Canada, The Land Of The Untamed West Poem by Gayathri Seetharam

Canada, the land of the untamed west
-Gayathri B. Seetharam
My in-laws' female friend, Indu Suryanarayan, who had visited my husband and I in Phoenix, USA
From up north in Rhode Island had said that the American Indians believe that land cannot be possessed
For anything below the sky is land and it stretches to eternity and hence, cannot be owned
But as history and folklore goes, they guarded their land with zealous fanaticism and fierce warfare;

The above belief is their "basic philosophy" and has not been documented in Wikipedia or Earthlink
But what I found interesting is that the native Indians blessed the white people
And their prayer for the white man is a blessing for them to possess power and have well being
Earthlink also said that Chief Luther Standing Bear of the Teton Sioux and born in 1868
Says that the old Indian sits upon the earth instead of propping himself up and away
From its life giving forces and for him to sit or lie upon the ground
Is to be able to think more deeply and to feel more keenly
And I am translating this into a form of their "basic philosophy" and that is
That the land is so vast and all the life giving forces and the land beneath the sky
Cannot have ownership labelled on it for that would mean less of thought and less of feeling;


Indu Aunty and I had visited the Phoenix Art Gallery and enjoyed the concept of Kachina dolls
For I, as a new bride, still clung to my Kannada-Indian roots
And it all brought back the doll-play and dolls on display from the Dasara Festival
I, partially remembered and researched now, that kachina dolls, are figures carved,
Typically from cottonwood root, by Hopi people
To instruct young girls and new brides about katsinas or katsinam,
The immortal beings that bring rain, control other aspects of the natural world and society,
And act as messengers between humans and the spirit world (Wikipedia):

Thus there is a connection between living souls and immortal souls
Without conducting séances is a reassuring thought
And I would love to send a message to my father who died early
That he is sorely missed and find out if he loves us as much as we still do;

I will make him a kachina doll with fabric paint
Or buy one from the Phoenix Art Gallery
For I have made an indigenous tree goddess, Haida,
And a friendly totempole on gentlemen's handkerchiefs
For if a man destroys he also creates
And a woman who has the ability to also lay to shambles
Man's creation and God's work does nurture man's creation;

In Canada, the indigenous man believes in the "Earth Diver myth"
Which is a story where a Great Spirit or cultural hero dives,
Or orders animals to dive, into the primeval water to bring back mud,
Out of which the Earth is fashioned
And in some versions of the story,
Earth is formed on the back of a turtle
And Turtle Island is a popular name used by
Certain Indigenous peoples for the land of North America (The Canadian Encyclopedia):

Indigenous peoples are caretakers of Mother Earth
And realize and respect her gifts of water, air and fire
First Nations peoples' have a special relationship with the earth and all living things in it
This relationship is based on a profound spiritual connection to Mother Earth
That guided indigenous peoples to practice reverence, humility and reciprocity (Assembly of First Nations):

The recent fires in northwestern Ontario brought us in contact with
How a fire that can benefit humankind
Can wreak havoc and destruction
But we all desire an inner fire of the soul;

Mother Earth has blessed us with an unending supply of water and clean air
Or so the Land of the Untamed West and the rest of the world thought
But time has taught us a lesson on not taking anything for granted
If the living soul is of mortal existence, the natural resources of mankind
Unless we re-create the water that surrounds us and preserve the air that we breathe,
Will dwindle into a smaller quantity;

We need to act now and I have thought of a water making process with research
For I am a qualified chemical/biomedical/biochemical engineer which simultaneously
Combats the pollution of clean air with greenhouse gas emissions or global warming or climate change
As I have proven the existence to the same with the aid of chemical engineering principles
In three ways and the results beg us to stop greenhouse gas emissions;

Canada is a beautiful country with the character, content and composition of the Canadian human
Who says that in some ways, the untamed ways of the indigenous man and woman
Protected the Mother Earth
And preserved its resources
And I say that there is a lesson in it for the modern human being
Ikidon miinawaa (Please say that again, in Ojibwe (Ref: Omniglot)) .