The Voice of the Great Spirit

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In ancient times

a Kalapuya lay

in a grove of alder trees

near the forking of the Santiam

and dreamt a most unusual dream.

When he awoke at night

he told the people:

"The earth beneath our feet

was completely black,

in my dream."

No one was able to say

what that signified,

that dream of our green earth--

so we forgot it.

But then the Whites came

those farmers hard as iron,

and we saw how they tore open the earth with the plough

the pastures

the little prairies beside the Santiam.

And we knew

that we were to be a part of their dream

their dream of an earth

made black forever

by the wounding plough.


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