Broken treaties

Unciya and Hakate organize every year a native American scouting camp in Belgium. This year's theme is the trail of broken treaties. Besides using Peter La Farge's texts and Cash songs they were looking for some relevant poetry. I share here: Sherman Alexie

Broken treaties

Gambling has always been
about trust and the loss
of trust. It's never been
about money. Gambling is
nothing new for the Indians.
Gambling is traditional
and began when Columbus arrived
in our country. Indians started
to roll the dice every time
we signed another treaty
but we've always been the losers
because the dice were loaded
and the treaties broken
by random design. Now
we've got our own game
of Reservation Roulette
and I'd advise the faithful
to always bet on red.

Verbroken verdragen

Gokken ging altijd
om vertrouwen en 't verlies
van vertrouwen. Het ging nooit
om geld. Gokken is
niet nieuws voor indianen.
Gokken is traditie.
Het begon toen Columbus aankwam
in ons land. Indianen begonnen
te dobbelen elke keer
we weer een verdrag tekenden
maar we waren altijd de verliezers
want de dobbelstenen werden verzwaard
en de verdragen verbroken
lukraak en met opzet. Nu
hebben we ons eigen spel
de Reservaat Roulette
en ik geef de getrouwen de raad
zet altijd op rood.