THREE MOMENTS IN TIME.

Part One.

The Spanish had once been here,
In their search for cities of gold,
But they killed so many people,
It made our blood run cold. 

So we all rose up to fight this evil,
Then scattered their souls to the wind,
For the sake of our own survival,
It was a fight that we had to win. 

They had brought with them the pony,
An animal we had not seen before,
So we captured and tamed their spirits,
And rode them when we went to war. 

Next came the Founding Fathers,
Sailing to these lands on mine,
Escaping from all they suffered,
Freedom they were hoping to find. 

So with the hand of friendship,
We helped them settle down,
And chopped wood for their stockade,
But smiles soon turned to frowns. 

They celebrated their first winter,
And to them a wild turkey we gave,
This was a time of special thanks giving,
To celebrate the lives we had saved. 

But during the course of next winter,
They turned on us through fear,
And fired their sticks of thunder,
Whenever we came near. 

And so we travelled far away,
Into the center of our lands,
Where we could live at peace again,
And live off the bounty of the land. 

Our way of life was simple,
We lived it day by day,
We gave thanks to the Great Spirit,
For whatever came our way. 

For many generations we did not see,
The white man or his kind,
Little did we know of his westward advance,
To this we were totally blind. 

Part Two.

Lewis and Clark, the explorers came,
The Northwest Passage to find,
For two and a half years,
They travelled these lands on mine. 

They stumbled across the mountains,
They wandered across the plains,
But never did they find the wide waters,
Or the riches they hoped to gain. 

Just when it looked like the end was near,
The Shoshone they did meet,
With Lewis and Clark was the sister,
Of the Chief they were about to greet. 

With her help they began to explain,
What they were searching for,
And they gave their word to this chief,
That they had not come looking for war. 

Taking great pity upon their plight,
The Chief gave them food and rest,
And permission to cut down six trees,
So they could continue their journey northwest. 

So following the mighty rivers,
That carried them down to the sea,
There they began to tell of the wonders,
Of everything they had seen. 

They told of the great wide country,
That was just waiting for people to come,
To settle the land and to tame it,
For it’s riches were as gold as the sun. 

So for all the kindness that was shown them,
Lewis and Clark were the ones,
Who sent the white tide against us,
For now the war had begun. 

Part Three.

We tried so hard to stop the invasion,
As the white man began to expand,
They pushed back all that stood before them,
As they started to settle the land. 

At first we met them in friendship,
And tried to explain all our fears,
But they only smiled without listening,
And never attempted to comfort our tears. 

They demanded to buy the land from us,
But we told them it was not ours to sell,
So they began the slaughter of buffalo,
And three million heard the death knell. 

It broke our hearts to see it,
A noble beast done unto death,
For it staggered all reasonable behaviour,
And took away our breath. 

It was then that we knew what was before us,
No pity or quarter would they give,
For they were making it so painfully obvious,
Upon these lands only white men could live. 

Then all too soon soldiers dressed in blue,
Came as well to conquer the land,
And the tribes, who would not obey them,
Were treated as renegade bands. 

So Gary Owen then played at dawn,
When they came to hunt us down,
They slaughtered wholes villages,
Then razed them to the ground. 

Our homes, our crops, our ponies, our lands,
We could not hope to hold,
And so we were shackled and removed,
To live where we were told. 

Shunkepi Nunpi
January 2004