Good Indians

image from fineartamerica.com

Good Indians

“It almost seems that nobody can hate America

more than Native Americans. America needs new

immigrants to love and cherish it.

--Eric Hoffer.

Columbus Day--BFD. Most of us know that

Columbus did not discover America. He never

set foot on it. He made four voyages across the

Atlantic, and he made landfall in the Caribbean,

Central America, and South America. He was 

searching for a trade route to the East Indies;

that’s why he named the indigenous people he

encountered Indios. The Mongols had cut off

access to the Silk Road.

The American tragedy was not a new one.

Throughout the entire globe, as conquerors,

and colonists discovered the indigenous

populations, they murdered, abused, robbed,

raped and enslaved them. Indigenous tribes

were called many things, Natives, Aboriginals,

Originals, and First People. Several thousand

years of residency meant nothing to the new-

comers and outlanders. In Seattle today we

celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day--fuck

Columbus.

Working for the VA for decades, I found out that

working with Native American Vets took special

skills. Annually they send some employees to

attend a week long Native American Sensitivity 

Training. I attended a session in 1997. It was held

at Camp Chaparral, on the Yakima Reservation, on

the east side of Mt. Adams.

We gathered daily to hear Vets testimonials regarding,

alcoholism, education, wife battering, drugs and

suicide. I entered a sweat lodge and passed out during

hour two. I found my niche in the Artist’s Hogan. I 

made sketches and drawings of Pow Wow dancers and

gave them away as gifts. One of them is still framed

and hanging on their Wall of Respect. I became an 

honorary member of the Yakima tribe. I made several

good friends. We stayed in touch for a couple of 

years, but then we let the bond slip away, quietly at 

night on a warm Spring breeze. I could hear the 

haunting flutter of a branch flute as it departed.

Eagles nested in

a tree outside my window;

I gave them good names. 

Glenn Buttkus

Haibun

Posted over at dVerse Poets Pub