Week Four #readNDN #2sDayPoems

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#readNDN, #readwomen, Bad Indians, California Indians, Chumash, Deborah A Miranda, Essenlen, Gloria Bird, Greenfield Review Press, guest post, Indian Cartography, Native American Heritage Month, Native American Women's Poetry, prose poems, Reinventing the Enemy's Language, Spokane, Stories I Tell My Daughter, The River of History, Trask House Press, What We Owe, women poets

So sad to be wrapping up this special Native American Heritage Month series of #2sDayPoems. I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have, but even more importantly, I hope that you have found some NDN poets you really love. Feel free to write a guest blog post if you did!!

I love to hear from you fabulous readers. The poetry community is more fun as it grows!

Ok, enough on that tangent.  Here’s today’s poets:

Deborah Miranda (Esselen/Chumash) has written a fascinating “tribal memoir” about her own Esselen family group and California Indians in general, titled Bad Indians that I recommended in another post. She also has several collections of poetry out.  The one that I find myself returning to is Indian Cartography (Greenfield Review Press, 1998).

“Stories I Tell my Daughter” is one of my favorite poems from the book. She also blogs at–you guessed it –Bad NDNS on blogspot.

 

Poet and critic Gloria Bird (Spokane) released a powerful collection of prose poems called The River of History (Trask House Press) in the late nineties. Today’s poem  “What We Owe” is from that work.

Another interesting read is Reinventing the Enemy’s Language: Contemporary Native Women’s Writings of North of America, which she co-edited with Joy Harjo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Cowboys& Indians (Longmire Rant/2sDay Poems)

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2sDay Poems, aboriginal studies, Bad Indians, Bad NDN, Cowboy crime drama, Craig Johnson, David Midthunder, Deborah A Miranda, Gary Farmer, I Am Not a Witness, Indian Cartography, Irene Bedard, June Jourdan, Kimberley Guerrero, LongLiveLongmire, Longmire, Marcus Red Thunder, Nathaniel Arcand, Native American actors, Native Americans in television, Ryan Red Corn, Zahn McClarnon

Ever since A&E announced that it was dropping its cowboy crime drama (the audience was too skewed towards older folks, bad for advertisers, they said) Longmire fans have been lighting up twitter with the #LongLiveLongmire campaign in hopes of attracting a new home for the program.

Based on Craig Johnson’s popular mystery novels, the show is one of few on television that not only features Native American faces, but gives the actors juicy roles. And with the advice of consultant Marcus Red Thunder, close friend of Johnson’s and the inspiration for the fictional Henry Standing Bear character, the program has plowed forward with some hot-button Native American issues, and done so in style.

Besides its regular Native talent ( I see you drooling over Zahn McClarnon’s long, gorgeous hair) there is a host of smaller roles that have seen the likes of Native Americans David Midthunder, Irene Bedard, Nathaniel Arcand, Gary Farmer and Kimberley Guerrero, for starters.

With networks clamoring for diversity, why hasn’t this perfect storm been picked up already?? I mean, this is the total package, people!!  Great writing, a whole crop of Bad NDN’s, and a stellar group of non-Native actors (one of which is a SciFy phenom). Not to mention 6 million fans captured and held in the SUMMER, when viewing drops in the face of other distractions.

We need more stories and poems and shows that bring us all the beauty of our many tribal nations, not less.

And speaking of poetry, I first wanted to share this quote from activist/poet/social commentator June Jordan, in which she urges us to understand that:

Poetry means taking control of the language of your life

and exploring it without bounds to its very limits.

And so, in that vein, let’s explore some of the voices from Indian Country, who are doing just that. Here is Ryan Red Corn‘s ” Bad Indians“:

For more on the text and its many allusions, see this writeup on the poem as part of an aboriginal studies curriculum.

 

Next up is Deborah Miranda‘s moving “I Am Not a Witness”, which begins:

I found Coyote, Eagle, and Momoy
in a book, but cannot read
the Chumash words. I found
photographs of bedrock slabs pocked by
hundreds of acorn-grinding holes,
but the holes are empty, the stone
pestles that would curve to my grip
lie dead behind museum glass.
Mountains and rivers and oaks rise
in Spanish accents: San Gabriel,
Santa Ynez, Robles.
These are not real names.

Some of our bones rest in 4000 graves
out back behind the Mission.
Some of our bones are mixed into…

FULL TEXT HERE

From Indian Cartography (Greenfield Review Press)

 

 

Making the Case for “Modern” Native American Memoir with Recommended Reading List

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Allison Hedge Coke, american indian memoir, Anna Lee Walters, Bad Indians, Blonde Indian, Bloodlines, Books and Islands, Brando Skyhorse, Choctalking on Other Realities, contemporary native arts, Crazy Brave, David Treuer, Deborah A Miranda, Diane Wilson, Ernestine Hayes, Falling Into Place, Hattie Kauffman, Janet Campbell Hale, Joy Harjo, Lakota Woman, LeAnn Howe, Leslie Marmon Silko, Linda Hogan, Louise Erdrich, Maria Tallchief, Mary Crow Dog, Miss America, modern native american memoir, Muscogee Daughter, N. Scott Momaday, NDN culture, Prima Ballerina, recommended reading list, Rez Life, Robert Mirabal, Rock Ghost Willow Deer, Skeleton of a Bridge, Spirit Car, Susan Supernaw, Take This Man, Talking Indian, The Blue Jay's Dance, The Names, The Turquoise Ledge, The Woman Who Watches Over the World

–from the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts

Ours has been called “the age of memoir,” and particularly in America, the genre has been labeled “the central (literary) form of our time.” But at the same time that the publication of personal narratives has soared, critics and some readers have chastised its writers for being voyeuristic, self-indulgent or worse. Then there is the dreaded ‘nostalgic’ label, which still has at center stage, the author’s bright and shining face.

Native American or American Indian (NDN) cultures, on the other hand, value community over the individual and are deeply rooted in both the land and in a contiguous past and present. Readers who have soured on “standard” American memoir, might find storytellers from Indian Country’s broader landscapes a refreshing change.

If you want to dive into the sub-genre, I suggest that you start with N. Scott Momaday‘s The Names and then work your way through the following list according to interest:

 

~RECOMMENDED READING LIST~

 

1.  The Turquoise Ledge: A Memoir by Leslie Marmon Silko

 

 

 

2.  Crazy Brave: A Memoir by Joy Harjo

 

 

 

3.  Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir by Deborah A. Miranda

 

 

 

 

4.  Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country: Traveling Through the Land of My Ancestors by Louise Erdrich

 

 

5.  The Blue Jay’s Dance by Louise Erdrich

 

 

 

 

6.  The Woman Who Watches Over the World: A Native Memoir by Linda Hogan

 

 

7.  Bloodlines: Odyssey of a Native Daughter by Janet Campbell Hale

 

 

 

8.  Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer: A Story of Survival (American Indian Lives) by Allison Hedge Coke

 

 

 

9.  Muscogee Daughter: My Sojourn to the Miss America Pageant (American Indian Lives) by Susan Supernaw

 

 

 

 

10.  Take This Man: A Memoir by Brando Skyhorse*

 

 

11.  Blonde Indian: An Alaska Native Memoir (Sun Tracks) by Ernestine Hayes

 

 

 

12.  Maria Tallchief: America’s Prima Ballerina by Maria Tallchief

 

 

 

13.  Choctalking on Other Realities by LeAnne Howe

 

 

 

14.  Talking Indian: Reflections on Survival and Writing by Anna Lee Walters

 

 

 

15.  Skeleton of a Bridge by Robert Mirabal

 

 

 

16.  FALLING INTO PLACE: A MEMOIR OF OVERCOMING by Hattie Kauffman

 

 

 

17.  Rez Life by David Treuer

 

 

 

18.  Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog

 

 

 

19.  Spirit Car: A Journey to a Dakota Past by Diane Wilson

 

 

To purchase all titles together or to view updates to the list CLICK through to LISTMANIA!

NDNs with Pens

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Adrian C. Louis, Allison Hedge Coke, American Indian, Deborah A Miranda, Ernestine Hayes, Frances Washburn, Greg Sarris, IAIA MFA, James Welch, Joy Harjo, Leslie Marmon Silko, Linda Hogan, Louise Erdrich, Luci Tapahonso, N. Scott Momaday, Native American, NDN writers, NDNs with Pens, Nora Marks Dauenhauer, Ofelia Zepeda, Sherman Alexie, Simon J Ortiz, Susan Power

Native American, American Indian, Indigenous, NDN. Many labels have been applied to tribal nations as far flung as Alaska and New Mexico. Once marginalized (political rants withheld), many of these groups are now getting a second look with entire university programs devoted to the study of their literature.  As I work on my own project steeped in Tlingit legends, I am reminded of those who came before.  Here is an essential reading list of Native writers:

1. The Way to Rainy Mountain and In the Bear’s House by N. Scott Momaday

2. Love Medicine and Original Fire by Louise Erdrich   [*Buy signed copies direct from Erdrich at Birchbark Books]

3. Skins by Adrian C. Louis

4. Storyteller by Leslie Marmon Silko

5. Men on the Moon and Woven Stone by Simon J. Ortiz

6. Ocean Power:Poems from the Desert and Where Clouds are Formed by Ofelia Zepeda

7. Riding the Earthboy 40 by James Welch

8. Mean Spirit and The Book of Medicines by Linda Hogan

9. One Stick Song and Blasphemy by Sherman Alexie (*anything you pick up by him is bound to be good)

10.  She Had Some Horses and Crazy Brave by Joy Harjo

11. Watermelon Nights by Greg Sarris

12. A Radiant Curve by Luci Tapahonso

13. Roofwalker by Susan Power

14. Bad Indians by Deborah A. Miranda

15. Life Woven with Song by Nora Marks Dauenhauer

16. Blonde Indian by Ernestine Hayes

17. The Sacred White Turkey by Frances Washburn

18.  Dog Road Woman by Allison Adelle Hedge Coke

*Find the complete list on Amazon here.*

And for those of you who are interested, the IAIA (Institute of American Indian Arts) now offers an MFA In Creative Writing.  Note that Sherman Alexie and Susan Power are on staff!