Black Hills: Sacred Tribal Land Poem by Terence George Craddock (Spectral Images and Images Of Light)

Behold great and noble Government
Constitutional United States of America
gave the land to the tribe in perpetuity
gave back that which was already
theirs sacred tribal land of ancestors

that which was most precious birthright
which could not be bought owned sold
bestowed in ceremony upon parchment
but the white man spoke with fork tongue
broke treaty for yellow flakes of lust dirt

Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868 confirmed
Lakota Sioux ownership of the Black Hills
to Cheyenne and Lakota these Black Hills
an island of trees in a sea of grass prairie
is axis mundi the sacred center of the world

Major General George Armstrong Custer
of 7th US Cavalry fame led an expedition
into sacred Black Hills in1874 Yellow Hair
discovered gold in French Creek gold fever
locusts thousands of miners swept into Hills

gold rush1875–1878 sparks Black Hills War
the last major Indian War on the Great Plains
Battles Powder River, Rosebud, Little Bighorn
Yellow Hair Custer 270 men killed 5 cavalry
companies were annihilated without survivors

in violation of the Treaty of Fort Laramie the
United States steals the Black Hills in 1876
after defeating the Cheyenne Lakota Arapaho
gold silver mines strike pay dirt Iron Horse comes
post Bighorn defeat army seizes horses weapons

of friendly agency Indians; January 1877 Crazy
Horse fights on at the Battle of Wolf Mountain
but shame surrenders follow two-thirds of all
Lakota; had settled at Indian agencies accepted
rations accepted subsistence life and did not fight

but the Lakota never accepted the validity of the
United States appropriation of the Black Hills and
continue to try to reclaim their property; July 1980
United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians; verdict
Supreme Stealing Court of the United States ruled

the Black Hills were illegally stolen; payment for
inconvenience caused? An offer of initial offering
price be paid; Lakota refused the settlement; plus
interest; claiming accepting bribe settlement would
validate government theft; stolen sacred tribal land.


Copyright © Terence George Craddock