And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Organization: The University of Michigan - Flint
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 12:27:02 EDT
>Subject: (Fwd) Re: UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
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>X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.53/R1)
>
>Awesome column.
>
>Catherine
>
>********************************************************
>
>FROM UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
>
>FOR RELEASE: WEEK OF DECEMBER 11, 1998
>
>COLUMN OF THE AMERICAS by Patrisia Gonzales and Roberto Rodriguez
>
>HEART OF KICKAPOO STILL BURIED IN ILLINOIS
>
>This week's column is a first-person account written by Patrisia
>Gonzales.
>
>
>When you meet the ancestors, you must go barefoot, the elders told
>me. And I did. I walked on a prairie full of stickers from thorny
>black locust trees not indigenous to these lands. I walked inside
>a buffalo wallow, the land still rutted with the weight of bygone
>days. The land still remembered them. I saw maple trees my
>relatives planted. Here, on a farm in Le Roy, Ill., I gathered
>blue jay feathers and the stories of my people. This is the land
>of the Kikapua, known today as the Kickapoo Nation. Kikapua
>loosely translates as people who keep moving about, making the land
>sacred where they go. I am a descendent of the thousands of
>people now buried under cornfields here in what was once the
>Grand Village of the Kickapoo. The heart of the old ones remains
>alive in this land. Buried here, our ancestors made this earth
>sacred ground. Dying, they became the earth. The village was the
>capital of the Kickapoo Nation, when 10 million acres of Illinois
>became home after the Kickapoo migrated from the Great Lakes region.
>"They thought they'd be safe in the village forever," says water
>clan leader John Kaskaske. But as a result of trickery and
>betrayed treaties, they were forced out of Illinois in the 1800s
>and set off for Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and eventually
>Mexico, where my great-great grandmothers made their
>families. I am the seventh generation of people who prayed me
>into existence, and this is where they lived and died. The fact
>that I am here with them hums through my bones. The elders say
>that the old ones have prayed us all back; that's why, after at
>least 165 years, the Kikapua are returning. "Ancestors, I am
>here. Your daughter has returned," I announce myself with
>the sunrise. I have come to pray about a dream I had three years
>ago, when a warrior and an elder told me, "The Kickapoo people
>will always be strong." When I heard that the sacred sight was in
>danger and learned about the good farmers Doris and Bill Emmett
>and their efforts to save it, I knew I must come here to pray for
>the future -- the children. I came to sing songs and listen
>to the serenade of the red-tailed hawk and see wind finger corn
>silk as I prayed. The Emmetts bought the farm sight unseen and
>later discovered it was part of the 500-acre Grand Village. Then,
>when they heard another farmer wanted to place a hog farm on his
>portion of the village, they used their savings and pensions to
>buy up to 250 acres of it, save at least half of the site. Kaskaske
>says the hog confinement won't happen. The Creator's hand has
>swept down upon this place to protect it. A nearby Kickapoo fort
>and part of the village are already on the federal historic
>registry. However, efforts continue to place the entire
>village in a trust. The Emmetts hope to eventually preserve
>the land in perpetuity and already have two acres on their land
>designated as a public park. "The Creator said it was time," says
>Bill Emmett. "We don't own this land. We're just caretaking <br>for
>the Creator." Kaskaske believes the village will someday be
>acquired by the tribe and that part of it should serve as a burial
>ground for the remains of native peoples who are in the possession of
>museums in the region. Last year, the nation returned to the farm in
>Le Roy for a homecoming powwow, setting foot here for the first
>time since the 1800s. They bathed in the same creeks that the
>ancestors once used and camped under the same trees. There'll be
>another one on May 22-23, 1999, and organizers hope people will
>sponsor elders to attend from the various Kickapoo tribes. "It's
>time for it. Destiny has a way of moving," Kaskaske said of the
>people's reunion with the ancestral lands. Now there are plans
>to create educational programs at the park so that children will
>know of the old ones who lived there long ago. Tobacco and
>native seeds and prairie grasses, dormant for almost 200 years,
>now root inside the earth. The thorn trees are gone. The buffalo
>are coming back. The messengers said the Kikapua would always be
>strong.
>
>COPYRIGHT 1998 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
> Supporters of the Kickapoo Grand Village would appreciate any
>donations/contributions toward preserving the site or in
>sponsoring an elder to attend next year's pow wow on May 22 & 23,
>1999. Items toward a silent auction fundraiser or the pow wow
>give-away would also be appreciated. For more information,
>contact Doris & Bill Emmett at 309-962-2700.
>
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In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is
distributed without profit or payment
...http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
`"` `"` `"` `"` `"` `"`
