The Truth Is: "No kidding?" "No." "Come on! That can't be true!" "No kidding."
"What Indians?" is my too-often unspoken response to people who ask "When do the Indians dance?" Like other colonized Indigenous peoples, cultures, and communities throughout the world, Native Americans have experienced and endured identities imposed on them by colonial powers, most of which originated in Europe. This imposition has resulted to a great extent -- more than we admit and realize -- in the loss of a sense of a centered human self and the weakening and loss of Indigenous cultural identity.
April 9, 1999, 9:15 A.M.Snow in soft wet knotsfalling,coming downthrough gray trees.
Strange to think of Iowa and Kansas. And Washington where I've never been in winter. And Portland, Oregon, where I've lived -- elms and pines dripping with rain on Umatilla Street in weather like this --Sellwood Bridgeover the Willamette River.
Strange... Nebraska, South Dakota, elsewhere...
NOT SOMEWHERE ELSE
But this is Salt Lake City, Utah.
Yeah, it could be elsewhere. In fact, it could be Somewhere Else City, United States of America, Planet Earth, but this is Salt Lake City right smack on the western edge of the center of the world, believe it or not.
Yeah, it's not elsewhere. It's not Somewhere Else City. It is
Salt Lake City Salt Lake City Salt Lake City Salt Lake City Salt Lake City
No where else but.And, yeah, what a place, what a place.
What a place to think of Indians.
"Where are the Indians?""What Indians?""You know, Indians.""I don't know what you're talking about."
GREATEST BELIEVERS GREATEST DISBELIEVERS
To believe or not to believe,
this was the question.And THE ANSWER.
Asked and answered and believed by the greatest believers and disbelievers the world has ever known.
Where are the Indians?Where are the real Indians?
There are no Indians. There are no real Indians.
There were never any Indians.There were never any Indians.
There were never any real Indians.
You mean... you mean, there were never any Indians? No real Indians? No Indians?
None.Never.
"INDIANS" WANTED
Real or unreal.Real and/or unreal.They were made up.It didn't matter.
They were what people in Europe believed. They were what people in Europe wanted: to believe. They were what people in Europe wanted. To believe.
Indians were what people in Europe wanted to believe. Indians were whatpeople in Europe wanted to believe. Indians were what people in Europewanted to believe.
"Indians" were what people in Europe wanted to believe.
"Indians" were what Europeans wanted. To believe.
"Indians" were what Europeans believed.
"Indians were what Europeans believed."
Believe it or not. Believe it or not. Believe it or not. Believe it or not! Believe it or not!
BELIEVING THE BELIEF
They believed!Oh my, yes, they believed!Soon, very quickly, there were Indians!
If it's one thing Europeans knew how to do, it was to believe!They still do, you won't believe it even though it's true!
Oh, their belief in the power of belief is powerful!
Their power to believe was beyond belief!It was overwhelming!They believed, they believed!
Soon the Americans believed since they were originally Europeans and they yearned for "the old country." Oh my, they believed! They absolutely believed!
EVEN "THE INDIANS" BELIEVED
Indians were made up?
Yeah.
They became what people in Europe believed them to be? Indians?
Indians.
Yeah, Indians.
Soon there were Indians all over the place. But mainly in the New World,especially in America! Indians thrived in the New World. That's where theywere seen the most. That's where they "belonged." That's where theywere the most Indian!
Soon even "the Indians" believed there were "Indians." Soon even the "Indians" believed they were Indians.
Nonetheless they were people.They were hanoh. They were peole who were themselves.They were people who were their own people.
See Indians. See real Indians. See real Indians play. See real Indians work.
But there was nothing to see. There was nothing. Because there was nothing there. Nothing real or surreal. To see.
See real Indians. Where? Where?
Where. No where.
WHAT WE KNOW
So where were the Indians?What did Europeans see?Did they see anything?What did they see?Did they see people?Did they see people like themselves?What did they see?
What did they see? What did they see. What did they see.
"Indians" who are our people
(The People, Human Beings, Hanoh, etc.)
knew themselves as people. Different from each other. Speaking
different and distinct and separate languages. They heard each others'
languages. Their people had different names. They wore different
clothes. They ate different foods. They danced different dances. They
celebrated their differences. Yes, they were different but they were all the same: The People, Human Beings, You, Me.
ALWAYS JUST LIKE YOU JUST LIKE ME
Meanwhile and meantime and always
After and before and during and always
always no matter what always and always and even despitethe greatest believers and disbelievers in the world, they/we were peolethey/we were/are people we/they are people four times and withoutnumber or need for number we/they are people like you and justlike me
