KETV Omaha: Tribe Demands $500M From Beer Makers

[tama]

39. There

it is the collective guilt of white man that makes those bearing it less able to sympathize and connect with those they or they ancestors have done wrong, and thus keep on continuing the wrong-doing instead of opening their hearts. Blame games and guilt and denial and blaming the victims or oppressors leads nowhere, and we can realize that oppressors are also victims.

There are things of the past and now we are here. Life could and should be better for Lakota people and other tribes, we need to understand the reasons why they are still suffering so greatly, and what is our relation to their suffering, as individuals and communities, and if there is anything that we can do or stop doing to make the situation better.

The few indians I have met in my home country have been great people and great healers, strong and beautiful men, proud of themselves and full of love. One of them told that he used to be a drinking man, before he became a wheel man for his tribe and for all men. They all find strength in the old traditions they are continuing and reviving and adapting to this day and age, and they see the wisdom of forgiving, because without that, life cannot get better but stays poisoned with hatred. I have been taught few words of Lakota, a simple and great prayer:

Aho Mitakuye Oyasin