In the days following September 11, 2001, I wrote the chorus of this song as I struggled to transcend both anger and fear. On Saturday, September 15, John Potter, Billings Gazette columnist and Anishinabe Indian, reminded his readers that the emotions now held by post 9/11 Americans are identical to those of 19th Century American Indians whose villages were viciously attacked by the U.S. under the rationale of Manifest Destiny. Downstream of today’s Glacier National Park, on the banks of the Marias River, 173 men, women and children with the Heavy Runner band of Pikuni Blackfeet were indiscriminately slaughtered by the U.S. Army. This action was ordered by U.S. Gen. Phillip Sheridan. The date was January 23, 1870. American history refers to this event as the Baker Massacre. In the words of John Potter, “Terrorism is not new to American soil nor is our government a stranger to it.”

This song is a prayer that the world’s people recognize that before race, economics, politics and/or religion, we are brothers and sisters. We are children of God.

John Potter’s complete editorial can be accessed in the archives at billingsgazette.com (9/15/01).

The sun came plummeting down on that fateful morn
The sky’s surreal peace burst into storm
People’s lives, in a flash, were no more.
The hearts of friends and relatives were broken by the score.

In the aftermath of attack smoldered a U.S. flag
It was given and held in peace by the Chief of the camp
Our elders, our women, our children’s lives were taken so senselessly
This was General Sheridan’s strategy in 1870.

Before there were Christians, before there was Islam,
Before there was Judaism, before there was Buddha.
Remind our people so our mothers can applaud.
Before the –isms and –anities, we were children of God.

We’re passing through an age of miracles and seething rage.
How should our freedom be construed?
We are a firefly’s flash, the breath of a buffalo,
A shadow losing self in the Sun
Shadows lose themselves in the Sun.

A dark day comes to an end as a new one begins.
The key to our healing includes selflessness within.
A loving mother and children can awaken our daily lives
If tomorrow hope does emerge, it is we who decide.

Before there were Christians, before there was Islam,
Before there was Judaism, before there was Buddha.
Remind our people so our mothers can applaud.
Beyond the –isms and the –anities, we are children of God.

Abandon this insanity

For the children...