The Story of Indigo Mountain | home
Jack-in-the-box | Historical Native American Facts | Free e-cards | A Fairy-Tale | Piggy's Mud House | BEING INDIAN IS............ | Links To Related Pages | Stories of the Paranormal | Share your thoughts-write to us | Indigo Mountain's message board | Indigo Mountain's Legend
BEING INDIAN IS............
BEING INDIAN IS...watching John Wayne whip 50 of your kind with a single-shot pistol and a rusty
pocket knife on the late show.
BEING INDIAN IS.......having at least a dozen missionaries from twelve different faiths trying to save
your heathen soul every year.
BEING INDIAN IS.......fighting with the U.S. Army to save your country from the evils of communists,
and fighting the U.S. Army on your reservation to keep the Corp of Engineers from
stealing your land.
BEING INDIAN IS............having every third person you meet tell you about his great grandmother who
was a real Cherokee princess.
BEING INDIAN IS...........having 9 out of 10 people tell you how great they believe Jim Thorpe, Squanto,
Tonto and Little Beaver are.
BEING INDIAN IS..........................Loving fry bread and corn syrup.
BEING INDIAN IS........having high salaried BIA, PHS, OEO, HEW, and DOL white-collar bureaucrats tell
you how much money is being spent on Indians.
BEING INDIAN IS....having the greatest grandparents in the world.
BEING INDIAN IS..having your teenage child come home from school and ask you about the "Strange
Beliefs" of Indians that the teacher mentioned today.
BEING INDIAN IS...waiting (impatiently) for the new Tecumseh, Osceola, Crazy Horse and Geronimo to
appear.
BEING INDIAN IS....living on borrowed time after your 44th birthday.
BEING INDIAN IS......listening to all the middle-class Tontos and Uncle Tomahawks tell you we must do
things the "American Way"
BEING INDIAN IS.....................feeding anyone and everyone who comes to your door with whatever you
have.
BEING INDIAN IS..................................feeling the stares of all the whites in any public place you walk into.
BEING INDIAN IS.........................having your non-Indian wife dance in full regalia at your tribal pow-wow.
BEING INDIAN IS...............................................knowing the Great Spirit.
BEING INDIAN IS.................having a Christian Missionary tell you it is wrong to believe in more than one
Divine Being, then listening to them tell you about God. Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost
the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, St Patrick, St. Christopher, St. Francis, etc....
BEING INDIAN IS...................................................having a large family of over a million brothers and sisters.
BEING INDIAN IS................feeling that Little Bear, Prays-for-All, Big Heart are more beautiful names than
Jones, Smith or Brown.
BEING INDIAN IS.............observing your children watching a cowboy and Indian TV western movie and
cheer for the cowboys.
BEING INDIAN IS.......graduating from a government Bureau of Indian Affairs school and not being able
to read a 6th grade English book from your white friend's Urban school.
BEING INDIAN IS.................never making quick evaluations of people, but reserving judgment until their
actions show what kind of people they really are.
BEING INDIAN IS.............never giving up the struggle for survival.
BEING INDIAN IS.........................standing up for life's principals and truths unashamed without having to
compromise your values.
BEING INDIAN IS.......................not only being proud of who you were born from, but mindful of how you
yourself in the world.
BEING INDIAN IS.....to have your liberal white friends to urge you to follow the same path as your Black
brothers to gain some advantage.
BEING INDIAN IS.................having your friends and relatives accuse you of being a traitor if you seek an
education, earn more than $7,000 a year, wear a white shirt and tie, drive a car less than
three years old, and live in a three bedroom home.
BEING INDIAN IS.........having heard your grandparents and yourself say, "When they honor the treaties
and we get our land claim payments...........", then suddenly realize your children are
saying the same words also.
BEING INDIAN IS............having your non-Indian friends go on a Vision Quest led by a white man into the
mountains, but leaving you home because you can't make the $300 registration fee
to attend.
BEING INDIAN IS.............listening to your well-intentioned white brother try to tell you about your native
spirituality.
BEING INDIAN IS........hearing from non-Indians how rotten the government has treated Indians, but still
voting them back into office.
BEING INDIAN IS...seeing other Indians in search for an Indian idenity.
BEING INDIAN IS......being greeted by non-Indians with pseudo names from real ancestors of your tribe.
BEING INDIAN IS...................having to prove with documentation that you are one, when other races and
people in the country don't have to.
BEING INDIAN IS.......................knowing that your ancestors were slaughtered like animals in the name of
Christianity, and then being told that Christianity is out to save us.
BEING INDIAN IS..................................................buying" authentic" indian jewelry made in Taiwan or Japan.
BEING INDIAN IS............................learning of people becoming Indian without an Indian Mother or Father.
BEING INDIAN IS.....finding out that people think all Indians live in tipis.
BEING INDIAN IS.....being told that Columbus dicovered America from his ship, when we were watching
from the shore.
BEING INDIAN IS...trying to relate to people who say they are mathmatically; 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, etc. degree of
blood.
BEING INDIAN IS........................wearing braids and being called a hippie by those who object to long hair.
BEING INDIAN IS.....being whipped for speaking your own tribal language when on the school grounds
premises.
BEING INDIAN IS.......watching your elders boast of Indian pride and leadership. between swigs of liquor
from a half-empty bottle.
BEING INDIAN IS......having your brothers and sisters that are enrolled in the tribe treat you as a second
class citizen because you and/or your family chose not to walk the government's path.
BEING INDIAN IS.........trying to search for tradtition and truths of life when alcoholism and drugs poisen
the path to the answers.
BEING INDIAN IS.......trying to talk to elders about the "old ways" and have them want to talk more about
the rising price of cigarattes.
BEING INDIAN IS............going to school when you're young and having the teacher skip over the Indian
chapter in the history book.
BEING INDIAN IS...seeing others forget the true meaning of Thanksgiving.
BEING INDIAN IS...........having others make jokes about your heritage and
culture.
BEING INDIAN IS...........living in two worlds.
BEING INDIAN IS.............knowing the word "Indian" is not your true name.
BEING INDIAN IS...being called "Chief" or "Tonto" by patronizing non-Indians
BEING INDIAN IS.....being human, with human thoughts and feelings like your non-Indian brothers and
sisters.
BEING INDIAN IS.....................................being constantly on the alert for the government's tactics that will
annihilate you and your tribe.
BEING INDIAN IS.................holding on to a piece of paper treaty that was
signed but never honored.
BEING INDIAN IS....being told of The Ten Commandments then see the white man subscribe to them only
when convenient and in his favor.
BEING INDIAN IS.......having non-Indians look at a barefoot Indian child that laughs, thinking he or she
is poor.
BEING INDIAN IS..knowing alcohol doesn't make you Indian, just drunk.
BEING INDIAN IS.....seeing elders die and the language & customs with them.
BEING INDIAN IS..seeing Mother Earth destroyed by those who don't know her.
BEING INDIAN IS...seeing history books tell you Columbus discovered America
BEING INDIAN IS......................hearing others think all Indians wear war Bonnets.
BEING INDIAN IS..............having the government treat you like a prisoner of war.
BEING INDIAN IS....seeing the government spend billions of dollars abroad, but fail to honor the Indian
treaties.
BEING INDIAN IS...sad,
BEING INDIAN IS....hard,
BEING INDIAN IS.....crying,
BEING INDIAN IS...laughing,
BEING INDIAN IS.........forever!
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
NOTE: If anyone knows who the author of this is, please let me know.
This is reprinted by Permission from;
GREY WOLF and WILLOW