RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: INDIAN HISTORY
Indian School
They kidnapped kids by force of law
Sent them to indoctrination camps
Cut out their native tongues
Severed them from tribe and family
Fed them with spiritual lies
Forbid them from being Indians
Forbid them from being themselves
Taught them that their ways were wrong
That the red road was a path to hell
They should have called it genocide
For that is what it was
Genocide of language and culture
Genocide of religion and history
When they refused to learn their lessons
They beat and abused them
They called them ungrateful animals
They learned a different lesson
That white people were cruel
That they fear the Indian ways
That if they were to survive
As individuals and as a people
They would have to escape
They would have to remember
Their language and traditions
They would have to return home
To live their lives as Indians
Proud stubborn and free
