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Akechet awoke to find himself drifting to shore clutching a capsized canoe. When he looked around he found his friend floating face down and blood flowing from his head. When Akechet got to shore he dragged his friend onto the beach and went to seek help in his village only to find it on fire and swore vengeance for his friend and his tribe.

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The Meeting
   My name is Akechet. I am 13 years old. I was taught how to read and write by people who came and said this land is theirs, then others came and gave me a book they call the Bible. I did not know at the time it was important, so I ripped out a handful of pages to start a new fire because I was hungry and thought they might be. I was also hoping they could understand me, so I could trade with them. As I started the fire, one of the people ran over and took the paper that I ripped out of the book from my hands. He started shouting and stomping all around like a little child who lost at a game. After that my dog ran over to me and the person who was yelling jumped back, picked up a musket, and aimed it at Dog. When he did that, I grabbed Dog and pulled him behind me. I walked towards the man, picked up the paper, and started my fire.

The Sailors
   The next day I looked for the people, but they were not there. I went to the ocean because I was following a deer. When I got to it, I lifted my bow and fired a blunt arrow into the dead center of its head. It fell down unconscious. When I looked up I saw the biggest canoe I have ever seen. It looked like it had white blankets hanging from trees. From it there was a small canoe coming to shore, carrying people with muskets. They saw me taking out my knife and walking towards the deer. It was still alive, but unconscious. They thought I was walking towards them, so one raised his musket and fired in the air. Then the others grabbed their muskets and aimed them at me. I started saying “do not fire! do not fire!” then I realized they did not understand me. I dropped my bow and knife and stepped back. I remembered the deer would wake up soon and run if I did not kill it now, but the people on the small canoe would get ready to fire at me if I tried to walk to the deer. I had to stand still until the people got to shore, but by then the deer had gone. After that one of the men stood up and started yelling at the people who were holding their muskets. They put their muskets down and got off the canoe. The one who stood up started talking, and to my surprise, he spoke my language.

The Attempted Conversion
   Seven months later all I heard from the people was god, god, god, god, GOD! and that I could still be redeemed. What they do not know is that god does not exist, only the Great Spirit is real. To make matters worse they were preaching to me. I have warned them many a time that I would not stand for this, yet they kept on doing it! And, they did it to my friend and his tribe. We decided that we would stop this annoyance.

Epilogue

Three weeks later Akechet’s friend and his tribe were slaughtered by the ship’s crew. Only Akechet escaped, but he was badly hurt. Later that night Akechet awoke to find himself drifting to shore clutching a capsized canoe. When he looked around he found his friend floating face down and blood flowing from a fresh wound in his head. When Akechet got to shore he dragged his friend onto the beach and went to seek help in his village only to find it on fire and swore vengeance for his friend and his tribe. The first missionaries to ever expose Native Americans to the Catholic religion were French missionaries who translated the Bible and converted others to there religion.

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