His name was Ohiyesa; a Santee Sioux born in 1858. Through his chosen words those who walked with him knew of his visions and reasons for them, “As a child I understood how to give; I have forgotten this grace since I’ve become civilized.”
On March 12, 1880 Judge Elmer Dundy resolved that Native American’s are people within the meaning of the law and have the same rights as any other person.
Society says it’s ok if you didn’t know this. This sort of history doesn’t inspire travelers to hoist up their anchors and putt across the open plains of a nation so great in search of footprints left in riverbanks and on lakesides.
Because history has become big money in cities like Charleston, St Louis, Cody and Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Dodge City, Montana, Pikes Peak in Colorado and even the grandest of a all canyons…the seeds used to sew a foundation of thirteen original stripes with fifty bright and beautiful stars into a world power has somehow fallen into a shade of dull only to be misplaced on the closet floor of a people in search of, “Oh my God! How did they blast four faces into that mountain? Look at that Space Needle! How long did it take the build the Golden Gate?”
Ohiyesa said, “As a child I understood how to give.”
To give is not to take nor is purchasing to lay claim on ownership a rich mans way of giving back to history. Ohiyesa didn’t fight a system of services created to civilize all connected to a single line of survival. He believed that through change American’s allowed them selves to take more and give less.
Spin back the pages of history a little further: let’s expose a truth no middle or high school classroom chooses to give.
Until 1880 a heated debate tore up the reasons why travelers from afar sailed across an open sea toward a land of peace, freedom of religion and less taxes. The arrival of the settlers wasn’t meant to cast shadows across the soils loved by the several bands of the Native American life and style but as the boundaries expanded so did the argument; were Native American’s real people or an animal?
So often bastardized by disappointed receivers the true term Indian Giver isn’t what it’s been allowed to become. The most giving man inside a circle of Native American’s was usually the chief. Indian Giver’s once meant exactly that…one who gives to better insure the safe keeping of those who’re family, friends or newly introduced neighbors.
As a child Ohiyesa was taught by elders that giving was the tree root to their continuation. After 1880, civilization began to generate a newer way of reaching levels of recognition. Native American’s didn’t create scalping, the civilization of fur traders and trail creators taught them to take. Alcohol came from civilization and through long drawn out walks late into the night Native American’s being chased into Mexico were introduced to a different type of civilization that led to peyote and other hallucination medications that helped free them from the pain civilization had brought to them.
History is meant to be studied not to raise funds for deep pockets but to help protect the mind, body and soul of mankind. While New York State becomes the latest to push open the door toward same sex marriages; Michelle Bachmann follows in the footsteps of Hilary Clinton and Sarah Palin in a bid for a Whitehouse that President Obama proved was for every person that which loves this nation so much they’re willing to sacrifice four or more years of their lives leading rather than just sitting on the sidelines.
“As a child I understood how to give.”
Where along the lines of everyday life did you stop giving?
The original keepers of this place called North America once stood proud in being called Indian Givers because it meant you had the willpower to share in ways that bettered the lives of the entire circle rather than a selfish nest. Settlers flipped that term around calling people who took things away Indian Givers…creating bouts of sadness, depression and any other mindset that didn’t represent kindness and or gratitude.
Judge Elmer Dundy’s image isn’t taped to a statue nor do his clothes, writing instruments and books of study sit in a museum open everyday except holidays. His decision in 1880 doesn’t seem important enough to give to a budding mind and spirit therefore how people were once treated could one day be the way they are treated again on a different page in history.
Civil Rights for everyone were the original ingredients used to create the brick placed on the first step leading us into brand new beginning.
It’s fun to chase the coattails of the generations before us but it’s more enlightening to take off the rose colored glasses and fall witness to a truth now hidden.
Let’s build a stronger future by investing in the chapters that have kept us moving forward. Borrowing from Native American circles its time elders hold the hands of the growing imagination and give their hearts a reason to believe in the rich history of why we are who we are so that 100 years from today we can say welcome to all nations and their leaders.
I will always believe in you first…
arroecollins@clearchannel.com
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