January 9, 1879 Northern Cheyenne Breakout Run by Cinnamon Spear

January 9, 1879 Northern Cheyenne Breakout Run by Cinnamon Spear

January 9, 1879

My ears have heard the stories

Cheyenne spirit knows the pain

Forced removal from homelands

Government-imposed imprisonment

I do not want to see blood

Spilt about this agency.

If you send your soldiers,

First let me get a distance away.

No spinning in a single ray of sunlight for warmth

No scraping frost off windows for water

No eating leather moccasins for food

Melodic voices fill locked wooden barracks

Suicide songs

Our Journey Song

Freeze, starve, die imprisoned or fight

In the middle of the night

Stars witness dark escape

Run. Don’t look. Don’t stop. Run home.

Glass shatters

Windows birth women, children, babies

Trained not to cry

Rifles sound

Fresh blood, white snow

Death on a doorstep

Fleeing for the future

Each footprint etches freedom

Lovers cornered, almost captured

You shall not be taken south!

As he plunges knife

Into wife’s chest

Headshot

Both saved from surrender

Children hide in the Last Hole

For

All were shot

Point-blank

Youngest: 2 years old

As you read this history

My heart beats this history

And as you walk this earth

We walk this hurt

Please remember

We will never forget

Cinnamon Spear Copyright 2011