Soon after the bombings, anti-Apiary supporters were searching through the rubble of Orkhan’s neighborhood before colonial forces could fully secure the area. They found among the debris a small cache of records logging the events of the siege. Already suspected – thanks to an independent backup infrastructure built in secret without the authority’s knowledge – the neighborhood was able to hold out. Still – despite the defense being able to push back – morale began to wane, as each attempted push into the area by the reservation law enforcers and resident Apiary loyalists left the stronghold with casualties. To raise morale, Orkhan wrote and addressed a speech to all defending the barricaded area. This is arguably one of the most important speeches of the Great TroublesI :

For the past four and a half days, we bore witness to every injury we earned and every neighbor, friend, and family member who fell in battle. Our pain and loss has led to a discouraging trend in talk amongst us, about surrendering to the authorities or fleeing. If you know me, I too experienced the loss of others close to me, and I understand how you feel, which is why I implore you to reconsider such ideas.

We are fighting a regime and their collaborators, who want nothing more than our compliance to their selfish whims, unphased by our struggles. Us surrendering to them won’t make them respect us more, won’t change our living conditions, and won’t improve anything for the better overall. Even if any of you decide to not surrender through collective bargaining but instead go it alone, what makes you think the people, who neglected and abused us this whole time, would stand by any agreement they would promise you? By the hand of their own former comrades or by wearing out their usefulness to their new supposed partners, turncoats do not last long. At the same time, fleeing too early makes a probable negative consequence more likely, leaves you with no safe passage, and effectively leaves those who choose to stay and fight with the added weight of shouldering the shared burden.

Yes, it is still too early to determine whether to give up or not. Unlike being sent into a conflict based on whatever lies used to convince you of a noble cause for the purpose of benefiting a privileged few, you joined this fight because you know exactly what’s at stake. You might or might not have the words to place your finger on it, but you do know.

If there’s one thing my life taught me, it would be that humanity is quite fragile. Our bones break, our flesh tears, and our blood drains from the gravest of injuries to the tiniest of defects, and each could easily kill us. It was always this way ever since the time our earliest ancestors walked upright, yet we somehow continued to thrive. Physically we die but there is, at least, one thing that still survives longer than us.

No matter what you think of the afterlife or lack thereof, there is in existence what could be identified as a “spirit”. It is composed of the memories others have of our feats, words, and personalities. Our spirits motivate and inspire others, to build on what existed before and visions for something better. Something that can, not only benefit those alive today, but those who will be alive tomorrow. The children, and theirs, and so on live on and carry each of us in spirit, long as we make it possible for them to have a fair chance to exist in a better world, which they would want to preserve while improve upon. A world where they can take a moment and remember us, not personally, but what we did, and hopefully why we did it.

Spirits are what’s at stake here. Maybe your own, maybe those of your loved ones or friends, still alive or fallen, but this is all for the continuation of spirits, nevertheless. A broken body does not break the spirit, it lives on, but that does not mean it can’t be defeated. A defeated spirit is what benefits the Apiary and their collaborators, giving them bodies ready for exploitability and rendered expendable. Attrition of humanity’s spirit is how they expect to win, so we must fortify ourselves against every attempt they make against us. Don’t believe those who say there is no other choice but to give in. Our options might be limited or less than ideal to say the least, but there always is a choice other than some form of submission.

For our spirits to endure, we function with the fact in mind that we’re a small, yet integral, part of a bigger picture. I have heard too many pressure others for a resolve of an issue, only to have their proposals poked with holes and hastily dismissed by the same ones who made the request in the first place. The human spirit is nurtured on collective accomplishments. Don’t pressure others into solving problems by themselves, since many problems can’t be solved by one alone. Instead of asking, “How are you planning to solve the problem,” ask, “How can I help you solve the problem?” All of us can only work with what knowledge and resources we have at hand or know what we can attain. We are working towards the same goals, so work together and build off each other’s ideas to solve problems. Remember, what we do today furthers a much larger movement. What you do here will serve as an example for many others, who might find themselves in a similar situation to ours. Always know that you are not alone in this fight.

Do not fear what happens to us next but let them fear what happens after us. Our perseverance is greater than the Apiary. Whether we all live or die, our spirits are greater than anything they can throw at us. We, humanity, will live on. Our victory is inevitable.

I Orkhan spoke in local Rez Speak dialect – since the universal translators at the time stopped working likely due to a mandated blackout – but the speech was written in a single plain language so it could be translated as easily as possible outside of the reservation.