TRAIL OF TEARS

For the Greedy Government Grubs

Written by: Jack Bowman for Jack Bowman and Sarah Kunchik

Performed 7 June 2001 at Trolley Stop in Dayton Ohio 

IMAGE DOCUMENTS FROM THE PERFORMANCE 

 TEXT of TRAIL OF TEARS POEM

I come not to tell you what you want to hear but what you must hear.

I am not a propaganda tool of the state.

I come to scream the truth as I have found it.  Not as it has been dictated to me.

The very first book I read was in 1953.  It was titled "Old Hickory" and was the biography of President Andrew Jackson.

I thought he was so cool.  Of course cool was not in the common vocabulary of a 5th grader in 1953.  I just thought he was great.  Hero like, like Hopalong Cassidy, Gene Autry and the Lone Ranger and Tonto.

As child students in America we are so conditioned by the word and the pixilated screen.

But.  Twenty years later I had seen the world unfiltered by those words and unfiltered by the pixilated screen.

I had seen the war.  The blood.  The hunger and the poverty.

I had shaken off my propagandized mind and seen the world anew.  Real and ugly.

This is what I saw.

Winter 1838 and 1839

The Cherokee forced to march across America

Forced by the blue coats

The blue coats led by Andrew Jackson

Some with only the clothes they were wearing

No blankets

Cold and freezing

Many dying

Children dying

Women dying

Mothers dying

Baby child dying

Baby Child with 30,000 years of genetic code

Crying

Freezing

Shaking

Dying

For the greedy government grubs

Hitler 1943

World War Two

Concentration camps

Jews dying

Andrew Jackson 1839

Concentration Camps in America

Cherokee dying.

These were women and children

And these were my people

Hitler learned from Jackson

Because we Americans are the first great evil of this earth

Greedy Government Grubs

Hirohito

World War Two

Bataan Death march

1940's

Andrew Jackson

"Trail of Tears Death March"

1839, Middle America

Cherokee dying.

These were women and children

And these were my people

Herohito learned from Jackson

Because we Americans are the first great evil of this earth

Greedy Government Grubs

Killing women and children for capital gain

The Supreme Court told Jackson

"You cannot take the Cherokee Land

You cannot put the Cherokee in Concentration Camps

You cannot force march them across America"

But the lawyers found a loop hole

As lawyers for the wealthy always do

And by force, the Cherokee were taken from their land

Some claimed to be black Dutch and were released back to their homeland

It was better to be black than to be Indian

A war was soon to follow to free the blacks but not the Cherokee

The concentration camps

The death march

The winter of 1838 and 39

These were women and children

Herded together at gunpoint

And these were my people

Killed by the Greedy Government Grubs

The Cherokee mother giving up her blanket

To a child of another family

And she herself dying that night

In the cold rain.

These were women and children

And these were my people

Killed by the Greedy Government Grubs

My people...................

TIMING AND NOTES OF THE PERFORMANCE

5 minutes long 

First minute start out playing a recorded storm for 30 seconds or so and then kick in the Hopi Indian ceremony for about 30 more seconds.  The storm is going to be the background throughout.  This is the first minute.  During this time the dancer/performer will insert the needle into her arm and blood will flow.  She starts dancing after the first minute.

Second minute – drums play and audio of storm is in the background

Poet begins reading poetry

Dancer/performer begins dancing.

Third minute – drums play and audio of storm is in the background

Poet reads second minute of poetry

Dancer/performer continues dance

Fourth minute – drums play and audio of storm is in the background

Poet reads third minute of poetry

Dancer/performer continues dance

Fifth minute -  drums play and audio of storm is in the background

Poet reads last 40 seconds of poem and poet is silent the last 20 seconds.  During last 20 seconds Poet kneels and bows his head.

Dancer/performer continues dance through the entire fifth minute – meaning she gets total attention last 20 seconds.

In summary the poem (Trail of Tears) is three minutes 40 seconds long.  The Dance is four minutes long.  The audio of the storm is five minutes long.  The piercing of the body is one minute long.