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Descendants of the Star People, a Poem


Descendants of the Star People
By Lynne M. Colombe 


Smoke chases the light
Like lingering prayers
Of the gypsies before us
Hunters, akicita
Succorers of their
Heritage in 2020
Pte Oyate

Much now is forgotten
Wolakota

Tipi poles of resistance
Lie unceremoniously
On treaty lands
Visual reminders
                Displacement 
Conceptions brought to us
From foreign lands 
   When they gave us a Bible
   Put my grandmother in 
   A starched frock and apron
   Forcing Grandfather
   To become a Catechist
   To unsuccessfully save her
Father, Daughter, Holy Ghost

The 7th Generation
Knows nothing but war
Fighting shadows of 
Indian Boarding Schools
Rights to our own children
Our own bodies
Our own lives
Our right to speak 
Mni Wiconi

Four directions scattered 
Wi Can
Our brightest stars 
Waziya Takiya 

This New World of
Discord and experiences 
We should not see
We should not hear
Oyate-ki effie onúniyata úŋ
Have pity on us all,
Wakan Takan

We all return one day 
To the Star World
Wanim
We are our estrangement
Guided by the ancestral 
Cangleska Wakan

Pathways in the south
Warm, amiable
Solitude, peace, respite
Call to me to live as 
A nomadic Lakota

Smoke chases light 
Itokagata

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