For Our Spouses,

Pat Keiffer and Sarah Nez Grinde
































From TEKONWATONTI: Poems of War
Molly Brant (1735-1795)


If I could scratch figures
I would show you fathers of the 13 Fires
how my many grandfathers struggled
to construct the Longhouse
with two doors and a central fire
which you entered
and took out a lit kindling;
how you took up the wisdom
of our great and wise Peacemaker
as you accepted our corn
caught trout from our rivers,
scalp-hair from our heads.
If you would listen with clean ears,
and I could scratch these sureties
into birch bark or rock
you would remember always
from where your freedoms and liberties
first captured your attention.

May your fire burn,
and allow our fire
to blaze as well...
sign of spirit,
symbol of survival,
our corn fields,
our white pine of peace,
eagle diligently watching
all the skies.

A people who do not remember...
rain which falls upon rock.

                                --Maurice Kenny

Table of Contents              

Foreword by Vine Deloria, Jr.

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1. Vox Americana

2. Perceptions of Native Democracies

3. Natural Man in an Unnatural Land

4. Ennobling `Savages'

5. Errand in the Wilderness

6. The White Roots Reach Out

7. Mohawks, Axes, and Taxes

8. A New Chapter

9. The American Synthesis

10. Kindling a New Grand Council Fire

11. The Persistence of an Idea

12. Conclusion