06/07/2025
Soon, little one, the sky will sparkle with fireworks.
People will wear red, white, and blue.
They’ll wave flags and shout,
“Happy Fourth of July!”
But do you know something?
A long, long time ago, before there was ever a place called America…
This land already had her own names.
Her own songs.
Her own Peoples.
We were here.
The Nehiyawak, the Anishinaabeg, the Lakota, the Dene, the Tlingit, the Apache —
so many Nations, each with stories older than fireworks.
Our laws were written in the stars.
Our flags were our feathers.
Our parades were the sound of moccasins in the grass,
and our fireworks?
They were the drums and the dancing fires beneath the moon.
So on the Fourth of July, when others cheer and light the sky with color,
we light something too —
a sacred fire.
We put down to***co.
We say thank you to the ancestors.
We remember the aunties and uncles who kept our songs alive,
even when someone told them not to sing.
Because, my sweet one —
our fire never went out.
Even when they tried to blow it out with laws and schools and silence,
our fire just waited.
Waited for you.
For your voice.
For your laugh.
For your bright, shining eyes.
So don’t be sad on this day.
Just remember:
You come from a People of light.
From a Nation of storytellers, dancers, and dreamers.
From a land that still whispers your name when the wind blows through the trees.
And while others celebrate freedom…
We remember something even more powerful:
We were free before they even knew the word.
And we are still free now.
Because the fire in you —
will never, ever go out.
—Kanipawit Maskwa
John Gonzalez
Standing Bear Network
