I abhor the term Native American. It is a generic government term used to describe all the indigenous prisoners of the United States. These are the American Samoans, the Micronesians, the Aleutes, the original Hawaiians and the erroneously termed Eskimos, who are actually Upiks and Inupiaqs. And, of course, the American Indian.
The statistics used by the United States government to tell you how many "Native Americans" there are in this country include all of the above, the misnomer is everyone assumes, in the contiguous 48 states, that the total number of "Native Americans" is the total number of American Indians. Not true. There are approximately 1.7 million "Native Americans", of that number, there are approximately 1.2 million American Indians of which less than 600,000 live on Indian reservations.
I prefer the term American Indian because I know its origins. The word Indian is an English bastardization of two Spanish words, En Dio, which correctly translated means in with God. As an added distinction the American Indian is the only ethnic group in the United States with the American before our ethnicity.
At an international conference of Indians from the Americas held in Geneva, Switzerland at the United Nations in 1977 we unanimously decided we would go under the term American Indian. "We were enslaved as American Indians, we were colonized as American Indians and we will gain our freedom as American Indians and then we will call ourselves any damn thing we choose."
Finally, I will not allow a government, any government, to define who I am. Besides, anyone born in the Western hemisphere is a Native American.
The Earth is our mother care for her
honer all your relations
Open your heart and soul to the
great spirit
All life is sacred treat all beings with respect
Take from the earth what is needed
and nothing more
Do what needs to be done for the
good of all
Give constant thanks to the
great spirit for each new day
Speak the truth but only of the
good in others
Follow the rhythms of nature rise and retire with the sun
Enjoy lifes journey but leave no tracks
To the Native Americans the Earth was regarded as a living creature, a Mother, who naturally supplied her children, all creatures great and small, with everything needed from the bounty of her own substance. The Indians might surely have been the first true naturalists. They love and respect the Earth and feel a kinship with all the things of the Earth. In all tribal histroy, there are stories of man's interaction with the forces of nature, the spirits of the land. Many of these stories involve specific landmarks or areas that are still alive and visible today. It is with this reverence in mind, that we wish to direct you to these places of power. Our hope is that you may develop a similar kinship with the land, hear the voices of nature, see the spirit of the wind and the mountains, and return changed in a way that only contact with such magnificant power could explain.
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I Be Tsalagi
This morning I looked in the mirror,
I stared intensely at what I saw,
Trying to figure out if it was
My eyes, my nose or my jaw.
Maybe it's my ears, I thought,
or maybe it's my chin,
I'm sure that I will figure out
what is my "part' that is Indian.
Maybe it's my arms or hands
or some little internal gland,
I sure hope I can soon find out
what "part" is Indian.
You see to some that means a lot
to them it's a big deal,
So maybe it's my knees or toes
or maybe my left heel.
But, you see, I don't understand
what this "part" stuff means,
Because in my heart I know
just who and what I be.
That from the top of my Tsalagi head,
to the tip of my Tsalagi toes,
With every beat of my Tsalagi heart
Every fiber of me knows
That it is not the "degree of blood"
That makes me what I be.
It is the spirit of Tsalagi
that dwells within, you see.
So with every breath I take
I'm as sure as I can be
that
I BE TSALAGI!!
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