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Featured ART:

Mixed Media series by SNAG Photo Editor Richard Casteneda in Issue # 5

"What is sacred and beautiful"
by Kristopher Barney

eruptions of fire and sunlight
uncurl soft snow clouds that
rush in and out this morning
this moment these series of moments
playing to the orchestra of
piñon trees roaring against the
callused touch of sand stone
the glossy fibers in a ravens eye
these interludes of peace and beauty
when walking old
cindered hills encased with
volcanic rocks crystals and
liquid lava that spills onto the earth
with each sunset each breath from
all sacred directions
the laughter that comes with
each new cedar tree sprouting
despite Peabody Western Coal Co.
despite the snowfalls and the last words
between two best friends and now you
wonder if this life is big enough
to hold your wildest dreams
the wildest fantasies of that someone
her lips silenced with the
voice of her child her life
that cannot follow mine
sometimes when
i walk in total darkness and stare
up at the frosted edges of constellations
i can see the miracles and the despair that
follows all of us and not even death
can fill the pain at losing
your homeland your wildest
childhood dreams your hope
that your people will see beyond
greed beyond lies and witchcraft
beyond all this day to day bullshit and live
in the essence of color and design
beauty and perfection pressed
against your eyes against the
arc of your arms that embrace with no holding back
with no rejection of all that is precious
sacred and beautiful...

Barney, 17, from Rough Rock, Navajo Nation.

"Indigenous Spirit"
by Gabriela Erandi Rico

It's in the color
of our people
It's in the pain
within our soul
It's in the meaning
of our dances
It's in the drumbeat
of a call...

It's in the relevance
of history
It's in the feelin'
dispossessed
It's in the words
Indian Nation!
It's the resistance
in our heads

It's in the word
Assimilation
Colonization of our minds
It's in oppression and
injustice
Regression means
one step behind

It's in the
genocide of nations
Bleeding babies
Chopped off hands
500 years of
our castration
Survival means
taking a stand

It's reservations
It's Aztlan
It's transfrontera nacional
It's pan-American
indigenismo
Un movimiento
hasta el final!

It's in the brown
earth that we cherish
It's in the smoke
of our copal
It's in our prayers
to Creator
It is massacres
in Acteal

It's persecution
of the Mayas
Having to speak
these foreign tongues
It's the endurance
of the Yaqui
It's in our old
It's in our young

It's in the sad eyes
of my Tata
It's in the wrinkles
on his face
It's in our struggle
to continue
It is our history and fate

It's in the spirit
of our ancestors
We are Indigenous
Ain't it the same?
It's in the blood
that we have tasted
Endure,
Resist
Stand and Reclaim!

Rico, 24, Purepecha and Otomi, Michoacan, Mexico