What Indians?
What Indians?
Original Text
Ortiz, Simon J. Out There Somewhere. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2002: 45-54.
1The Truth Is: "No kidding?" "No." "Come on! That can't be true!" "No kidding."
2"What Indians?" is my too-often unspoken response to people who ask "When do the Indians dance?" Like other colonized Indigenous peoples, cultures, and communities throughout the world, Native Americans have experienced and endured identities imposed on them by colonial powers, most of which originated in Europe. This imposition has resulted to a great extent -- more than we admit and realize -- in the loss of a sense of a centered human self and the weakening and loss of Indigenous cultural identity.
1April 9, 1999, 9:15 A.M.
2Snow in soft wet knots
3falling,
4coming down
5through gray trees.
6 Strange to think of Iowa and Kansas.
7 And Washington where I've never been in winter.
8 And Portland, Oregon, where I've lived
9 -- elms and pines dripping with rain
11Sellwood Bridge
12over the Willamette River.
13Strange...
14 Nebraska, South Dakota, elsewhere...
1But this is Salt Lake City, Utah.
2Yeah, it could be elsewhere. In fact,
3 it could be Somewhere Else City,
4 United States of America, Planet Earth,
5 but this is Salt Lake City
6 right smack on the western edge
7 of the center of the world, believe it or not.
8Yeah, it's not elsewhere. It's not Somewhere Else City. It is
9 Salt Lake City
10 Salt Lake City
11 Salt Lake City
12 Salt Lake City
13 Salt Lake City
14No where else but.
15And, yeah, what a place, what a place.
16 What a place to think of Indians.
17"Where are the Indians?"
18"What Indians?"
19"You know, Indians."
20"I don't know what you're talking about."
1 To believe or not to believe,
2this was the question.
3And THE ANSWER.
4 Asked and answered and believed
5 by the greatest believers
6 and disbelievers the world has ever known.
7Where are the Indians?
8Where are the real Indians?
9 There are no Indians.
10 There are no real Indians.
11There were never any Indians.
12There were never any Indians.
13 There were never any real Indians.
14You mean... you mean, there were never any Indians? No real Indians?
15 No Indians?
16None.
17Never.
1Real or unreal.
2Real and/or unreal.
3They were made up.
4It didn't matter.
5 They were what people in Europe believed.
6 They were what people in Europe wanted:
7 to believe.
8 They were what people in Europe wanted.
9 To believe.
10Indians were what people in Europe wanted to believe. Indians were what
11people in Europe wanted to believe. Indians were what people in Europe
12wanted to believe.
13"Indians" were what people in Europe wanted to believe.
14"Indians" were what Europeans wanted. To believe.
15"Indians" were what Europeans believed.
16"Indians were what Europeans believed."
17 Believe it or not.
18 Believe it or not.
19 Believe it or not.
20 Believe it or not!
21 Believe it or not!
1They believed!
2Oh my, yes, they believed!
3Soon, very quickly, there were Indians!
4If it's one thing Europeans knew how to do, it was to believe!
5They still do, you won't believe it even though it's true!
6Oh, their belief in the power of belief is powerful!
7Their power to believe was beyond belief!
8It was overwhelming!
9They believed, they believed!
10 Soon the Americans believed
11 since they were originally Europeans
12 and they yearned for "the old country."
13 Oh my, they believed!
14 They absolutely believed!
1Indians were made up?
2Yeah.
3They became what people in Europe believed them to be? Indians?
4Indians.
5Yeah, Indians.
6Soon there were Indians all over the place. But mainly in the New World,
7especially in America! Indians thrived in the New World. That's where they
8were seen the most. That's where they "belonged." That's where they
9were the most Indian!
10 Soon even "the Indians" believed there were "Indians."
11 Soon even the "Indians" believed they were Indians.
12Nonetheless they were people.
14They were people who were their own people.
15 See Indians.
16 See real Indians.
17 See real Indians play.
18 See real Indians work.
19 But there was nothing to see.
20 There was nothing.
21 Because there was nothing there.
22 Nothing real
23 or surreal.
24 To see.
25 See real Indians.
26 Where?
27 Where?
28 Where.
29 No where.
1So where were the Indians?
2What did Europeans see?
3Did they see anything?
4What did they see?
5Did they see people?
6Did they see people like themselves?
7What did they see?
8 What did they see?
9 What did they see.
10 What did they see.
11 "Indians" who are our people
12 (The People, Human Beings, Hanoh, etc.)
13 knew themselves as people. Different from each other. Speaking
14 different and distinct and separate languages. They heard each others'
15 languages. Their people had different names. They wore different
16 clothes. They ate different foods. They danced different dances. They
17 celebrated their differences. Yes, they were different but they were all
18 the same:
19 The People, Human Beings, You, Me.
1 Meanwhile
2 and meantime
3 and always
4 After and before
5 and during
6 and always
7 always no matter what always and always and even despite
8the greatest believers and disbelievers in the world, they/we were peole
9they/we were/are people we/they are people four times and without
10number or need for number we/they are people like you and just
11like me
Notes
10] Umatilla Street, in Sellwood, near Portland, Oregon, through which the Willamette River passes to join the Columbia River. Back to Line
13] hanoh: Acoma word for 'people.' Back to Line
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2004