by Trisha Quick

Created on: January 03, 2008

Tragedy of our ancestors

Their screams could be heard from miles away. Everyone could hear their screams of sorrow, agony, and their cries of pain. Those who heard them felt everything they were going through as though they themselves were being tortured.
They had lived peacefully for many years before the outsiders had come. They never knew what war was nor did they know what would happen to them when the outsiders tried to take over their homes.

The children were playing happily while their mothers cleaned their homes, washed their laundry, and made the food for their dinners. Their fathers, grandfathers, brothers, uncles, and cousins were all out hunting and foraging for enough food to last them a while.
As they sat down to feast, the men heard noises from outside. Walking out with their hatchets and bow and arrows, they saw flames flickering among the trees of the forest. They called out to their wives to lock the doors and windows and keep the children inside.
Walking over to investigate the strange flickering, they realized that men were carrying torches and guns. They knew that these strange outsiders had come to start trouble with their peaceful existence.
The newcomers raised their guns high in the air and opened fire upon the natives, killing quite a few of them as the others used their hatchets and their bow and arrows to take down the outsiders. Fighting bravely to protect their land and their families, the natives fought with all of their might to destroy the newcomers who came to destroy everything. The women screamed out in horror as they saw their family members being wiped out one by one.
Some of the natives managed to run and try to help their families get away to safety but the newcomers pursued them and started to gun them down. The women were stabbed and shot as the children watched. Some of the children tried to hide, but the newcomers found them and killed them as well. The houses where some were still hiding were torched and set on fire, the occupants hiding within being trapped and burned alive.

The few that were left scalped a lot of the murderous newcomers and then tried to rescue their families from the hungry flames of their homes but to no avail. It was too late. The rest of the natives were caught and killed, their homes and all that they knew were destroyed to give the newcomers a place to build and prosper.
To this day, you can still see some remains of the buildings and the land on which they lived. They were the first to make their lives here and they were destroyed due to stupidity and greed. Their spirits wander around, remembering all that had happened and still trying to save their wives and children from the impending doom that had awaited them those many years ago. Our ancestors were the ones who took away their homes and for so many of them, their lives. We live with that in our past, and yet we can't change it. Like many, we have indian blood within us. It is good to learn our history, but we must keep in mind that our ancestors who were native americans lost their lives for the settlers to come here. We keep them in our blood, our hearts and our souls themselves. We can not change the past, but only look forward to the future.

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