Eventual Earth Empowerment

Women Die Like Trees
by Marilou Awiakta
Women die like trees, limb by limb
as strain of bearing shade and fruit
drains sap from branch and stem
as weight of ice with wrench of wind
split the heart, loosen grip of roots
until the tree falls with a sign—
unheard except by those nearby—
to lie… mossing… mouldering…
to a certain softness underfoot,
the matrix of new life and leaves.
No flag is furled, no cadence beats,
no bugle sounds for deaths like these,
as limb by limb, women die like trees.

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“One of our people in the Native community said the difference between white people and Indians is that Indian people know they are oppressed but don’t feel powerless. White people don’t feel oppressed, but feel powerless. Deconstruct that disempowerment. Part of the mythology that they’ve been teaching you is that you have no power. Power is not brute force and money; power is in your spirit. Power is in your soul. It is what your ancestors, your old people gave you. Power is in the earth; it is in your relationship to the earth.”
— Winona LaDuke