Photo by Adell

Obligation Duty and Responsibility

Jeff Tucker 2000

Back in the time before, when there was only the red people on this island of the turtle we like to say we lived in Peace and Harmony with all things, and we did. But then the Trickster came and he brought to us all manner of things, things like Jealousy and greed, greed for another persons land or possessions. Well our lives changed and we no longer lived in harmony with one another. Oh we still honored the Mother Earth and we still had our respect for all the beings that lived upon her, and we all tried to keep the balance in our own lands but we began to fight and raid each other. We began to steal each other’s children and women. It was then that the prophecies began and our elders around the fires told us of them at night, they spoke of peoples that would come to our lands and that there would be more of them than there are stars in the sky. Some say they were speaking of only the white race but they spoke of many colors of man kind we could not dream of black or yellow men much less of white ones.
  At times before the coming to our lands ….before these strange humans with strange ways even, we had many Sacred teachers or bringers of truth and they tried to teach us to once again live in Peace with one another. We having, fallen prey to the trickster failed to see with clear eyes and hear with open ears the truths brought to us by these Mysterious ones. We tricked our own self’s into believing that they came only to each individual peoples, and that the teachings they brought were for only us and that if they were for us only, then they must be powerful medicine against our enemies.  We humans are funny we blind ourselves and we have a hard time thinking beyond our own small vision of the world.
And so it was that the prophecies told us more of what was to become of our beloved land of the turtle. We were to become the example of Creations love for us all. We would one day show all other nations that, perhaps having gone through what we were going through. That we are all related and that we can sit together and share what we know and understand of Peace and Unity and Harmony and of being good caretakers of our Mother. Maybe some of our old ones spoke of these things to the first White people, maybe they spoke of the teachings from before they came. Those people came here with there own ideas of how to live and their own Sacred Teachers…..maybe they to were blinded by their own trickster. In any case they did not want to blend our sacred teachings they only saw their way as being the Truth. We had our hardships we had our wars, we were killed and we killed many of them. Finally we were beaten we could no longer fight for it was true what the old ones said. They seemed to out number the stars in the sky and so it was we came into what at best can be said of as an uneasy peace. Our old ways were almost lost; our lands where our ancient memories live are no longer ours.
 Then stranger things began. More people came to our beautiful land more colors, many tongues that not even the white men could understand were being spoken here in this Land of our ancestors. Could it be what the Old ones spoke of was coming true? Could it be that all of these many races of humans had there own tricksters? Or were they brought here by Spirit to fulfill the Prophecies? Now much time in our own way of thinking of time has passed. We have this thought planted perhaps by the trickster once more that 600 years is a long time. Some of the ancestors of the strangers who came to this land had suffered in their own lands for thousands of years. So by Creations time is 600 years all that long? Then new prophets from our peoples began to speak of Healing, they said that all these many races would one day come to us and want to learn of the Spirit of this land. It was said only then could we heal the hoop that was broken, but only if we all learn to sit in Peace. Old Grand Fathers taught us that each land has a sprit and each land has a song, we know these songs and we hear the spirit of our land. Are we to turn our back on the ancestors of the other tribes and their children who came to our shores? Have not these peoples been here long enough to shed their blood and tears and have not their very own bodies been formed from this good red earth of our homeland? Are not these people who come to us now, are they not perhaps hearing the song and voice of Turtle Island? If so are we going to blind ourselves once more are we going to listen to the Tricksters song again? We are still fighting, but more so among ourselves we cannot even agree on one thing Not even Praying for Peace. We speak of how we honor our women how we hold them sacred and our children we call them sacred beings. Yet we fall apart we grow further from our own Truths while all the time others look to us and see us as the hope for this land.
 A wise man from a land in the center of America said. Are we not connected in the North by the North Pole and in the South by the South Pole, this being the case is it not our Sacred duty to our future generations to show to the rest of humankind that people…. All people can live in Harmony with one another. Our Yellow and Black and White relatives now all Native Americans by right of birth, wish to pray and sing the songs of this part of Mother Earth, are we to turn away from them are we to throw away our Sacred Duty to each other? Let us close our ears to Tricksters sly song let us not look at the bag of tricks he carries this time. Instead let us give once again the gift that was offered long ago by our ancestors to these people. They are ready to receive them this time. Their hearts are open and their ears hear the sweet song of The Earth. It was spoken by the last generation of Medicine people that by helping others with what we know we will be helping our own to heal.
What a Vision to we may very well be the last ones on the whole of Mother Earth to show the rest of humanity that we are a people of Respect of Honor and of Peace. We are the Center of Mother Earth we are the ones that walk in the balance of time.
 We have no place to turn now. We stand on the brink of the abyss are we to throw our future over the edge? All humans want a future for their unborn and Grand Children we all want to see our young ones live a good life. We have that chance & we have had it many times this may very well be the last chance we have. The laughter of the Trickster is loud in the nighttime. Let us not give him this reason to laugh at our pitiful follies let us stand in Honor of who we are. We must reflect Creation in living, breathing and walking in the truth of realization that We Are All Related.