Sheila Williams ~ Singing Cloud
APACHE FRIEND!
Sing out loud and proud, coyote dance across the sands, remember the Apache who never once backed down, a People proud and true, they fought the hardest to stay free.
A living part of Mother Earth, a story forever told, the earth and skies go on forever they were not afraid to die, their memory lives on still.
Children of another time who stalked the western lands – living very happily with the blowing sands – strong enough to show us all how to survive the hardest lives.
Laughingly they led the invaders on a merry chase, outwitting their very best at every turn, hiding in the very sands the white men learned to hate.
Brother to the rattler, of the scorpion there was no fear, there was no shortage of water – the Apache knew just where to look among the shifting sands.
In a place the white man claimed was lifeless, the Apache had always thrived, the burning sun was his friend, the cactus were his flowers, the mountains his blood.
Hunters and warriors, brave, wild, and free, finding joy in the rains a blessing when they came, food where none seemed to be, loving their families fiercely and true.
Fighting to the death to keep what was theirs, but the white man did not fight fair he stole away the children, killing their spirit, as their blood soaked in the earth.
With no respect for all the beauty, these People so revered, still they came in droves while cursing the lands, bringing death to all that stands of Creators bounty.
Making all their changes, with trees and plants from foreign lands, building their four square houses, claiming a god given right of the white man.
Still today the Four Winds whisper, calling to their children the Apache, we are here, and slowly they are returning to the ancients of their own.
A way of life the others can and will never understand, lives within the hearts of the true inheritors of those burning sands, stand proud again Apache Warriors and sing out your names!
©Copyright June 27, 2008 by Sheila Williams ~ Singing Cloud
Author’s Note: My humble offering, for the love of an Apache grandmother who showed great patience and love to a Tsalagi child.