Exploitation

[TripleP]

They didn't take the land away from us.
The land belonged to the swift-footed deer,
the powerful bison,
the cunning wolf.
The land belonged to the towering trees,
the calm lake,
the waving grass.
They couldn't take the land away from us,
because it never belonged to us.

They took us away from the land,
by teaching us to cut into her with iron;
to cover her natural beauty
with the artifices of humankind.
They took us away from the land.

Then they ripped it out from under our feet,
and transplanted us
to a place called
Oklahoma.

[INFPoet]

I take it this is about the Cherokees. This is well written and terribly sad, TP. Don't change anything about it, because you'd done an absolutely fantastic job here, and once again I'd like to go back in time and give some people a piece of my mind! This is one of my favorite lines - "They couldn't take the land away from us, because it never belonged to us." I have a couple of Native American ancestors, though not Cherokee, so this rings deep.

~INFPoet

[TripleP]

I take it this is about the Cherokees. This is well written and terribly sad, TP. Don't change anything about it, because you'd done an absolutely fantastic job here, and once again I'd like to go back in time and give some people a piece of my mind! This is one of my favorite lines - "They couldn't take the land away from us, because it never belonged to us." I have a couple of Native American ancestors, though not Cherokee, so this rings deep.

~INFPoet

My grandfather was half Cherokee. My grandmother was a quarter Chocktaw. So yeah, this one's personal.

[INFPoet]

Wow. Sometimes I cannot believe how cruel humankind can be. But all throughout history one people group's been shoving out another...

Do you speak any Cherokee?

[contessa_veeden]

Really beautiful and gut wrenching poem. It shows how much has been lost.

[iwriteugly]

I agree with the above comments. This really touched me.