Speak to me of justice...

By Waziyatwin, Ph.D.
Wahpetunwan Dakota from the Pezihutazizi Otunwe (Yellow Medicine Village),
Minisota Makoce,
Taken from Anpao Duta (Newspaper), a free Twin Cities periodical

Speak to me of justice when the beneficiaries of genocide feel the anguish of my ancestors and beg our forgiveness,

When every one of the inheritors of stolen land engages in personal and collective acts of reparative justice,

When 38 white men swing from the gallows in Mankato,
When bounties are placed on the scalps of Minisota racists,

When the pilfered minerals are restored to the mines and pillaged ancient forests sprawl with white pines,

When mercury ceases to contaminate our beloved rivers and our people can drink from their pristine waters,

When waters teem with fish and they can swim freely unobstructed from locks and dams,

When every last drain tile is pulled from the earth and crushed into rubble,

When our wetlands have been restored to wetlands and farmlands are restored to prairie,

When every gas-line, oil-pipeline, and electrical, fiber-optic, and telephone cable is pulled from the earth,

When power stations and transmission pylons come toppling to the ground,
When corporations are destroyed and corporate leaders run fleeing for their lives,

When coal-fired power plants cease to operate,

When the boards of directors of NSP and Xcel energy are forced to consume the toxic waste they’ve produced at Prairie Island before their bodies are entombed in storage casks and sent straight to hell,
When industrial farmers liberate their animals and restore the topsoil eroded from decades of their monoculture nightmare,

When animals are prayed back from extinction,

When bison are populating our western prairies and elk are roaming our northern forests,

When not a single acre of our beloved homeland is feeding industrial civilization,

When Monsanto research facilities are blown up, their research files deleted, and every one of their employees has issued a personal apology to all of creation,

When every mile of paved earth is released from bondage and every building of concrete and steel is dismantled,

When every railroad car is pushed into retirement and the railroads are disassembled,

When cultivated paddy rice is outlawed and wild rice is allowed to be wild,

When every last monument to colonialism burned to the ground,

When Minnesotans no longer speak the names of Ramsey and Sibley without shame and Dakota resistance leaders are hailed as heroes,

When Dakota people are once again, wildricing, sugarbushing, digging bdo, tipsinna and tewapa, praying and dancing at our sacred sites and drinking from our sacred springs,

When our people return from exile,

When mothers can suckle our children without toxic chemicals contaminating our milk,

When we are once again allowed to experience the freedom of living our birthright,

When our mother earth is no longer crying,

When she can breathe freely and nurture her children at her breast,

Speak to me of justice when settler society has returned the 54 million acres in Minisota Makoce stolen from my people.