Red River
Picture of The Daldykan River | CNN World News
"Kill the Indian in him, and save the man."
Richard Henry Pratt’s infamous words were the assimilationist ideology that shaped the United States treatment of Indigenous people during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Instead of allowing Native American communities to preserve and live with their own languages, cultures, traditions, they were forced to assimilate by force of federal policies.
Indigenous people were forced out of their homes, displaced from their land and separated from their children, enslaved; violently made to assimilate into the white American standards of colonial life. If they refused to comply, they were executed. The settlers’ means to justify conquering and murdering millions came from theological arguments surrounding The Bible’s verses, including Genesis 1:28 in The Old Testament where it states, “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every creature that moves on the ground.’”
The Trail of Tears by Robert Lindneux (1942) | People's World
Even other cultures in today’s America are being pressured to speak a language outside of their native tongue. Executive Order 14224 was signed by President Trump on March 1, 2025. It designated English as the official language of the U.S. and revoked Executive Order 13166, which had directed federal agencies to improve access to services for people with limited English proficiency. It makes translating services optional rather than mandatory. This creates large barriers for people who rely heavily on translated information when filing taxes, voting, and accessing government services such as healthcare.
Although some services are protected by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, and national origin, Executive Order 14224 alienates those of other ethnicities. As early as the 19th century, Indigenous children in federal boarding schools were prohibited from speaking their Native languages. This was part of an effort to assimilate them into American society. They want to push out those who step foot on “our land,” even though this country has done the same in the past: systematically erasing languages spoken by the Navajo, Cherokee, Choctaw, and many other Indigenous tribes. Now, they are placing similar pressure on other languages spoken in the country, pushing English as the language people are expected to use in order to belong.
“Red River” is a haibun, which is a Japanese literary form that combines prose with haiku. In this piece, the red river represents what our country was built on: the discovery of a land that was conquered, systematically erasing its inhabitants. Although nothing can be done now, we can confront the ugly truth of the past and deny the beautiful lie, so history doesn’t repeat itself. Its water is histories that have been buried, sanitized; the blood of the past slowly being erased. A source of water the misinformed never question drinking from. The result of refusing to conform to cultural norms. I wrote “Red River” as a refusal to forget the violence of the past or accept its continuation into the future.
Red River
Row red river, row! I won’t drink from you. The home to butchered carcasses nourishing the sheep. Bloodthirsty wolves march. Door to door they knock, and light the pyre for all dissenters. Wolves will feed and judge my non-conformity. Row red river, row! What we’ve done was done in the name of prosperity, say red-lipped wolves. Back away. The glorified scenes: families, hungry, blind, and ripped. Row red river, row! March. You won’t make me drink.
Feed me to the stream.
I know the one you worship
Would condemn it all.
Strike Out,
Alexander Polo
Miami
Alexander Polo is a junior at Florida International University majoring in Digital and Interactive Media. He strives to make the unheard voices heard with his work. Alex writes scripts, prose, and poetry in his free time. Some of his published works can be found in Miambiance and MDC’s The Reporter. You can reach him on Instagram through @ultravelocity06.
References:
“How Boarding Schools Tried to ‘kill the Indian’ through Assimilation.” History.Com, A&E Television Networks.
Mark, Joshua J. and Joshua J. Mark’s “Doctrine of Discovery.” World History Encyclopedia.
“Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.” Civil Rights Division.
Edited by Anett Martin Sosa and Nico Gurdijan
