THE TEST OF BELIEF

Native Americans are Native Americans now and through all time back to the Source of Life. This is true because we know no one can divide the Native American from their spiritual and religious beliefs for that is their identity. That is their family line. The simplest thing to do which the Sioux Nation has done before, is to give the religious identity test.

A Native American holds up the eagle feather, the Pipe and the Medicine Wheel and simply says "These are the religious symbols that have led our people home to the Great Spirit from the beginning of time These are the Sioux Nation's connection to the Great Spirit."

Then he holds up a Bible and a Cross which are symbols of the spiritual and religious beliefs of another people and is asked. "History has shown these people persecuted and committed the Red Holocaust against your people. Are these the symbols that you now follow which are not Native American, not Sioux, but are of the enemy who persecuted the Sioux Nation? If you choose these it is your right. For it is your right to say what happened to my ancestors is of no meaning to me, for now I believe this way. But remember this before you say these words, your ancestral line back to the Great Spirit is your family from the beginning of time until now. If you walk away from that family and forget their suffering, it acknowledges the fact that you are no longer of that family, no longer of the Sioux Nation."

That is the correct way of determining who belongs to the Sioux Nation and who does not. For each individual born must be given the opportunity to choose to walk the spiritual and religious path of their family or to reject it and walk the path of another people.

To understand this entirely and to be of the Human Beings you will know it is not a matter of simply opposing laws that are unjust to unborn children, and to people, it is a matter of the honor you hold for your ancestors. This is no small task. Were their beliefs good enough for you and do you honor them or do you dishonor that family line and choose another? It is not the wrong way to turn away, it simply says you are not of the Sioux Nation or the other tribes who have the same spiritual beliefs, you walk with another family. That is the only moral way to lay claim to your ancestral heritage, with your own choice to accept that way of life.

How interesting to find out how many in your community would embrace the Eagle Feather, the Pipe and the Medicine Wheel which are all spiritual symbols that say you belong to these people. How many people in your community would embrace the Christian Cross, the Star of David, the Star and Crescent Moon or other symbols. The symbols which represent the beliefs say to the world, "These are our people, this is where we belong." How many would stand in public holding the eagle feather up to say, "I follow that traditional path home."? This is the way a human being recognizes who you are and where you belong. The traditionals have always understood this for this is the way of honor. If you can stand in the open and express that honor of your people then you belong to those people. It will always honor those people.

In forming the Red Nation of the Cherokee, these people have installed many unanswerable questions. But that is only for now, for with their actions the seed has been planted for an accounting of all the wrongs done during the Red Holocaust against the Native Americans. The Native American has come to a day of reckoning by their intelligence and their hearts and no longer will we sit silent.

-copyright by Clem Iron Wing & Matthew Richter, 1998

Our e-mail box is open for the so called grandmothers and grandfathers who think they can justify a law that says this child is no longer a member of her family and entitled to what every child is entitled to, the belonging of her family. The reason we put this up is because it is such a huge issue. If you have any comments on it or can defend it, send us a letter, it is open for discussion. Please explain why you are against it or why you are for it.

Question: Are you Native American? Are your children enrolled?
Will they be enrolled?

Look around the web, THE TRUE INDIAN SITES ON THIS INTERNET WILL VOICE AN OPINION ON THIS IF THEY ARE TRULY INDIAN

Now it is an issue of whether or not their ancestral heritage is held in any form of honor and dignity within them.

You will see Native Americans who are proud of their ancestral heritage responding to this article. What you will not see is the fake Indian because they can be exposed. So when you view a Native American site and you don't see a link to this page know they are only claiming to be a Native American to receive benefits. If they don't stand up and speak for their heritage and it's cultural beliefs how can they possibly be Indian? We will find the real Indian pro or con speaking out on this issue. What we will do here is to separate the sell out and the wannabe from the human beings.

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Originally published here
copyright by Clem Iron Wing & Matthew Richter, 1997