Gyasi Ross: The tradition of Indian warriors

Opinion

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

"It seems like the vast majority of my male relatives went into one branch of the military or another.

Sounds cool, right? Some folks might call that a “legacy.”

I don’t. I call it “sucks for Gyasi.”

See, the fact that seemingly every male relative in my family was an incredible military man made my life difficult for several reasons. The first reason is that I simply couldn’t hunt with any of these dudes! I always fancied myself as a pretty good shot with a rifle. But when your cousin is G.I Joe (or Destro!), you don’t have a Twinkie’s chance at a fat farm of taking down the prize elk! So, like a lonely man going to some XXX movies by himself, I typically had to go hunting all by my lonesome because of the fear of ridicule from my “loved ones.”

So embarrassing. I usually had to wear a trench coat whenever I’d go hunt by myself.

The second reason that my family’s long history of service sucked for me is because of the effect it had on my grandma. It was bad. My grandmother tended to think I was a failure simply because I never joined the military. Simply put, she learned to associate folks who looked like a lot of my cousins – square-jaw, shoes shined and close-cropped haircuts – with, well, having a job."

Get the Story:
Gyasi Ross: Warrior of words (Indian Country Today 8/17)