schooled

if killing the buffalo off were not enough
the children were next. taken away by force,
sometimes at gunpoint, forbidden to speak
the language of their home, hair shaved,
moccasins burned, sister separated
from brother, the children
were taught well the shame
of being brown. closeted,
strapped, starved, beaten

and worse.

ignored by day, unwelcomed
attention by night. half-naked
brown wooden Jesus on the cross
bearing the sins of all. their new
saviour having descended to the dead
for only three days

it was hard for the children
to reconcile that with the ten
or more months of the year
spent burning in perdition

all to take the Indian
out of the child, the child
out of the Indian:

of these two cultures
one was surely

savage