Friday, June 23, 2006
Drogheda
On September 11, 1649, Oliver Cromwell, hating Catholics, attacked the city of Drogheda in Ireland killing not only almost if not EVERY human being (man, woman, child, elder), but, I am told, all the livestock and burned down the whole town as well.
I was talking with a friend yesterday and telling her that the Wounded Knee Massacre was in a manner the symbolic death of what Indians once were to who we are now and how we still face the fight today. Most, if not all of us Indigenous in this occupied nation have faced one form of massacre or another in facing the horrific brutality of America in our common histories. I've read of the massacres of my people in the book "An Arrow in the Earth," a biography about Gen. Joel Palmer. There are way too many massacres. But that of Wounded Knee is a powerful symbol not only for the death of the indigenous people, but also where we were reborn in this modern world via the AIM occupation in 1973.
My friend, who told me of The Drogheda Massacre yesterday, described that as a similar focal point for the Irish like Wounded Knee is for the indigenous of this occupied nation.
In the beginning of July, Rhonda and I will be flying to Minnesota, renting a car, driving across South Dakota on a pilgrimage, as it were, to Wounded Knee and Bear Butte. We will be at Bear Butte on July 4 for the kick off of the encampment there in hopes of protecting the area from the colonialist fucks who have no soul in the area and pray to the great god of "green frogskin" in the town of Sturgis where the loud and disturbing motorcycle rally happens every year.
I'm a little nervous about visiting Wounded Knee. I don't know why. I know it will be good. I know it will hurt. I know it will inspire. I know it will help in my determination to get everything back. I know I will cry. And I will think of my friend...and I will think of Drogheda...and I will think of the massacres enacted against my people...and I will think of the cruelty happening in the world today...and I will pray that all the cruelty stops.
What would it be like to live in a world without war?
I was talking with a friend yesterday and telling her that the Wounded Knee Massacre was in a manner the symbolic death of what Indians once were to who we are now and how we still face the fight today. Most, if not all of us Indigenous in this occupied nation have faced one form of massacre or another in facing the horrific brutality of America in our common histories. I've read of the massacres of my people in the book "An Arrow in the Earth," a biography about Gen. Joel Palmer. There are way too many massacres. But that of Wounded Knee is a powerful symbol not only for the death of the indigenous people, but also where we were reborn in this modern world via the AIM occupation in 1973.
My friend, who told me of The Drogheda Massacre yesterday, described that as a similar focal point for the Irish like Wounded Knee is for the indigenous of this occupied nation.
In the beginning of July, Rhonda and I will be flying to Minnesota, renting a car, driving across South Dakota on a pilgrimage, as it were, to Wounded Knee and Bear Butte. We will be at Bear Butte on July 4 for the kick off of the encampment there in hopes of protecting the area from the colonialist fucks who have no soul in the area and pray to the great god of "green frogskin" in the town of Sturgis where the loud and disturbing motorcycle rally happens every year.
I'm a little nervous about visiting Wounded Knee. I don't know why. I know it will be good. I know it will hurt. I know it will inspire. I know it will help in my determination to get everything back. I know I will cry. And I will think of my friend...and I will think of Drogheda...and I will think of the massacres enacted against my people...and I will think of the cruelty happening in the world today...and I will pray that all the cruelty stops.
What would it be like to live in a world without war?
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