Indigenous

I cry for a people,
Once forgotten.
My ancestors,
Or maybe even not.
The people found on my land.
A people 'discovered'
And wiped out,
By brutal, inhumane force.

A people only viewed as pawns,
For the wealth of their land.
A people so kind and gentle,
To only give of their crown as gifts,
Of peace.
And to have their trust broken down,
and turned into nothing.
To be forced into a religion so foreign,
To be enslaved on their own land.

A people only spoken about in the classroom,
As if, they aren't important enough.
Imagine,
Running away from your home,
To find a safe haven in the mountains,
The high hills,
And abandoning all your morals,
Becoming fighters,
Just to stay alive.
Just to keep their island.

Who are any of us to say that we have discovered a land,
Already inhabited.
A land with people who live their lives in peace,
Who have their own government?
Who have their own laws?
Who are we to take this land?
And use the islands' people as slaves?
For our own greed.

My ancestors,
Satisfied with their own gods,
Forced into learning a new religion.
A religion that forced them to worship,
In ceremonial places,
Places they were not permitted to enter.
Tricked into learning about a foreign God,
That wanted them to be treated this way.

And this is a big fuck you,
To Christopher Columbus,
Who sailed and sailed,
Drifted into the unknown
And uprooted a people.
Found a peaceful society,
And destroyed it.
Took every inch of its beauty,
For the good of his own land.

I cry for the Tainos,
the Kalinagos,
the Mayans,
the Aztecs.
The indigenous people,
Not all peaceful,
But not as greedy,
And selfish as their 'discoverers'.