and ourselves to be and become true human beings.

We are those who know that every part of creation is literally related to every other part of creation. We are diverse, but we are connected.

Beware of calling us Indians. We come in all colors.

These are the two camps in the final days of this age.

Not Indian against white; not mixed against full.

It is the heart, and the spirit, that tell who a person is.

We must all open our eyes very wide, and take in this truth.

One is either a giver, or a taker.

The time of the takers is coming to an end.

Know where you stand, and do not disparage a brother or sister because you failed to look past their skin. We must all stand together.

We must.