The Native Americans
Over the land bridge they
came,
following the game
from Siberia
to North America they came,
into a new world.
Down
the coast and into the mountain valleys they came,
across
the rivers and the lakes,
the grassy prairies
and dry deserts they came.
On
and on they came until they filled the land
from
Arctic to Antarctic,
from Atlantic to Pacific.
And
here they made a home,
lived and loved and
worked and quarreled and fought and died
and they changed the land
and became
one with the land.
And they were our people
and lived here until no
one could remember
any other land or any other way,
and this is part of
their story:
BROTHER EAGLE,
SISTER SKY
Over the oceans they came,
from Europe, sailing west
in
tiny ships they came, a few at a time
to tame a savage land.
They
came for a many different reasons:
to find wealth
and power,
to escape tyranny and oppression,
to
avoid jail or military service or troublesome obligations,
to
find freedom and opportunity
for themselves and
their children.
They
did not know the people of the land;
sometimes they lived with them
in peace;
often they warred with the people of the land
and drove them from
their homes
and robbed them of the land,
but in the end they learned
from the people of the land
and they are still learning from them.
And
here they made a home,
loved and worked and quarreled
and fought and died,
and they changed the land,
and
become one with
the land,
and they were our people
and this
is a song they sang,
brought with them from Europe,
celebrating the dream
of freedom
we inherit from them
DIE GEDANKEN SIND FREI...291
Over
the seas they came,
From
Africa they came,
chained in the dark holds of ships,
tossed
by waves and blown by winds
they
came across the South Atlantic
to a strange world.
Sold into slavery by their own people,
or
captured by slave traders they came,
into a land where no one spoke
their language
or knew their gods or their customs.
Set to work
in fields and on farms,
caring for homes they did not own
and children who were not theirs,
they
saw their own children sold away from them.
Their bodies
were not their own;
their
labor was not their own;
their lives were
not their own.
But their dreams were their own,
dreams of freedom
in a distant land
far to the north where people did not own other people.
From
Africa they came
and brought their stories and their music,
and
they changed the land,
and became one with the land,
and they were our
people.
And this is a story they told and a song they sang
as they dreamed
of freedom and plotted their
escape
to freedom.
FOLLOW THE DRINKING GOURD...152
From
Asia they came,
across the broad
Pacific Ocean they came
to build our railroads they came
and
to dig in our mines
and to work in our
vineyards.
From Asia they came,
from the
subcontinent
and the islands of the pacific
following dreams
and hopes
and
they changed the land,
and
they became one with the land,
and they were our people.
SILENT
PRAYER
And still they come;
from Asia they come,
to work in our
hospitals
teach in our schools,
to make this land their land.
From
Europe they come,
to work in our offices
to
make this land their land;
from Africa they
come
and from the islands of the seas
and
from Mexico and Central America
to
gather our crops and to labor in our cities
to
serve in our legislatures
and to sing their
sings
to find a home for their children,
a
fulfillment for their dreams.
And still they come,
changing
the land,
becoming one with the land,
and they are our people,
enriching
our lives
teaching us of other ways and places,
learning from us
and receiving from us.
And
this is a song we sing,
to remind us that we are
all one people
and we are one with the land.
THIS
LAND IS YOUR LAND
Today, the Sunday before Thanksgiving
we gather
to remember all those who have given our world to us:
the
travelers across the land bridge from Siberia
and those who
braved the ocean in tiny ships,
those who came in chains
and
those who came by choice
and
those who still come
from the corners of the
earth;
they are all our people,
and we have received this world
from them.
We give thanks for our people, the rainbow people
who
came here before us,
who became one
with the land,
who left us the gifts of their dreams and
hopes.
And this Sunday before Thanksgiving,
we remember those
who will come after us,
who
will be one with the land,
whose lives will be shaped
by the dreams,
the hopes, we give to them,
who will look out across the land,
and see there
shadows moving in the late afternoon
and know that it is the people,
the
native people,
the rainbow people,
all the people,
who are one with
the land.
FROM YOU I RECEIVE, TO YOU I GIVE...402