“Society is like this card game here, cousin. We got dealt our hand before we were even born, and as we grow we have to play as best as we can.”

- Louise Erdrich, Love Medicine

We have been affected by the chains of society,

Holding us tightly to the damaged past.

Chains that have long corroded, holding us silent,

Forcing us to conform to a white washed narrative.

We have become stiff with bruised wrists and broken spirits.

Our culture hidden by the layers of oppression and

Topped with the cherry of assault. Slurs of

“Those people” begging to be replaced by

The brave,

                         The strong,

                                               The resilient.

Where the outspoken indigenous daughter

Fights hard to wade in the toxins of trauma,

Keeping her head barely afloat, but constantly

Reaching out with her limbs, grasping at anything

Solid to move her forward in the tide, and

On to a better life.