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| Starless Midnights, But... by � goeswith3faces It was in the middle winter moon, when they heard about what happened to Sitting Bull and his son "when the wasicuns tried to arrest them". They lived at the south side of the Cheyenne River about ten miles below it forks. They belonged to the Cheyenne River Reservation, but their land wasn't mentioned in the land agreement from 1889 and so they were left out of its boundaries. Their situation becomes increasingly horrible. The meat they got from the agency as rotten and they hadn't enough clothes for the winter. Chief Spotted Elk (also known as "Chief Bigfoot") and the elder were afraid of a wasicun's revenge because of what had happened four years ago when "Longhair-Custer" got what he deserved. A Paiute prophet named Wovoka appeared in Nevada and preached a new religion and with it new hopes for a conquered nation that hardly fights for his own identity and surviving. He taught the nations a dance to bring back the buffalos and making the wasicuns disappearing. It was called the "Ghost-Dance". The nation was weak and the "Ghost Dance" was more than only hope that times may become better. It was an expression of their souls, their suffering, and fear. She was about 10 years old and she remembered when her father entered excited the tepee. His face was white but not because of cold. Her mother had just finished to bead her doll. They heard that people from the Standing Rock Reservation arrived today in the camp and that there had been a council between them, the elders, and Spotted Elk. Breathless, told her father what happened at Standing Rock. They were shocked. The wasicuns started their revenge and from everywhere they heard that the military was in a move. Her father told them that Spotted Elk wants to find protection at Chief Red Cloud and the Oglala at Pine Ridge Agency, so they will move tomorrow early in the morning. Spotted Elk had pneumonia and was unable to go, that's why they transported him on an open horse and cart. It had been some when in the time when the wasicuns celebrate their celebration of love what they call "Christmas" when they started south over 120 miles through the badlands and prairie. They passed most of the way and there was only a short way left to Chief Red Cloud's camp, when perhaps the soldiers came. They didn't know that it had been a squadron of the 7th. Cavalry. The 7th. Cavalry stood four years ago under "Longhair-Custer's" command. They all had a horrible fear and she remembered that she pressed her mothers hand that very tightly that her hand became white. Spotted Elk spoke with the officer despite his pneumonia and agreed to follow the soldiers to their camp in the valley of the Wounded Knee Creek. They had been about 20 miles east of Pine Ridge Agency. They didn't know that at this night the rest of the whole 7th. Cavalry rode out to Wounded Knee. They set up camp, they this means 350 Miniconjou Sioux, most of them women, children and old people. They had been starved, exhausted, disillusioned, and had not even power to talk. She remembered that the night was unearthly silent. No discussions in the tepees, no noises. Only the crying of little kids broke from time to time the silence. The next day was gray and a threatening storm howled around the camp. She woke up by the sound of many voices those said, "we're surrounded, we are surrounded..." . Her parents woke up too and her father went out of the tepee to see what happened. She followed him, her doll in her arms. People ran from left to right but there seemed to be no place to go to. Confusion. Children cried. When she left the tepee, she saw that many wasicuns had surrounded the camp. On the top of a hill nearby, the wasicuns placed four Hotchkiss guns against the camp. Whatever would happen today it couldn't be something good. She heard some men talking about that the wasicuns want to disarm them and they went to their tepees to take the bows and arrows and the old hunting guns that were left them. She saw her father talking with some of the elders when perhaps a single shot broke. She didn't not know who shoot, even not if the shot came out of the camp or if the wasicuns shoot first. A breath later, the air was filled with bullets. People cried and ran around. She was unable to move a finger. She looked at the place where her father stood, but she couldn't see him anymore. She looked to the place where their tepee stood but only a burning, dark hole was left. Not ten feet away from her an old woman lay on the ground. Her legs tremor abstractly and the earth around her was full of her blood. She saw people running and falling by a hail of bullets. Everything seemed to be a nightmare but she couldn't wake up. Someone jostled her that way hard that it throws her about 6 feet to the behind. Confused she tried to stand up when she fell the burning pain in her shoulder. She recognized a hole in her dress. A bullet hid her. She looked unbelievable at her shoulder and she could see part of her collarbone. A sudden feeling of nausea caught her. She lay on her back and she fell how the blood left her body. She wanted to cry but because of the shock, there was no tear left. Her eyes asked Father Sky for help. A man ran to her and strong arms took her from the ground before Mother Earth and Father Sky became one and gave her a kiss to rest. She didn't know what happened exactly but when she woke up she found herself at Pine Ridge and the Oglalas cared for her. The little beaded doll in her arms and the memories of a ten years old girl was everything that was left from her family. It should take three days before the dead bodies of 350 Minicojou Sioux were buried in a mass grave and with them the hope of peace and freedom. Under these 350 dead bodies were the dead bodies of only handful warriors. Twenty-seven Congressional medals of Honor for "bravery" were awarded for the soldiers who took part on one of the blackest days in American history... Not a hundred years later: In the dimly light of his prison cell, he writes his thoughts into his diary. On one eye, he is nearly blind and his diabetic makes him tired all the time. On the wings of his memories his spirit starts to fly to freedom ... The pain in his jaw brings him back to the reality of his crushing small prison cell. Since nearly 25 years, he has to live in this place as victim of the Cointelpro-program that was developed in the 60's and 70's of the last century by the FBI in order to shatter organizations in the US, the CIA or FBI had classified as dissident powers. Because of the government's interests of the uranium resources in South Dakota and the A.I.M. 's activities for freedom in the Pine Ridge Reservation SD, the conflict was preprogrammed. He knows that he wasn't arrested because of doing something illegal, but because of being an American Native who fights for his rights. That's what makes him a dissident American Native and with it a dangerous American Native in the "world of free". Sadness overcomes him and in the same moment, he heard the eagle cry of freedom deep inside. A cry more than hundred years old. A cry that had been sometimes his only friend in horrible dark nights ... The voice of REASON, LOGIC, COMPASSION, and UNDERSTANDING will not become silent even though some people hear without listening, speak without saying anything, look without seeing, and decide without knowing. We are not able to make all things better, but we are able to make some things good. What had been an heroes heart, is now the decent one's duty ... or like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said : I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war, that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become reality. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word. With Respect ~ Goes-with-three-faces ~ |
