Indigenous Revelations

Geronimo was not killed in Pakistan
Geronimo was a college student in Lawrence
Who refuses to be a statistic
Geronimo was not killed in Pakistan.
He’s alive in a woman from Oakland
Who tutors and mentors Indian kids growing up in the city.
He’s alive in the single mother from Tahlequah
Who talks to her kids in Indian because she won’t give up
One more inch.
He lives in the young family from Los Angeles
Who moved back home so their kids would grow up in their ways
He lives in the tribal council woman from Anadarko
Who puts all her self-interests aside
And votes for her people
He was not a billionaire
Who cowardly committed planes into towers
He was not a code name or a mission call sign
Geronimo did not die in Abbottabad
He is alive and sisitent
Living in the elder who refuses to the die
That fluent speaker that shows up every day
Saving the language one story at a time
He lives in the lawyer from Black River Falls
Who beats them at their own game
He is alive in the domestic victim from White Cloud
Who decided to fight back
He is not the suicide victim
But a friend from Cannonball who will talk you out of it if you just call
He is a US army sniper scout from Pawhuska
That climbed the mountains of Afghanistan looking for Al Qaeda
He is civil servant from Gila River
Who learned the entire system
Just so she could get it off the back’s of her people
He is the grant writer from Shiprock
Who stays up all night trying to get her people access to drinkable water
He is a paramedic from Wide Ruins
Who drives the ambulance faster because he knows no other help is coming
He’s the farmer from Holdenfield who knows
he’s putting more than just seeds in the ground
He is alive in the woman from Sky City
Who prays before every meal because that’s how she was raised
He’s the filmmaker from Mesa
Who says this is story isn’t just about Geronimo
He’s the parent from San Felipe
That volunteers to take all the kids to all the soccer games
Because she likes to see them win
He lives in the professor from Honolulu
Who fights day after day for the sovereignty of her people
He is a tribal maintenance man from Wewoka
Who would give you the shirt off his back if you asked him
He is alive in the fisherman from Niobe
Who refused to get off his boat
Geronimo was not killed in a Pakistan mansion
He is the social worker from Pawnee
Who does more with less
He is alive in the old man from Clinton
Who tells the kids where the songs came from
He lives in the nurse from Bristol
Who would lay down her life if it meant her people would stop hurting
Geronimo is the history teacher from Akwesasne
Who knows that truth does not come in versions
He lives in the Hokulia
Traveling the Pacific by stars
He is the youth worker from Fort Yates
Taking her nieces and nephews to ceremony every chance she gets
He lives in the community organizer from Fort McMurray
Who is fighting the tar sands
The largest destructive development
On the planet
He’s alive in a chief from Arctic Village
Who went to the United Nations to fight for his people’s territory
He’s a language immersion teacher from Browning
Telling his students why they must wear Moccasins
Instead of Nikes in their school
Geronimo lives in Post Falls, Mount Pleasant, Red Lake,
Chinle, White Swan, Grey Horse, Maida, Aida, Horton,
Red Rock, Campo, Clear Lake, Hoopa, Womblee ,Bishop,
Wind River, Marty, Laguna, Waimanalo, Burns, San Carlos,
Mescalero, Rocky Boy, Yarrington, Stroud, Shinecock, Juno
Geronimo was not killed in Pakistan
He is the government worker from Fort Berthold
That shut down the oil rig from dumping sludge in the creek
He is the track star from Gallup
Who runs like his heart is on fire
He is the grandmother from White Eagle
Teaching her granddaughter to bead
He is the grandfather from Porcupine
Teaching his grandson how to take care of horses
The father from Amidgee
Teaching his son how to harvest wild rice
The mother from Taima
Teacher her daughter to sing
He is every Apache living in Lawton
Right now
Geronimo isn’t dead
He is alive
He is alive in me
And his real name wasn’t Geronimo
His people call him…