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Introduction
Acknowledgements
Artifacts
By Frank Conibear
they collect the artifacts to study the past.
out of the bone fragment, chipped stone and delicate
cedar weave is written a history long forgotten.
in all this where is the truth?
what is the history?
maybe history should not be the question,
for history is written
not passed on in a story at the bighouse,
or in a lesson to the young.
yet while the archeologist's artifact
and the historian's document
remain important,
too often, the record shows the history
from the historian's own living eye.
the truth is perhaps
in the elders who remember,
who are living and looking to the young.
what can be comes from
the spirit of the past,
the wisdom of the elder,
and the new strength of the young.
the history is alive,
not to be found in an old site, but
present in the people.
and when the record changes to tell
a more accurate "history"
of our people, then the true
spirit of our past, present and future
can be given,
and in return valued.
