Great White Hunters Poem by Juan Olivarez

They say the herds would run for days,
From early morn, to setting sun.
With smaller herds following, made out of strays,
Sometimes a week, before the passing was done.

Magnificent and proud, they roamed the plains,
With no enemies to ever fear.
Following the grasses, brought by the rains,
The native Americans held them dear.

The Indians took only enough to live,
And used everything, down to the horns and hides.
And when taking lives, thanks they would give,
To their Great Spirit, up in the skies.

Then the great white hunters came along,
Sitting on platforms on the trains.
Killing indiscriminately, it was so wrong,
Leaving on the prairies, their terrible stains.

With their Sharps Carbines, from near or far,
They systematically destroyed a way of life.
And left on this nation a terrible scar,
Worst than any made by the dullest knife.

The great white hunters would sit in their chairs,
Killing wantonly from dawn till dusk.
Never mindful with no sorrow or cares,
To satisfy their blood thirsty lust.

Raping the land, they destroyed the plains,
And the way the Plains Tribes lived.
Leaving dead carcasses and bloody stains,
And an entire race of people left to grieve.

Miles of carcasses rotting in the sun,
While the Redman cried sad and forlorn.
A product of the hunters Sharps buffalo guns,
That left the prairie ravaged and torn.

No greater injustice, no greater sin,
No greater waste of Gods green Earth.
The buffalo guns thundering their din,
To the Great White hunters it was cause for mirth.

If your'e ignorant of history, you'll repeat the past,
And so many wrongs would rise again.
Only when man has no system of caste,
Will we live without self inflicted pain.

1/28/11 Alton Texas