My ancestors should have known better, but the lure of the fur trade and the desire for political and economic gain lead them to take up arms against other Native American nations. The French, Dutch and English were master manipulators. With their steel tomahawks and flint lock guns, the Haudenosaunee dominated Native world in the northeast. We forgot much of the Original Instructions and began to hack at the sacred web of life. We settled for bright beads, shiny silver and powerful weapons.

However, it was a short-lived "victory". Once the fur trade moved further west and the Europeans were no longer in such fierce competition, the Americans began to systematically remove the land from under the feet of my ancestors. We have all become aware of the dispossession of the Native American from their homelands. But think for a moment of what that dispossession must have done to the spirit of the people. Blood stains on the ground where sacred ceremonies were once held. Great villages were turned into heaps of ash. Thousands of people were forced to flee into the uncertainty of the woods. Families became separated and lost. There was a disconnection to the places where the ancestors had practiced the Original Instructions. Their foot prints were lost under wagon trails, train tracks and sidewalks. The grandchildren became confused about where to go and what to do.

The same story could be told of the hundreds of Native nations of this land. As the zeal of the Manifest Destiny swept from the East to the West, the Native Americans became the sacrificial lamb in the quest for spiritual unity in American culture. The irony of that fact is part of our collective memory. It still stings us to know what the romantic horizon of America's past is littered with the bones of our ancestors. The basic denial of our unalienable rights seems hard to fathom when we hear of religious freedom and the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

About seven generations ago, the U.S. Army tracked down a small band of Lakota people who were heading to the Stronghold in South Dakota to seek peace and renewal during the turbulent times. Because of unfounded fears of an Indian uprising, these folks were declared to be "hostiles" and the army was sent to return them to their reservation. It was just after Christmas in 1890 that the soldiers found the followers of Big Foot along Wounded Knee Creek. He agreed to surrender and the people settled in for the night. However, another officer arrived during the night and broke some liquor for his troops. It was a deadly cocktail.

The next morning, as the soldiers attempted to round up all the Lakota, a struggle ensued. No one knows for sure what happened. However, no one can dispute the results. The soldiers opened fire with their Hotchkiss guns and almost two hundred Lakota men, women and children were cut to shreds. Those that did not die in the first minutes were hunted down and killed. Unarmed women and children were shot at point blank range. Some suffered multiple wounds but were able to escape the carnage. It is a sad moment in American history.

It is made even more horrific when you realize that the American soldiers were given 24 U.S. medals of honor for the massacre. Imagine, a medal of honor for killing babies! No soldier was ever charged with murder. Despite congressional hearings and review of the Medal of Honor recipients, the massacre is still honored as a glorious battle in military history. To this very day, when the U.S. Government brings out its full color guard, the American flag is decorated with colorful battle streamers to commemorate that massacre by the U.S. army.

A blizzard hit the killing ground the next day and images of the frozen bodies of Big Foot and his people have become seared in our collective memory. While we are not all Lakota, every Native American Nation has a similar story. The blood stains are hard to remove from the earth. They are even harder to remove from our hearts and minds.