CHEROKEE PRESENCE

 

From my perch with a mountain view I try to understand

what this site was like when only the Cherokee roamed the land.

I have an affinity for indigenous people…their culture…

the way they looked at life…and living…

How they understood we are all a part of the land

and the value they put on sharing, community and giving.

They understood everything on this Earth is equal…no one portion is greater…

and how the entire universe shares in the immortal perfection of its Creator.

 

The way they lived, the way they worshiped, the unique way they thought

If only we had let them be our guide…

They had so much to teach us…

instead…we callously brushed them all aside.

We threw them off the only land they ever knew….

We were barbarous, merciless and cruel…

We tried to change the essence of who they were….

We took their children and sent them off to boarding school.

Where to their parent’s and these innocent children’s sorrow and surprise,

they were forever changed by they way they were mistreated, abused, and brutalized.

But as I sit in a cabin that sits on what once was Cherokee land….

and rue the way those before us have sinned…

I can still feel the Cherokee presence in the trees….

still hear their messages floating on the wind.

To those who have forgotten, disregard or never listened to their message…

It’s not too late to start…

There is still time to walk tall as the trees

live as strong as the mountains

and keep the warmth of the Sumer sun in our hearts.

We cannot go back and change the mistakes we made in the past

that course of history has run…

but if we heed the messages still clinging to the trees

still floating on the wind…

we can begin make the future …a better place for everyone.