ANCESTORS THAT SPEAK by Robert Soto

April 1, 2010

ANCESTORS THAT SPEAK by Robert Soto

Hebrews 13:7 "Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith."

I enjoy listening to the history of our Indian people and their tribes and their stories of survival. The victories and defeats that made us who we are and that have gotten us this far. As I hear the stories I hear the same thing, "They tried to destroy us but we survived to tell the story." I remember a long time ago I was invited to see a display of a very good Seminole Indian artist. He called me to see his display and as I looked at each painting, I stood there in awe as to how good and authentic each painting looked and reflected the history of the Seminole Indians. As I looked at each painting he asked me, "What do you see different in my paintings than all the other paintings you have ever seen of our Indian history?" I looked and looked at each painting carefully and the only thing I could say was, "They all follow a similar history, the history of the Seminole Indian?" He asked me to look even more carefully but to no avail. He then said, "I have always wondered how it would be to live and breathe with the elders of times past. So I decided to paint myself in each picture so that each picture brings to me a little glimmer of what it might have been like to walk among our great ones of the past."

So as I stared into the eyes of the paintings I saw him sitting with some of the great Seminole Chiefs like Osceola, Mikanopy, Chupco and Jumper. It was then that it came to me and I asked, "What would life be like living among the great chiefs of our people. What would life be like living alongside of chiefs like Poca Ropa (my great, great grandfather) El Cabezon (my great, great, great grandfather) Yucca Poca Ropa (Son of Poca Ropa), Magoosh, Flacco, Torocio Soto (My great, great grandfather) Cuelgas de Castro and Costalites. To feel what they felt, to fear as they feared and to look at their people and wonder what they wondered. To see the pain that they carried as life as they knew it was quickly disappearing with the invasion of the Europeans. I do not know what they felt and what they wondered or what they feared, but I do know that God the Creator was with them and because He was, we survived to see another day and to see us as Lipan Apaches in the twenty-first century. We need to remember and never forget. The writer of Hebrews wrote, "Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith." Never forget, that we are here today because of what they did to survive in the past.

Robert Soto, Lipan Apache and pastor of:

McAllen Grace Brethren Church
The Native American New Life Center
Chief of Chiefs Christian Church