Independence Day for the Native Americans

independence Day for Native Americans
by Robin Carneen

When the lands are given back to us, and we don't have to do fund raisers or occupations to get them back ;

When the buffalo are not hazed and killed by government agencies;

When rocks are not sold as souvenirs on Alcatraz ;

When Indian names and images are not used as Sports mascots or for commercial selling of products ;

When we can have equal time in our classrooms across the United States to learn and speak our languages so they are not lost forever ;

When we have funding in our schools so our children can learn;

When all tribes can be "recognized" ;

When we can keep our casino monies and take care of our own;

When we all have health care, card carrying or not ;

When we can have statues that also commemorate our own people;

When we can change historical markers to reflect the truth and not glamorize the murders;

When we can see curriculum in our school books and classrooms that are not romanticized or glossed over when it comes to what really happened in and around Indian Country ;

When we don't have to ask permission to hunt and gather for sustenance, ceremony, or for medicinal reasons;

When all Sacred Sites are in place(and protected);

When our ancestors remains or artifacts are uncovered, the corporation or construction companies JUST STOP and find a different place to build;

When DJ's of commercial radio stations stop putting Indian people down;

When we can get our Indian Trust $$$ back out of the US Government's hands;

When we can get adequate and efficient housing for all Reservations & rancherias & there is no waiting list ;

When we can get more of a variety of commodity foods and some fresh food...like eggs, milk, etc ;

When we can all have enough land given back to grow our own foods;

When our reservations are no longer used as toxic and nuclear waste dumps;

When the US Government apologizes and is held to answer for the atrocities and genocidal acts it did against countless Native American people ;

When our President makes a visit to each Rez and realizes what the USA has re-created in Afghanistan, Iraq and countries to come;

When our ceremonies are not sold by those who disrespect the pipe, the sweat lodge, the sundance and the things that help us heal ;

When we can get roads, power, phones, and computers to the Reservations & rancherias that are without these things;

When we have a gym, clinic, wellness center, etc on each and every Reservation;

When we have our own radio station on each Rez;

When we have more kids graduate from High school and college;

When we have adults returning back to school and getting their GED;

When we have less or no Indians in Prison and jail or political prisoners like Leonard Peltier;

When we have more rehab, preferably traditional and native way facilities ;

When we have more prevention programs and activities on the Rez's;

When poverty dissipates and children and adults do not have to go hungry;

When women are not referred to by the name "Squaw" and men "Chief";

When Winona La Duke sits as President in the White House