Long Arapaho Poems

Salat Days
by Michael R. Burch 

(dedicated to my grandfather, Paul Ray Burch Sr.)

I remember how my grandfather used to pick poke salat ...
though first, usually, he’d stretch back in the front porch swing,
dangling his long...

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Crazy Horse Monument

Up there! On the Black Hills Mountain, 1
A work in progress sculptured in granite,
Of a stern faced warrior, strong and determined, 2
Unadorned in a war bonnet, with his hair flowing in the wind,
And...

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Bud Rowder grew up in wind-swept Kansas,
lived a farming life until the age of nine,
when Arapaho raiders charged on in,
poor Bud was the only one to survive.

He’d hidden behind a large, flat rock,
in the rushing...

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Historically accurate, narrative poem

27 November 1868, on the banks of the Washita River  

Dawn’s peaceful first light streaks the eastern skies, 
belying the horror of a marauding force of horses and men,
silently stealing over...

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Government (show) Shut Down December 2018

Messianic Don found tarnished appeal
trumpeted bluster thwarted
with muted (hip hip hooray) Democratic zeal
played (on microscale) like quashed
ill fated braggadocio big deal

bombast, sans General George Armstrong
Custer's last stand,
viz Little Bighorn, achilles...

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Lakota, Arapaho
Cheyenne, Oglala
Minneconjou
Where are they now?
Why is there so much dust
Over a fillet of memory?
The smoke fires are dead
And the discords of our life
We write as history.

     It is significant still
...

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I'm very small
I am called Standing Tall
My story to be read as i live through it all.

Our Dakota lands are forest and vast
Where our ancestors have hunted
From long in the past.

Our tribes are, a confederation...

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The word "Cherokee" is believed to be derived from a Choctaw word meaning "Cave People". Another explanation says it came from a Creek word "Chelokee", meaning "People Of A Different Speech".
It was picked up and...

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I heard the wind blowing briskly through the cottonwood trees,
And it sounded as though it were calling, calling to me.
So sad and so lonesome the sound that it makes,
Like a soul wandering aimless by the...

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fuulisdec ascades dash bravened break drastic little pond ex mariner once sadi this
vergreener times two houndered thumder thugga kitty cats plenty of tracks
digital dilusional infuzsions cervival constelllation caner called me pathos
in regressions kent yerr i...

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The faithful eyes of the moon
Gathering tears from the Paiute tribe and
Falling unto the arms of the sacred ghost dance
Known as the medicine man, the visionary Wovoka,
Descendant of Prophets and shamans,
Both the women and the...

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Mohawk, Mandan, Kikapu, Cree,
Yakoma,Seminole, Crow,Shawnee.
Arapaho, Chippewa and Sioux,
Mystical names to me and you.
Names like Delaware, Fox and Paiute,
Listen to their music on the flute.
Lakota, Macuna, Omulgee, Nes Perce,
Yuma,Nakota,Ossage, Washoe, Hualapai
All names that should never ever...

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Chickasaw warrior…Apache brave
Chimed echo from recent pasts
Rawhide clad of bow and stave
Our iconic figure now cast

Roaming prairies open plains
Selfless equal within nature
A simple life of a people proud
Societies of ancient stature

Cherokee warrior…Arapaho brave
Awakened into midnight...

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Mexico again and more Injun and back to Mexico,
Tick off Lakota, Dakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho,
The Great Sioux War and lots more fuss before we invade Brazil,
Let’s hop around some islands first (punch out the Yaqui...

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Where have all the bison gone
shot by Sharps shooters nearly every one
where have all the shooters gone
done away by Indians more than some
the red man revered the buffalo
of Manitou's abundance living proof
to the white who...

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