In February of 2021, I landed in Atlanta, Georgia. To be back in Georgia, the ancestral homelands of my people, gave me very mixed emotions. At that time, I was living in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where I was serving as chief of staff to the Principal Chief of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, the tribe who’s Indigenous to this area. And we were in Georgia that day for a meeting in Macon at the Ocmulgee Mounds. This area of Macon grew up along the beautiful Ocmulgee River. This area has over 17,000 years of human history and was the former capital city of our tribal towns, the Atlanta of its day.
2021 年 2 月,我降落在 佐治亚州的亚特兰大。 回到佐治亚, 我的先祖们曾经的家园, 我的感觉很复杂。 当时,我住在 俄克拉荷马州的塔尔萨, 在那里我担任 马斯科吉(克里克)部落保留地 (Muscogee (Creek) Nation)的幕僚长, 该部落是当地的土著部落。 那天我们在佐治亚州 参加了在梅肯的奥穆吉丘举行的会议。 梅肯的这片地区位于 美丽的奥穆吉河沿岸。 该地区有超过 17,000 年的人类历史, 它曾是我们部落城镇的首府, 即当时的亚特兰大。
Now, you would think that to be back in the homelands would bring feelings of peace and joy. But for many of us, there is still a deep-rooted hurt connected to this land, a hurt that comes from knowing that your family were forcibly required to leave their homes. Yet everywhere you go in this state, you see our words, our language that serve as a blueprint to this state, etched on this landscape. Words like Towaliga or Dalwa-leg-it’s, Tybee or Dabe, Coweta, Muscogee, Ocmulgee. They serve as a whisper from our ancestors who were once here.
你可能认为回到家乡 会带来平和与快乐的感觉。 但是对于我们中的许多人来说, 这片土地仍然存在着根深蒂固的伤害, 这种伤害源于知道 你的家人曾被迫离开他们的家园。 然而,在这个州无论你走到哪里, 你都能看到我们的文字,我们的语言, 它们是这个州的蓝图, 刻在这片土地上。 像Towaliga或Dalwa-leg-it、 Tybee或Dabe、Coweta、 Muscogee、Ocmulgee 这样的词。 它们是曾经在这里的 我们的祖先的耳语。
(Speaks Yuchi)
(优奇语)
Good morning. My name is Tracie Revis. I am a Yuchi woman and of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. My Yuchi name is sahAsAfanE. I’m D@th@, or wolf clan, and come from the Polecat Ceremonial Ground. And you're all on my family's ancestral lands. Lands that I and others are working to reclaim.
早上好,我是特蕾西·雷维斯。 我是一名优奇族女性,来自 马斯科吉(克里克)部落保留地。 我的优奇族名字叫sahAsAfanE。 我是D@th@,或者狼族, 我来自臭鼬纪念地 (Polecat Ceremonial Ground)。 你们现在都在我家祖传的土地上。 我和其他人正在努力夺回的土地。
Now all too often, Indigenous stories often have stories of colonization and forced removal.
现在很多时候, 土著故事往往含有殖民化 和强行驱逐的内容。
(Video) (Singing)
(视频) (歌声)
The Trail of Tears, or The Road of Misery removed tens of thousands of Indigenous people from their ancestral lands. The violence of the 1830s Indian Removal Act did not end when we made it into Oklahoma, and for many of us, removal is not that far removed. Its impact has stretched throughout generations.
眼泪之路,或叫苦难之路, 使数以万计的原住民 离开了他们祖先的土地。 19 世纪 30 年代 《印第安人驱逐法》造成的暴力 在我们移民到俄克拉荷马州时 并没有结束, 而且对于我们中的许多人来说, 驱逐移民这件事并不遥远。 它的影响已经延续了几代人。
My grandmother, my father, my aunts and uncles were all sent to the government-run Indian boarding schools. My grandmother, whose first language was Yuchi, was only allowed to speak English in these schools and had to relearn her native tongue as an adult. Now to be clear, we call these buildings “schools,” but they really served as a place to silence the community and to steal the future culture from generations. And as the first generation of my family to not have been sent to these government-run schools, I still did not escape the impacts of this trauma.
我的祖母、父亲、 阿姨和叔叔都被送到 政府开办的印第安寄宿学校。 我的祖母,她的母语是优奇语, 只被允许在这些学校讲英语, 而在成年后必须重新学习母语。 现在需要明确一下, 我们称这些建筑为“学校”, 但它们确实是一个让社区沉默的地方, 从几代人那里偷走了未来的文化。 作为家庭中第一代 没有被送到这些政府开办的学校的人, 我仍然无法逃脱这种创伤的影响。
But back to Georgia. So that day, we're at the Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park. And we began to walk out to one of the mound sites. And as we cross a bridge, immediately my heart skips a beat and I smell a medicine, or a plant that we still use today in our annual ceremonies, E’apane, or our Green Corn. And immediately I am transformed, because I know in that moment that my ancestors are still here. And it was like taking a black and white photo and turning it into color. It was vibrant and real, and it was now.
但是说回佐治亚州。 那一天,我们在 奥穆吉丘国家历史公园。 我们开始走到其中一个土丘遗址。 当我们过桥时, 我的心脏立刻跳了起来, 我闻到了一种药物, 或者说一种我们今天仍在用的植物, 用于年度仪式的E’apane, 是一种绿色玉米。 我马上就变了, 因为那一刻我知道我的祖先还在这里。 这就像拍一张黑白照片 然后把它变成彩色一样。 它充满活力和真实感,它就在当下。
And as we began to walk out to another mound site, I hear a voice inside of me that says, "What would it feel like to ever live back in these lands? To be here in the homeland?" And as we walk a little farther into another mound site, I hear another voice that says, "We need to create a relationship with this community, and we need to heal together." Fast-forward one year later, I am now living in Macon, Georgia.
接着当我们开始走到 另一个土丘所在地时, 我听到我内心有个声音说: “重新生活在这些土地上 会是什么感觉? 生活在这儿,在家乡?” 当我们走得更远一点, 进入另一个土丘所在地时, 我听到另一个声音说: “我们需要与这个社区建立联系, 我们需要一起治愈。” 快进到一年后, 我现在住在佐治亚州的梅肯。
(Applause)
(掌声)
I proudly serve as the director of advocacy to the Ocmulgee National Park and Preserve Initiative. I work every day to bring the tribal voice back to these lands, and to make my nation, my tribe, a co-manager, all while creating Georgia's first national park and preserve.
我很荣幸担任奥穆吉国家公园 和保护区倡议组织的宣传主任。 我每天都在努力将部落的声音 带回这些土地, 让我的民族、我的部落 成为共同管理者, 同时也建立佐治亚州的 第一个国家公园和保护区。
(Applause)
(掌声)
In September of 2022, the Ocmulgee Mounds had its first visit ever from a Secretary of the Interior, who happened to be Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Indigenous secretary.
2022 年 9 月, 内政部长首次访问了奥穆吉丘, 德布·哈兰恰好也是首位原住民部长。
(Applause)
(掌声)
And that day, she’s in Georgia to look at some land that we had just acquired and we were donating toward the expansion of the park. And as we go to look at this piece of land that is a very sacred piece of land ... It was slated for industrialization. This land that was very sacred, had been raped, overmined, stripped all the way down to the silt. And that day I watched the secretary bend down and place her hand on the ground on an erosion scar. And it was in that moment that I knew that she understood what I had come to understand. And as we began to walk back, she says, "They are still here, your ancestors are still here, and the land will bring back who and what it needs to heal it." To which I can only reply, "Yes, ma'am."
那天,她在佐治亚州 看我们刚获得的一些土地, 我们正在为扩建公园捐款。 当我们要去看这片土地, 一块非常神圣的土地时... 它被计划用于工业化建设。 这片非常神圣的土地, 被蹂躏、被过度开采、 被剥削直到变成泥沙。 那天我看着部长弯下腰把手放在地上, 放在一道侵蚀疤痕上。 正是在那一刻,我知道 她明白了我曾明白的。 当我们开始走回去时,她说: “他们还在这里,你的祖先还在这里, 这片土地将带回 它需要的人和物来治愈它。” 对此我只能回答:“是的,女士。”
(Laughter)
(笑声)
If my journey has taught me anything, it's that if you take care of this land, it will take care of you. This land that brought me home. In the state of Georgia, we have zero federally recognized tribes, but in the city of Macon, where we have now created a relationship, we are seeing ourselves beyond the landscape. As we reclaim our names and our words, we are seeing ourself in a part of the culture. Recently, we passed legislation in the city that requires that our tribal flag, our sovereign flag, permanently fly over City Hall.
如果我的经历教会了我什么, 那就是如果你照顾好这片土地, 它就会照顾好你。 这片土地把我带回家了。 在佐治亚州,联邦政府 认可的部落数量是零, 但是在我们现已建立关系的梅肯市, 我们在景观之外看到了自己。 当我们重新主张自己的名字和语言时, 我们正在将自己视为文化的一部分。 最近,我们在该市通过了立法, 要求我们的部落旗帜, 即我们的主权旗帜, 永久悬挂在市政厅上空。
(Applause)
(掌声)
Thank you.
谢谢。
In a land we were never meant to return, this is extremely powerful. Today, as we continue to heal a community, this land is healing us. And with that, I say thank you, mvto.
在这片我们从不想 交出的土地上,它非常强大。 今天,当我们继续治愈一个社区时, 这片土地也在治愈着我们。 最后,我要说谢谢,mvto。
(Applause)
(掌声)