Sometimes I am scared because I think the people in charge are still trying to get rid of us. It’s like, give it a break already. I think it makes some taipo’o uncomfortable to talk about us because then they have to acknowledge that what happened to us was wrong. That or they think we should get over it, but we did get over it. The thing is, it is still happening today. Like did you know that all of America’s military testing is being done on Indian land? We did not consent to that. I mean why would we consent to that. So far the US army has dropped 650 nuclear bombs on the Western Shoshone reservation (Newe Sogobia) which is why my father had to move away from there when he was little. Many Western Shoshone have radiation poisoning and at least sixty-five people have died from it. What if Nettlebush is next? Where do you go when nowhere is safe? America even has a plan to transport all of their nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain which also belongs to our tribe and not to the US. I wish I were making this up. Some taipo’o get really annoyed when we talk about this stuff. We are expected to keep quiet about our own lives, even though we are the ones who have to live them. It’s inconvenient if we talk about Indian Country, which scares me, because if our lives are only a matter of convenience then that means we are not being seen as human beings. Why is it inconvenient anyway? I think that people just want to pretend that all the bad stuff in America happened in the past and that everyone is equal today, and when we talk about our real lives that makes it harder to go on pretending. I wish people cared about us even a little. I wish they cared about us because we care about them. That is what Nu Mantu Satu means: All Are Related.
Because I am Native American I know the history of this continent. I don’t just mean the history that started in 1492 but the history that started thousands of years ago. I know why the Puma is sacred and where we built our observatories and where they are still hidden today. I know why the Yahoo Falls are off limits to all men, both white and Indian, so DON’T GO THERE DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT OR YOU COULD GET WHAT’S COMING TO YOU. I know why it thunders on the prairies and how the Rockies got their name. Do taipo’o know that they weren’t always rocky? I don’t think so. I know who built the Cahokia necropolis and why they abandoned it. I know when the Grand Canyon formed and that there was a huge conflict there that changed the continent forever, but taipo’o don’t know how. I feel bad for non-Natives because they will never really have the history or the connection and it is sort of like they are living in somebody else’s house. But we will let them live under our roof. That is what it means to be Native American. This land is my very spirit. When bad things happen, I just remember that we have survived worse.
Rafael — Please do not use your homework assignments to yell at people. B-. —Mr. Red Clay
Overlooked (Gives Light Series Book 6) Page 28