(In support of the Standing Rock Reservation)

They are lined up for the photo shoot

Reporters ready with note pads

A bevy of politicians, dressed in smiles

Hold gold-painted spades

For a groundbreaking event

They look to the cameras

Hunched with blades of dirt

The ceremonial toss of soil

To signify the start of another sky scraper

 

Or a new village of wigwams

To grow window dressing as proclaimed

“We are taking care of our Indigenous Brothers”

Thesis the start of a new Native American community

With all its infrastructure

New fire pits, fiber glassed dugouts

A cleared path to their “happy hunting grounds”

To energize their wampum business

For jewelry on display in a strip mall

That covers their sacred burial ground

 

Perhaps a shot of the Sachem and the developer

Standing in front of a tax-free cigarette outlet

While Natives stand by dumb struck

As they wait to be ushered

Into yet another smaller reservation

The treaty has an “X” signature assuring that

In case a pipeline has to pass through

There will be nothing they do co about it.

Behind the line of politicians, a sign…

“Community Redevelopment.”