Stolen Native Dream Poem by Robert Macmillan

Half–Hatchet! Where gone your Ancestry
Ground–Down & Dull... Stripped of pride
Be no more to roam the open wide
Left only, half–heard wisdom... Echoing a right–proud past
Was ever once a scalp redeemed
Or no more be; A stake–out; Honored scene
Forced to concede; Herded with the wild mustang breed
No more! Running wild & free; Upon the spirit's–wind of breeze
Are now floating; Captured in a Reservation's creed
Corralled... In what have a boundary deed
Yet! Still is heard; Though not much more;
Then, only but a distant memory
No more smoke of peace
Tribunal–Speech... What once essential;
Know is only heard... What's been passed on
A heritage of history's–word; Of a Nation scorned
Told... When Half–Hatchet; Chants his song
Relives his; Great Grandfather's dreams:
Rounding–Up the wild–ponies
Of open roam upon the proud–prairies
Tipi...Young man / Warrior–Brave
Devoted–Indian woman, Busy; In activities
Thread the net & curing skin of deer
Works of customs still done here
When in the heart, be always true to home
Of many a many native–tribe did roam
And though the buffalo, long since gone
And no more a smoke–signal fill the sky
Still at sunrise or sunset, Soaring–Freely does the eagle fly
As surely do the trout are steaming on the open fire
And feeds the need of who still be; Traditional–Tribe
When Chief; Half–Hatchet
Calls out-loud, with Native–Cry
All of what his Nation...Do he story tell
Visions in the campfire's, spirit–held
But; If listened, burning–branches; Hissing–Steam
Consumed with tears; Of many-many prideful memory
All of what be Native–Spells do plead
Imagining; Might just what redeemed,
Of stolen Nation–
Native Dreams