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Once there was forest, hill, river, and us. We had villages, homes, land, ourselves. In our fields we grew rice, kodo, kutki, soma, we lived. Then there was game to hunt. It rained, peacocks danced, we lived. People grew, community grew, some of us moved to a distance. We asked the earth’s permission, we are setting down stakes to build a roof, settling land to grow crops… We worshipped the tree that was the spirit of our village. The we lived, only us.
… Why did the foreigners come? We were kings. Became subjects. Were subjects, became slaves. Owned nothing, they made us debtors. Alas, they enslaved and bound us. They named us, as bond slaves… Our land vanished like dust before a storm, our fields, our homes, all disappeared.
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