I used to wonder what it was like for them
Warriors women and children
Going back into years over 110
On the run from 5000 well-armed men
Horse riding West Point blue coated friends
With gatling guns and bayonettes sharpened
We weren’t sitting still for this plan
Fighting running to keep from being banned
Outsiders captured on our own land
Away from beneath the mountain streams
Our nightmare reality
Placed against a wall to fight for our lives
If all we had were knives
We would no doubt exact revenge
Within their violent intimidation
It was a simple equation
Our last line of defense situation
Before they put us in a camp concentration
Or hang us in public execution
Written in bloodied history our retribution
As they hunt and track the landlords
We were riding raiding to steal a horse
Riding raiding to take back what was yours
Riding and raiding without any recourse
Running and raiding and pushed into wars
 America’s most wanted hunted for sport
On our heads were cash rewards
Still...
We all night long danced  for strength
Visualizing our battles at length
From arrows to guns and bullets to shields
Giving our enemies something they could feel
Strange how their weapons couldn’t kill
At dawn men in silence pray to stop steel
In rocks and earth we were concealed
When war came they would pray
While loading rifles with bullets that blaze
And in pollen and turquoise we were draped
Our life-way of prayers and songs we sang
While invisible ranks struggle to sustain
Canyons echoing summers children playing
Amidst the horror and death-defying grace
The world would remember we were great
Learning we would go to any length
Til death do us part can you relate?
Looking into the warrior mind-state
You might begin to contemplate
If your children were stole sold , killed cold
Know that tribal preservation would’ve been
The goal....except
Running renegade while starving can get old
Newspapers back east thought it was crazy
How a tragic war kept waging
How Geronimo kept moving evading
His next guerilla move will it be bloody?
Later he was significantly studied
By war historians trying to make money
Self-preservation led to surrendering
Apache wars were finally ending
Renegades vanished into Mexico’s hills waning
Like sunlight’s last orange glow fading
Yet it seems as if this story is still being written
....Like a Godly mission
So no one forgets in today’s tribal positions
Blinded by greed not seeing the poor nutrition
Laughing while they eat steak
On unpaid requisitions
How we were once warriors
Now we’re visited by physicians
Analyze the statistics
In some Indian Health Survey on bad conditions
Diabetic stress unemployment never lifting
Substance abuse neglected dead-end admissions
Real sacrifice is missing
I want to ask this question?
Did Warriors repeatedly raise their wages?
While people outside the system were raging
All we get are commodities and hating
Jealousy and back-biting radio stations playing
Another boring Indian politician stating
“My people my people” then berating
It seems useless to concentrate
On the lack of conscious leadership traits
Hopefully it’s not to late
To start a revolutionary reality check
So much work is left
Or is our casino rolling the dice on your last best bet?
 
 

Douglas Miles, © 2001