"My People's Memory
Reaches into the
Beginning of All Things"
"I am a chief, but my power to make war
is gone, and the only weapon left to me
is speech. It is only with tongue and speech
that I can fight my people's war."
Oh Great Spirit! Give me back the courage
of the olden Chiefs. Let me wrestle with
my surroundings. Let me once again,
live in harmony with my environment.
Let me humbly accept this new culture
and through it rise up and go on. Like
the thunderbird of old, I shall rise again
out of the sea; I shall grab the instruments
of the white man's success -- his
education, his skills. With these new tools
I shall build my race into the proudest
segment of your society. I shall see our
young braves and our chiefs sitting in
the houses of law and government, ruling
and being ruled by the knowledge and
freedom of our great land.
Haw'aa!
