4th of July, America by Chase Iron Eyes

There is no freedom, there is no independence. There is an indoctrinated populace whose myths, claims to this land, exceptionalism, patriotism and cultures are now hollow, false, and have been used to terrorize the world. That’s our shared reality.

We need Americans to wake up, to perceive a homeland that is cherished, whose lives, lands and sacred sites are appreciated. Because your true history as Americans was denied to all of us you don’t see yourselves as invaders, you don’t see the oppression, can not comprehend the irreversible damage we are doing to Mother Earth, in turn ourselves.

Yet, we all share the hard truth now, openly, and that truth sharing is conciliation in the first instance. It is only the first legitimate step toward healing. The holocaustic truth of separating Indigenous children from their families, declaring the original civilizers to be illegal, must be confronted.

Recognize your genocide, don’t degrade the slavery experience, the 500 years of cultural, political, economic and legalized brutality, segregation, oppression and degradation.

Don’t expect us to celebrate our genocide while you pride yourselves on it. This is respect, not anti-American. The tree of liberty is still nourished with all our blood.

Here we all find ourselves inextricably bound up in this struggle, our liberation depends on each other. America will be no more if we continue in our ignorance. Corporate capital relishes our racial division, our blind allegiance and dependence on pop consumerdom, our spirit void. We know, it’s hard when White cops are killing unarmed Black men daily.

That doesn’t mean we commit to our differences, it means we come together to defend this land from all enemies, foreign and domestic. This enemy that seeks to divide, to drive fear into our hearts, that forces our complicity in a financial extractive economy hell bent on destroying the earth and oppressing the spirit of all beings.

We who are evolving must remake this country in our collective image, seeking real freedom, justice, equality and independence. All our differences, prejudices and complexes have a home in this America but there is no home for hate. Truth precedes unity. NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE.

No more lies on the 4th of July.

By Chase Iron Eyes (Lakota)