Week 2 - Write about Indians

[talonkarrde]

In our dreams, we fight these battles again and again, and make the invaders pay for every drop of blood that they've spilled.

In our dreams, we take back the lands that are ours and then we strike a peace, one that is not broken for generations.

In our dreams... even in our dreams, our victories are fleeting. In the waking world they linger for only moments before we remember who we are and where we are. We know what foolishness it would be to act on these dreams, and so we do nothing.

The wild stallion must be trained before it can be ridden; the invaders speak of it as 'breaking' the spirit of the horse.

In our dreams, we gallop across the plains as we once did.

-

There are those who say that this is the a trickster god punishing us, or that this is an evil omen but we will rise again if we listen to the signs, or that their God is more mighty and we should worship Him.

But I do not believe any of those things. I've seen that they can be beaten, just as we can; they bleed the same blood we do and die just as easily to knives and guns. There are simply more of them, and they will not share their land, and so there can only be conflict.

And there was, for decades.

Years ago, every man and woman took up bow and horse, and then musket and cannon against the invaders. We learned from them and our allies and we fought for our lands, for our lives. But for every victory, we were handed ten defeats; every warrior we lost was one father that would not be there to teach his child, while our enemy were as numerous as the trees in the forest, as the stars in the sky. Even when we agreed on a peace, it did not last — it never lasted more than a few years before they were at our doors again, with guns or worse, false gifts.

Eventually, we realized what it meant. We stopped fighting the all-consuming wildfire and simply retreated from it as it burned the lands that our ancestors were raised on, the lands that were our children's right. We ran, we melded into the forest, we were determined that they would never find us. It worked, for the longest time, for we knew the forest better than they, and knew how to remain hidden even in plain sight.

But to run forever requires land to run on, forever, and eventually we came to the ocean, the vast, unyielding ocean, and we can not run across the water.

-

They will find us here, too, and that will be the end; they will triumph, and we will fall, and perhaps no one will ever know that we existed.

Comments

[x-disturbed-x.livejournal.com]

This is so sad. I love how it seems to come from a Native American and what they might have felt. Well done. :)

[streetnights.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[theun4givables.livejournal.com]

This is really quite awesome. The ending left me breathless.

Hands down one of my favorite pieces so far this week. <3

[streetnights.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much :)

[cheshire23.livejournal.com]

But I do not believe any of those things. I've seen that they can be beaten, just as we can; they bleed the same blood we do and die just as easily to knives and guns. There are simply more of them, and they will not share their land, and so there can only be conflict.

I especially liked this part.

[streetnights.livejournal.com]

Thanks! To me, it's the meat of the entry, turning the conflict into something inevitable and normal instead of painting this global 'good vs evil' battle or the like.

[cacophonesque.livejournal.com]

I like the line But to run forever requires land to run on

[streetnights.livejournal.com]

thanks!

[myrna-bird.livejournal.com]

Wow. This is so sad to be reminded of the oppression they surely felt.

[streetnights.livejournal.com]

It is; I only hope that we learn from the past and will not repeat it in the future.

[whipchick.livejournal.com]

I like that you told this a little obliquely, so that it's clearly based in a specific culture, but it also reflects the feelings of many colonized/invaded peoples.

[streetnights.livejournal.com]

Thank you — I thought your post on not having the right to invent other people's stories hit the nail on the head; I wanted to make sure that (as you said) I didn't create racist or inappropriate work, but I also wanted to take the topic and write something a bit less cliché and a bit more straightforward.

[halfshellvenus.livejournal.com]

Beautiful, in both language and feeling.

The restriction of lands is the antithesis of how many Native American tribes lived, so even now... this is nothing like the right solution. I just don't know what that solution is. :(

[streetnights.livejournal.com]

The right solution, I think, expired hundreds of years ago. Now, I think, there's only really regret and sadness, and eventually cultures dying out :(

[n3m3sis43.livejournal.com]

This is wonderful. I think my favorite part is the universality of it. It's written so it feels like Native Americans, but it could be anyone, really.

[streetnights.livejournal.com]

Thanks! That was the goal — originally, I had thought about also adding in sort of a time lapse thing where perhaps the protagonist was looking into the future/into the past, but that felt kind of contrived, so I kept it simple.

[fourzoas.livejournal.com]

Great strong voice here and lots of deep, quiet feeling in the face of so much loss. Lovely.

[streetnights.livejournal.com]

*bows* Thank you!