cass lake

millions of dollars from casinos
that aboriginal people of minnesota
     wait to recover
from the deluded
     get rich quick dreamers
will never compare to what was lost
from so-called new world ism
     conquest
     plunder
     genocide
     an official government sanctioned policy

the ojibwe still bleed from the bounty hunters

the land & lakes & wild rice
now stifled and commodified
for the twenty-first century
while a mother waits
for a minimum wage job
at a traffic signal on so-called u.s. 2

the many hues of the indigenous
is a continuum of the forest
     with historical wisdom
          spirit that can't be translated
immersed in color
     from the strongest
     straightest
     tallest jack pine
     with bark that's rough
     resilient
     receptive
to the cries of tradition
tribes and nations
     to be whole

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, June 23, 2012)