decolonization78

[decolonization78]

Dear Settlers,

My elders taught me how to love even when the world is so cruel to us. Your elders must have taught you how to be cruel in a world that has so much more to offer. How else can you explain the hatred in your heart?

[decolonization78]

Before you go sporting Redskins gear, think about the young native woman who was murdered and scalped not too long ago. Here, present day America. Before you go prancing around in Pocahottie costumes, think about the thousands of missing and murdered indigenous women (including Pocahontas herself, who was kidnapped, raped and forced into marriage to a white dude). Before you go spouting off settler colloquialisms (“off the reservation”, “low on the totem pole”, “lets pow wow”), think about how it was American LEGAL policy Which displaced entire communities from their homelands, into territories that the government deemed useless. Before you go around wearing moccasins, “native makeup”, war bonnets, smudging….think of the hundreds of American laws that banned Indigenous people from practicing their traditions for generations. Before you go around slapping your mouth and making “war cries”, just take a moment to appreciate the hundreds of tribal languages that were beaten and raped out of tribes from missionary/boarding schools. Walk a mile in someone’s shoes. Bet your fragile ass wouldn’t last a day.

[decolonization78]

[decolonization78]

Dear Settlers,

Put Chambers back on Netflix.

[decolonization78]

Dear Settlers,

I love when you whitesplain and make an even bigger fool of yourself.

[decolonization78]

Dear Settlers,

Native identity can not be taken or put on a certificate, like a dog breed.

[decolonization78]

Dear Settlers,

Just because I do not “look Indian” does not mean I will give you a pass for bigotry.

[decolonization78]

definitely worth a listen ^

[decolonization78]

— Pokni’s Pecan Tree —

definition: appokni, apokni, n., my grandmother.

shading me from the heat during the easter’s of my childhood

oh how defiant you stood

toes in the grass as pokni braided and educated me all that she could

i learned what it meant to be choctaw under this wood

how you survived all the disasters i never understood

she provided you with strength, now who would ?

once the eggs are hunted and the last slice of pecan pie gone, i realize i have transcended girlhood

princess of our tribe and an environmental activist it all began in this neighborhood

pokni taught me how sacred our beautiful earth is and as i stand under this tree i know everything is good

[decolonization78]

Dear Settlers,

I will not be reduced to your one sentence definition of what I am suppose to be.

[decolonization78]

[decolonization78]

Dear Settlers,

Just because you were not given the correct education doesn’t make me your go to for all things in relation to ndn country; we are all different and unique to our own tribes.

[decolonization78]

Our Bones//

We feel it in our bones Deep in the marrow We hear it in the voices Carried across time by the smoke Cries echo through centuries

“You’re being oversensitive” The white man says As he slits another native child’s throat “It was a hundred years ago!”

It was one hundred million people But I am ridiculed for saying Too soon

We feel it in our bones Every Native knows the sorrow We hear it in the voices Our parents and children cry Even today

We struggle to survive The trail The roll Removal Assimilation Smallpox blankets Poverty Reservations Kidnapping Rape

We struggle Appropriation Theft Racism Betrayal Erasure We struggle We struggle

We are more than cheap dreamcatchers Hanging from rear view mirrors

We are more than fake headdresses Made from turkey feathers

We are not a mythological Dead culture of the past We are still here We are still here! We are still alive We survived And we are not your fucking Halloween costume

[decolonization78]

Dear Settlers,

If you are not a part of that culture you do not get to decide if it’s racist.