posting 1
Michelle Robinson (mlr9367@silver.sdsmt.edu)
Tue, 4 Nov 1997 13:19:29 -0700 (MST)
The spotted cattle symbolize the Indian people and the Hereford,
white faced cattle symbolize the white people. Ulibarri's cattle were
everything the ideal cow was not.
"Cattle are like any living thing. If you separate them from the
land for too long, keep them in barns and corrals, they lose something.
Their stomachs get to where they can only eat rolled oats and dry alfalfa.
When you turn them loose again, they go running all over. They are scared
because the land is unfamiliar, and they are lost. They don't stop being
scared either, even when they look quiet and they quit running. Scared
animals die off easily."(74)
Like the spotted cattle, the Indian people have been separated
from the land, not kept in barns and corrals, but on reservations. The
culture, the traditions, and the old way of life is the "something" that
we are losing. We have been conditioned to eat the white man's culture.
When the Indian people were turned loose into the white man's world, they
encountered an unnatural, unfamiliar world, and like the spotted cattle,
they are instilled with fear, and many are lost.
Perhaps the only way to calm the fear and bring back the lost
people, is to once again establish the connection with the heart of our
Mother, the Earth.
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