Joseph Martin
1902 (?) - 1998
Deer Clan - Onondaga/Mohawk - Akwesasne Mohawk Nation
I got the sad news this morning that my tota Great Uncle Joe Martin has passed away. I just spoke to him a few weeks ago, and I was looking forward to seeing him when I return to the reservation in 15 months. There was so much I wanted to ask him. Because of his health (being on oxygen) and his hearing problem, phone conversations made it very hard to actually communicate. The last time we spoke, he told me about how he was sent to Spanish River (a boarding/trade? school) when he was just a boy. It was part of the U.S. assimilation policy to take children from their families and place them in environments where they could be taught to be civilized citizens of the U.S.. He did not like it there- he missed his family very much- he did not tell me too much about it-like my grandmother, he always tried to tell me a positive side of the story. But every now and then some of the facts came through, and he would tell me of the abuse. He told me how he and others would meet in secrecy to talk Mohawk-to talk about home- to just be Onkwehonwe "Indians".
Tota Sose I dedicate this poem to you:
Grandmother moon, in all your fullness
I sit upon the sand captured by your wisdom
Shining seemingly only upon me
Intensity of the outside world no longer matters
You fill me with strengths, hopes, and desires
Images of the past flood my senses
Moon madness mystifies memories
Past relatives and friends surrendered, lost
Angriliy I search you for answers
Why do we concentrate on the past?
Why do we not all have vision to the future?
Sitting beneath you, wolves begin to howl
Magical omens sent by ancestral moon
With clarity I understand your wisdom sign
Man and nature would rather cry
Than to realize someday he too will die.
With Love and Respect
Gray Deer
