The Earth Speaks

In 1879 Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Nation visited Washington, D.C. to meet President Rutherford B. Hayes.  There he pleaded the case for his people to be allowed to return to the land they desired to call their home:

I only ask of the Government to be treated as all other men are treated. If I cannot go to my own home, let me have a home in a country where my people will not die so fast. I would like to go to Bitter Root Valley. There my people would be happy; where they are now they are dying. Three have died since I left my camp to come to Washington.

When I think of our condition, my heart is heavy. I see men of my own race treated as outlaws and driven from country to country, or shot down like animals.

I know that my race must change. We cannot hold our own with the white men as we are. We only ask an even chance to live as other men live. We ask to be recognized as men. We ask that the same law shall work alike on all men. If an Indian breaks the law, punish him by the law. If a white man breaks the law, punish him also.

Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to talk, think and act for myself -- and I will obey every law or submit to the penalty.

Whenever the white man treats the Indian as they treat each other then we shall have no more wars. We shall be all alike -- brothers of one father and mother, with one sky above us and one country around us and one government for all. Then the Great Spirit Chief who rules above will smile upon this land and send rain to wash out the bloody spots made by brothers' hands upon the face of the earth. For this time the Indian race is waiting and praying. I hope no more groans of wounded men and women will ever go to the ear of the Great Spirit Chief above, and that all people may be one people.

As we have seen this past year, our political institutions do not treat us with decency.  How can First Nations expect any better?  They cannot.  They do not.

The following is a video from Native Americans Against Obama.  The music was composed by Robbie Robertson.  The words were spoken by Chief Joseph.  Ironic that more than 100 years ago the people who suffered genocide at the hands of European invaders had a greater understanding of inalienable human rights than the people who subjugated them; the descendants of those that declared those rights to the world.