Evolution

Native Americans, / we weren’t just born / this cool. We had to earn it. / We had to learn it.

It was through hundreds of thousands of years of evolution / (not tens of thousands of years like archaeologists say) / that many of us came to a place of equilibrium. We were / humming along, / many of us were, / for quite a long time / before our war-torn brothers and sisters / from across the sea / stepped onto the scene.

We made / devastating mistakes / of / slavery and caste systems / before Columbus was ever born. Devastating mistakes / of / arrogance and greed / against the Earth / before Erik Thorvaldssonever set sail.

We had our own / shameful periods of / empire. / Extraction of / blood and stone. Indeed it was only through the carnage and grief of patriarchy / that we learned the beauty and importance / of matrifocality.

It was through the shame of domination / that we decided to explore the sciences of equality. It was only through arrogance on the Earth / that we learned the seriousness of ecological reciprocity.

It was through the mental illness of selfishness / that we learned our truest self as generosity. It was only through the pain of war / that we learned the importance / of PEACE.