A GIFT FROM THE INDIANS

This is a passage from The Soul of an Indian,

published in 1911. It was written by Ohiyesa,

a Santee Sioux Indian from Minnesota, who took on

the white man's name Charles Alexander Eastman.

He knew traditional ways and believed in the workings

of the Great Mystery, yet also believed in Christ,

went to Dartmouth, and received a M.D. from

Boston Univ. He became an adviser to presidents,

and spent much of his life building bridges

between the two cultures.

Amazon lists a number of sellers who have his

writings in stock - all have been republished

in recent years.

***

*

I am an Indian;

and while I have learned much from

civilization, I have never lost my Indian sense

of right and justice.

.

When I reduce civilization to its most basic terms,

it becomes a symbol of life based on trade.

Each man stakes his powers, the product of his

labor, his social, political, and religious standing

against his neighbor. To gain what?

To gain control over his fellow workers,

and the results of their labor.

.

Is there not something worthy of perpetuation

in our Indian spirit of democracy, where Earth,

our mother, was free to all, and no one sought to

impoverish or enslave his neighbor?

Where the good things of Earth were not ours to

hold against our brothers and sisters, but were ours

to use and enjoy together with them, and with whom

it was our privilege to share?

.

Indeed, our contribution to our nation and

the world is not to be measured in the material realm.

Our greatest contribution has been spiritual and

philosophical. Silently, by example only, in

wordless patience, we have held stoutly to our

native vision of personal faithfulness to duty and

devotion to a trust. We have not advertised our

faithfulness nor made capital of our honor.

.

But again and again we have proved our worth

as citizens of this country by our constancy in the

face of hardship and death. Prejudice and racial

injustice have been no excuse for our breaking

our word. The simplicity and fairness has cost us dear.

It has cost us our land and our freedom, and even the

extinction of our race as a separate and unique people.

.

But, as an ideal, we live and will live, not only in

the splendor of our past, the poetry of our legends

and art, not only in the interfusion of our blood

with yours, and in our faithful adherence to

the ideals of American citizenship,

but in the living heart

of the nation.

.