One Voice, One Vote
R.SkyHawk
 

In the game of chess a queen may be sacrificed to place a pawn piece
in a strategic position to checkmate a king.

I once joked to an audience in Lyon, France that we Native
Americans -- or Indians as Europeans like to refer to us Indigenous
North American Peoples -- make the best thieves in the world! We can
be on a crowded bus, metro, subway or even a crowded elevator and
steal a person's wallet or purse. Remove all the money and put the
wallet or purse back without that person knowing about it. They
would not know until they arrived home or wanted to pay for
something. I pointed to a man sitting in the fourth row of the
theater and told the audience that he was checking his wallet.

We are true pros and there is honor among thieves.

Almost four years ago the American Presidential elections witnessed
a great theft among their people in Florida. It made Houdini proud.
Red, white and blue chads were scattered to the wind. American
democracy was laughed at all around the world.

We Native Americans know all about thieves. After the majority of my
great grandfathers ancestors North American lands were stolen they
were given the right to citizenship, some states as late as 1930's,
thus leading to the right to vote. And we all have this right in
America today.

Many a good people have died for us to have this privilege of
voting for who we wish. I now live in Lausanne, Switzerland as a
travelling artist, actor-comedian and teacher of Native American
art/art history. My travels have taken me to many countries and
places in the world where young men, grandfathers, and great grand-
fathers and those who didn't become grand fathers fought and died
for what they believed in.

In Normandy, France a Native Navajo grandmother who lost her young
husband on D-day was there to honor him on the 50th anniversary on
June 6, 1994. She told me she brought some sand from Navajo country
to leave on the beach in Normandy. She made a promise to do this and
bring some Normandy beach sand back to spread on the ground back
home. She asked me what I was doing there in France. I too, wanted
to honor my grandfathers.

There were many ceremonies to commemorate June 6, 1944 when I was
there in 1994. And I walked in fields of tens of thousands of graves
of other young men who never became grandfathers. I didn't ask them
to die for me. A warrior does what he has to do.

I find it a cruel irony that as a Native American I am writing these
words when I face racism back in my own country and life on many
Native Reservations isn't all about big casino money. I find it
completely ironic that we "Indians" are using the casino gambling
money to buy back land stolen from us. These are cruel ironies
indeed.

And I ask myself, can my one vote make a damn bit of difference?!?!

Today we are one voice with one vote.

- end --

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