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Poetry May/June 2009
I am an English person, living in England and have for many years studied American Indian tribal cultures and have been interested in cultural issues and in particular, American Indian film studies. I have been a frequent visitor to the Midwest (Western South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and Nebraska) and have been fortunate enough to spend time on the Great Plains and be where so much American Indian history has taken place. I like to write poetry about the Plains. The Native monument on the Bighorn Battlefield is an emotive place. CIRCLE OF HONOR BIGHORN BATTLEFIELD BY SUE DEWEY It is a strange and lonely place A circular structure full of grace Built to honor the Indian dead Whose bodies on this battlefield bled And all around those cobbled walls The words of elders gone before Inscriptions from a time long past Etched in stone - their words will last And poised before this wisdom old Are iron warriors on horses bold Doomed to ride for evermore Above the battlefield they soar So within this circle I now stand And think of Custer's soldier band No glory here for his sad boys Who breathed their last on sun baked soil But here inside this sacred round Where fall winds make their keening sound The spirits rest in harmony The elders prayers have set them free And in honor place on steel horse frame And eagle feather on tail and mane So swift the battle and victory sweet It seems the circle is now complete For true Native spirit runs deep through the veins Of the steep Bighorn valley on the far Northern Plains Where young men and old fought to be free Such a high price to pay sighs the wind eerily No battle cry sounds No horses hoof pounds Just silence from iron warriors who bear Sacred bundles of sage in their cold steely hair
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