As this mornin' winds down and into the mid-day, I am struggeling with the remanants of thoughts  that I had prior to callin' it a night last evening. Those thoughts carried over into dreams and still weigh on my mind at this time.

The whole scenrio came from the most unlikely of sources.....an episode of "Little House on the Prairie"......... having watched that show regularly durin' the years that my two eldest daughters were youngen's.........(and hadn't watched it in years) feelin' a bit nostagilic for quality TV..........I watched, from the opening to closing credits. It was an episode I had never seen and frankly an hour well spent.

The premise of the show..........everyone is standin' around Walnut Grove (must been near 30 people in town that day).largest cast scene I ever remember including the church and school scenes lol.. back to the story.........a young boy comes galloping in on his horse as "sort of Indian music" plays in the background.........just typical enough Hollyweird not to really use  the real thing (music,) for the most part they had  however cast some real bloods in the show. Well I thought to myself, "well this is gonna be a Injun episode how bad will they portray us this time?"   Bout that time 3 Indians ride up ....wardrobe was'nt all that and a biscuit............ they had a Souix, Apache, and a Cheyenne look all goin' at the same time...........they were suppose to be  Souix ...Santee if memory serves me right. Of course everyone in town  has a look of total terror, Mike Landon walks out and inquires what they want.............the jest of it they need a white man's doctor..... when the towns dr. say's he will go with them, this real jerk (suppose to be Irish) tells the dr. he's not to go and follows the thought up by saying "let them find a colored doctor" . I about fell off the couch.........and said out loud " ya'll can't say colored"..........then I rembered  this was late 70's early 80's guess ya could  say that then without too large of repercussions (or was that reperations?). I then again thought outloud" yeah right like an Indian  durin' that time period is gonna want to see a colored dr..does the term Buffalo Soldier ring a bell????...

Ok, so then Landon and the doc ride to the Indian encampment, where they discover the old Chief has had fallen victim to a stroke.  They also learn that this small band has "jumped the Reservation" and  were on their way to Canada. (OH Canada home of the great White Queen Mother). We did get treated a little better up there  in the  mid to late 1800's..... of course it wouldn't have taken much. It was probably mostly due to vastness of space and considerably fewer people per capita.

Well the doc tells em that the Chief can't be moved although the Yankee army is in hot pursuit.......so Landon invites the Chief and his immediate family to come stay at the little house till the chief gets better  (or dies I guess ,whichever comes first)...... So upon arrival at  the house on the prairie, the misses  her usual good Christian self as is the youngest daughter.........the teenage daughter is her usual troubled self. and calls em Godless heathens; to which her daddy is most quick to point out that they may look, act, and have different beliefs but, they are all God's children.  When a young Indian girl is frightened by the Ingels' family they learn that her mother had been murdered by whites..This sheds a whole new light onto the storyline....... and Landon goes on to tell "pretty historically accurate" I might add, of to the countless horrors that had been perpetrated upon the Indian peoples....the message so far is a better understanding between a small families one white one red.

It goes this way for awhile then the (hate filled Irishman) (not really fair to the Irish) but I guess they had to have someone with an accent to play the bad guy, and everyone knows the Irish like a good fight..so anyway the bad guy learns that the Indian family is at the Ingels' home, he goes back to get  the local hothead Indian haters club guys, while in this time the good guys load up the old Chief and the rest of his clan and head North........So after sometime the doc tells them the old Chief can't travel any further, so they make  camp knowing full well they are outnumbered and the bad guys are hot on the trail after them...... The old Chief's son, starts barkin' out orders to  all the members of the small band of "res jumpers" and they start hackin on sticks and putting them in the fire and then pull them out.................Now, the camp is  out on the flats you can see forever, as the bad guys come ridin' over a ridge (don't know where the ridge came from guesss they needed it for dramatics) well the bad guys put the brakes on their horses cause from about what appears to be 2 football fields distance they see about 25 Indians with what appears to be rifles......(actually they are the blackend' sticks made earlier..........."I thought you said they only had bows and arrows says one of the bad guys" the Irish dude says" they must have stolen those guns from white people"  at this point I'm beginnin' to "really dislike this guy"..........dammitt the Indians are gettin blamed for stealin' guns and they are standin' their ground with sticks..........

The bluff works and the bad guys ride off after tellin Mr. Ingels they are headed to the Army post to get a gattlin gun......... The Indians are fixin load up again and hit the trail North...............when the old Chief comes out of his lodge  walks off from the clan and starts singin' his "death songs".well a while later here come the bad guys with the really bad guys in blue uniforms................they ride up with gattlin gun  locked and loaded in the back of a wagon all of a sudden what do they see. the doc and Ingels standing in front of the chiefs funeral Pire'........"Where are those heathen savages?" barks the bad guy.............."In the mountains by this time" replies Ingel "well, let's get after them" says the bad guy............."whoa up there" says the yankee commander..........."gattlin guns are only to our advantage in the open..............in the mountains the Indians would have the advantage especially with as many guns as you reported them to have and besides my misses is fixin kidney pie for supper and I plan on livin' to eat it" (hee hee they were blackened sticks)...........

Now ,I have "purt neer" played the  entire episode back for ya'll....... what's the point right???????????  Ok, here is the point (s).................For years I have been sayin' that  blacks are not the most repressed, subjugated  and misrepresented of  allAmericans in history of this nation. The Indian was and still is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Next point is, I have  for at least the last 4 years been (I guess) preachin to the  choir  that the American  Indian has been joined by yet another large cross section of the American population in regards to bein' treated unequal............. that would be SOUTHRONS.........Point three...I keep on sayin if we could join the numbers of both groups we would at least have a  better chance in protecting what little is left of our heritages..............I can not be the only human bein' on this earth that thinks that way.............so why hasn't it occured? (Mistrust on both sides would be my guess)........and a damn shame too..............maybe one of these days both groups will work together for the betterment of all like they did durin the War  of 1861-65... Other lesser points from the show and this post as well.............Even in the  decedance of the  1970 and 80's you could still find family programs on TV.........(now you can still find them but the are from another point in time)............ another lesser point..............Both Indians and Confederates have been documented   using "Quaker weapons" sucessfully against the larger forces of the Federal army thus not only demonstrating their cunning and bravery, but their resourcefullness against the odds as well .(pretty fair lesson to remember there)..........

Outside of my God,  my family and my heritage take presedence over all other worldly matters.............Perhaps I have less material things than most.  You will get little argument there from me. But , my heart and soul is fuller than most rich men I know, and probably richer than those I don't know  too!

I haven't forgotten where and from who I came from...........I  know where I am goin' cause I know where I've been........... Have you forgotten???????? I haven't!!! I hope this post has jogged a few memories in the right manner.

Blessin's to all here.

T.