Becoming native to our place (for #IndigenousPeoplesDay)

Last year, in honor of Indigenous Peoples' Day, we posted a piece that we believe is worth repeating, especially in light of this year's presidential campaigns.

American Indian Cultural Corridor (Minneapolis)

Photo by J. Harrington

Presciently relevant from the book of Joy Harjo's poems mentioned last year is the following:

"4. REDUCE DEFENSIVENESS AND BREAK THE DEFENSIVENESS CHAIN:

I could hear the light beings as they entered every cell. Every
cell is a house of the god of light, they said. I could hear the
spirits who love us stomp dancing. They were dancing as
if they were here, and then another level of here, and then
another, until the whole earth and sky was dancing.

We are here dancing, they said. There was no there.

There was no "I" or "you."

There was us; there was "we."

There we were as if we were the music.

You cannot legislate music to lockstep nor can you legislate
the spirit of the music to stop at political boundaries--

--Or poetry, or art, or anything that is of value or matters in
this world, and the next worlds.

This is about getting to know each other.

We will wind up back at the blues standing on the edge of
the flatted fifth about to jump into a fierce understanding
together."

From: CONFLICT RESOLUTION
              FOR HOLY BEINGS ~ JOY HARJO

 Here's a link to all of last year's Becoming native to our place

[UPDATE] complemented by Greg Seitz's Tweet on:
Prophecy foresaw Ojibwe move to MN, subsequent struggles, modern role saving us from ourselves

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